Elevate Community School

The Mexican holiday, Dia de los Mu***os, is celebrated each year from Oct 31 - Nov 02. It is widely observed in Mexico but is also observed in other places, especially by people of Mexican heritage. Our students loved learning about this celebratory holiday and even made their own sugar skulls! Sugar skull art reflects the folk art style of big happy smiles, colorful icing, and sparkly tin and glittery adornments.

Just a few creatures, critters and characters working on their Halloween-themed STEAM explorations 👻

Today was festive all around! From the costumes to the creations, we loved celebrating the holiday with our students. Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween!

Huge thanks to everyone for making our Student Success Plan Meetings week a success! We have held nearly 50 family meetings across our three classrooms. We could not do what we do without all of our family support.

We’re often asked: How do you monitor student progress? There are many different ways that we do this but it all starts with our Student Success Plans or SSPs.

An SSP is a goal-setting document that addresses not only academics, but also areas of focus such as social, practical life, behavioral and more.

Teachers along with family feedback create each child’s SSP at the beginning of the year. We understand that every child and family is unique, and we always want to be on the same page when it comes to goals for all students.

Students do receive full progress reports on their SSPs twice a year: in December and in May.

SSPs are unique, just like every student. Want to learn more about how we measure student progress at Elevate? We’d love to hear from you!

Meet Ms. Lori Caulder, Elevate's Literacy Specialist & Phonics Teacher ☀️

A graduate of Coastal Carolina University, Lori is a South Carolina native with 10+ years of teaching experience. Her experience as a Special Olympics mentor sparked her passion for teaching others.

Now for some fun facts!
🇶 What is your favorite place in the world and why?
🇦 My favorite place in the world is Maui, Hawaii. It is a magical place where you can experience luscious vegetation and flowers, a mountain range backdrop, diverse wildlife, and waters that look crystal clear.

🇶 Do you have any hidden talents?
🇦 I was in chorus throughout middle school and I love to sing! My career now allows me to sing all the Jack Harman songs my heart desires! I also have the pleasure of singing to my two little boys.

🇶 What are you reading right now?
🇦 I am currently rereading one of my childhood favorite books by R.L. Stine, "Night of the Living Dummy." My oldest son, Ryker, convinced me to watch the new Goosebumps series so now I want to see how it is similar/different from the series.

🇶 What were your favorite games/activities as a child?
🇦 My favorite activities as a child was being outdoors on my bicycle or roller blades. I still love being outdoors exploring different parks and trails with my family.

🇶 Who's someone from past or present you'd like to have dinner with?
🇦 Someone from my past I'd like to have dinner with is my aunt Pam. She was like a second mother to me and sadly passed away from cancer. She was someone who was always positive, bright, and happy! She passed away when I was only 18, so I would love to chat with her about everything that has happened since my high school graduation.

We loved learning more about Ms. Lori and appreciate her for all she does for our Elevate students and families! ☀️

Just in time for Fire Prevention Week, the Magnolia Room class visited the station here on Daniel Island! Thank you to our local fire fighters for this exciting and educational outing for our students. Looking down...can you spot the Elevate class from the top of the ladder truck?? 🚒

Today our Oak Classroom completed their first Community Service Project, beautifying a community garden outside of school. They learned about the importance of giving back and contributing to the greater good while making this area a nicer place to relax and enjoy our island.

A reminder that Elevate Community School is closed today—Monday, October 9—for Indigenous Peoples' Day. We'll see everyone back tomorrow!

Save the date, Elevate families 🍁

The Elevate Fall Fest is happening Saturday, November 4 from 11am to 1pm outside the school. Music, food, and fun is in store! More details to come, so we hope your family plans to join us! 

Happy October! 🍂 Let's start things off with a Teacher Feature. Meet Ms. Hanna, our teacher for The Cypress Room.

Hanna was born and raised in Virginia and moved to Charleston 6 years ago. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Early Elementary Education from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Fun facts about Ms. Hanna:
🍂 She loves exploring the U.S National Parks. Her favorite so far has been the Yosemite.
🍂 As a child, she loved anything active! She swam, played tennis, volleyball, basketball, and soccer. She still loves being active and enjoys hiking, pickleball, tennis, and attempting to surf.
🍂 Her favorite book to read to students is The Book With No Pictures!
🍂 If she could have dinner with anyone, it would be with Dolly Parton.

