Welcome to Fayerweather Street School!
Fayerweather is known for our unique culture, which helps students connect with their own curiosity to find joy in the learning process. Our vibrant classrooms are filled with passionate teachers and engaged learners. We hope our website inspires you to come see for yourself how we are igniting confidence by truly knowing each child, engaging their intellect and awakening their imagination.
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Cultivating Student Passions through a Stronger Parent-School Partnership
Read MoreThe Educational Leadership Team has done a lot of thinking this year about how this pandemic has created both new challenges and new opportunities for Fayerweather. While the challenges are often more visible, I’m excited by the way our current situation opened the door for us to deepen our essential work and add new practices that take our educational model in exciting directions. -
Akey and the Kindergarten Toads Learn About Space
Read MoreThe Kindergarten Toads, along with Tara and Joanie, just completed several days of online learning. Each day they had 2 special visitors, a penguin named Akey Akeyevich (Ah-key Ah-key-ev-ich) and his snowy owl friend, Owl. Akey and Owl are very inquisitive. When they find something they like, they write a book about it. The Toads helped them write 3 books about space. -
Voting for Our Humanity
Read MoreDear Fayerweather Community,Early Tuesday morning, as I waited in line to vote, I took a moment to look around to see who was represented. I found myself making assumptions about how people would vote based on the way they looked, including their gender, race, clothing, and the way they occupied the space. I imagined that there were people in line who believe that all is well because their lives have not been touched by the history, and, or challenges in our country. And some people, who looked at me with that “what are you doing here” glance, I imagine, are feeling possessive of what they believe is “their America.” -
Happy Little Moments
Who couldn’t currently use a little relief in the form of art? What about kids creating art together while skillfully being led by a classmate? I don’t need to tell you that there is a lot happening in the world today. We are living in unprecedented times and it is easy to get lost in a haze of anxiety and stress, grown ups and children alike. So much of how we teach currently, as dictated by COVID, requires teacher led time, much more than we have done or would like. We are all profoundly feeling the “differences” and looking for and cherishing those moments of “same-same.” As a teacher I am trying to find ways to create learning and joy.Read More -
The Art of Remaining in the Moment
It’s no secret that we are living in deeply unsettling times, for a number of reasons. There is no shortage of things to worry about. If you’re anything like me, then even if one moment is fun, you’re worrying about a different moment.Read More -
Authentic Experiences in Education Lead to Deeper Learning
“In what ways has it been difficult during the pandemic to be the Assistant Head of School?” I heard a 6th grade student ask me through his tile on the Zoom screen. I didn’t expect to be exploring this topic side by side with a group of students this year. The challenges seemed endless but surmountable with team work I explained to them. “Are there things about your life, your job that have improved as a result of the pandemic?” they continued later in the interview. I was struck by the genuine and curious tone the students conveyed in asking their questions and recording my answers. Chrissi’s 6th grade cohort was engaging in the research phase of their Pandemic Invention Project by conducting interviews with people in their community to find out how their lives had been affected by the pandemic. It was one of the first steps in their interdisciplinary project based learning experience, and it struck me as a core principle of an educational experience here at Fayerweather: authentic experiences.Read More -
Contemplating COVID: A Virtual Lesson with Claire Dunbar
Aaron's 3/4 remote class last week was visited by special guest Claire Dunbar, a nurse practitioner, to talk about viruses and answer students' questions.Read More -
Lights, Camera, Comics!
Carolyn's 8th grade cohort has been working on a project of turning Act 3, scene 3 of Macbeth into animated comic strips using storyboardthat.com.Read More -
Support Charity Effort Led by Unit Students!
