Charleston Day School

A peek behind 3rd grade’s classroom door yesterday revealed a different view! The students headed to to learn more about daily life and South Carolina’s economy during the colonial period in America.

The local field trip enriches 3rd grade’s study of South Carolina history. Another successful off-campus activity!

Mme. Juillard and Mme. Morin have been celebrating St. Nicholas Day with students during world language classes this week.

St. Nicholas Day is celebrated on December 6 in many European countries. Mme. Juillard has a Dutch background, and she remembers writing a short poem for St. Nicholas and receiving a little gift, small candy, or a piece of fruit in return.

Traditions vary by country, but typically a shoe is involved. What a “sweet” tradition!

When you live in a coastal city, words like seawall and jetty are pretty familiar, but have you heard the term, beach armor?

“Beach armor” refers to physical structures used to protect shorelines from coastal erosion. 2nd graders have been learning about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of beach armor.

The students were given a budget and materials to build their own scaled-down version of beach armor. The model helped them observe erosive forces in real time and potential effects on shorelines and beachfront properties.

We might need to call one of these 2nd grade science teams for their beach armor design ideas during the next hurricane season!

Kindergarten application reminder! K applications are due January 1, 2024 for the 24/25 academic year.

1st-8th applications are due February 1.

Missed an Open House? Join us January 17th at 9 am to learn about the CDS experience and our K-8 program.

Visit the linktr.ee in our bio or email [email protected].

Have you placed your 4th grade Holiday Market cookie mix order? Forms went home in silver folders earlier this week! 4th graders are already receiving orders, calculating inventory, and estimating profits.

The Holiday Market community service project taps into math, communication, and collaboration skills. All profits benefit a local charity, and students get a taste of different aspects of a micro business.

Orders delivered no later than December 13!

We had many parents on campus this morning to meet with representatives and offer input about the Fielding campus expansion.

During the visioning session and Parents’ Council meeting, parents had a chance to tour the new Fielding property.

We have one more focus group session for parents next week. Check your recent emails from CDS and the Communicator for details about attending!

In honor of today, please consider making a gift to Gateway Giving, Charleston Day's annual fund. Your philanthropy directly supports CDS' greatest assets -- our students and teachers. So join the global effort this Giving Tuesday and enrich the educational experience for all of our Scorpions!

Visit 🔗 https://www.charlestondayschool.org/gatewaygiving/

It’s been a minute since we highlighted volleyball, but we celebrated these student athletes at our fall sports assembly this morning.

Words used to describe players on the 5th through 8th girls volleyball teams included grit, persistence, resilience, commitment, athletic ability, attitude, and spirit.

Congratulations on a great season!

We can’t wait to catch up with students about Thanksgiving break when we return to campus tomorrow.

We bet Babar, the kindergarten world language friend, will have lots of stories to share! Each weekend, Babar, the beloved French book character, goes home with a different kindergarten student. When the well-dressed elephant returns to school, his kindergarten buddy shares stories about their weekend adventures with a journal writing and share time during world language class. Great way to blend literacy skills and exposure to French culture.

Happy Thanksgiving from our littlest turkeys to yours. We are so thankful for our CDS family. Gobble! Gobble!

As you start to prep those holiday shopping lists, make sure you include CDS spiritwear.

Shop in person at the Parents’ Council meeting on 11/29 or contact Meg Manuel to order via email. For all the details, read last Friday’s Communicator.

Are you scrambling for a last minute pie recipe at your Thanksgiving table? 3rd grade has some suggestions!

They tested 10 pie flavors at Friday’s pie party. It was the culmination of their yearly descriptive pie writing activity. The authors of the most enticing pie descriptions were asked to bring a sample to school, so the group could taste.

To read more about it and grab the peppermint pie recipe, visit bit.ly/CDS3rdpie. Do you remember the 3rd grade pie party? Leave a comment with your favorite pie flavor!

Things we are grateful for as we head into the Thanksgiving break…

❤️ Supportive teachers
💙 K-2 musical performances
❤️ Hugs from parents and grandparents and special friends
💙 Classmates
❤️ Special cookie deliveries from Chef Keith!

It was a good selfie opportunity this morning when we hosted our final morning of “Donuts with a Grown-Up”.