Three cheers for Ms. Hanna!

Today was a special day because it was our first whole school community building afternoon together! Every month we will come together to learn and grow as a school community. It is a chance for siblings to come together, our older students to mentor our younger students, and for us all to just get to know each other better! Everyone did a fantastic job and we look forward to doing it again soon 💚👏

A big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to our fall donation drive for ! We're thrilled to share that all combined, we delivered 15 bags+boxes of stuffies and toiletries.

Way to go, Elevate families 👏 Thanks for helping us support this community effort!

Our Teacher Feature continues with a spotlight on Ms. Adrienne Day ☀️

Ms. Day serves as our head of school, teacher for The Oak Room, and is co-founder of Elevate Community School. We wouldn't have Elevate without her!

Along with her Montessori teaching certification, Adrienne has 10+ years in private school teaching and school administration. Her career experience also includes volunteering as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and apprenticing at a Title One Elementary school.

Read on for a fun Q&A:
🇶 What is your favorite place in the world and why?
🇦 My favorite place is Sarawak, Malaysia and Bako National Park in particular. Hiking in the rainforests and experiencing all the wildlife and culture in Malaysia is just amazing!

🇶 What are you reading right now?
🇦 Several things! For fun, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. To learn, Twice Exceptional Gifted Children by Beverly Trail. With the kids, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.

🇶 What were your favorite games/activities as a child? What do you love to do now?
🇦 As a child I loved playing outside. I would spend all day outside exploring in the woods with my sister and cousins! That hasn't changed much. I would still spend all day outside if I could. Spending time in nature is my happy place.

🇶 Who's someone from past or present you'd like to have dinner with? Why?
🇦 I would love to have the opportunity to sit and share a meal with Maria Montessori! To have the chance to pick her brain and learn from her would be amazing.

Please give a 💚 for Ms. Day and all she does for us here at Elevate!

Writing across the board ✍️

Letter practice on the smart board, storytelling, games, research projects, group and one on one work, and more are all part of how we learn and experience Language Arts here at Elevate.

Questions about our reading and writing lessons? Leave a comment below!

Spotlight on: Ms. Montone!

Here at Elevate, Ms. Montone teaches the Magnolia Room class for students ages 7-9. This is now her 14th year teaching.

A graduate from Clemson University with a degree in early education, she previously taught for Charleston County Schools and Berkeley County Schools, where she received her Gifted and Talented endorsement. 

A few fun facts about Ms. Montone:
💚She loves bulldogs. They have a Frenchie named Brynn and an English bulldog named Henry.
💚Her favorite quote: “Clear eyes, full heart, can’t lose.” 
💚Her favorite teams are the Clemson Tigers, Atlanta Braves, and the Green Bay Packers!

Originally from Duluth, Georgia, she is married to her husband, John, a firefighter with the City of Charleston. They have two children. 

Please give a big 💚 for Ms. Montone. We are so grateful she’s part of our family here at Elevate. 

Call for donations 🧸🧼 To kick off our community involvement this school year, we are collecting NEW, unopened toiletries and NEW or gently used stuffies for Lowcountry Orphan Relief. Students may drop items off at Ms. Alisha's desk until Sept. 22.

“Why are your classes sorted by your age groups?”

One of our most commonly asked questions is rooted in the Montessori Planes of Development. Currently at Elevate, we sort our three classes by ages 5-7, 7-9, and 9-12.

Dr. Montessori found that all children exhibit characteristics and needs for healthy development in these distinct stages. Grouping our three classrooms in these ages allows us to deepen our focus, providing our students foundational life skills with their education.

We know the Planes of Development is a different concept for many families, and understanding the methodology is a whole other conversation! Our team is always available to answer questions. Send us a message or let us know if you’d like to learn more.

The storms thankfully passed, and it’s a happy FRIDAY around here!

We hope all our families have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend. When we return, we look forward to kicking off a full month of learning, playing, and discovering together with our students.

SCHOOL CLOSURE UPDATE: Elevate students will be dismissed starting at 11:30am WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30 due to the impending storm.

