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Famous Paintings Reimagined

Many of our students went over and beyond our expectations for this fascinating assignment where they had to identify a famous painting and reimagine it, take a fresh look, and or put themselves in the painting. We provided students with a video of 100 of the most famous paintings and then voila! We have Whistler’s Read More >>

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Local Government 2020

This unit began soon after we switched to distance learning and we had to adjust and modify the curriculum accordingly. Instead of taking the students to visit the three branches of local government in Syracuse, we invited representatives of each to be interviewed via Zoom. Before each Zoom interview, students had to research the representative Read More >>

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7 Minutes of Terror

Students in 7th and 8th grade participated in a long distance learning science class where they were challenged to create a heat shield for the MELDI sensor. The launch window for the Mars 2020 mission opens July 17 and closes Aug. 5, when Earth and Mars are in the proper positions in the solar system Read More >>

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Lego Class

In Lego class 3rd and 4th graders used Legos to learn about simple and powered machines using hands-on activities. First, they investigated structures and forces, incorporating both rigid and flexible shapes in building deck chairs and drawbridges. Applying principles they learned about levers, they made drumming machines. Attaching a motor provided more opportunities to explore. Read More >>

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Writing Workshop

Students over the past sever weeks have been studying how perspective is used within writing. Examining how a writer uses perspective to inform and persuade the reader, students then used these techniques within their own work. Our 3rd and 4th grade students have done tremendous work from analyzing writing to creating their own unique, engaging Read More >>

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Sound

Questions guided our unit:  How do things make sound? How does sound travel through liquids, solids and gases? What determines the pitch of a sound? How is sound measured and how do our ears allow us to hear sounds? To help us answer such questions, we went on field trips and invited mystery guests/experts to Read More >>

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Writing Skills

Jiyong, Stuart, Pearson, Theo and Paul were part of a class called Writing Skills. In this class they were introduced to and/or reviewed various aspects of writing and grammar. We have discussed the sentence, subjects, nouns, pronouns  articles, singular and plural, predicates, verbs and tense. Typically there is a mini lesson at the start of Read More >>

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Shadows

Over the span of 4 weeks, students from 3rd to 5th grade had the opportunity to learn with our student teacher, Emily. During her time with us, she taught a science unit on shadows! This unit was equally as exciting and difficult with the challenges presented to us in the world with distance learning. We Read More >>

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New World Social Studies Class

This December we wrapped up a unit on Explorers from all different time periods and people going to all different places (space, underwater, to the arctic), and we moved to just learning about the “New World” that was “discovered” by Europeans. To kick off this unit, we read the book Encounter by Jane Yolen.  In Read More >>

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Arrow Over the Door book club

Over the next five weeks, fourth grade students will be participating in a book club with our student teacher, Kelly. In book club, they will be reading The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac, a historical fiction novel that is written through the viewpoints of  Stands Straight, a young Abenaki Indian, and Samuel, a Read More >>