PH Community School

This fun and creative camp is designed to teach young people why and how living beings migrate and provide opportunities to reflect on our shared desire to belong.

For ages 7-11 years
August 10-14th from 8:30 am - 12 pm

This 5-day camp will include science, social studies, and art education. Participation is limited to 10 children so sign up soon!

https://www.phcommunityschool.com/summer-camp

Year 1 is coming to an end, and we are already getting excited about Year 2! Here is a curriculum overview for the 2026-2027 school year.

We are also excited to welcome our incoming students! And have space for one or two more. Please reach out if you are interested in learning more about PH Community School for your middle school student.

In our climate change unit, we’re learning about the albedo and the urban heat island effect so we went to Pocket Park and the surrounding area to collect temperature data on different surfaces. And we learned a lot! Even in the morning hours, the light blue painted PH Coffee patio is a few degrees cooler than the nearby parking lot. The Pocket Park native plant section is several degrees cooler than the asphalt street and the raw wood picnic table was almost 20 degrees cooler than the dark brown-stained table. We also learned that Pocket Park has the best shade tree to analyze data and write conclusions. 😊

We took the 11 🚌 to City Hall this morning to learn more about the KC Royal’s Stadium proposal at Washington Square Park. Our students took notes during the council members’ discussion and then shared their notes with each other when we returned.

We believe it’s important for students to learn how our city government works and be involved in discussions that impact their lives now even as children.

We know there is abundance in our community, so we are committed to buying nothing as much as possible. Please let us know if you have a working digital camera that you’re no longer using. We are looking for low cost or donated cameras for our students. 📷

We are also looking for a professional or amateur photographer who might be interested in going on a walk with our students one day to share their knowledge around lighting and composition as they capture photos around the Pendleton Heights neighborhood. Send us a message if you might be interested!

Students decided that Dr. Lacy should look like a judge with a paper wig and a robe during their class debate!

We recently learned about restricted freedoms of speech and press during WWI through The Espionage Act of 1917 and The Sedition Act of 1918 and people who resisted the war like Eugene V. Debs, Emma Goldman, and Charles Schenck. We then held a brief debate on the question, “Should people be able to express their freedom of speech and press during a time of war?”

When Cliff Drive is just a couple hundred yards from school, you can learn about geologic principles of relative dating of rocks and fossils in science class (Superposition, Original Horizontality, Cross-Cutting Relationships, etc.) and then go look for examples.

Science standard: 6-8 (MS-ESS1-4)

This morning, we met with EPA scientist and neighbor Caitlin Dix at the Pendleton Heights Orchard to collect soil samples. We’ll send our samples to the Missouri Extension Testing Laboratory to learn what elements (nutrients) may need to be added to the soil to support the fruit trees. We took some of the soil back to the classroom to complete our own tests after the soil dries out.

Thank you, Caitlin!