Community Engagement

The Primary School introduces children to the joys of giving and the responsibility we share in helping members of our immediate, as well as our global community. Curricular engagement ranges from reading appropriate empathic literature to participation in classroom activities designed to empower students to affect caring actions and change.

The Primary School has a partnership with Toni’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen in our neighborhood. Students walk to Toni’s to do service on multiple occasions during their Primary School years. As part of the Pre-K and 3^rd Grade Buddies curriculum, students donate farm produce they have picked themselves to Toni’s Kitchen in Montclair. Kindergarten students deliver children’s scarves, gloves, and hats to Toni’s in time for the winter holidays. Second grade classes, in conjunction with their Town Study, walk to Toni’s to pack backpacks with food for the backpack outreach program.

Each year, the third graders perform a bell concert at Senior Care during the winter holidays. They enjoy playing games and making art with the seniors. The third grade culminating social studies unit, Agents of Change, provides third grade students the opportunity to become activists for a cause about which they are passionate.

All Primary School students participate in an all-school service project as part of the bi-annual Thanksgiving Share.

Throughout the grades, a curricular foundation is provided by the Primary School faculty to support the work of the PAMKA Community Outreach representatives in the execution of outreach projects, such as the annual Food Drive and Giving Tree. All community engagement curriculum is designed to lend authenticity and meaning to actions taken by Brookside's Caring Cougars.