At the end of every day, we schedule time for Read Aloud. During this time a teacher reads to a small group of students. Students often choose to draw in their sketchbooks as they listen. The groups change according to the book we read. At the beginning of the year we split into two mixed Read More >>
Science Celebration 2012
Each year all students present a science experiment or research study at our Science Celebration. While the older children do most of their work at home, the youngest students work on their projects at school. This year children shared what they had learned from a unit where we studied Heat. Working with one or two Read More >>
Local History
Each child at The New School was given a replica of an old postcard of a Syracuse scene. Postcards showed parks, downtown scenes, and places of interest such as Oakwood Cemetery. Using VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) children were asked to look at the picture and describe what was happening, and what made them say that? Read More >>
Bruce Coville Showers Sparks of Inspiration at The New School
Students at The New School have been exploring Shakespeare, reading Bruce Coville’s adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, and of Hamlet, two of seven plays he has reworked for young readers. The Syracuse author of a variety of enticing books for children brought his boundless enthusiasm and talents to the school this week, describing the history Read More >>
Clay
Students get a chance to flex their creative sculpture muscles as they create with clay. Each student gets a chunk of clay to mold as they see fit while using their hands and various clay tools. Since we won’t be keeping each masterpiece, we take a photo of the figure with it’s creator as a Read More >>
Measurement
Inch by inch we built our own measuring tapes and used them to measure our thumbs, ears, wrists, and waists. We were excited to find how much easier it is to use a measuring tape to measure around things than it is to use a ruler!
New and Good
New and Good is a tradition at The New School. It was started in the 1970’s by Bob Newman, when he was the director of the Syracuse Institute for Enabling Education (the precursor) to The New School. It has worked effectively during all these years to merge affective education, pre-reading and early reading education. New Read More >>
St. Patrick’s Day Fun
Our leprechaun trap tradition was started many years ago by Dottie Mueller. Ever since the children spend two weeks creating inventive traps (the leprechauns say ingenious!) in the hope that those pesky leprechauns will come visit our school. So far we haven’t succeeded, but the leprechauns come, create mayhem, get stuck and unstuck in their Read More >>
Beaver Hike
Enjoying the drizzling rain our younger students had a wonderful time on our beaver walk. We were very lucky to have John Stella and Beth Moughty (Marina’s parents) as tour guides. John challenged us to search for signs of beaver and signs of spring. We counted four beaver dams in the feeder canal and a Read More >>
Electronics
It worked! These boys were thrilled when the circuit they built in electronics class lit up the LED (light emitting diode). The hours of learning to identify, sort electrical components, and read circuit diagrams were successful!