The Big Event

What is The Big Event?

Join us for The Big Event 2026:
”Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Technological Innovations Through Time”

Saturday, March 7th
9 - 11 am

Our students have been busy PLANNING, DESIGNING, and CREATING for two months.
Plan to stop by to see all the creations on March 7th!

About The Big Event - a TCPS treasured tradition:

Every year, our students and staff present a special program known as The Big Event. This program focuses attention on one area of the curriculum, but integrates all areas of study-from language arts to science, math to history, and all of the arts into the final production.

One of the rewarding elements of every event is the sense of community our children feel working in cross-age learning teams. Students in Kindergarten through eighth grade work side-by-side, learning from and helping each other. These groups allow our Middle School students to develop their leadership skills and younger students to work with the older students and be part of the larger TCPS community.

While we prepare for the “big day”, we keep the new Big Event theme a surprise until the day of the event in March. During school pick-up the afternoon before the Big Event, students and staff make a short presentation to announce the theme in a “big reveal”. The next morning family and friends come to school to witness the transformation of the classrooms into a setting that highlights that year’s theme, to explore and interact with the installations the students have prepared the previous several weeks, including exhibits and several hands-on activities and kid-made games in every room. The Big Event is educational, fun filled, and a day for our families and guests to enjoy a memorable time together exploring all of the student exhibits.

2026 Big Event Re-cap (It was great!)

The Big Event 2026: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Technological Innovations Through Time

The theme of this year’s Big Event was Changes: Technological Innovations Through Time. How does The Big Event come together? Students are divided into six small cross-age groups, with students in Kindergarten through 8th grade in each group, to learn about and design the exhibits.TCPS students and staff spent time in small groups in January brainstorming ideas about what they already knew about different regions of the United States and what they would like to learn. Through sharing ideas with their group they began to develop a template in each room of themes to explore that are unique to each technology topic: AI, Computers/Phones, Aerospace, Medial Technology, Agriculture, and Architecture. As their ideas became more concrete they discuss hands-on interactive activities and games they could design and build that would be appropriate for both children and adults in each room. At the end of the process, on Big Event day, everything was finished and they were able to explore with their families and serve as tour guides to show everything they learned and worked on!

The Big Event Rooms: Technological Innovations Through Time

I Want it that “AI”: Artificial Intelligence
Call Me Maybe? Computers, The Internet, and Phones
Defying Gravity: Up, Up, and Away! Aerospace
Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah-Staying Alive! Medical Technology
Old MacDonald Had a Drone-E-I-E-I-O: MOOving Agriculture Forward
OOPS!! We Built It Again! Architecture

Rocket Launches and the Robotics and Electronics Club Innovations: In the Big Hall, the Aerospace Room will be launching 100+ rockets and tracking their trajectories! Who’s rocket will fly the furthest! Our Electronics Club students each prepared a special presentation based on technological advancements in using robotics, drones, lasers, and other advances in industry, housing, and our daily lives.

To prepare for The Big Event, TCPS students and staff immersed themselves in the theme and engaged in deep learning about the regions and ideas for each room. During Big Event preparation we spend time each week researching for several months. As the day of the Big Event draws closer we set aside special days for collaborative work in our cross-age Big Event groups creating the individual exhibit rooms and hands-on experiences for Event day based on the research and planning by the students. Faculty and staff facilitate creating the vision of the students - these are student led installations with displays and hands-on activities in every event room. Over the course of more than two months every student helped plan, design and create in every room. It truly was a school-wide collaboration. From a curricular standpoint, students return to each room on the Monday after Big Event to explore each of the rooms again, learn about the finished themes, and enjoy the displays and activities! Our curiosity and work doesn’t stop with planning and creating the exhibits. Students and teachers return to their classrooms and explore connections to the theme in all areas of our curriculum. We find ourselves revisiting our Big Event topic in many areas of our curriculum throughout the year. We embrace this opportunity as a learning community to come together to learn, problem solve, create, and collaborate!

The Big Event was once again a BIG success this year and students and staff had so much fun exploring and learning about the different regions of the United States! Students loved being tour guides for their families and friends to show and explain everything they learned and what they helped to create in each of the exhibit rooms. There were interactive activities in each room to give students and families the opportunity to experience the theme with hands-on, engaging activities. This year’s Big Event once again demonstrated ALL that the TCPS students can do. Because at TCPS we know - and show - that students, no matter their size, can do BIG things

Save the date for The Big Event next year on March 6, 2027!!