Elevate will be fully CLOSED THURSDAY, August 31.

We will send out optional at-home activities for students. Please check your emails for further communication.

Thank you, and please let us know if you have any questions. 🩶

Our first day back was one for the books 📚 Here’s to a great new year!

Help us give a big WELCOME to our brand new and returning students. We’re so happy to have you part of our Elevate community. We can already tell it’s going to be an extra special school year!

Everything is ready at Elevate 🌟 All we need are our students and families!

Can't wait to kick off the new school year TOMORROW!

We continue to have a fun and busy summer here at Elevate! 🤗

Last week we wrapped up Art Printmaking Camp. Campers had the opportunity to create self portrait prints that turned out great! 🎨

Last weekend we had the special opportunity to spend quality time with our families at the Elevate Summer Family Fun Day! We enjoyed getting to know each other and playing at Palmetto Island County Park. The King of Pops treats were a perfect way to beat the heat too! ☀️

This week kicks off our first ever music camp! We can’t wait to see what our budding musicians learn 🎶🎹

Only about one more month until the new school year is here! ✏️🍎

Day 1 of Builders Camp was a blast! We learned about simple machines and built our own creations out of Legos and paper. Did you know the six most popular simple machines are the pulley, screw, inclined plane, wedge, lever, and wheel and axle? Simple machines are everywhere!

School expansion is officially under way! 👷‍♀️🔨 We are excited to be creating a new third classroom for our oldest students as well as reimagining a few of our other spaces. We look forward to sharing the finished space with everyone!

Minibeasts Bug Camp concluded yesterday with a visit from ! We may have some future entomologists on our hands! Thank you for learning with us 🤗🐞🐛🐜🦟🪲🪳

Our Minibeasts Campers are off to a great start! Learning all about bugs is so much fun! 🪲🦟🐞🐜

Things are a little waxy around here…

Last week Elevate turned into our very own wax museum, with famous personas, characters and more on display!

During Upper Elementary’s unit study on the Revolutionary War, students were invited to select a famous person from this time period to research. We had so much excitement for this assignment that we decided to take it a step further! Using the research on these historical figures, students dressed up as their person for everyone to walk through and view. Lower Elementary students were invited to participate by dressing up as their favorite book characters.

Can you guess who is on display? We loved sharing this museum with families and were so impressed with our students’ character performances!

Let’s make music this summer! 🎵

Don’t miss Music Camp at Elevate, happening June 26-30 & July 24-28. Both sessions will be a different musical experience led by Elevate’s own music instructor, Mr. Tony. Come create music with a variety of instruments, explore sound and how we perceive it, learn about composers, and much more. Limited spots remain! Register now under “Summer Camps” at elevatecommunityschool.com 🎵

ABOUT MR. TONY
“Mr. Tony,” or Antony DiGennaro, is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and music educator. Originally from Connecticut, he has spent most of his life as a professional musician, performing, composing and teaching in Southern California. Trained as a jazz guitarist, he earned his degree in music composition from California Institute of the Arts, where he also studied improvisation, world music, and performance on many different instruments. While in the Los Angeles area he spent a great deal of time composing music for film, modern dance, and live performance art. Tony currently teaches guitar, bass, piano and keyboards, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, dulcimer, autoharp, harmonica, modular synthesis, music theory and composition locally in the Lowcountry.

We can’t wait to spend the summer making music with your children! Sign up and explore all camp offerings: elevatecommunityschool.com

It’s official 🤩

After many months of waiting, we are thrilled to share that Elevate received its official accreditation from the South Carolina Independent School Association. Not only that, but we received Montessori Accreditation as well! 

This recognition of Elevate's academic programs, teachers and standards opens even more opportunities for our school. Thank you so much to our community for your support in this achievement!

It was a true LOVE where you live kind of day! We had the BEST adventure field trip with Coastal Expeditions. From the banks of the Ashley River to the site of Castle Pinckney, students got to get up close with so much of what makes the Lowcountry an incredible place to call home. We even got to explore Drum Island and hunt for shark teeth!

We’re so grateful we got to share this amazing experience with our incredible students. What a day!

