Students in Second Grade through Fifth Grade have been learning about the different aspects of Ancient Indian culture. With our student teacher, Erica, they learned about the different foods that were eaten in Ancient India, as well as the social Caste System that was a way of life for Hindus. We started by looking at Read More >>
VTS (Visual Thinking Strategy)
With our student teacher, Erica, students of mixed ages have been taking a class called VTS. We look at a picture, and silently write about what’s going on in the picture, what we see that makes us say that, and what more we can find in the picture. We have been primarily focusing on pictures from Read More >>
Homeless Bird, by Gloria Whelan
This February and March, students in a 5th and 6th Grade book club read Gloria Whelan’s book about arranged marriage in India, Homeless Bird. Before we began reading, we watched a short video to expose us to what is going to happen in the book, and we identified things that we already knew about India Read More >>
2D and 3D Geometry
With our student teacher, Erica, students in Second Grade have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes through hands-on activities. We started at 2D shapes and learned about the properties of these shapes, including the number of faces, edges, and corners each shape had, and applying that knowledge to build our own shapes out Read More >>
Chickens
The New School started housing fertilized chicken eggs on March 7th, and are watching them grown in an incubator day by day. We looked at this as a great opportunity to teach our students all about chickens. Students in Kindergarten through Second Grade have been taking a Chickens class with our student teacher, Erica, where Read More >>
DINOSAURS!
The youngest group of students have been investigating DINOSAURS! We took a long time to read Dinosaur Valley and Maia: A Dinosaur Grows Up. Dinosaur Valley follows a family of Orodromeus dinosaurs. Maia is a story of a Maiasaura, a duck-billed dinosaur, as she grows up, travels, and becomes a mother herself. In both stories Read More >>
Biomes – Deserts
This spring the youngest students continued their study of Biomes which was started in the fall. Most recently we turned our attention to deserts. We read and discussed books such as Why Oh Why Are Deserts Dry? and A Walk in the Desert. We watched the Magic School Bus All Dried Up video which focuses Read More >>
Fractions and Geometry: Parts and Shapes
The youngest students have been taking part in a math class learning about fractions and geometry. They loved the hands-on activities! In fractions, they began by identifying and creating equal parts of objects. They used playdoh and cookie cutters to cut shapes in half. By playing games such as Pizza Fractions and Fraction Pies they Read More >>
Emergent Writers!
As children develop an awareness of letters, and the sounds they make, they also have to learn how to form letters smoothly and automatically, writing from the top of the letter to the bottom. This year our youngest children have enjoyed a variety of classes where they are given the chance to practice copying words Read More >>
India
Students in Kindergarten and First Grade have been learning about the culture of India through the use of the book Count Your Way Through India by Jim Haskins. We started at one and learned about how to say this number in Hindi and about the amazing banyan tree. Students then drew their own banyan tree Read More >>