-

|

Pixie

Pixie is a language arts and reasoning program that focuses on “sharpening” the thinking skills of children. It does this by giving them scenarios and asking them how they would react in that situation, or what does this truly mean. We read Pixie during snack once a week. We read the episode and then discuss Read More >>

|

Layers of the Earth

We began our layers of the Earth class by asking ourselves, “How many layers of the Earth are there?”. That is when everyone learned that there are four layers of, and that it is impossible to dig all the way down to the center of the Earth. We did many hands-on experiments with this class. Read More >>

|

Banned Books

As banning books became much more common throughout the country we began a discussion with older students based on reading aloud a book called  The Day the Book Was Arrested by Nat Hentoff.   In the book, a parent objected to the reading of Huckleberry Finn due to both the racist language used to call Read More >>

|

Math Word Problems

Learning to read word problems for young children has many aspects. We began with the four children by having them recognize possible, impossible or incorrect number sentences such as:  ? + 5 = 7, 7= 5+?, or 5+3 = 7 or 7+2=5.  This was often tricky and took a while for kids to see that Read More >>

|

Paper Quilts

The K-2s and I read the book, A Quiltmaker’s Gift, outside of the art room during their reading times. This book was about a woman who made quilts for the poor and needy. She taught a greedy king how to care for others and give back. The students had an opportunity to create their own Read More >>

|

Ancient China for Youngers

We started our Ancient China unit for the youngest students by learning about the Chinese Zodiac and having a New Years celebration at school. Students learned about how the zodiac signs were formed with a folk tale about a race called: Cat and Rat : The legend of the Chinese Zodiac written by Ed Young. Read More >>

|

Geography

Students in the youngest group participated in classes to learn about the seven continents. Discussions and activities included information about the earth as a sphere and looking at a “flattened” version of the earth to see the seven continents. We learned a song about the continents and played a game where we went to that Read More >>

|

Ancient China

Students in grades 7 – 8 studied Ancient China, first by researching one of its many dynasties: the Han, Song, Zhou, Shang and Tang Dynasties. They had to develop a presentation by dressing up and acting as one of the emperors of their dynasty and bring to school an artifact that would represent something about Read More >>

|

Ancient Egypt Daily Life

During a two week timeframe, the youngest students were introduced to the daily life of ancient Egyptians, primarily looking at what life as a kid would look like. Before studying life as an ancient Egyptian, students reflected on their own daily life and routines. As a group, students completed a Venn Diagram by including events Read More >>

|

Book Club – The Giver

For five weeks, students read Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” for a small group book club. Meeting weekly, we discussed main ideas, themes, and made predictions for future chapters. Students learned and reinforced how to connect ideas between other non-fiction texts, poems, images, and music. Student’s answered questions each week to guide their reading. To conclude, Read More >>