There are still spots open for Summer Camp at Elevate! Swipe through for FAQs and details 👉

This summer we’re exploring a range of themes: BUGS ✨ MUSIC ✨PRINTMAKING ✨ORIGAMI ✨BUILDERS (full!) ✨

Don’t miss out on the fun! Space is limited. Register now at elevatecommunityschool.com ✨

Share with a friend and pass it along! We can’t wait to spend the summer with your campers at Elevate!

Our week is already blooming thanks to these beautiful florals from our students and families 😍 We are so grateful—thank you! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all our fellow educators ❤️

Every day is Earth Day at Elevate 🌎

We practiced kindness as stewards of our Earth by organizing our own Elevate Earth Day cleanup here on Daniel Island. We hit the trails with trash bags and gloves, filling several bags-worth of litter.

We’re so proud of our students for taking on this effort!

Did you know Elevate students spend 350+ hours outside? 🍃That’s for one school year alone!

We soaked up the sunshine this week, with school taking place all over our beautiful Daniel Island surroundings. From the banks of the Wando River to the island nature trails, science, math, reading and more happened everywhere! A little extra sweat, sunscreen, and dirt might have been involved 🌞

Spread kindness everywhere ❤️

Our Lower School students got their opportunity to visit Oaks at Daniel Island assisted living home, bringing kindness stones they painted to leave behind in the community garden. Next week, we’ll return to rehearse our performance of Stone Soup for residents!

Thank you to the Oaks for having us. We love spending time with these special members of our community.

Although Elevate is on spring break this week, We loved having The Charleston Museum visit Elevate last Friday!

We got to experience our own museum set-up spotlighting our recent unit of study, the Revolutionary War. Students were assigned either a colonist or Parliament side role, complete with fun hats and wigs. We reviewed what each side stood for and were given taxes based on real world scenarios, such as “If you drank orange juice this morning, you owed a tax” to get the true feel of how the colonists were feeling at the time before the war began.

We also played fun games from the time period and explored some of the clothing items worn, too. Ask your student about what new fascinating facts they learned!

We hope everyone is having a relaxing and fun spring break!

Sharing spring with our community 🌷

Our Upper Elementary students visited Oaks at Daniel Island assisted living home this week, bringing spring cards they hand delivered to residents. Students also read together, played music, and shared special quality time.

We’re so proud of our thoughtful, creative students, who spread joy today with their conversations, laughter and kindness. It was special for all of us and we can’t wait to visit again soon.

We had a blast having Storm Team 2's Chief Meteorologist Rob Fowler visit Elevate!

His Weather 101 talk was the perfect way to wrap up our meteorological studies from this past month. Mr. Fowler showed us several different ways to measure weather, such as with a rain gauge, a weather balloon, a portable wind meter, and more. Ask your student to help set up your own weather station at home!

Tune in to WCBD Channel 2 at 4:15pm Wednesday to catch Elevate on the news 📺 Thank you again for visiting our school, Mr. Fowler!

No creepy crawlies here! 🪳

We LOVED having Ms. Alaina, a.k.a. “The Bug Lady,” visit school this week. Students took turns holding and petting a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and we learned so much about a variety of different bugs and insects. Thank you for sharing your impressive collection with us, Ms. Alaina!

Last weekend was full of wonderful gatherings with our Elevate community 💙

On Saturday, Elevate participated in the Water Mission Walk for Water at North Charleston’s Riverfront Park with 5,000+ other walkers! We are so proud of our crew, which raised $685 for the cause.

Sunday was filled with team spirit! We had nearly 100 students and family members attend Elevate Spirit Day at the South Carolina Stingrays game. We got the full fan tunnel experience and had a blast watching the game. It was such a fun time for all!

Today was FIN-tastic thanks to a visit from the South Carolina Aquarium! 🦀🐚🌊

Both Upper and Lower Elementary students were able to dive into learning more about our local aquatic habitats. We built a salt marsh with live examples of consumers and decomposers, learning how plants and animals use their adaptations to survive. We also got hands-on with some native marine invertebrates right here at school!

We’re so impressed with the thoughtful, engaged questions that our students asked. It was a special day all around for everyone! Ask your student what part of the visit they enjoyed most 💙