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Sofia is a Spruce first grader. She is the last of her three siblings to attend the community school. Her family heard about Spruce from their next-door neighbor. They watched as their neighbor scampered to the Spruce bus daily with a beaming smile. Before enrolling her child, Sofia’s mother attended one of the school’s Exhibitions, where community members and stakeholders gathered on campus to listen to students present their learnings and showcase their products from their 8-week community-based project.

At this particular exhibition, Kindergarten and fifth-grade students partnered with a local nonprofit, Food to Power, to create a community garden. Students with poise and passion explained their project’s aims to study the growth and importance of plants, the concept of food security, and the value of teamwork in creating and maintaining a healthy garden. They told Sofia’s mother about the importance of sharing meals and how food tells a story of where we come from and who we are. Sofia’s mom participated in a “Harvest Festival” and a “Garden-to-Table Dinner.” Students facilitated conversations with adult community members and celebrated their hard work by passing dishes made with produce from the garden around a large student-constructed wood table. Sofia’s mother left with a feeling of awe. She could not believe the professionalism, passion, and high-quality products of Spruce students.

Sofia’s mother had never experienced a school activity like this. She reflected on her time in elementary school and remembered her shins, self, and ideas contained to a small desk. The products and processes of her learning were confined to answer choices A, B, C, and D. Sofia’s mother was certain that for her children, she would choose answer choice E, “Other,” and send them to Spruce Community School.

Sofia arrives at school at 7:45 am in her forest green Spruce shirt, where smiling and loving adults greet her at the entrance with a high-five or handshake. All around, children delightedly shuffle through the school doors. The school is a living museum of all the authentic work she and her peers have completed since the school’s opening in 2026. On her way to Ms. Jenny’s and Mr. Erik’s first-grade class, she sees her older brother’s fifth-grade project, an interactive digital map of the school’s campus embedded with student-produced photos and drone footage, highlighting areas of environmental significance and improvement projects. Her brother is now a Student Ambassador; he leads tours of the school for prospective families and participates on the hiring committee for new teachers. She hopes to one day proudly represent her school in the same way.

It is 8:15 am and, without the warning of a bell, children begin to excitedly hustle into their respective classrooms, walking to one of the couches or bean bags in the circular “meeting room.” All of the children, regardless of age, happily discuss their upcoming fieldwork at Concrete Coyote and eagerly wait for their beloved teachers, Ms. Jenny and Mr. Erik, to begin. Sofia loves that she has two teachers who work as a team to ensure she receives the support she needs and that she will have two years in the same classroom. The room is uncannily organized despite the absence of desks. Toys peek out of boxes, excited by the promise of play. Bright colors splash over the walls, and dynamic diagrams beg for attention. Sofia sits casually, talks openly, and learns curiously. Her morning meeting time is filled with community shares, team-building activities, and lessons on their “Play Powers.” This week, they focus on kindness.

After the morning meeting, Sofia takes a moment to update her personal learning journal, where she tracks her weekly goals in colorful charts and drawings that she will share with her family at the end of the week. Today, she proudly places a sticker next to “Retell stories, with details, and explain their central message” – a goal she mastered yesterday. She thoughtfully adds a new goal: “Use descriptive words in my playground design.” Ms. Jenny helps each student track their progress with age-appropriate visuals, ensuring they understand not just what they’re learning but why it matters.

Sofia chants the alphabet and phonemes with her class and then moves into her leveled literacy stations, where Mr. Erik supports her with more individualized practice that is based on her recent DIBELS assessment and matches her specific needs. Next, Sofia and half of her class go to their first special of the day, art, while the other half has small group reading time. She works with her group to draw and model her proposed play structure, “The Slithering Snake Slide.”

Just as Sofia’s belly begins to rumble, she heads outside for a nutritious snack and a chance to play with her friends in a safe yet spontaneous manner. Sofia and her friends enjoy the monkey bars and tree house, which her second and third-grade peers designed and built the previous year with the support of an expert community partner. This year, she hopes her idea will be chosen for the community nature playground.

After Snack, Sofia ventures inside for her math lesson. It begins on the carpet with “Number Corner,” where she starts to see all the ways numbers make an appearance in her life through the calendar and clock. Numbers dance through her mind as she excitedly explains her thinking to her peers. In pairs, Sofia uses unifix cubes to measure her partner’s legs, arms, hands, neck, and feet. She knows that by the end of the year, she will have to include measurements for her “Slippery Snake Slide” model. At the math centers, she updates her measurement growth chart, comparing today’s findings with last month’s data. She beams with pride seeing how she’s progressed toward her self-set and grade-level appropriate math goal of “Comparing the lengths of two objects.”

The rest of Sofia’s class returns, and her favorite part of the day has arrived, Project Time or, as her teachers call it, Problem Solvers. Students gather at their project wall, where each child’s name is connected to specific responsibilities and learning targets they’ve helped define. Sofia is the “Kindness Ambassador” this week. She is responsible for noticing and sharing the small and often unnoticed kind actions of her peers and community.

Ms. Jenny and Mr. Erik’s class are exploring the power of play and the “Play Powers” that support them, such as courage, teamwork, kindness, and empathy. Today, they are taking a trip to a local playground. In this project, Sofia will make sketches and models of her ideas, receive critique from the community, graph the presence of her Play Power, write a persuasive letter to convince her school of her structure, and build a playground piece with her class. At each step, she’ll document her progress in her portfolio, reflecting on both her successes and challenges – a practice that even the youngest Spruce students embrace to develop metacognition and ownership of their learning journey. Sofia will share her portfolio two times a year at Student-Led Conferences. She is excited for the Exhibition, the “Ribbon Cutting Ceremony,” where her class will reveal the new play structure and present their learnings to her family, friends, and neighbors.

After lunch, Sofia heads inside for read-aloud and another Special that rotates between Art, Science, Music, and Dance. Today, she has Music. Sofia ends her day with a unique class to Spruce, which is every child’s favorite, Choice. During this time, Sofia can choose a technology-free activity in which she would like to participate. Yesterday, she made a block city; today, she weaves friendship bracelets. Tomorrow, her mother is coming to lead students in baking her grandma’s recipe of Monster Cookies.

Before dismissal, students gather for a brief reflection circle. Her teachers guide students in connecting today’s experiences to their weekly learning targets, helping even the youngest learners understand how daily actions build toward larger objectives.

It is 2:45 pm, and the children are reminded it is time to leave. Sofia reluctantly grabs her backpack, which seems light with the promise of another full day of learning. Inside is her “School Journal,” where she has written detailed letters to her family on the week’s accomplishments, setbacks, and learnings. It contains weekly correspondences between her and her mother– a ritual that reinforces the school’s commitment to student agency, self-reflection, and partnership with families. On the car ride home, Sofia fills the entire commute with detailed explanations and demonstrations to answer her mom’s question, “What did you do at school today?” Sofia’s mom smiles, knowing she made the best decision for her daughter’s educational experience.