Search Results: elementary move
With a final push by generous donors, Eastern Mennonite School reached its move-in goal for funding the renovation of the former MennoMedia building to provide a permanent home for its elementary program today. “It’s been a full court press the past three weeks as we sought the final dollars in…
Graduates of the elementary and middle school divisions of Eastern Mennonite School celebrated this week with parents, grandparents, friends, and teachers completing milestone years and preparing to move on. Elementary We celebrated 19 fifth grade graduates on June 3. Teacher Erika Gascho shared words about each one’s character and contributions…
Eastern Mennonite Elementary students took part in a school-wide project this winter, “Sharing our Stories” with each class putting their own “spin” on the effort. The project built on the overall theme for the year of belonging . The goal was to help students learn about their ancestors and share…
Thanks to more than 30 volunteers putting in dozens of hours over a recent weekend, learning in the outdoors is flourishing at Eastern Mennonite Elementary School. Outdoor classrooms are established and a bridge garden is ready for student gardeners. It’s all part of implementing the master plan for the renovated…
A little over 14 years after Eastern Mennonite Elementary School first opened its doors in a church basement to welcome its first 25 students, 94 students grades K-5 walked in the door of the school’s first permanent facility. December 10 was a day of excitement and settling in, a few…
A guest panel in chapel on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, helped current students think about the upcoming all-school effort to bless and move the K-5 students into their new building. Panel members remembered their part in the 1964 move of Eastern Mennonite High School into a new building 801 Parkwood…
With most site work complete, workers focus on the interior as they transform the building into a learning center for our elementary students! Welcome entrance and administrative suite with roof-top garden The new welcome entrance and administrative suite are starting to take shape as framers install walls. The concrete deck…
Progress toward establishing a permanent home for Eastern Mennonite School’s elementary program reached a critical milestone on February 7. That’s when the City of Harrisonburg granted a long-awaited building permit for renovations to a building that EMS purchased from MennoMedia in 2016. “It’s not unusual for the permitting process to…
In order to tell the story of our school’s history, we must first acknowledge the people who were here before us. The indigenous tribes occupying the Shenandoah Valley in the long period prior to the arrival of English settlements include the Iroquois (also called the Six Nations) and Shawnee nations as…
Academics Help furnish the Gathering Space! A “Family Room” for the EMS community. furnish the gathering space with tables, chairs, and audio visual equipment for lunch, events, and special meals stock the serving kitchen with a refrigerator, serving station, and rolling carts for lunch time purchase outdoor furniture to extend…
The class of 2030 will leave their mark on Eastern Mennonite Elementary School with a volleyball/Newcomb net in the school’s playground. The 19-member class collaborated with each other, other grade levels, teachers, their principal and parents to choose the project, pay for the equipment, install it, and host a ribbon…
Gifts given to Eastern Mennonite School through the Great Community Give on April 19, 2023 will support the addition of the Gathering Space on the school’s elementary building. Gifts of any size will support construction of the Gathering Space by helping to fund hardscaping materials, a vaulted ceiling, and oversize…
In 2022, EMS will celebrate Janelle Zook Cunalata ’02, Carl Stauffer ’82, and Ethan Zook ’72 during Homecoming activities, Oct. 14 and 15. We celebrate alumni stories to hear each others’ journeys since high school and to be inspired by lives of service, professional contributions, Christian commitment, and community engagement. Janelle…
“Community” was a theme during the first week of the 2022-23 school year and the preceding week of faculty and staff conference with a similar call. Widening our circles was a subtheme as teachers, staff, and students began to think about what makes a community welcoming to all. The school…
Lynette Mast ’84 writes about the beginnings of the elementary division of Eastern Mennonite School, which opened in 2005 with Lynette as peacebuilding teacher. This was written in 2008. It is hard to say how new ideas sprout. But sprout they do as one small conversation over dinner happens, a…
These are the stories of four Mennonite women who loved children and education, and who are having an impact at Eastern Mennonite School today and into the future. Each of them included EMS in their will. When they died, EMS received the bequests and worked with their families to identify…
Thirty-three alumni soccer players (see list at end of article) swelled the numbers of homecoming participants this year returning to campus Oct. 15 and 16, 2021, along with those who attended meals, class reunions, athletic competitions, and a Celebration of Music at Eastern Mennonite School. (Read about class reunions —…
