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 >>
Human Body Spring Unit
Our Human Body class has turned into an opportunity for the students to discover how much our body systems contribute to everything we do in life. After discussing the Nervous system, we moved on to the respiratory system, where the students were able to construct their own pair of lungs and actually see the connection Read More >>
ABA Class
Students in the middle grades are participating in a class that is using the Jack and the Beanstalk story to explore underlying principles of our system of justice related to fairness and honesty. Students are engaging in activities that encourage their own opinions about fairness and then in class discussions children are exposed to views Read More >>
Mystery Powders
Students in grades 3 – 5 took part in a chemistry unit titled, Mystery Powders. They had to observe and learn about the chemical and physical characteristics of white powders (cornstarch, baking soda and plaster of paris) in order to solve (infer) a “Who-did -it” mystery. Students were told that there had been a robbery Read More >>
Atoms and Molecules
This semester the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders spent 5 weeks learning basic chemistry! We started with the structure of the atom and decoding the information in the periodic table of elements, atomic numbers, atomic masses, etc. We then discussed the importance of electrons and covalent bonds. We started drawing simple organic and inorganic molecules Read More >>
Electricity
Over the past few months the students have been learning about electricity. This is a very exciting topic for the students because electricity means a lot of activities and experiments! We learned how to light up a lightbulb only using a battery, lightbulb and two wires and that it makes a complete circuit which the Read More >>
Short Story
From about mid-March to mid-April Misha, Sam, RJ, Stuart, and Jiyong participated in a short story unit where they further developed their writing skills and critically examined the parts of a short story and learned how to write one themselves. The unit started off with learning about where writer’s find their story inspiration or “seeds” Read More >>
Rocks and Minerals
In the fall, 2020, the 4-6 graders got to learn about rocks and minerals. To start our rocks and minerals class, we learned about the three rock types (Sedimentary, Metamorphic, and Igneous) and some characteristics of each type of rock, including how each type is formed. Then, we moved into how rocks are ever-changing and Read More >>
Kenneth Koch’s Wishes, Lies and Dreams,
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 >>