This past spring, Unit students Jaden and Isaac, Ellie, and Sam were training to bike 100 miles each to help cure Type 1 diabetes, which Jaden has lived with since age 4. With their parents & Harlow (grade 4)'s mom Cecilia Pizzurro, they were on the path to collectively raise more than $25,000 for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Then the Florida ride was cancelled due to COVID. Undeterred, "The Fayerweather Four" will join Team Jaden on Oct. 17 to ride a collective 1,000 miles locally instead!Read More -
Trust: The Essential Ingredient in Meaningful Learning
Read MoreI am thinking about the word “ trust” and how I believe it opens doors to exploration, creativity, and meaningful learning.On Wednesday, I spent several hours at Fresh Pond, moving from one cohort to the other. I observed students working on various projects, collaborating with each other, and playing together. I followed Ami’s class to a secret corner of Fresh Pond that I had not visited before. These first graders were so happy to show me the way to this plot of land that was shaded, with several climbable trees and branches growing out in all directions. They summoned me to watch them climb. Then several students said, “come on Kim, let me show you how to climb this tree.” Someone had hoisted a big thick branch and laid it upon another branch on the tree that was used as a ladder of sorts. I rested my foot on the base of that branch and watched it wobble back and forth. I said, “I think my body is too heavy for this branch so I can’t trust myself to climb up without getting hurt.” One student said, “Kim just watch me, this is how you do it.” She had the nerve to have on Mary Jane patent leather shoes, as she scaled that tree with ease and confidence. I was in awe! -
Physically Distant, Socially Together
Read More"Physically distant, socially together” was the phrase chanted in a 1/2 classroom on our first day of the 2020 school year. These past six months have been grueling in particular at Fayerweather, a school founded on connection. Now, we are all practicing the art of flexibility to reimagine what being together looks like, while holding onto the pieces that are essential to who we are and creating new ones in real time. This ranges from outdoor spaces becoming classrooms sprawling with morning messages, devising novel ways of communicating with facial cues, and navigating our free flowing hallways with a little more structure. -
Identifying Ivy!
Read MoreSince we are spending a lot more time outdoors this fall, some of our 7th grade students joined forces to create a cross grade level virtual lesson all about poison ivy for our younger students in Kindergarten. -
FSS Staff Meet with Dr. Gil Noam of the PEAR Institute
Read MoreFSS staff were lucky enough to participate in a presentation around understanding the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and adults in schools lead by the Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) Institute. -
Fayerweather Virtual Graduation!
Fayerweather welcomes you to our online graduation ceremony for the class of 2020! Visit www.fayerweather.org/graduation for more information.Read More -
Transforming Our World
Read MoreDear Fayerweather Community,I am reaching out to you with a deep sense of sadness and anger, as I live through and reflect on the state of our world, particularly Black lives. Fayerweather’s mission and our community condemns the kind of violence we witnessed as the life of George Floyd was taken right before our eyes. The recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are just the tip of the iceberg of a long and complicated history of slavery, bigotry, violence, and systemic racism. -
5/6 African Country Study Project
In the beginning of the school year, fifth and sixth graders listed all that they knew about the continent of Africa. There was a range of responses, however, many listed ideas and images that are stereotypical: poverty, exotic animals, disease, and war. Later in the year, their studies turned to the effects of colonialism in Africa and how the United States’ own colonial roots continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes of Africa.Read More -
Unit Data Experiments
The Unit science class has been exploring how to show data through graphs in a spreadsheet. In order to collect enough data to do this, all Unit students carried out the same experiment at home on their families and compiled the data into one Google Sheet.Read More -
Building a 'Feeling Toolbox'
During these times where we are stuck at home, our patience is being tested, and we're feeling a little sad, it's important to have strategies and tools to help manage our feelings.Read More -
Fantastic Physics
Grade 1-2 have begun a number of experiments designed around learning principles of force and motion.Read More
Fayerweather Street School | 765 Concord Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 | 617-876-4746
Fayerweather is a private PreK, kindergarten, elementary and middle school. We engage each child’s intellect.
NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS
Fayerweather Street School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin (ancestry), or disability in administration of its educational, admissions, and financial aid policies, as well as, athletic and other school-administered programs.