Potomac Stories

A coven of witches concocting a vile brew set a terrifying tone for this year's assembly. The show included original interpretations of poems by each fourth and fifth grade class – students composed an original rhythm to accompany the poem as well as movements and creative narrations. Sixth grade band, bells, strings, and choral ensembles all performed. A headless character closed the assembly along with the Service Learning club to remind all attendees to donate coats and jackets, which will go to Cornerstones, one of our community partners. View the gallery here and see the K-12 video celebrating Halloween on Potomac’s campus.

This week, the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools helped Potomac kick off our 34-year Sandwich Day tradition. This initiative helps students learn about and address food insecurity and food equity in our local community. Students from Mr. McEwen’s, Mrs. Callahan’s, Mrs. Mendoza’s, Mrs. Furr’s, and Ms. Coffeen’s classes made 344 sandwiches for Martha's Table in DC. Grades 10 and 12 also participated a day earlier. Many thanks to our fantastic parent volunteers for helping to make this service opportunity possible! Enjoy the photo gallery. 

Fifth graders are off to a great start in science class! They learned to apply the scientific method while exploring Newton’s Laws of Motion. The ultimate goal is to learn to answer their own scientific questions by creating a hypothesis and then testing their ideas with a series of experiments. Their observations often lead to more questions and more experimenting. A highlight of the unit came as students studied the third law of motion, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction,” by launching pressurized water-bottle rockets. Students demonstrated the ability to isolate variables such as the size of the bottle, the amount of water used, and the amount of pressure we put the bottles under. After the experiments, students returned to the classroom to watch slow-motion videos of the launches. They discussed their observations as a group and then drew conclusions about what they saw happening and the various forces involved. The hands-on nature of our Forces and Motion unit makes for a lot of fun learning in the fifth grade science lab. Watch students sing their Forces of Motion song in Mr. Wolfe’s class.

Spreading their love of Potomac blue, students in grade 6 harnessed the light – and our natural campus – to create beautiful cyanotype sun prints during Ms. Dunkelberger’s art class. Cyanotypes are one of the oldest photographic printing processes in the history of photography. The print's distinctive feature is its cyan blue shade, which results from its exposure to ultraviolet light.

During Friday's clubs and activities block this past Monday, MS students were gifted a surprise treat! After learning in an assembly that they had achieved the summer reading challenge goal, they enjoyed a bubbles extravaganza on the Turf Field. It was childhood at its best and served as a playful way to kick off this school year! View the photo gallery. 

After the May Day celebration on Friday, students, including leaders in the sixth grade Students for Environmental and Service Learning Action committee, repurposed May Day flowers to create 30 bouquets. The students delivered the arrangements to older adults at Chesterbrook Residences, one of Potomac's community partners. The delivery coincided with dinner at Chesterbrook, and the students were met with applause and smiles from everyone in Potomac's first in-person visit since the start of the pandemic. Thank you to the PA Service Learning Committee for donating gently-used vases used for the service project, and thank you to our students for spreading May Day joy to older adults in our community!