The mood in the Sydney Fox’s woodshop is always purposeful and productive as students in First Grade through Eighth Grade industriously invest in designing, constructing, and completing a range of projects from toolboxes to clocks to tables to doghouses, and more.

Few classes develop every learner’s mind, body, and self-esteem quite like woodshop. The principal outcomes of the woodshop curriculum at BFS include each student’s:

  • acceptance of responsibility for their own work
  • development of their intellectual abilities, physical skills, and emotional flexibility to solve problems and learn from mistakes
  • belief in themselves and the understanding that true gratification from work comes from meeting goals that they have set for themselves and fully embraced
  • acquisition of basic skills using a variety of hand and power tools
  • capacity for collaboration and shared work
  • respect for others and their physical and emotional safety

BFS’s woodshop is a laboratory for working and learning.  Features of the room include workbenches, tool walls, a lathe, and an array of hand and power tools.  Using real tools is essential in developing children’s minds, muscles, strength, and stamina. If you haven’t visited the woodshop yet, please let me know. We’d be happy to give you a tour!

 

2 thoughts on “Mind, Body, and Self-Esteem!

  1. I agree with Nancy’s comment. The shop program is the epitome of interdisciplinary education. It involves math, science, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity…and the list goes on and on. This course of study is among the hidden gems that BFS has to offer. I’m so glad that we are able to highlight such a program in this way.

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