Kendal Bauman is the current assistant athletic director and physical education teacher for Eastern Mennonite Elementary School, and was the boys varsity soccer coach from 1992 to 2012. Coach Bauman researched and drafted this article and pulled together the display (pictured) in the early morning hours before Menno Classic competition…
Students will climb to new heights — and build upper body strength — at Eastern Mennonite Elementary School this fall, thanks to student advocacy, parent contributions, faculty vision, area expertise, and volunteer hours. A petition for monkey bars by the third grade class — delivered in spring 2021 to Maria…
Meredith Hall has been named head coach of Eastern Mennonite School’s girls varsity volleyball team. She moves into the position after serving as assistant coach for the EMS 2020-21 season, coaching a local area travel team, and taking part in leading volleyball camps with a former coach at Alta Vista…
Karen Suderman reflects on her first year as the English for International Students (EIS) teacher at Eastern Mennonite High School. Karen came to EMS from her role as director of the Intensive English Program at Eastern Mennonite University. She is originally from Didsbury, Alberta, Canada. Picture L-R: Yejin Lee, Seoyeon…
Along with the rest of the country, EMS did its best to find ways to celebrate the Advent season and Christmas message despite the limitations of COVID-19 mitigation practices. The school was able to enjoy in person learning this fall with social distancing and mask wearing at all times before…
Eastern Mennonite School completed the fall semester to Thanksgiving break with no incidence of Covid in grades K-12 among students, staff, or teachers. “This is a testimony to everyone’s adherence to our mitigation efforts, vigilance in monitoring symptoms, wearing face coverings, and making wise choices when out and about in…
D. Keith and Ellen (Slabaugh) Helmuth, of Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, are being honored with the Eastern Mennonite School Lifetime Service Award for 60 years of professional and personal engagement in care for creation. Both are members of the class of 1955. “They were environmentalists before it was popular,” wrote…
Eastern Mennonite School is excited to offer its students and the community an outdoor musical production of Les Misérables School Edition Oct. 29, 30 and 31 on the school’s south auditorium lawn. The musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michael Schönberg is based on the novel by Victor Hugo and tells…
After assessing facility spaces, enrolled student numbers, and Virginia’s Phase III guidelines for re-opening during the coronavirus pandemic, Eastern Mennonite School has announced it will welcome “every student, every day” to school for the 2020-21 academic year. Paul Leaman, head of school, made the announcement in a July 1 letter…
This article, by David Driver, was published in the Daily News-Record, April 20, 2020 Editor’s note: We have begun a weekly series called Friday Flashback, as we catch up with local athletes, coaches or administrators from city/county high schools. The fourth installment is on Jewel Lehman, a 1983 graduate of…
Equity Work The EMS Equity Group is made up of faculty representatives from each division, the high school counselor, K-8 and high school principals, the admissions counselor, and director of advancement. The group is a place to give focused attention to the school’s efforts to continually grow in its vision…
On Monday, June 1, 2020, Paul Leaman, head of school, shared the following message with EMS students (grades 9-12) and parents, following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, while in police custody. Our classrooms and community gatherings such as Chapel and Neighbor Groups for grades 6-12, and…
Words of support and affirmation were exchanged at the annual fifth grade celebration for Eastern Mennonite Elementary School on June 1, 2020, as part of an annual event to mark the move to middle school. The 18 students heard words about themselves and shared words about their school. Maria Archer,…
Parent representatives from across Eastern Mennonite elementary, middle and high school divisions invested time, insight, encouragement and prayer for the school during the COVID-19 time of distance learning. Delivering “thank you” yard signs to teacher and staff homes at the end of the school year was their most visible sign…
Sleeping in, reading for fun, hours outside… Along with all of this, EMS students continue to grow academically, socially and emotionally, through virtual community at Eastern Mennonite School this spring during the COVID-19 closure. Some students wish for more online school work, while other students — and stressed parents —…
Strategic Plan Summary 2019-2022 TODAY magazine issue on EMS Strategic Plan Note: EMS will undergo an accreditation visit and review in the 2022-23 school year through the Virginia Association of Independent Schools. The school expects a new strategic plan to come out of that process; it will be shared in…
Remembering, ribbon cutting, prayer and building tours marked the completion of a building renovation that gives Eastern Mennonite Elementary School a permanent home. The celebration came a little over 15 years after it first opened in the basement of Lindale Mennonite Church, in the fall of 2005. More than 100…
