The passion of one man to share the beauty of snow crystals and dew drops with the world has inspired our students to share their own snowflakes through Legacies. After reading Snowflake Bentley by Jaqueline Briggs Martin and looking at the marvelous photographs published in his book Snow Crystals, three of our students shared and taught classmates how Read More >>
Syracuse Local History
Time Travel at The New School To introduce our Local History unit all the children at The New School were sent home a different historical postcard of a Syracuse scene. The postcards were dated from the 1920’s to 1930’s. Using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), students were asked to look at the postcard and list as Read More >>
Valentine’s Day
Nothing like Valentines to challenge us to transform a shopping bag into a favorite animal.
13 Colonies
After studying the early explorers to the New World we turned our attention to the people who decided to settle in the New World – the early colonists. Each student was assigned one of the 13 colonies to research the answers to a number of questions. First they had to learn where Read More >>
Joe Murphy, Fine Artist and Illustrator visits
It’s been a while since Joe Murphy graduated from SU, but he got some quick attention passing a sheet of his X-Men trading cards around the circle of students, and a drop-jaw reaction to his own fanciful painting of a dog in a wizard’s hat. As a kid, Joe was intrigued by his realization that Read More >>
Artist Susan Keeter Visits
Illustrator and fine artist Susan Keeter, SU graduate and Syracuse resident, opened her workshop with a reading from the lyrical Honey Baby Sugar Child, by Alice Faye Duncan, while walking her illustrated pages around the circle of children. Susan then enlightened our young artists about the glories of Cray-Pas as a convenient substitute for oil Read More >>
Wonderful World
Inspired by the work of Eric Carle and Leo Lionni all the students at The New School first made paper for their collages. Using acrylic and tempera paint on matte and glossy papers, textures and designs were created with various objects. Then students were asked to identify a repetitive shape from a landscape and to Read More >>
Giant Steps by John Coltrane
The children listened to John Coltrane’s Giant Steps and were asked to paint what the music made them think of. We then read Chris Raschka’s book of the same title. As they painted children shared their visions: Giant Steps made me think of:Marina: the ocean and how it is so active. Maia: the wind is Read More >>
Shakespeare Lives
During snack each week we have been listening to the plays of William Shakespeare as retold by Bruce Coville. We started with Romeo and Juliet and then moved on to the dark tragedy, MacBeth. In our discussions we have talked about the characteristics of a tragedy and spent much time getting to know Shakespeare’s characters. Read More >>