Country Day Enquirer 2024
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Country Day Enquirer students reporters took to the task of reporting on CCDX Week activities! From shooting and editing their own videos to interviewing teachers and students, from drafting copy to taking photos, the students worked solo and in groups to create stories in a whatever creative way they wanted. Below is a sampling of their work...and some of what took place around Country Day's campus during CCDX Week 5.0.
Enjoy!
CCDX in the Lower School
Mia Schnieber `30 and Audrey Ollinger `30: Meaningful Acts of Kindness (PreK-II)
Pre-K II students created things to help spread kindness and make the world a better place. As daily reminders that spending time with family is important, they made lanterns to put at the dinner table during meal time to make it more special. Mrs. Simmons said, “It is important to have meaningful moments with family. And we’re creating these tote bags out of recycled materials as a reminder that we need to love the earth because it gives us life and is provides us a home.”
Mariah Shaw `30, Emilia Hettich `30, Alyse Miller `30: Voices and Choices (2nd Grade)
In Voices and Choices, the second graders are learning all about leadership! This is a topic they have been learning about since the beginning of the year when they started exploring the campus and interviewing school leaders while also studying leaders throughout history.
Because the school mission statement focuses on “creating leaders”, the second graders also memorized the statement, incorporating it into arts and crafts projects, like tiles and greeting cards. 🎨
Second grade teacher Ms. Schoeny says leadership to her means “to work to practice the school’s five character virtues every day and not be perfect at them but to work to be better at them.” While Mrs. Pavlisko said it means, “to kindle the potential of others and help kids learn to help others.” One of the second graders, Elise, said, “Leadership to me is being at home for my baby sister, teaching her things that she doesn’t know. It’s not always easy!” Another second grader, Darcy, said, “Being a leader means leading yourself first before you lead others to great things.” Sadhika, another second grades, agrees with her, saying, “Leadership means helping other people do better and get better at things.” Sounds like the Class of 2036 is full of leaders!
Jacob Goulet `30: Tiny Treasures (Kindergarten)
The kindergarten students in Mrs. Halterman’s class did a lot during CCDX Week, focusing on birds and creating masterpieces. Click on the video to find out more!
Macie Cicchinelli `30 and Libby Hamilton `30: Ugly Dolls (3rd Grade)
For CCDX Week, the third graders made ugly dolls – pieces of scrap fabric sewed together and stuffed with fun additional accessories to make them playful creations! The students also made keychains and ornaments, which they sold during Country Market.
Ray Chen `28, Cameron Orr `28, Ryan Pavlisko `28: Building Community Threads (1st Grade)
For the weeks leading up to CCDX Week, family members of our first grade students visited the students to talk about family traditions, an important component of community, which is what their CCDX theme is based on. For their CCDX Week project, the first graders worked to represent their community through art creations, such as unique necklaces with many different objects like washers, string, and beads.
Pace Guido `28, Roman McCaster `28, Will Stoll `28: FUNctional Clay Creations (4th Grade)
Throughout CCDX Week, the students in fourth grade imagined up pottery creations, learning how to form, glaze, paint, and event sell their pottery. To kick off the week, the students went to Queen City Clay to learn from the experts and learn how to use a pottery wheel. Leaning into their unique creativity allowed for an environment of learning and artistic expression. Juniper McKenrick `32 said, “I love making pottery; it is something we’ve done at school before but we learned new ways to do it this week so that was cool.”
CCDX in the Middle School
Benjamin Abes-Feldman `29 and Hannah Schwartz `29: Cupcakes Wars
Meet your Cupcake Wars contenders! 🧁💙Athl-Eat Cupcakes is a sports-based cupcake business. You can find many cupcakes inspired by your favorite sport. You can get a discount by working out. 🏋️♀️Chance Cakes is a cupcake business inspired by gambling. Spin the wheel to determine your price and try their fun flavors. 🎲Refresh Cakes is a delicious refreshing cupcake business. They have the perfect cupcakes for a hot day – find out what their secret is! ❄️Color Cakes, Egg Bakery is a colorful unique experience, full of color and full of flavor mixed in with a fun, tie-dye theme. 🌈 Cookie Cups is a great new cupcake business. When you buy a cupcake some of the proceeds go to an animal shelter. If you are a cookie lover, this is the perfect cupcake business for you! 🐱
Will Stoll `28, Roman McCaster `28, Pace Guido `28: Boat Building
The Middle School "Boat Build" group spent CCDX Week building their “Six Hour Canoe.” With assistance from expert boat builders Mr. Gill and Mr. Schoeny, students use their bare hands and woodworking tools to craft the canoes together. From the words of Liam Joyce `28, “I love learning something different that I wouldn’t learn in a regular school day.” Once the weather warms up, the group will take a field trip to Grand Valley Preserve to learn about boat safety and test out their creations.
