Sawtooth Mountain Elementary held its Seeds of Change Community Day on March 1, in conjunction with our Middle School / High School Common Ground Summit. Prior to Seeds of Change Community Day, we also hosted a community dinner at the school which served as a fundraiser for both events, but more importantly, as an opportunity for the community to come together and share a meal.
Our philosophy guiding the day was that social justice starts with empathy and a sense of connectedness to others (community). We used a project-based approach to build community across grade-levels.
Students worked collaboratively in mixed-grade groups to: . Share books with the theme of “seeds of change”: Wangari’s Trees of Peace, The Bad Seed, and If You Plant A Seed. . Work on a collaborative art project creating “seeds” for a seed packet. The “seeds” were a value or principle they would like to grow in themselves and/ or our school. . Sing the song “The Seed” with Mr. Haas, again reinforcing the theme of the day. . Bake bannock on a stick over a campfire. . Play cooperative games; and explore themes of our own “superhero” stories through art, writing, and games with Rose Arrowsmith DeCoux.
We closed the day in the ACA where we heard stories from Vusumuzi and Nothando Zulu of the Black Storytellers Alliance of Minneapolis.
Seeds of Change and our community dinner were supported by eight area businesses, four different grants, 10 donations from individuals and 12 community volunteers, not including our staff members who also contributed extra time and resources. These are in addition to any contributions, volunteers, and grants received by the Common Ground Summit committee (who in turn supported us as well).
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