BUILDING COMMUNITY

Often when students are asked how they describe Charlotte Christian in one word, they respond with community or family. One of the intangible benefits of doing life in a JK-12 community is the opportunity students have to interact across divisions. This semester our students have experienced building community with students in different grades.

Bonding As Reading Buddies

The new KnightTime schedule has allowed for dedicated weekly time for middle school students to participate in quarterly classes outside of their typical learning environment. Mrs. Mary Berger, middle school science teacher, facilitates Reading is Fun! during KnightTime that cultivates a love for reading for her sixth grade students as well as allows them to partner with first grade students as their reading buddies.

“The goal of the class is for the sixth graders to enjoy reading things they choose to read and to see the value in reading, said Mrs. Berger. “I’m hoping as they see the first graders try to read and as they read to them, it may encourage the sixth graders to appreciate reading more and also give them a chance to give of themselves.”

“It was fun to go hang out with the first graders,” shared sixth grader Locke Boor. “We were separated into groups and read a couple of books that they picked out. About halfway through the story we would ask them what their favorite parts were and what they thought would happen next and make it more interactive with them. They were excited to see us and it was fun getting to read to them.”

Sixth grader Caroline Lucado enjoyed seeing her younger brother, Jack, in Mrs. Valadez’s first grade classroom. “It was fun because my brother was there and I got to meet the people in his class. I remember when we were in kindergarten and the older kids would come read with us so it’s fun to now be the older kids reading to the younger kids.”

First graders loved having the middle school students visit with them. They invited them back to help celebrate their small moments writing and hosted Muffins with Middle Schoolers. This celebration included reading their story to their middle school buddies and having muffins. Each lower schooler read in a small group and classmates would write compliments to their friends on their writing.

“We shared stories and we read to the sixth graders,” said first grader Collins Whitman. “One time they brought books from the middle school library and read to us. We shared our stories with them and sixth graders brought sticky notes and we wrote stuff about what we liked about the story that we all read.”

Charlotte Christian provides opportunities for students to experience different cultures through travel during Winterim in the upper school or summer trips. This past summer a group of middle and upper school students traveled to Spain for a language and cultural immersion trip. They spent two weeks in Salamanca, Spain, attended classes in the mornings and participated in a variety of sociocultural activities in the afternoon. The students received academic credit from their language school classes affiliated with the University of Salamanca. During their time in Salamanca, the students and chaperones stayed in homes with host families to give them a better perspective of Spanish culture. “A highlight of the trip for me was when

Tate Efird started playing soccer with some of the local boys playing in La Plaza Mayor,” shared sophomore Margaret Biggers. “They immediately brought him into their game and everyone did their best to communicate to one another. It was so much fun to see them all having fun together even though they were so different. It is so important to learn about different cultures because it makes you globally competent. If you take the time to learn about other cultures, then you are given a new perspective and understanding.”

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, fifth-grade students learned about the rich culture of Salamanca, Spain, from members of the group.

The students shared the importance of stepping out of our comfort zones and growing our global awareness and also answered questions from the fifthgraders about their experiences.

“It sounded really fun,” said fifth grader Brook Myers. “We learned that they would have to talk with everyone in Spanish - even to their ‘host’ mom for the trip!”

“The older students talked about how it impacted them and how they learned a different language,” said fifth grader Grant Gialanella. “They said it was good for them to learn about the Hispanic heritage and the Spanish culture. It was interesting because we don’t get to hear from the upper school students as much so I really liked it to hear about their experience.”

Hanging Out Together

“An initiative of the athletic department this year is to help find ways to build community between school divisions,” explained Female Athletics Coordinator Amanda Naeher. “We were excited to create this fun opportunity for our upper school student-athletes to partner with a lower school class. Studentathletes are assigned a lower school class and are encouraged to go play with them at recess or P.E. and build rapport with the students. It has been great to hear how much the older and younger students have enjoyed hanging out together!”

Senior Tanner McCammon joined Mrs. Grace Ulrich’s class during their P.E. time and hopped on a second grade team for their volleyball rotation. “It’s great to hang out with them. I remember being a second grader and seeing upperclassmen walk the hallways and say hi and give me fist pumps. It’s really fun to go back to lower school and now I’m the upperclassman.”

Senior Kai Carter is partnered with Ms. Stephanie Ferrari’s junior kindergarten class this year and often enjoys hanging out and talking to the students during their snack time. “I was really glad that they started this because it’s a great way to bring our community together and it’s a great way for high schoolers to be able to talk with lower schoolers because we don’t get to see them a whole lot.”

Tucker Morgan, JK, shared, “We like Kai coming to our class because we can talk to her.” And Lyla Olszowy, JK, added, “I like it when our high school helpers come to our tables and talk to us.”

Collaborating On Class Experiences

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden visited our middle and upper school forensics classes recently and brought a staged crime scene vehicle. Sheriff McFadden talked with students about proper collection of evidence and crime scene processing through this hands-on experience. Students examined the vehicle and took notes to aid in their investigation of the scene. Upper school students solved the case by discovering a hotel key that could be traced back to the car owner. They learned that the hotel key magnetic strip contains personal information long after someone checks out.

“The mobile crime scene was a great cross-divisional experience and the students loved Sheriff McFadden,” said Ms. Jessica Simmons, upper school science teacher. “I’m so appreciative to partner with Charlotte community members to provide our students with real life opportunities to learn more about the world of forensic science.”

The middle and upper school students enjoyed collaborating on the experience together and hearing the different perspectives from each other. “It was really amazing,” said eighth grader Julia Silva. “The sheriff was experienced and smart and strategically placed objects in the car for us to find and taught us how to analyze the evidence. It was cool to see the different perspectives with the different age groups. He made us feel like real detectives. Everyone got to play a part so we all felt included.”

“It was fun as we all got to collaborate together,” said eighth grader Owen Metzelaars. “It was interesting to learn about what we were doing compared to what the high schoolers were learning and what the sheriff taught us about it. It was a little difficult to find all the clues but I think we actually got more than the high schoolers!”

“One thing that I loved about having the sheriff come was getting to use what we have learned in class in an almost real life situation,” shared junior Kate Trimakas. “I thought that it was very enjoyable to include the middle school class in our experience. At the end, we came together as a whole group and shared with each other what we had found. It was really interesting to see certain things that caught their attention versus what caught ours.”