Lucy Calkins inspired a poetry unit for our students in grades K-3. Starting in September, each week of this unit inspires children to consider a new “ingredient” or strategy. The unit began with experimenting with looking at ordinary things in a new way. Subsequent classes explored looking at patterns in poetry, music, line breaks and Read More >>
Spelling Bee
At a student’s suggestion the New School has decided to start a mini spelling bee. We have students at a variety of ages and levels testing their spelling skills every week. They are using words that come from the school’s sight words as well as the official spelling bee list. The students are going to Read More >>
Plant Class
Over the winter, we have been working in depth with plants. Topics included In class, we grew a bean plant from seed in dirt and a potato plant from a potato using water initially. We have recently planted the potato plant and its roots into a soil bag and will look for potatoes at the Read More >>
Book Club: Henry and Mudge/Mr. Putter and Tabby
In January we started reading Henry and Mudge and the Snowman plan, looking at the story elements of this story. Before they started reading we had a class about what story elements are and students had a good understanding of characters, setting and events in stories. They learned when figuring out the characters you ask Read More >>
Caterpillars, Butterflies, Moths and Bees
We completed a unit study at the start of school on The Life Cycle of the Butterfly and Moth. Children learned about eggs, caterpillars, their metamorphosis within a cocoon or chrysalis, and their eventual emergence as a butterfly or moth. We were able to watch the life cycle play out with four Monarch caterpillars that Read More >>
Animal Classification Spring 2022
This year was the continuation of an animal class that had begun 2 years ago. Many of the activities of the class continued through this year. However, we had several new students join us and our group size became 11 children. We continued to read books and have discussions on Wednesday mornings at snack. As Read More >>
American Revolution
Students in 2nd – 4th grade participated in a class this spring about the American Revolution. Students listened to and discussed the books such as: Sam the Minuteman, George the Drummer Boy, Can’t You Make them Behave King George and Phoebe the Spy. They have learned about the differences between Minutemen and Redcoats, discussed Paul Read More >>
Follow Your Dreams Read Aloud
During the beginning stages of our transition from distance to in-person learning at the school, our K-3, in-person students, participated in a read-aloud series during snack that addressed and discussed the importance of children and young people following their dreams and aspirations. The titles from the series included Ada Twist Scientist, by Andrea Beaty, Drum Read More >>
Animal Classification
When Animal class began again in January of this year, we started with a book called The Butterfly and the Lamb. As is often the case, while the book seems very simple it is addressing an important issue: the difference between animals who need to be nutured for some portion of their lifespan and those Read More >>
Younger Local History
After completing a scavenger hunt in the Syracuse area to find a place from a historic postcard, students had to compare their postcard to the current location. Using a visual thinking strategy they tried to notice all the similarities and differences between the two time periods. To share this information with classmates, we had multiple Read More >>
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