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Socrates Trial

Socrates was found innocent! At his trial at The New School, our children rewrote history. The re-enactment of the trial of Socrates marked the culmination of three months studying Ancient Greece by the entire school. To set the stage, children created a set showing the hills of Athens and the Parthenon set against Corinthian columns. Read More >>

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Lewis and Clark

Our Lewis and Clark unit began with a Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) exercise using a map showing the Louisiana Purchase. Then we discussed President Thomas Jefferson’s instructions to Lewis & Clark before they set off on their mission. Students had to take on the role of Meriwether Lewis or William Clark and write a letter Read More >>

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Mesopotamia

This fall, the middle group of students studied Mesopotamia. They began their study by looking at the differences between settled and nomadic people. Outdoors, they participated in a role play scenario in which they were nomadic Sumerians hunting and gathering food, creating shelter, and making clothes, tools and weapons. In small groups they read “If Read More >>

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Bugsocopters

Muta, Mae, Syris, Greer, Noah, Lola and Moebius took part in the Bugsocopters science unit. Bugscopters are a t-shaped, paper, helicopter-like creation of Larry Schafer, formerly professor of Science Teaching at SU. The students completed six experiments in which they compared their standard bugsocopter to another that varied in just one way. Each experiment consisted Read More >>

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Ancient Greece: Daily Life

This Fall the youngest group of students took part in the school wide study of Ancient Greece. They focused on the daily life of children and compared their own schooling, clothing, homes, food, games and pots to those of Ancient Greece. Each student created a book documenting their comparisons of each topic.  They colored maps Read More >>

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Building Number Sense and Mathematical Thinking

             Five of our youngest children took part in a TERC Investigations math unit on Building Number Sense and Mathematical Thinking. An integral part of this unit is having students explain their mathematical strategies that they did by drawing pictures, using numbers, words and manipulatives and counting in their head or on their fingers. Each Read More >>

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Ramps

Children in grades Kindergarten through Second Grade have been exploring ramps in science one afternoon a week.  We started by discussing what a ramp was and what it might be used for.  Our first experiments looked at the different surfaces on our ramps and how that effected the distance our car would go off the Read More >>

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Little House and maple syrup

Our youngest eight students have been having a wonderful time exploring the time period of pioneers by using Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book Little House in the Big Woods.  We started by reading a biography about Laura and then started reading her first book.  As we explored the big woods with Laura and her family, we’ve also Read More >>

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Whole and Part Workshop

It all started with the ubiquitous “is this right?” from many different students.  With that we began a series of mini-classes to teach children how to check their subtraction answers by using addition.  We also decided to use this opportunity to try and help children understand the relationship between the “whole and the parts”.  We Read More >>

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New and Goods for Capitals and Punctuation

This year we have a group of children in the 2nd and 3rd grades that were ready to develop a better awareness of the conventions of writing, including capitals and punctuation. We decided that we would use the familiar format of New and Goods but with a different focus. The first session showed what we Read More >>