Chef Keith reports that he served over 500 donuts during the past 3 days! We suspect the students ate the bulk of those donuts while the grown-ups had a chance to mingle with other parents over a morning coffee.

Thank you, grown-ups, for attending!

5th graders would like to remind you to donate to their food drive for .

Collections end Friday. Most needed items are canned fruits and vegetables, tuna or other canned meats, low-sugar cereals, and peanut butter.

Thank you, 5th grade, for organizing this service project to help others in our area this holiday season! ❤️🥫💙

Student Council introduced gratitude cards this morning at assembly.

Students write a reason they are grateful on the gratitude card and share it with a student in another grade to keep the card circulating. Once the card is full, we will collect and make a list of all the reasons CDS is thankful this Thanksgiving (and all year round).

Student Council kicked us off with a few ideas…
❤️ We are grateful for nature.
💙 We are grateful for family.
❤️ We are grateful for supportive teachers.
💙 We are grateful for our dogs (pets).
❤️ We are grateful for our aunt’s Mac and cheese!

Mrs. Arnstein reminded us that showing gratitude creates a ripple effect of caring, and the magic of gratitude is that small acts can make a big difference. Happy holiday season!

Have you received your latest issue of The Gateway magazine? It hit mailboxes last week!

If you think we have an outdated address, please contact us with current contact information (link in comments).

Candids around campus from recent days…

📸 5th grade preparing for the food drive next week!
📸 2nd grade class visitor, the Accidental Preservationist, brought artifacts she found at her home that was built in 1810.
📸 1st grade field trip to The Charleston Museum.
📸 Teacher appreciation flowers from the 4th grade class in honor of a teacher birthday and finishing the Invention Convention.
📸 1st graders are designing disguises for a turkey.

We spied a little art “en plein air” with our kindergarteners yesterday.

Using natural materials found around campus, students partnered to create ephemeral designs. They used the grassy area in one of our outdoor learning spaces as a canvas just like the artist, Andy Goldsworthy. Great lesson!

In honor of Veterans Day this Saturday, November 11, we had several special guests at assembly this morning.

Members of the Honor Guard of Joint Base Charleston presented the colors, answered questions, explained the meaning of the parts of the American flag, and demonstrated folding the flag.

Charlton deSaussure, ‘00, spoke about his service. He shared a favorite saying from his time in the Navy— Ship, Shipmate, Self.

Take care of your home (ship) first. Then, think about your crew and how working together steers the ship in the right direction. Finally, think about yourself and contributing to the greater good.

It is much like the mission at CDS. “When I think of Veterans Day, I think of people standing watch. We can’t serve Veterans the way they served us, but we can show respect; we can remember, and we can show kindness.”

We have so many communication options in today’s world that it can be easy to forget about the power of a handwritten note.

📝 Charlie wrote a business letter to . Because it was well-written and included clear ideas, he received a super special *personalized* response. In fact, 3rd graders are still receiving replies from this letter-writing assignment.

📝 1st graders wrote individual thank you notes to each guest speaker who visited over the past few weeks. Each visitor had something special to share about jobs in our community.

📝 In addition, 1st graders received a handmade thank you note from in recognition of the Community Helpers play.

Never underestimate the impact of a personal letter. It has sure made a meaningful impression with these students!

6th and 7th graders stepped off campus this morning for a performance of “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” .

We are so glad the theatre is just a short walk from campus because it sure was chilly this morning!

The field trip provided an additional connection for our students to the mythology stories that are part of our middle school language arts and history curriculum.

If you have not read the book series or seen the show, we recommend!

See you this Friday morning for Coffee with the Counselor! Mrs. Bayne will discuss technology, social media, and friendships and how these 3 topics impact students in grades K to 8.

Do you have questions about the right age to give your child a cell phone? Have you thought about making a family media agreement for screen time? Explore answers with our school counselor. Check for details in the Communicator.

The 3rd grade class completed their annual Read-a-Thon last Friday with a reading field trip to Washington Square Park. The students read 5,089 minutes and received a total of $9353.02 in pledges during the 5-day reading challenge!

The Read-a-Thon raises money each year for local charitable organizations. This year’s donation recipients will be revealed soon. Stay tuned!

As part of our programming for Red Ribbon Week, we invite guest speakers each year to talk with our middle school students about substance-use disorders and the effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain at different stages of development in teens.

