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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 >>

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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 >>

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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 >>

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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 >>

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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 >>

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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 >>

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Inaugural Poetry

A group of our six older students were part of a poetry class inspired by Amanda Gorman’s spectacular presentation of “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. Gorman’s poem provided a natural extension for our year-long study of systemic racism in America. After reading Amanda Gorman’s poem, students were asked Read More >>

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Systemic Racism in Syracuse: Education

New School students, grades 4 – 8, were assigned to find the answer to a number of questions teachers posed relating to Education, Syracuse’s Police Department, Lead Poisoning, Housing and Health. Their findings were discussed with the class. After digesting all this information, the students were asked to generate questions they could pose to Common Council Read More >>

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Short Story

From about mid-March to mid-April Misha, Sam, RJ, Stuart, and Jiyong participated in a short story unit where they further developed their writing skills and critically examined the parts of a short story and learned how to write one themselves. The unit started off with learning about where writer’s find their story inspiration or “seeds” Read More >>

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Bill Peet Book Club

Over the past two months, the 8th graders participated in a book club where they read Bill Peet: An Autobiography. Some people may be familiar with the name Bill Peet because of his children’s books that he created including, The Wump World, Hubert’s Hair Raising-Adventure, and Ella. Before his success in children’s literature, Bill was Read More >>