Reflections
Volume 6 Fall 2019
A Student Journal of the Arts
Caleb Newport
Arts Journal Project Coordinators: Penny Allen and Leah Zueger TCS Administrators and Staff Cover Artwork: Annalise, Newport
Bravery Aidan, Sixth Grade
T
he important thing about bravery is… Being you. It’s being up for a challenge, like getting your black belt. It’s facing your fears, and taking on new ground. Bravery is powerful and strong.
It’s doing what you want with no fear, and standing up for yourself. Bravery is being courageous in the face of danger. Bravery is stepping out of your comfort zone. It’s being an advocate and saying anything you want. Bravery is taking on challenges and trying new things. But the important thing about bravery is being you.
Ava Eighth Grade
Shape Poem Connor, Sixth Grade
I
like to ski down the biggest and most life-threatening preposterous mountains ever! When I ski down them it makes me fill up with excitement and I have the thrill of adventure that is unparalleled anywhere.
Franny Big Bend
Emma Big Bend
It’s the River August, Second Grade
A
s the water glides across the ground the leaves cling to the wet rocks. The leaves soar into the stream as it s-l-o-w-l-y drifts past. The ripples run. The pebbles roll. Where the crawdads crawl and the minnows hide. it’s the river.
August Second Grade
Mia Eighth Grade
Sir Tiger and Mr. Toad Sammy, Third Grade
O
ne day, Sir Tiger went on a hunting trip on Dome Rock. He swept the area for his victim. Then he spied Mr. Toad. Sir Tiger knew he had to be tricky, so in his polite voice he said “Hello, I am Sir Tiger, and, by the way, I am a ‘vegan’ tiger.” “The honor is mine,” said Mr. Toad, in his fancy tuxedo. “I’m pleased to meet you, Sir Tiger. I’m Mr. Toad.” “My plan is working,” thought Sir Tiger. “I will eat him tonight for dinner. Mwa ha ha!” So that night he crept to Mr. Toad’s house and snatched him up. Mr. Toad woke up and screamed at the top of his lungs, “ahhhh!” “Please don’t eat me. I’ll give you anything!” “Anything?” “Anything!” So, Mr. Toad gave Sir Tiger a map of all the animals’ homes. “Yummy, yummy.”
Abbie Fifth Grade
Farewell, Whispering Pines Adeline, Third Grade
F
arewell, Whispering Pines. I hope to come back soon. You have provided me with so much. I am sad to leave you. Whisperint Pines, you gave me soft pine needles and branches for the fire. You kept me safe and warm. You shared many memories with me. I will remember the nature, night, stars, stories, songs, cricket’s chirp, and owl’s hoot. You gave me courage, Whispering Pines. I loved the fajitas, bagels, chocolate milk, and donuts. You are amazing. Farewell, Whispering Pines.
Maris Eighth Grade
Garrett Third Grade
Linden Sixth Grade
Maris Eighth Grade
From My Heart Sarah, Third Grade
I
see smooth sand and hear the roaring water.
I feel peaceful as I move to a comfortable spot in the sand. I relax and close my eyes. I open them again. Oh Pickle Creek, you make me feel so wonderful and safe. Your beauty should be shared with the world. I feel happy to be here.
Spacecraft Xavier Newport
Rover Alexander Newport
Mars Sawyer Newport
Nebula Charlotte Newport
Solar System May Newport
Neptune MaeMae Newport
Saturn Jack Newport
Sun Drew Newport
Galaxy Claire Newport
Jansen Fifth Grade
In My Heart Sarah, Third Grade
O
h, my love You are always in my heart Can’t focus without you Emotions come fast and hard Can’t define my feelings And it’s rare to feel this way for anyone When I feel sadness You are my light Guiding me Helping me focus and learn Helping me breathe and smile My life is beautiful with you in it You make me want to sing I care for you very much I want you forever in my life In my heart
Luna First Grade
Lisa and the Ancient City Ella, Third Grade
O
nce upon a time, there was a huge forest, and in the middle of the forest, there was a city. On the edge of the forest, there was a cottage where a thirteen-year-old girl lived. She lived far away from the ancient city. One evening she heard a whooshing sound. Lisa looked up at the sky. It was coming from the forest! Suddenly her parents were lying on the floor. They said, “Go in the middle of the forest. There is everything you need there. It is too dangerous to stay here. Go!” So Lisa packed her bags, put on sturdy boots and a coat, and found a map. She followed the ‘X’ on the map. She was there, but all she saw was a ruined city. “I guess this is it,” she said as she went inside the wall. To her surprise, she found a nice city. She saw an empty castle. Lisa decided to go inside. Inside was a red carpet and suits of armor lining the wall. Everything was clean and dusted. Then a green ghost popped out of nowhere. “Where did you come from?” Lisa asked. “Wait, you can see me?” the ghost asked in surprise. “Of course I can,” Lisa answered. “Bubbbbut…..only people with the last name of Winow can see us ghosts,” stammered the ghost. “Ok, I have two things to say. First, my last name is Winow. Second, are there more of you?” Lisa replied. “Of course there are. We live here. Now won’t you come in this room to talk?” asked the ghost. He pointed to a door that said, in faded letters, Queen’s Quarters.
