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A Day of Discovery Brings Families Together at Sequoia Grove STEAM Festival

Students pose for a photo in front of STEAM Festival backdrop at Ukiah STEAM Festival event.

On Friday, September 27th, the Sequoia Grove STEAM Festival brought together more than 1,335 students, parents, and teachers at seven locations across Northern California for a day of creativity, collaboration, and discovery. The air buzzed with excitement as students of all ages, siblings, parents, and grandparents explored and learned together celebrating the power of curiosity, imagination, and creativity.

Each location had over 20 hands-on activity stations where families could explore from a variety of STEAM-themed activities including:

Create It Stations, where students built paper airplanes, catapults, and designed their own musical instruments.

Build It Stations that challenged students to use their collective engineering skills to construct a collaborative circuit city and impressive gumdrop and toothpick towers.

Play It and Fly It Stations, which allowed students to experiment with technology like 3D pens and launch stomp rockets. Students also investigated sound waves through hands-on experimentation with boomwhackers.

Students and teachers participate in hand's on activity stations at school STEAM Festival events.

As students completed each STEAM challenge, they collected a sticker for their special bingo card. Once they earned a BINGO, they were invited to select a prize generously donated by our brand-new Sequoia Studio Art Program! Putting the ART in STEAM, lucky students walked away with brand-new sets of sidewalk chalk, colored pencils, or watercolors.

Leslie Vandenakker, Community Programs Coordinator and STEAM Festival event organizer, with the support of hundreds of staff members, has been planning this event since last spring. Her incredible organizational skills, countless hours of work, and heart for service made this a truly special occasion. When asked what she feels is the most important part of schoolwide events like this, Leslie said, "At the end of the day, we want our families to have a great experience, learn something new, and connect with other students."

Smiling teachers pose for photos at school STEAM Festival events.

The heart of the event was truly about bringing our school community together. Watching parents work alongside their students, helping them complete tasks, and observing teachers in their element—engaging with kids of all ages while modeling valuable instructional strategies—was an absolute gift. I wasn't at all surprised to hear so many students say that this was “the best day ever," and I couldn’t agree more!

As a school, we are committed to building a collective and supportive homeschooling community, and it’s because of events like our STEAM Festival that we can follow through on this promise. Mark your calendars now and join us for other schoolwide events this year, including:

Harvest Trunk or Treat
Health-a-Palooza
End of Year Student Showcase

Check The Bridge for more information, including dates, times, and locations, and be sure to follow us on social media. Don’t forget to tag your photos with #shareyourstory and #wearesequoiastrong!

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