This spring, the Grade 7 class at Nashoba Brooks School traveled up to Camp Takodah in New Hampshire for a two-day experience filled with team building activities and opportunities to push beyond their comfort zone.
At Camp Takodah, Nashoba Brooks students find themselves in a unique learning environment faced with challenges and learning opportunities in an unfamiliar setting for most. This drives students to develop a different set of problem-solving skills and strengthen relationships through collaboration.
Takodah YMCA’s Educational Programs empower youth to connect and develop essential skills. The organization strives to create community and relationships that develop a sense of belonging, achievement, and autonomy, and they do so with an emphasis on environment-based education.
Led by enthusiastic and supportive counselors, groups of students rotated through cooperative activities on day one, including rowing a 20-person war canoe around the lake and walking on low ropes challenge courses through the woods.
While students experienced rainy and cold weather, that did not deter them from swimming and playing in the chilly lake. These activities were appropriately followed by drinking hot chocolate and sitting by an indoor campfire.
After dinner on the first night, groups worked together to entertain and compete for the title of the group with the most excellent “Hidden Talents.” A couple of the talents included acting out “movies in a minute” and a slow-motion race, with teachers and counselors serving as judges.
The second day focused on the high ropes challenge course, which involved a climbing wall, cargo net, and many tree-climbing opportunities. Although the rain seemed like it would dampen the mood, it only brought the class together even more. As one student stated, “the rain is not keeping us from making memories!”
“The trip lends itself to providing situations for students to feel empowered to take risks and build each other up,” according to Middle School teacher and Director of External Programs Kerry Stevens. “The counselors helped students lean into situations that they may not have otherwise tried in academic settings.”
This Grade 7 experience also sets the groundwork for the Grade 8 trip to Chewonki, helping build their readiness and preparation for this outdoor experience.
As part of interdisciplinary work across science, humanities, writer’s workshop, and transliteracy, Grade 4 students engage with the Invention Convention which provides a hands-on opportunity for students to creatively solve a novel problem. With the timeliness and acknowledgment of National Engineers Week, this STEM, invention, and entrepreneurship program starts with our students exploring their lives, and the lives of others, to identify a problem they are passionate about solving.
What a bee-autiful sight! The Nashoba Brooks beehives have been buzzing all summer and have produced their first batch of honey! With the help of Mel, our apiarist partner, Grade 1 students were able to extract a few jars of honey from one of our hives. Students will further explore this wonder of nature during science class this year as they learn more about the natural world and our local environment.
Grade 3 students participated in a favorite Nashoba Brooks tradition: a Sharing of Understanding. This event hosted family members to listen and learn about what their students have been working on at School, including a recorder recital and in-depth explanations of multiple indigenous peoples.
It was a packed weekend on the Nashoba Brooks campus for Fall Weekend!
Thank you to all the parent volunteers, student ambassadors, faculty members, and all other roles who contributed to making this weekend so memorable for our School.
After weeks of hard work, Grade 3 students had the opportunity to present their Community Hero projects to their families and their interview subjects!
The Nashoba Brooks School campus was bursting with excitement Friday, November 4, through Sunday, November 6, as we celebrated our annual Fall Weekend.
After almost a year of research, school visits, interviews, self-reflection, and essay writing, the Grade 8 class is enjoying a variety of excellent high schools to choose from.
Alongside the book fair and poetry month, April has been a wonderful time for literature at Nashoba Brooks School. Sharon Draper and Jen Campbell, two celebrated authors, left their mark on the community over the past few weeks.
More than 75 parents responded to this year’s annual School survey and numbers were well balanced across all grade levels. The results of the survey are impressive and the feedback the parents offer to the School is glowing.
As Black History Month comes to a close, students and faculty alike celebrate diversity, acknowledging that a school is not only classrooms, gymnasiums, and fields, but also the people within these walls. Each year and at every grade level our students contemplate the presence and importance of different backgrounds, experiences and beliefs. And this month provides community members with an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be Black in America.
Situated on a beautiful 30-acre campus in historic Concord, Massachusetts, Nashoba Brooks School enrolls all genders in Preschool through Grade 3, and students identifying as girls in Grades 4 through 8. Nashoba Brooks is an independent school designed to build community, character, and confidence in its students.