Benny Fourth Grade
“In there?” she asked pointing to the door. “Yeah,” he responded. Lisa hustled inside. Inside was a bed so big that it took up one whole room. They sat on the bed in silence. “So, what do you want to talk about?” Lisa said as she broke the silence. The ghost continued, “As I was saying, only people with the last name of Winow are the ones who can see the monsters.” “Monsters!” Lisa gasped. “I didn’t know monsters were real.” “Our city is in danger because of them. They want to take over our city but we cannot fight back because we can’t see them. Only you can,” he explained. Then Lisa chimed in, “Before Grandma Maya died, she told me a story about her adventures killing monsters. How she was the only one who could see them.” “What? Maya died?” asked the ghost. “No!! She was the only other person who could see the monsters. She helped us in battle. That was how we won, with HER,” he sobbed. Lisa thought to herself, so the stories were true? “Anyway, I didn’t get your name yet,” she said. “Oh, it’s Planto because I am the ghosts of plants,” he answered. Where are the other ghosts, she wondered. Then suddenly many other ghosts appeared. It was like a parade of colors. There were so many ghosts that she could not even count them all. They said things like, “Hi, my name is Fruity, Rocky, Luna, Annie, Sophia…” and many more. Then all of a sudden a siren rang RRRRRRRING. Then the ghosts shouted, “Oh no, it’s the danger alarm.” The navy blue guard ghost said, “Quick, run to your posts.”
Preston Fifth Grade
“YOU,” Planto said, pointing at Lisa, “climb the stairs to the tower and ring the bell if a monster crosses the red line. I scurried up the stairs as fast as I could. Oh no a giant skeleton-like monster’s foot was already across the red line. Lisa rang the bell. RRRING RRRRING RRRRING. The ghosts shot the crossbows and went out into the battlefield. When Lisa looked at the battle, it was a beautiful expanse of colors and shapes. There were big and little shapes. It was a war scene. They fought and fought. She wanted to help but Rocky had told her no. Just then a wave of anger and heat hit her. She asked herself, why are those monsters here? Why do they want this beautiful city? It’s not theirs. They cannot have it. She was so angry that she wanted to do something. She punched nothing but air. A portal opened up behind the monsters. The monsters got sucked in the purple portal. The ghosts cheered! Lisa shouted, “We won the day!” Then Lisa thought, am I the one who opened the portal? She finally answered herself, YES it was me, she thought as she trudged to the castle. To Be Continued…
Jasia Fourth Grade
Avery
Ludo
Raelyn
Isaiah
June
The Butterfly Project
When a classmate brought caterpillars into the classroom, what started out as simple observations resulted in a nearly year-long study of the insect’s life-cycle. This is Reggio-inspired learning at The College School. Our Kindergarten entomologists documented each phase of the caterpillars’ transformation, documented their findings through words and drawings, expressed their creativity through pastels, built empathy by thinking through a butterfly’s perspective, and deepened their appreciation for the natural world.
Emerson
Rafferty
Rozaria
Aiden Big Bend Evie Big Bend
Elijah Big Bend
Clementine Big Bend
A French/Osage Story Patrick, Third Grade
I
wake up from my soft and cozy bed. I hear my dad banging on the gun that he was working on all night. From the workshop, he yells, “Look at this musket I made!” He told me one day I would use this musket in the war to try to defeat the British. Since then, my dream has been going into the French and Indian War with the musket that my dad made. 5 Years Later I live in Fort du Chart and I have to walk five miles with a troop to get on a batteau that is taking me up the Missouri River to the front. When we got halfway there, we passed a little town with huge bells ringing from a bell tower. I hear a little thump. I thought it was somebody shooting at our boat, but it was just the dock. We get in position. Then I hear an Osage blow a battle horn, but it was misty all around us so we couldn’t see anything. The only thing I could hear was the brush of tree leaves falling down. The only thing I knew about this war was that we were battling the Indians and British, but I didn’t know what countries or tribes would already be in the battle or be joining the battle. Suddenly, the mist clears and a bullet passes right by. The battle has begun. But luckily, the place that we were coming from only sends people to the war that are the top in the groups. I do my training that I learned at Fort du Chart, but I realized that we don’t have a big army. I hide behind houses with vertical logs. My gun was ready: fire! I saw the British. Fall back! Fall back! Everywhere I saw some of my friends dead. Luckily I was still alive. I escaped right before the battle ended. We ran away without telling some of our friends and we got home safe. But, when I came back all of the homes were lost and all of our land was ceded. We had to find a new place. Finally we found new place. Now my village calls me the great Louis Blanchette the founder of St Charles.
