Students Anchoring Their Work in Quaker Values

Pictured: An Annual Assembly, Pinwheels for Peace, was held this September in honor of International Day of Peace.

Every Wednesday, we hold an all-school morning meeting. Where a different class of students shares a project that they are working on and how it relates to the Quaker values, often referred to as SPICES. For the third year, as a school, we are centering on a pair of values. This year, we have been lifting Simplicity and Peace. Here are a few highlights from student shares this year.

Seventh and eighth-grade students attended a citizenship ceremony at the University of Southern Maine as they began their exploration of their essential question “What is identity?”

"Going to the citizenship ceremony made me realize how many steps people need to take to be an American if they are not born here. After going to the ceremony, we talked as a class about how important it is to reflect on our own citizenship," shared an eighth-grade student after presenting the thought for the week at an all-school morning meeting.

In fifth and sixth-grade science, students have been documenting invasive species on our property and the neighboring Falmouth Land Trust. Students created a skit to share their understanding of the impact of invasive species. When asked how the Quaker values were reflected in their recent study a student shared:

"We have been creating experiments that are simple and reproducible. It relates to the values of Community and Simplicity because the way that we do this means that more people can replicate the same experiment."

In Kathryn and Pete's 3-4 class, students created values posters to center their reflections on classroom work. A few students shared their reflections on peace and simplicity:

"Peace is being able to cooperate and include people."

"Peace feels like a hug. Simplicity and Peace together, I think, is all about not taking more than you need so that everyone can feel like they have a hug."

"Peace can sound like quiet, or not."