Poetry Unit Kenneth Koch’s Wishes, Lies and Dreams, published in 1970, has long been considered a classic in its field. Herbert Kohl wrote that this is “perhaps the best book I have read portraying the joy and excitement young people experience when writing poetry.” Using this timeless book, for seven weeks, students in grades 4 Read More >>
Systemic Racism
Our children, our students, live in a world that has developed all kinds of media and ways to transmit information, disinformation, ideas, and images. They hear the media, adults, other peers talking about events and opinions as they move through their days. Some of these ideas are exciting and innovative, others are darker and disturbing. Read More >>
Lego Class
In Lego class 3rd and 4th graders used Legos to learn about simple and powered machines using hands-on activities. First, they investigated structures and forces, incorporating both rigid and flexible shapes in building deck chairs and drawbridges. Applying principles they learned about levers, they made drumming machines. Attaching a motor provided more opportunities to explore. Read More >>
Writing Workshop
Students over the past sever weeks have been studying how perspective is used within writing. Examining how a writer uses perspective to inform and persuade the reader, students then used these techniques within their own work. Our 3rd and 4th grade students have done tremendous work from analyzing writing to creating their own unique, engaging Read More >>
Human Body
Students have been studying the fascinating systems within the human body that help us perform our daily functions. Our 3rdand 4thgrade students started with studying the human brain and how it is composed of several different parts that each control a specific task within the body. Stations were created to stimulate different parts of the Read More >>
Secret Soldier
Students participated in a weekly book club to discuss the book Secret Soldier. This book took place during the revolutionary war and was about Deborah Sampson, a woman who pretended to be man so she could fight in the war and find adventure. Students completed comprehension questions each week, practiced creating inferences about the book, Read More >>
Letter Writing
This spring, students in grades 3-4 participated in a unit on writing a persuasive letter. We read informational articles to gather baseline information about how littering affects the ecosystems on Earth. We began this unit by viewing letter examples and highlighting different aspects of the letter to view how a letter is formatted. As we Read More >>
Creation Myths
Since January, we began a class with the younger half of the school reading a wide variety of myths from Native American, South American, and African cultures that give voice to stories of how our world and elements of it have been created. We read many versions of how there came to be Day and Read More >>
Layers of the Earth
This spring, students in grades 2-4 participated in a unit on the layers of the Earth. We read The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, by Joanna & Bruce Cole to gather baseline information about layers within the Earth. We began this unit by creating clay model representations of the different layers found within the Read More >>
Native American Tribes
In our westward expansion class, we moved from learning about Americans traveling west to find a new life and settle in uncharted (to them) territory, to who was already living in these western lands. We started by reading aloud and discussing such books as The Warrior Maiden (A Hopi Legend) and Children of the Wind Read More >>