5 Stories of the Power of One Campus with 14 Grades!

5 Stories of the Power of One Campus with 14 Grades!

By Denise Buckley, ICS director of curriculum and instruction

There is a secret among our hallways. We come in, drop off our kids, and know it is a happy place. But when we look deeper we notice one of ICS’s super powers – the powerful integration of students at different grade levels learning together.

Ask a middle school student and I bet they can tell you who their reading buddy was in first grade (pictured). Or ask your child what class they worked with in January to learn their Pep Rally cheer – or about what grade they are pairing with for the National Honor Society special competition. 

ICS upper school dance team teaches PreK students dance technique.

Across grade levels, our students are often brought together and these relationships have an impact. This semester that impact is going even further as our youngest and oldest learners are joining together to do some authentic work.

A component of Teaching for Transformation is something called Formational Learning Experiences, or FLEx.  The essence of a FLEx is creating opportunities for students to do real work that meets the real needs of real people. Several of our teachers have combined grades to do a FLEx, allowing students to meet real needs together:

Binary Games in Computer Science:  Mr. Hildebrand teaches computer science in our middle school and high school. He challenged his AP Computer Science Principles class to design and code games and teaching tools that helped his younger students learn a new topic. Students teaching students!

Seventh graders read with their kindergarten reading buddies.

Dancing into Community:  Mrs. Lee teaches art and dance to students in nearly every grade at ICS. This winter, she asked her upper school dance team to teach preschool students (pictured). Her dancers worked with the prekindergarten class, getting to know them and developing community. They then led a movement class for prekindergarten. It was such a success the dancers plan to do it again this spring!

First Grade Poets:  Mr. Wittstock’s 8th graders have been writing poems and compiling a special poetry book. The first graders wanted to try their hand at poetry, too, and their 8th grade friends were happy to help! The first graders got top-notch learning and mentorship from the 8th grade and loved being able to connect with the big kids. Mrs. Banta’s and Mrs. Guy’s first graders will present their special poems to the residents at Rocky Mountain Care Center in March, hoping to both encourage and entertain.

Julius Caesar for Middle School:  Mrs. Smith’s English class just finished reading Julius Caesar. Now they will be reworking the play into modern form and sharing it with middle school students. The play will focus on the importance and impact of friendships - some helpful lessons for middle school students to hear and discuss!

Juniors play games with first graders at the ICS Junior Carnival.

Wisdom for Middle School Life: Mrs. Harmon’s 6th graders will be working with percentages and using them to model and graph data. Her students will track their screen time, analyze the data, and make predictions about how their screen time affects their success in middle school. They will then present their findings to our 5th graders, giving them some sage advice on how to be successful in middle school next year!

Want to learn more about our REALLY amazing FLEx work?  

These are some ways ICS students did REAL work to meet the REAL needs of REAL people!

(And these are only a few – each teacher is doing at least one FLEx with their students! Ask your child’s teacher about their FLEx!)

Read more here!

Mrs. Biel and Mr. Hobbs are working together to learn about what our local Pregnancy Resource Center provides the community. Mrs. Biel will bring a speaker into her health class while Mr. Hobbs will discuss the history of the pro-life movement in the United States. Then, during their trip to Moab, the 8th graders will serve at a PRC.

Mrs. Florell’s Anatomy & Physiology class studied the crisis of the shrinking Great Salt Lake and specifically the potential health effects on our community. They presented their research to the 5th grade class in December, and at a public forum to approximately 60 at the Holladay Library in January. You may also have seen their public service announcement on our social media sites.

As part of the Junior Achievement curriculum, Ms. Frazee’s fifth graders chose a business to help. They decided to partner with teh United Way, who is in need of bilingual books to share with the community. Ms. Frazee’s class will be doing a book drive this spring to help meet this need.

Miss Potter’s class learned that they are One of a Kind through a special writing and art project. After completing their essays and art project, these brave 3rd graders will present their work to high school students – who also need to learn that God sees them as one of a kind! This will be followed up with the annual 3rd Grade Wax Museum, where students learn about other one of kind people from history and share what they learn with the community by “becoming” that historic person in our living wax museum.

Ms. Reed asked each of her science students to research and present a long-term Curiosity Project. Assigned in August, her middle schoolers were asked to choose an intriguing science topic that was not part of our curriculum. Students then had a full semester to learn about the topic, create a slide presentation, and teach the topic to their classmates. Much hard work and critical learning went into these projects: research, presentation, time management, and teaching skills to name a few! And our middle school science students learned about so many new topics!