5th Grade Orientation

5th Grade at SGS is a special experience as students come from schools all over Seattle and the surrounding area to start their journey at SGS. As a smaller class, we focus a lot on community building and spend the beginning of the year getting to know each individual student. We focus on celebrating our unique strengths and talents as gifts we can bring to the 5th Grade community at SGS. 

During the four days of orientation, 5th Grade students created silhouette portraits and chose symbols, colors, materials, and designs to represent who they are, their strengths and interests, and what is important to them. At the 5th Grade Opening Ceremonies, each student took the stage to share the deeper meaning behind their intentional choices with an audience of family and friends. It was amazing to see students step into their courage zones to share bravely and honestly about who they are after only four days of being together. 

What many people don’t know is that the silhouette portraits were originally intended to be a mask project. In fact, students spent a whole day thinking and planning how they were going to embellish and design a papier mache mask. And then...there was a delay in the mail. The masks that were scheduled to arrive Monday did not arrive in time. So, we have to get creative, think flexibly, and change course. In some cases, students adapted their plans to work in 2D. In other cases, students changed their plans altogether. Adapting to change is something we have all become accustomed to during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it never seems to get any easier. It was an amazing moment for our students to come together as a community, adapt to a change gracefully, and share proudly the end results that were so different, and I would argue more beautiful, than what any of us imagined.