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Mystery Powder

 Starting in January 2013, all the third grade students were part of a “Mystery Powder” unit. The unit started with the shocking news of a “robbery” at the Temple up the road! Left at the scene of the “crime” was a white powder as the only evidence. All the students were engaged in observing the Read More >>

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Midsummer Night’s Dream

The older students at The New School thoroughly enjoyed Syracuse Stage’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Once again we were treated to front row, center seats.  Following are comments, compliments and observations made by our students Ben, Ciara, Ace, and Maia particularly enjoyed the costumes: All the costumes were very detailed. The costumes were really Read More >>

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Legos and Simple Machines

The third graders here at the New School have been participating in a Lego science class for the past several weeks.  This class focuses on simple machine components, as well as forces and structures.  Students are assigned to a partner and must work together to create daily structures. Past structures have included caterpillars (to demonstrate Read More >>

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Word Stretch

Once a week the youngest students take part in a class called “Word Stretch” which gives the students an opportunity to write words. Each class begins with the students writing their names, the date and numbering their paper 1-6. As a group we brainstorm a topic such as colors, pets or sports. Each student thinks Read More >>

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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 >>