Sam Second Grade
Samantha Second Grade
We are Connected By the Stars Skye, Eighth Grade Graduation Speech
H
i, I’m Skye, and for as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the stars. I guess there’s something about them that attracts me. At TCS you see stars a lot. Some of my favorite memories at TCS are of stargazing with my class, all the way from First Grade to Eighth Grade. On the Sixth Grade Wilderness Experience solo night, I stargazed. The stars were very vibrant because we were in the middle of nowhere. I remember listening to the coyotes howl and stargazing for hours until I fell asleep. At that point, the stars were just beautiful, shiny things that were cool to look at, nothing more, nothing less. I was just using them as a distraction from being alone at night and from the coyotes. But little did I know I would develop a deeper connection to the stars as I got older. On the last night of [Seventh Grade] Bike Trip, we stopped at Klondike Park for the night. We walked up to a little cliff a little ways away from our campsite. On the cliff, we had a group conversation and then looked at the stars. At that point in my life, I had never seen stars so bright. I could not keep my eyes off them. Some people were falling asleep, but I realized that I could stay up all night staring at the sky and not even get bored. It was my first time seeing a shooting star, and I was amazed. Then on Field Ecology, I saw an even more beautiful sky. It was the third to last night of the trip and we were camping at Goose Creek State Park in North Carolina. I remember that night Rainey vividly like it was yesterday. We walked near the Eighth Grade water and spread out across the ground. I remember sitting on a little cliff in the sand close to the waves. Behind me was a wooden bench. In front of me, the redish colored waves were rolling in calmly onto the little beach. Some people were sitting on a log from a fallen tree. We did a journal entry about who we noticed being a really good student. I wrote about Johanna because she was being very helpful, comforting, and kind to the students and teachers. “She really stuck out to me because she could have been going and having fun or goofing off, but instead
she chooses to help.” When we were finished writing we were told to turn our flashlights off and look at the sky. I layed down, using my sweatshirt as a pillow, and looked at the sky for a long time. I was in some sort of trance. I remember seeing more shooting stars than I had ever seen before. I counted around 40. I was thinking about how lucky we were that the night was so clear and that we chose that night to look at stars because it must have been some sort of meteor shower. This is definitely one of my favorite memories from TCS. I went home from the trip and when people asked me about the trip, all I could talk about were the stars. I felt a deep connection to the people around me and to TCS because all of us were staring into the same sky seeing the same stars. On [our] New Orleans [trip] at Audubon Park, we were given the opportunity to have some solo time, the first of the trip. I immediately began looking for the stars that weren’t really there. I continued to look and look and look, but the sky was cloudy and grey. I felt unconnected to the experience because I couldn’t see the stars and the stars were normally what made me feel a connection. I realized that just because I can’t see the stars, they are still there. This helped me feel less distant to the experience. Sometimes when I’m in the car at night, I’ll sit there for a while after we get home. Just staring at the sky and wishing I could be back on solo night, on the top of that cliff at Klondike, or in Goose Creek gazing at the stars with my class. So this is for all of the nights that turned into mornings with all of the friends that turned into family. But I know that wherever we go we will always be under the same sky. Though we probably will never get to stargaze together again, I will always look back upon the times when we had the privilege to stare at the sky in silence together. Even though I am standing up on this stage Audrey graduating right now, and tomorrow will be Eighth Grade my last day as a TCS student, my connection to TCS will always be there. Just like how sometimes you can’t see the stars but you know they are there. I will always remember all the nights, all the people, and of course, all the stars. Thank you.
Ella Sixth Grade
Claire Newport
Black Hole Caleb Newport
Preschool-Eighth Grade 7825 Big Bend Blvd. Webster Groves, MO 63119 thecollegeschool.org