All in on Hands-On Learning: Intersession

For a single week each school year, The Willows pauses the day-to-day curriculum and delves into Intersession, an in-depth, cross-disciplinary study of a single theme conducted in multi-age groups. This year’s projects will examine the 2023-2024 school-wide theme, Strength. Intersession activities always promote collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving skills for every age group.  Students are given an extended period of time to focus on specialized projects, allowing them to pursue topics of their choice. Developing an idea into a fully executed design is a vitally important skill; Intersession provides students with the time and resources to learn these skills through project-based, hands-on experiences.

Intersession projects differ from the day-to-day Willows curriculum in a key aspect: students from multiple grades interact and collaborate on the same projects with 1st-2nd grades, 3rd-5th grades, & middle school working together. This emphasizes the importance of cooperation and teamwork and allows children to meet new friends in other grades. Whether learning to come to a compromise on an idea or identifying a role within a team, working with students from different grade levels prepares them for future group projects and promotes team building skills.

The independent nature of Intersession requires students to consider their own goals for a given project as well. A week of school offers enough time to plan out and complete an individual or group project, however, it can also serve as a strong basis for a larger scale, long-term commitment.

For example, Middle Schoolers will have the opportunity to participate in “Strengthen your Mind, Body, & Spirit,” a project dedicated to exploring medical, mental, and spiritual health through history and various cultures. Students will volunteer in the community, keep active through hikes, and acquire skills related to nutrition, gardening, goal setting, and self-reflection. Through hands-on learning, students will develop new social emotional skills and learn new practices focused on maintaining their physical and mental health.

Other Intersession projects for this year include:

DK: Buildings & Blueprints

Students will start their building journey with an inspiration walk, touring the local buildings and architectural masterpieces in the area. Then, we will form groups, collaborate to brainstorm ideas, and get into planning out our own original blueprints, inspired by observations on the walk. Once the blueprints are complete, student-engineers will gather wooden blocks of all shapes and sizes. Students will finally begin the building process, focusing on the strength and stability of their structures and using the blueprints as a reference. There will be Magna-tiles, Legos, loose parts, and other materials to add the final details and finishing touches to each building. 

K: Kindergarten Carnival

A creative and collaborative experience, students will put on a carnival from the ground up using recyclables. Kindergarteners will work together to organize, create, design, and build booths that include tickets, games, entertainment, prizes, and much more!

1st & 2nd: Strength in Frames: Animation

Spend your week learning and strengthening your storytelling skills. Whether it's using animation-ish on the laptops, clay stop-motion shorts, comic books or flipbooks, in this class you can bring your stories to life! 

3rd, 4th, & 5th: Strength Studio: Architecting Your Dream Building 6

In this class, you will plan out, design, and build a prototype of your ideal building 6. The sky's the limit! In addition to your vision, you will write and submit a business proposal. Who knows, maybe your building 6 dreams will come true! 

Middle School: Strength In Community

Learn about the culturally diverse neighborhoods and communities of Los Angeles through food, history, and field trips. Explore areas of LA you’ve never been to while diving deeper into the history of your own neighborhood. Sample food from different communities and cultures, and learn to prepare some of these dishes yourself. There’s more to Los Angeles than you know; join this class and find out all about it. 

Intersession offers a unique, independent approach to project-based, experiential learning and an opportunity to fully integrate our disciplines in a fresh, illuminating academic experience. Fostering deep learning allows for student expression in a variety of ways and lets them choose their class and spend a week focused on a singular topic. We’re looking forward to our 2024 intersession coming up soon, from March 18th-22nd.