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Lego Class

In Lego class we have been learning about simple and powered machines using hands-on activities. We investigated structures and forces, incorporating both rigid and flexible shapes in our deck chair and drawbridge. Applying principles we learned about levers, we made a drumming machine and windshield wipers. Attaching a motor provided opportunities for further exploration.  After Read More >>

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Vanessa Johnson, Mystery Guest

Our storytelling unit has begun! The gifted Vanessa Johnson kicked it off as our fifth mystery guest. She started her presentation with a clever interaction between herself and three future generations, played by our own Glady, Frannie and Lola! Artfully she demonstrated how stories are passed on from one generation to another and how we Read More >>

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Lower Case Printing

A small group of students have been meeting once a week to practice their lower case printing. While working their way through the alphabet they have looked at similarities between lower case letters to help them form their letters correctly. The “magic c” for example helps them write the lower case o, d, g, and Read More >>

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Sam Van Aken and his Tree of Life

On Thursday, October 30, Sam Van Aken was our third mystery guest of the year. Sam created, using grafting, a tree that can bear 40 different kinds of stone fruits. The children asked their yes/no questions and quickly determined Sam had come to share something about trees. But then we challenged them, in the remaining Read More >>

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Margaret Bourke-White Field Trip

On Thursday, October 16, 2014, nineteen of our oldest students visited Syracuse University’s campus to view Margaret Bourke White’s exhibit of 180 vintage photographs taken in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Germany, England and Italy in the 1930s and 40s. Prior to our field trip, Andrew Saluti, Assistant Director to SU’s Art Galleries, visited The New Read More >>

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Geometry

Our 5th graders have been working on all facets of geometry lately.  They started with reviewing polygons during class and individual time on their contracts.  They played games such as: Guess My Rule and Get it Together Polygon 1-4.  The challenge lately has been measuring all types of angles using protractors.  An angle hunt around Read More >>

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Place Value Fun

Seven 3rd and 4th graders have been working hard in a place value class that has also integrated multiplication.  We started with talking about skip counting on the 100s chart and what numbers would land us exactly on 100.  We learned that 100 has the factors of 1, 100, 2, 50, 4, 25, 5, 20 Read More >>

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Xerox – Learning to Read

To assist children learning how to read, we offer small group instruction that focuses on the six syllable types. Using Road to Reading, and Wilson Language,each week children receive instruction that meets them at their instructional level. Typically children meet in small groups with a teacher three or four times a week for 20 – Read More >>

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Writing Workshop with Dana

We are working on short story structure:  beginnings, middles, and ends. We have been discussing character motivation, dramatic conflict, and how to resolve things in an interesting and satisfying way.  It’s a challenge to structure imaginative worlds, and it takes a lot of focus to show a dramatic arc in a compressed form. Our goal Read More >>

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Cursive

Students in 3rd and 4th grades have been working on reviewing all of the lower case cursive letters from the clock climbers to the hills and valleys.  As we finish up our lower case letters, students have been challenged to write two words in cursive, switch with a partner and print what their partner has Read More >>