Not your typical first day around here, our #firstdayofschool traditions include play, building relationships, and sunflowers. These traditions were designed to build a community that can work through just about anything. First, play. Play is a child’s work. You can’t standardize learning through play and that’s why it trips everyone …
A beloved TKG Tradition is our Celebration of Learning. Our community gathers, as a show of deep support, to celebrate students and create value for their ownership in the process of learning. It supports our mission to offer an interactive and collaborative approach to education. The projects, or examples of work, …
“How were you brave? How were you kind? How did you fail? What are you grateful for? These four little questions can be a helpful tool for unwinding a busy day at school and supporting a growth/flexible mindset for your student. It takes the focus away from pain and directs …
This has been a wild year! COVID pushed us all outside our comfort zones. It is incredible how our teachers and community have supported one another in creating an outdoor classroom environment that has protected the social-emotional well-being AND development of our students. If they weren’t doing this so well, …
At TKG, we believe that students are people who are developing in their own way and at their own rate. We favor a holistic approach to assessment that includes academic, social, and emotional development of each child. Therefore, assessment of progress is through anecdotal observation, individual student conferences, formative assessments, …
It is “Storm Watch” time in southern California. Rain is in the forecast for the next three days! So, what are we going to do about outdoor school at TKG? Since our inception in 2011, our mantra has been we play – rain or shine! First, we have to talk …
You are wondering how outdoor school works. Can children really learn outside of a classroom? Don’t they need to be at a desk? What about state standards? First, our environment is responsive to student, teacher, and family. Academic learning is guided within a context of a relationship-based environment. In just …
Picture perfect is not real. We know it intrinsically but we’ve been socialized to think that in order for something to be successful, it must be big and grand – and come together quickly. We’ve been taught that the “little things” are boring. We are so restless about our expectations, …
TKG is a special place because self-awareness and confidence-building are part of academic learning. By switching phrases from “Be Careful!” to something more specific and open-ended, we all learn about trust, cooperation, collaboration, and resilience. Recently, our classroom has been outdoors and that means, more exposure to experiences with flora …
