In December 2016, Students in grades 6 & 7 began a unit on exploring microscopes and discovering things too small to see with our eyes. We started this unit by reading about Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and then creating our own “microscopes” with glass bottles and Read More >>
Chemistry 101
What is matter? What are the three states of matter? How do atoms behave differently in solids, liquids and gases? Students in grades 3, 4 and 5 love this hands on chemistry class. As they learned about matter, they explored the physical characteristics of matter, and the three states of matter. Now we were ready to look at Read More >>
Ramps
During Investigations the youngest children at our school explored inclined planes using ramps. They rolled marbles down ramps and measured the distances each marble rolled. They varied the slope of the inclined plane, predicting which height would cause the marble to roll further and explaining why. First they used a height of 6 wooden blocks, Read More >>
Measurement
A group of children in grades 1 though 3 explored how humans measure their world! We started with length and using yard sticks, meter sticks, tape measures and rulers we measured objects around the school. We discussed the various units that can be used, both metric and standard. We learned which unit is longer, an inch or a Read More >>
Geometry
Let me introduce you to the powerful pentomino! Each unique shape shares one common attribute. It has 5 squares. With these manipulatives, each child cut and created their own set, we were able to explore so many geometry concepts. We considered flips, turns and slides. We learned how to calculate the area of a shape and its Read More >>
Music at The New School
Is music important you? It’s important to us too. Because we are a small school, we can’t offer some of the extracurricular activities that large school districts are able to. That means we have to be creative to include music in our curriculum. Our students enjoy singing once a week with Ken Hynson, a parent Read More >>
Syracuse Stage’s Mary Poppins
The whole school went to see Syracuse Stage’s production of Mary Poppins yesterday. What an extraordinary production is was – full of magic and marvels. The acting, singing and dancing was terrific. We were spellbound. Below is a picture of the set that was transformed effortlessly into living rooms, rooftops, banks and parks. Quite extraordinary. Read More >>
Experimental Design
At the end of last year, we started a unit on Experimental Design. Students had to “save fred” a gummy worm from drowning by only using paperclips. Students had to write down their procedure and then have another group try and follow it word for word. After a few attempts and notes from peers, students Read More >>
Advanced Math Class
Two students in 7th grade are working at an advanced pace on 7th grade materials. Since the start of the year, they have reviewed topics of fractions, decimals, and a variety of other topics to bring them up to speed on going through our new text book. Our topics this fall have included The Language of Read More >>
Parts of Speech
In a series of three lessons the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students learned about four different parts of speech. First they learned the function of verbs in the English language and that every English sentence must contain at least one verb. Then we practiced enhancing verbs with adverbs by playing a game of charades. Read More >>