Aveson Global Leadership Academy joined Aveson School of Leaders on Monday, February 23rd for Community Day. The students formed "villages" with kids from each grade level, even transitional kindergarten. Instead of the usual 16 classrooms at ASL, Community Day created 27 villages, led by over 50 AGLA students, with nearly 900 kids and staff participating!  
Community Day is a tradition at Aveson that grew from our founder, Kate Bean’s, vision of multi-age learning and teaching and the belief in the importance of positive relationships between different age sets. Now, Community Day is a yearly event that both Aveson campuses look forward to; as a leadership opportunity for the high school kids and a fun and enriching day for the elementary kids.
This year's theme was Heart Song, based on the poetry of Mattie Stepanek, a  young author and peace activist who began writing poetry at the age of 3.  Mattie defined Heartsongs as “gifts that reflect each person’s unique reason for being.”
Villages spent the afternoon collaborating through song, poetry, musical activities and bonding.  Nervous young people and reluctant leaders quickly relaxed as a group and learned valuable lessons from one another.  By day's end, they were comfortably laughing, sharing stories, and enjoying the experience.
“The day was well planned and organized,” said 3rd grade advisor, Jackie Wang. “(AGLA student) leaders engaged the (ASL) kids.  It was so much fun!”
“Best read along ever!” exclaimed Ms. Terry,  referring to AGLA leaders who incorporated guitars, drums and a little hip hop into the children’s book Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Dr. Seuss.  
Reviews from the students were equally positive, with leaders commenting on how impressed they were with their new young “buddies” and ASL students giving it a thumbs up at day’s end.
One wide-eyed first grader reported meeting “a student who maybe was a man--at least he was that big!” Another chimed in with: “I even met an AGLA!”
Community Day did as it always sets out to do: it helped form relationships amongst all our students, big and small. Check out our photo gallery to see how the Aveson community just grew stronger.

For a quick and dirty (and groovy!) walkthrough of the day, check out  Jesse Gloyd's video.