Macie Cicchinelli `30 and Libby Hamilton `30: Lower School Assistants
The Middle School students in the "Lower School Assistants" CCDX course worked with the 2nd graders and Montessori students to help the teachers throughout the week doing things like painting, helping the students create art, and hanging the art up on the walls. Paxton Fleisher `29 says her "favorite part of being a part of the Lower School Assistant course is working with the little kids and making new friends."
Emilia Hettich `30, Alyse Miller `30, Mariah Shaw `30: Mind Matters
"Minds Matters" is a Middle School CCDX group that focuses on mindfulness. There are many ways the leaders taught 5th and 6th graders some techniques for learning how to calm down during stressful times. Mrs. Listo chose to create this course because she feels mental health and wellness are key to her life, and she feels middle schoolers would benefit from some of the techniques they taught them. Overall mindfulness to Mrs. Listo means to be, “self-aware and understand where your emotions are and what you’re feeling in your body to help control those emotions.” While Mrs. Sauber said she chose to lead the course because “it’s helpful for people of all ages to know mindfulness techniques.” She also believes this knowledge will help them later in school because being a teenager can be stressful. Some of the activities the group did throughout the week were coloring with color books, making yogurt parfaits with oats and fresh fruit, and creating body scrub with sugar, coconut oil, and essential oils.
CCDX in the Upper School
Ray Chen `28, Cameron Orr `28, Ryan Pavlisko `28: Exploring Asia (US) & #LifeHacks (MS)
Watch our video on a couple of CCDX courses. Totally flawed…or total masterpiece?! #No
Jacob Goulet `30: Building Worlds - An Introduction to Board and Video Game Design
Upper School students in the CCDX course “Building Worlds: An Introduction to Board and Video Game Design” spent the week creating different board games for little kids, such as a Candy Land-like game, a space adventure game, and a matching card game. Click on the video to find out more!
Libby Hamilton `30 and Macie Cicchinelli `30: The Business of Marketing in Malls
The Upper School students in the “The Business of Marketing in Malls” CCDX course visited three malls in two days to get a better understanding about selling products and running a business in a mall. They also talked to the owner of The Pink Box in Madeira to learn more about how to market a store and sell clothes, shoes, and accessories. On Friday they did a Shark Tank-like activity to present their marketing campaign pitches for The Pink Box to Mr. Zimmerman and vote on which pitch was best. Haarika Ravipati `24 feels "it's a pretty big deal to present to Mr. Zimmerman about the marketing of malls because he's the head of the school and we worked hard on these projects; they mean a lot to us.”
Audrey Ollinger `30 and Mia Schnieber `30: Beyond the Tape
Upper School students in the CCDX course “Beyond the Tape” took their course to Beacon Orthopedics for some hands-on training, working on correctly wrapping ankles and arms when someone gets hurt on the field. Once they learned the skill, they upped the ante and raced to see who could bandage an arm the fastest. They also learned how to assess an injury. Ambika Sharma `24 says, "Learning how to put a cast on someone’s arm was a really cool experience and gave me a better understanding of the human body and how we can help it heal."
Alyse Miller `30, Emilia Hettich `30, Mariah Shaw `30: Mind-Blowing Models
The Upper School students in the “Making Mind-Blowing Models” CCDX course spent the week creating models with everyday objects such as cardboard and popsicle sticks. Marley Handler `24 created the course because she is passionate about 3D printing and making things and “I wanted to teach other people how to do the same.” Marley is inspired by things she had seen when she was growing up and was always interested in learning how things worked so she could try to make things work herself. One of the things the students in this course created was a tensegrity, which is an optical illusion that is meant to look like a floating table using string, popsicle sticks, and balance.
