Important Events

Explorer Community events are an important way for members of the Explorer learning community to connect with each other and build relationships that support the academic learning process. Building a sense of community is an important part of Explorer's Social-Emotional curriculum – it builds trust between parents, children and staff, and allows us to know the human beings involved in the very human process of educating children. Besides, Explorer's community events are just plain fun!

School Spruce-Up
Parents and older children can reconnect with friends and welcome new members to the community by participating in the end-of-summer school spruce up. There is no better way to connect with others than to work with them. Volunteers come for usually two consecutive weekends to paint, repair, plant, beautify and generally open up the school, air out the classrooms and assist the teachers in getting ready for the new school year. It is satisfying hard work and part of a tradition of volunteerism that has supported Explorer from the very beginning.

Back-to-School Picnic
The Back-to-School Picnic is a fun way for families, teacher and staff to meet and connect at the beginning of each school year. New families get to meet old families, mentors finally meet their families face-to-face, students reconnect with their friends and teachers and everyone eats and plays until the sun sets. It is a wonderful way to have fun and regroup as a community!

Back-to-School Night
Back to School Night is an evening for information gathering in the absence of children. Jill Green greets the parent body, the faculty introduces the school-wide theme for the year, the Social-Curriculum Parent coordinator outlines topics for the Social-Emotional Curriculum, and the development team and Parent Council explain the importance of fundraising and volunteer support at Explorer. Afterwards, parents visit their children's classrooms for presentations by teachers.

Harvest Festival
The Harvest Festival is a school-wide celebration of gratitude. First, each class celebrates the things they are thankful for in life with presentations of song, art, poetry and more. Then families, students and staff spread out blankets and share picnic meals and an enormous selection of potluck desserts donated by each and every family. Festive and exciting, the Harvest Festival is a loving prelude to the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Skate Nights
Skate nights add up to old-school, retro, old-fashioned FUN! Families converge at Skate World in Linda Vista four times a year, lace up their skates or roller blades, and rock and roll to old- and new-school tunes. The limbo and hokey-pokey are great crowd pleasers and even teachers skate with children in tow. In addition to being a community-building event, Skate Nights are also fund-raisers.

 

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Field Day
Field Day is a day-long celebration of games, sports, physical fitness and fun. Students spend the day working and playing as part of ten to fourteen multi-grade team. Teacher-led teams rotate among games both fun and hilarious such as jump-roping, Frisbee golf, soccer, sack races, hoppity-hop races, and musical whipped-cream pie-in-the-face (a wacky cousin of musical chairs). The event helps build a school-wide community of trust by allowing children to work and play cooperatively with other students of all ages.

Authors' Assembly
Local children's book authors are invited to read from their work and sign books for students and families in a school community-wide assembly. This event gives children a chance to demystify the process of writing and producing a book and realize that the process of publishing a book is not very different from what they do in school themselves. It also is a chance to celebrate Explorer's love affair with literature.

All-School Exhibition
The All-School Exhibition is the joyful culmination of months of the students' academic efforts. Projects that are lovingly and painstakingly created by the children are displayed and children have the chance to sit and share their work with visitors. The children show great pride in their accomplishments and presentations. The exhibition is also an awesome opportunity for parents to see what happens in the other classrooms at Explorer, and to see how the school-wide theme is interpreted across classrooms and age groups.

Art from the Heart
Art from the Heart (AFTH) is Explorer's most important, exciting and inspiring fundraising event of the year. AFTH is a magical, elegant evening meal and auction for adults attended by Explorer parents, staff and supporters. The evening includes a silent auction and elegant food. But the real action is in the live auction, in which parents bid on one-of-a-kind artwork by the children, exotic trips and special events. Each year, the Parent Council raises money through AFTH to support Explorer's small class sizes and special programs.

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon
The Teacher Appreciation Luncheon is the Explorer community's chance to say, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” to the wonderful teachers, administrators and staff who make Explorer a fabulous reality for children. Parent volunteers take over monitoring the playgrounds and teaching children in classrooms so that our teachers and staff can relax and bask in the warmth of our thanks with food lovingly prepared by parents.

End-of-the Year Celebration
The End-of-the-Year Celebration is the last blast of the school year. It is a celebration and a reckoning, and a time to acknowledge the children and staff who are moving on to other adventures. And then, like all of the best things in life, the school year must end with….DESSERT! An ice-cream social of enormous proportions provides a sweet ending to another wonderful year at Explorer Elementary Charter School.

 

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