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Biome Art

Children in the middle grades created landscapes of the biome they researched earlier in the year. First they were asked to consider where the horizon would be on their landscape. Then they considered the time of day. Would it be at dawn, dusk, at night or in the heat of the day. We talked about how Read More >>

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Chinese Brush Painting

After we learned about the aboriginal art of Australia we traveled north to the continent of Asia where we started learning about Chinese brush painting. We looked at slides and discovered how the Chinese “like to draw nature” and use “a lot of white spaces.” Another child said, “The paintings are not all filled in.” Read More >>

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Listening Center

Once a week the youngest students listen to a book on tape. As they listen they copy the title of the book and start drawing a favorite scene in the book. More recently children have been asked to write one or two sentences. Some of the titles they have listened to this year include: Thidwick the Read More >>

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Decimals

Students in grades 5 and 6 were part of a Decimal class based on the teaching of Marilyn Burns. To ensure students understood the relationship between decimals and fractions students used tens blocks to represent wholes, tenths, hundredths and finally thousandths. Playing games such as Sum and Difference, Decimal Wipe Out, Smaller to Larger,  helped Read More >>

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Fall 2012 Read Aloud

Every day we end with a relaxing twenty minute Read Aloud. Our groupings change according to the content of the book. This fall we split into two groups. The older children (in grades 3 – 8) listened to J. R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit on the upstairs rug. This book completely captivated our students, so much Read More >>

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Scientific Problem Solving and Experimental Design

For the first part of the year, the oldest students were part of a unit where they explored the scientific approach to problem solving and experimental design. Throughout the unit it was stressed that there are many different problem solving models. First students watched a video and discussed The Pellagra Story which showcased how Dr. Read More >>

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Australian Aboriginal Art

To kick off a yearlong appreciation of visual arts from around the world we first looked at the word “continent.” What is a continent? How is it defined? We soon discovered that people around the world do not all learn that there are seven continents. Some places teach there are 5 continents with North America Read More >>

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Haiku

Students from 1st to 3rdgrade were introduced to haiku and the proper method in which to construct these poems. As a way to assist them in understanding the syllables that are found in haiku, students were in various activities in which they were able learn about syllables. These activities were syllable name clapping and sentence Read More >>

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Biomes

For this class, all of the 3rdgrade students learned about the ocean and the connection the creatures of the sea have to the land. They first watched a Bill Nye video talking about oceans. Then, the students created a food chain based off of sea animals that they knew. After that, they were read The Read More >>

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Discussion Box

A custom supported by our collaborative environment here at The New School is Discussion Box. Discussion Box gives students the opportunity to voice their concerns. Students write down their concerns and place it in the Discussion Box. Every few weeks during Snack we choose an entry from the Discussion Box and the student who wrote Read More >>