Stories are at the very core of what we do at Great Hearts Arlington. While great stories certainly delight us, they offer much more than simple diversion. Stories teach us about the world: about the way things are, the people that live in it, and the consequences of the choices we make. Stories take the stuff of the everyday world we inhabit and imbue it with meaning, destiny, and transcendence, transforming our imaginations and making them able to see the True, the Good, and the Beautiful not just in the imaginary worlds of the stories, but in the real world they imitate.
On Friday, November 1st, Great Hearts Arlington Lower School will host our annual Storybook Festival in celebration of our shared love of stories and the worlds of wonder and beauty to be found between the covers of a good book. Each grade level has a unique schedule of events planned, but we will all spend the day listening to, reading, and participating in activities drawn from some of the best children’s stories.
On this day, students and faculty will dress up in costumes that represent their favorite classical stories and have the chance to hear favorite stories from both parents, teachers, and administration. They will engage in specials crafts and snacks this day as well.
November 1st, 2024 is an early-release Friday; drop-off and pick-up will be unaffected by the Storybook Festival.
Read to our scholars!
Parents are invited to visit the campus and read a storybook aloud to our scholars. Click below to sign up!
Lower School Parent Readers
Little Sibling Story Corner
Calling 3- and 4-year-old siblings! As part of Storybook Festival, younger brothers and sisters of current scholars are invited to school for a story hour just their own. Special storybook read aloud and more await!
Space is limited for this exclusive event, so act quickly. We hope to see you there!
Help us grow our Library!
We are sincerely humbled by your generosity and devotion to helping us ensure we have plenty of beautiful, classical works of children’s literature available to our teachers and students.
Once again, we are inviting all students to bring a book to donate. It is of the utmost importance, however, that we offer our students only the highest quality books. To that end, we have carefully crafted an extensive Amazon Wish List containing titles we believe are truly worthy of our scholars’ time and attention. Wherever you choose to purchase your books, please only donate books from this list. Books may also be dropped off at the front desk.
Costumes
For the Storybook Festival, students will be allowed to come to school or attend their synchronous Zoom sessions dressed as their favorite character from any of our list of Classics to Keep or from our Amazon Wish List. Since students will be wearing the costumes during the school day, there are a number of guidelines that we will ask you to follow. Click here for detailed instructions on what is and is not permissible to wear.