Princeton Friends School

Moving Up Morning was a joyful success!

Students in Preschool through 3rd grade spent time visiting the classrooms and teachers they’ll be learning with next year, getting a chance to explore new spaces, ask questions, and begin imagining the adventures ahead.

Meanwhile, students in grades 4–7 came together for team-building activities, strengthening friendships and preparing for the transitions and opportunities that await them next year. And our 8th graders spent part of the morning practicing for Moving On, taking time to reflect on their Princeton Friends journey as they prepare for Saturday’s celebration.

As one school year comes to a close, new possibilities are already beginning to take shape.

Field Day vibes!

Our 8th graders took the lead, designing and facilitating a day full of laughter, teamwork, and friendly competition for the entire school community. Students rotated through a variety of stations, including an obstacle course complete with a slip-and-slide, a twist on Red Light, Green Light, the Museum Game, Tails, a sponge race, a three-legged race, and a water balloon toss.

Beyond the fun, Field Day showcased the leadership, creativity, and care our oldest students have developed during their time at Princeton Friends School. It was a joyful opportunity for students of all ages to play together, cheer one another on, and celebrate the relationships that make our community so special.

What if a spoon became a spaceship?

As part of their Found Objects Minimester final project, our kindergarten students selected everyday objects and used the power of storytelling and imagination to transform them into something entirely new. Through drawing, writing, creating, and sharing stories, students gave ordinary objects extraordinary identities, imagining adventures, characters, and worlds that stretched far beyond an object’s original purpose.

Today’s Minimester Fair was a celebration of curiosity, creativity, and the many different ways students learn and express themselves.

This afternoon, families gathered to experience the incredible projects that emerged from those explorations and to hear students share their learning with both adults and peers.

Students who chose Everyday Objects projects transformed ordinary objects into extraordinary works of meaning and imagination. Given the freedom to choose any artistic medium, students expressed their ideas through a wide range of creative formats, demonstrating that there is no single way to tell a story or make meaning.

Learning Forest projects explored students’ own learning styles and reflected on meaningful aspects of their year at school. Their projects combined personal reflection, data collection, and creativity. Students calculated everything from hours spent in math class to the number of times they spoke up during discussions, then connected those insights to their identities as learners, their interests, and even the type of tree they might be in a forest of learning.

Our 1st and 2nd graders proudly shared both their Everyday Objects work and the culmination of their Farm Project studies, giving visitors a glimpse into months of thoughtful exploration and hands-on learning.

This morning’s Kindergarten Celebration was a beautiful reminder that growth is about so much more than a performance.

Families gathered alongside faculty, administrators, and friends to celebrate a year of learning, discovery, and community. Together, we read stories, danced, and reflected on memories and milestones from the year.

With thoughtful remarks from Teacher Jessica and Head of School Peter Gaines, the celebration highlighted not only how much our kindergarteners have learned, but also who they are becoming: curious learners, caring friends, and confident members of our community.

Congratulations to our kindergarten students on a wonderful year of growth! And a heartfelt thank you to Teacher Jessica, Ellie, and Jimmy for creating a joyful, nurturing classroom where magic is always present and children can thrive.

As part of their final Algebra 1 project, students used the graphing platform Desmos to draw and shade impressive graphics, like a panda bear and Patrick Star. Students carefully selected, modified, and graphed equations and inequalities to produce detailed, colorful images.

Desmos, an interactive online graphing calculator, allows students to visualize mathematical relationships in real time. Through this project, students deepened their understanding of functions, equations, inequalities, domain and range restrictions, and graph transformations while applying those concepts in a creative and engaging way.

In honor of Pride Month, students in grades 3–8 came together yesterday during Community time to lead an educational presentation.

Working together to prepare, they explored with us important LGBTQIA+ heroes in history, shared the meaning behind the LGBTQIA+ acronym, explained the history of Pride, and reflected on why Pride continues to matter today.

At the heart of their presentation was a powerful message: every person deserves the freedom to be their authentic self. Students encouraged our community to reject labels, celebrate individuality, and recognize the many ways people experience and express who they are.

We are grateful for the curiosity, courage, and care our students brought to this learning experience, and for the opportunity their leadership provided to continue building a community where everyone belongs.

This week in our 4th–8th grade Learning Forest Minimester course, students explored multiple ways of learning through nature, creativity, engineering, and reflection.

🌿 Day 3: Engineering Challenge at Stony Brook
Students worked in teams to build the tallest structure that could support a 5-gallon bucket using only materials found at the stream. Afterwards, they collected data on their structures and reflected on their process.

The results were impressive, including sturdy stacks of stream rocks (some groups counted more than 100 rocks in their structure), towers of Japanese knotweed (students enjoyed having a good reason to remove this invasive plant), and tall sticks secured into bases of mud and rocks. The winning structure stood more than 2 meters high!

🎨 Day 4: Nature Murals & Messages
What outdoor spaces around and near campus are meaningful to us? Why does it matter that we spend so much time learning outdoors?

Students reflected on the importance of nature in our daily school life and decided on messages they wanted to share with the community. They then created chalk murals and posters to communicate their ideas through art.

To conclude this portion of Minimester, students reflected on four different kinds of learning they experienced this week: learning through physical play, creative thinking and organizing, hands-on building, and art and dialogue. Thinking about which types of learning work best for each of us will be important as students launch their next project: creating their own “Learning Tree.”

In today’s Minimester course, students headed to the Stony Brook stream to explore a big question: How do ordinary objects come to hold meaning?

Using natural materials gathered along the stream, students worked together to create a rainbow from rocks and other found treasures while wondering about the journeys those objects had taken to arrive in their hands. Where does a stone come from? What stories does it carry? This connected to a larger lesson from the day about how a mountain transforms over time and what resources, memories, and meanings emerge from that transformation.

By slowing down to observe the world around them, students discovered that every object has a story and that understanding those stories helps us better understand our connection to place.

And on a hot June day, there was plenty of time for splashing, exploring, and playing in the stream, too. After all, it’s hard to care about Earth’s objects if you never have the chance to fall in love with them.