MUSC Youth Collaborative spoke with parents and students today. Through an interactive presentation, students learned more about how the brain functions at different ages and shared valuable data about delaying risky behaviors.

Encore! Encore! 1st graders ran two back-to-back performances this morning of their smash hit play, “Community Helpers”.

Parents enjoyed the first performance, and kindergarten guests had seats for the second run.

We loved hearing about the different jobs people have in a community and how they work together to solve problems— just like students in a classroom! Bravo! ❤️👏💙

Have you heard? 3rd grade’s annual Read-a-Thon kicked off today!

Each student found reading sponsors and set personal reading goals to help raise money for the class’ community service project. The more the class reads by the end of the day Friday, the more money will go to charitable organizations in Charleston.

Check back for daily reading reports! ❤️📖💙

6th graders added a little zing to their notetaking while studying Earth’s layers. They made models of Earth's 5 physical layers and color coded the notes and models to visually show the lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, and inner core during Earth Science class.

Representing the information by writing it down, building a model, and labeling with different colors gives students more than one way to explore key science concepts.

Way to wrap up your senior volleyball season, 8th graders!

Our 5th grade team plays in the finals tonight. Get your Scorpion spirit on and come support our team! ❤️🦂💙

During library time, 4th graders learned how to play marbles. They are reading a historical fiction book in class, and it’s a game that characters in the book play. Can you name the time period?

📖 Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
🕰️ The Great Depression

Yes, we are studying ancient history… why do you ask?

6th grade history class includes learning about monumental architecture. That topic spilled into art class when Ms. Weber challenged students to design structures with only notecards for materials.

Big win for our 5th grade volleyball team last night in their last regular season game.

We have 3 teams moving to the playoffs next week, so get ready to cheer on our Scorpions! ❤️🦂💙

Middle school students from the Quiz Bowl elective faced off in assembly this morning for a speed round of toss-up questions.

Topics ranged from geography to literature, and we certainly saw many qualities of a scholar in the friendly competition!

Scholar Qualities:
❤️ Have an interest in more than book learning
💙 Demonstrate curiosity
❤️ Be motivated to help others
💙 Show a joy for learning

Paddles in, 8th grade! We know it was a great day on your surprise field trip with .

Charleston Day School is excited to announce the purchase of the Fielding Home for Funerals property! Along with the earlier acquisition of 7 Magazine Street, we have solidified the “Forever Home” of CDS in downtown Charleston.

The school is looking forward to beginning work on the master campus plan.The original structure will remain on the property as it has valuable historical significance, and Charleston Day is working together with the Fielding family to honor their legacy at this historic site.

7th grade history students flipped their thinking about feudal society with informal presentations in class today.

They were tasked with thinking about what people in each level of society might think, want, feel, taste, see, smell, like, or not like. The students applied their knowledge of daily life in medieval times to prepare the impromptu presentations. What a great way to make comparisons about the different levels of medieval society.

1st graders are learning about all kinds of helpers in our community.

Thank you, Mr. Kratz (parent) and Officer Nate, for visiting the 1st grade classes to talk about your jobs.

Even though one guest is a harbor pilot and one is a police officer, their jobs have several things in common.

❤️ They collaborate with other people to be successful at their jobs; they don’t work alone.
💙 They have specialized equipment they need to check and care for to keep people safe.
❤️ They use many school skills like math and writing every day.

We are excited to hear about the rest of the 1st grade guests in the coming weeks.

Reading skills connected with rhythm instruments in kindergarten music class.

Each percussion instrument matched a word in a read-aloud story. When students heard the word and saw it on the display screen, they shook, tapped, and beat the matching instrument. Next time you hear or see the word, “shoe,” tap twice! ❤️🥁💙

5th grade spent the morning last week participating in team building challenges. At assembly this morning, we heard trip reports from all grades who have been off campus recently.

5 learning points students shared about their adventures:

💙 You need to work together as a team
❤️ The bigger the group, the harder it can be to strategize and plan
💙 Some parts are challenges, and some parts are easy
❤️ Each student loves different things about a field trip experience
💙 Field trips may stretch a person’s comfort zone

Great takeaways, Scorpions!

We spy a Scorpion! Way to go, Jacob!