November 2024

Building Buddies Between our Buildings

Becky Callaway, Lower School Principal

Several years ago, a couple of double-wide modular units referred to as “The Cottages” sat on the spot of land on our campus now commonly known as the “green space” between the main and middle school buildings. These trailers…a-hem, “Cottages” were home to our PreK, kindergarten, and first-grade classrooms, along with a computer lab and the “yearbook room.” When the units began showing signs of having surpassed their life expectancy, we fortunately found a willing party to take them off our hands (for free). Giving up the Cottages created the need for a new home for the classrooms displaced by their departure from campus. Thanks to the strong spirit of collegiality maintained between our school and Prince Avenue Baptist Church, the teachers of these classes were not homeless for long, as they moved into their new digs on the first and second floors of the church right away.    

With this move, these shared spaces literally came to life six days and one evening a week, bustling with school teachers and students Monday through Friday and church volunteers and “Prince kids” on Wednesday nights and Sundays.  School staff and church staff quickly became comfortable and fluently communicated as necessary regarding these commonly used classrooms. Though the space had sprung to life with these new arrangements, there was one lingering concern as our teachers settled in.  Administration knew that we must find a way to ensure that our lower grades did not take on a sense of fragmentation, a “them/us” or “they/we” sense of identity as we settled into our new configuration.  In fact, Colonel Hathaway commissioned me to ensure that we would be intentional about keeping the nine classes housed in the church and the 17 classes in the school building connected.   

Our staff’s regular monthly faculty meetings were important and effective in maintaining our whole group communication, but we needed something in place that would include the teachers and their students of the primary grades classes regularly and purposefully interacting with the upper elementary classes and teachers.   

It was a “light bulb” moment when one day the concept dawned.  We would create a schedule whereby second through fifth grade classes would interact monthly in a fun planned activity with the PreK through first grade classes. As the purpose of these fun get-togethers was to “build” bonds with our friends in a different building, the concept became known as “Building Buddies”! 

Over the years, Building Buddies has become more streamlined than in the beginning, while accommodating growth in our school’s enrollment.  What began as nine classrooms in the church has increased to 16 and most of our grade level teams have members who have been a part of this program for many years. Even with the few tweaks along the way, Building Buddies has become one of the defining characteristics and traditions of our lower school.  This year, at the request of the teachers, we have broadened the scope of the program so that each section of a grade is paired with all the sections of another grade, and the activities are scheduled for four times during the school year.  This year’s schedule looks like this: 

Teachers from the older grade of each pair initiate the conversation with the younger grade teachers and, according to a scheduling deadline leading up to each event, the teachers plan their activity, including date, time, duration, and location of the event.  Events often include physical games like kickball in the green space followed by a fun and tasty snack, making seasonal crafts such as Thanksgiving turkeys or Christmas cards, big kids reading picture books to littles, older students helping younger students to write seasonal stories, and even watching a holiday movie as a big group while enjoying theater-style refreshments.   

Over the years, this activity which was originally conceptualized to ward off isolation and community “drift” has become warmly embraced as one of the characteristics that makes our school culture uniquely special and valued by teachers and students with equal fondness. One desire I’ve always had as an administrator is for the students in the grades I serve to look back on their years in elementary school with many fond memories. I want them to be able to say that their school was great and that they had a great time while they were there. I’m confident that Building Buddies, though born of a real need, will be one of the highlights our lower school students will take with them as they graduate to middle school, high school, and beyond.