Extra Awesome

We in Cougarville recognize that success and happiness come from character traits that aren't always able to measured by tests. 

Electives - Each week students from 3rd through 8th grade participate in an elective of their choice. Despite our small school and limited budget, we've been able to offer an impressive array of choices due to the dedicated work of teachers and volunteers. We've've offered classes in: Beginning Music, Yearbook, Art, Gardening, Sign Language, Crafts, Leather Working, Yoga, Knitting, Basketball Skills, Creative Writing, and Stop Motion Moviemaking.

Club Live: Student Leadership - Students are elected to office at the beginning of each year. This group of leaders model democratic citizenship and integrity. They host dances, fundraisers and often lead the school in our Awards Ceremony.

Genius Hour - During a specified time period, students get time to research and learn about a topic of their own interest. Students are expected to pick topics that will take five to ten weeks to work on and then share a presentation with the rest of the class. Students have chosen to learn how to write programming code, explore careers, build a Rube Goldberg machine, draw, sew, and research biographies.

Awards Ceremony - Every month we host a whole school awards ceremony.  Here selected students from each grade are recognized for their effort, kindness, academic achievements and even good eating habits. Parents are always welcome to attend these gatherings.

Winter Program - Every year we produce a whole school production to entertain and engage our community as a way to celebrate the holiday season together and explore performance arts.

Student Blog Portfolio: Students update their personal blogs with their best writing and activities. This allows for them to build an online portfolio of high quality work over the three years they are in my class.

Second Step: A Character Education Program - We introduce and discuss new strategies for relating to others that we can practice throughout the school year. Topics include starting and maintaining friendships, being an ally, trying on new perspectives, disagreeing respectfully, anger management tools, and more.