Eastern Mennonite School will hold an event to celebrate and dedicate its new elementary building on Jan. 28, 4 to 6 p.m. All are invited to celebrate the renovation of the former MennoMedia building into an innovative learning space. A ribbon cutting will take place outside the building with comments…
Chopping vegetables and tasting a dish from Pakistan helped the kindergarten class learn about the home culture of one of their classmates today. Dr. Nabeel Babar and Sharmila Afzal shared about Pakistan with the kindergarten. Their youngest son was proud to have his parents on hand and eagerly pointed out…
Workers poured footers last week to begin building the bridge that will soon connect the original 1964 “upper” building at Eastern Mennonite School with the newly renovated “lower” building, at 801 Parkwood Drive in Harrisonburg. Meanwhile, eager elementary students got their first peek at their new classrooms. The bridge base…
This article by reporter Jessica Wetzler was originally published in the Daily News-Record, Oct. 24, 2019. Want to know the secret for getting a group of elementary school students to be quiet? Bring out a chainsaw artist. With sawdust floating in the air and wood chips covering the dewy ground,…
A walk in Park Woods, a nap on the floor, time alone with a Bible or journal, coloring and meditating… these were some of the Sabbath practices that students in grade six to 12 tried out as part of Spiritual Renewal Week, Sept. 16 to 20, at Eastern Mennonite School.…
Eighth grade physical science students dug holes, examined rocks, weighed and measured inside and outside the school building in recent weeks to help install donated oversize tractor tires for a new elementary climbing structure. The hands-on project was spearheaded by Lee Good, middle school physical science teacher, who rounded up…
A new playground at Eastern Mennonite Elementary School incorporates natural and reclaimed materials to create space for outdoor imaginary play and learning. Kendal Bauman and a host of volunteers — alumni, parents and high school students — developed the space over the summer to welcome the 95 EMS students at…
Nearly 400 bricks have been purchased to raise over $50,000 for a bridge connecting the two buildings on Eastern Mennonite School campus. The bridge is needed between the newly renovated elementary building and existing middle and high school, or “upper” building, at 801 Parkwood Drive, Harrisonburg. Parents of elementary students…
Maria Archer, k-8 principal, addressed the class of 2019 at their graduation ceremony on June 2. Archer was invited to speak, in part, because of her unique connection to the class; several of the graduating seniors had attended Eastern Mennonite Elementary School, including three who were part of the program’s…
Lynette Good ‘84 Mast has been named lead kindergarten teacher at Eastern Mennonite Elementary School. She succeeds Barbara Miller, who served in the role since 2006 and retires at the end of this academic year. As an early visionary of the elementary program, together with her husband Chris Mast ‘84…
Board members, donors, faculty and staff left blessings during a walk through of the the building renovation for Eastern Mennonite Elementary School on April 1, 2019. Mike Stoltzfus, director of business affairs, answered questions as visitors got a first-hand look at the progress of the renovation of the former MennoMedia…
As of March 21, 2019, we have funded the move-in goal for our Let the Children Come campaign! Thank you to the dozens of donors who have made gifts and pledges totaling around $3.68 million! The campaign helped us to bring our full K-12 program together on to one campus after being separated since 2005…
Imagine a middle school where… students take ownership in their own learning and enjoy opportunities to follow their passions, ask questions and challenge the norm. teachers and classmates discuss what it means to be a member of a respectful community. accountability and restoration are the outcomes of conflicts and students are…
With Artificial Intelligence on the rise, Kevin Carini brings hands-on experience with robotics to Eastern Mennonite School, preparing students for the future. “There’s going to be robots doing something in most households in the not-too-distant future,”he reflects. “Somebody needs to know how to code them and fix them. That’s really…
Eastern Mennonite School K-12 has adopted an updated logo after nearly a year of conversation and processing around the school’s overall “brand.” “A ‘brand’ is really an evolving story,” says Paul Leaman, head of school. And this review “confirmed that our brand is strong.” The review came at a pivotal…
A “nudge from God” and a commitment to accompany congregational singing made her go to church on a Sunday in 2014 when Janet Heatwole ‘83 Hostetter says she was exhausted and might have chosen to do what she never did…sleep in. But being there that morning may have changed the…
Maria Archer has been named principal for kindergarten through grade eight at Eastern Mennonite School. She has been elementary (K-5) principal since the school began in 2005. “Maria has earned the deep respect and trust of her co-workers and parents over the past decade with her integrity and instinct for…
Editor’s Note: Kendal Bauman, long-time physical education and health teacher, as well as boys’ varsity soccer coach for 20 years, attended an institute for physical education teachers at James Madison University this summer. With the move of K-5 to main campus, Bauman is giving leadership to the full K-12 PE…