In a 5-week online class, students in grades 2 – 4 learned about the seven best known simple machines — lever, inclined plane, wedge, screw, wheel and axle, gear, and pulley — through videos, on-camera demonstrations, discussion and hands-on activities. The purpose of the unit was to show how humans developed ways to make certain Read More >>
Archives for June 2021
Follow Your Dreams Read Aloud
During the beginning stages of our transition from distance to in-person learning at the school, our K-3, in-person students, participated in a read-aloud series during snack that addressed and discussed the importance of children and young people following their dreams and aspirations. The titles from the series included Ada Twist Scientist, by Andrea Beaty, Drum Read More >>
Animal Classification
When Animal class began again in January of this year, we started with a book called The Butterfly and the Lamb. As is often the case, while the book seems very simple it is addressing an important issue: the difference between animals who need to be nutured for some portion of their lifespan and those Read More >>
Younger Local History
After completing a scavenger hunt in the Syracuse area to find a place from a historic postcard, students had to compare their postcard to the current location. Using a visual thinking strategy they tried to notice all the similarities and differences between the two time periods. To share this information with classmates, we had multiple Read More >>
Finding Langston
During Spring 2021, four students in grades 4 – 6 all were in a book club reading Finding Langston. The story was about a boy named Langston and his father after they move to Chicago from Alabama after his mother passed away and Langston finding the writer Langston Hughes. Along with reading the story the Read More >>
Solar System
During Spring 2021, Students in grades 4 – 6 learned about our Solar System! During our class they all worked hard to learn about the different objects they could find in space which are all considered celestial bodies. The unit was designed around some of the things they wanted to learn more about. During Read More >>
Writers Café
For much of the year, it has been my pleasure to work with Jorge, Evan, and Theo in our Writers Café. We gathered weekly via Google Meet, moving only recently to a hybrid meeting at school. Each session begins with the reading aloud of any new writing we have to share. All three of the Read More >>