Students at The New School have been exploring Shakespeare, reading Bruce Coville’s adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, and of Hamlet, two of seven plays he has reworked for young readers. The Syracuse author of a variety of enticing books for children brought his boundless enthusiasm and talents to the school this week, describing the history Read More >>
Anthony Salatino is Mystery Guest
Anthony Salatino became this year’s first Mystery Guest at The New School. Tony is the choreographer of Syracuse Stage’s production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Our smart children were able to figure out in 3 minutes why he was at the school and then Tony answered their questions. Here are a few Read More >>
Writing Workshop: Living Forever
The fourth through eighth graders have been working on a writing piece based off the novel Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. In the story the main character is faced with a challenge to drink from a spring that could make her live forever. Students were asked to choose whether or not they would want to Read More >>
Silent Sustained Reading (SSR)
SSR is a great time for students to sit down and enjoy the pleasures of a good book. But during this time of day, there could be more than just silent reading going on! Many days you could see students reading to older or younger students, students reading to adults, adults reading to students, students listening to Read More >>
Bill Peet Author’s Study
April 17, 2011Dear followers of the famous Bill Peet,We, the following students at The New School, (Ciara, Savannah, Greer, Mae, Autumn, Alaira, Emmy, Bobby, Monae, Sam and Ace) spent ten weeks listening and discussing Wump World, Farewell to Shady Glade, The Ant and the Elephant, and The Wingdingdilly.• We liked how Bill Peet makes up Read More >>
Eric Carle Author’s Study
Recently at snack time, the students have been exploring the different styles of author/illustrator Leo Lionni and Eric Carle. The students with desks upstairs have been reading and discussing the similarities in styles of Lionni books such as Tico’s Golden Wings, Fish is Fish and Pezzettino. One of the themes that students discovered is that Read More >>
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
During Read Aloud, the 5th – 8th graders listened to “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” by Grace Lin. In this story Min-Li, a young Chinese girl, becomes a hero as she travels to find her family’s fortune by talking to the Man in the Moon. Along the way she learns many good lessons about Read More >>
The Fledgling Book Club
The older students were part of an eight week book club where they read The Fledgling by Jane Langton.At the start of the book club we set up expectations. All book marks needed to exhibit responses that were Detailed Articulate Thoughtful and Exemplary (DATE).Each week children were responsible for bringing to class two examples of author’s Read More >>
Writing Prompts
Working with Jeff Simmons, a parent of one of our students who teaches creative writing at Syracuse University, the older students were given two writing prompts which launched them into many weeks of writing fiction. “Not all stories have good characters, but most good stories have vivid characters that the reader feels they know almost Read More >>
Poetry
Inspired by Kenneth Koch’s Rose, where did you get that red? book the older students spent a month studying the poems of Wallace Stevens: Thirteen Ways to Look at a Blackbird, John Ashbery: Into the Dusk-Charged Air, and Arthur Rimbaud: Voyelles. Kenneth Koch’s prompts for children are both motivating and creative. Our final poem was Read More >>