Our two 7th graders and one 5th grader have taken a journey into pre-algebra this year. This class has been called Variables all year, but we have explored so much more than just variables. One thing that is constant is that there is often an “unknown” or “x” in most of our work, so the name “Variables” has stuck! Even Read More >>
Cells, Trees and ESF (Written by Nora, Neona and Marina)
This year, Neona and Nora’s science class was learning about plant and animal cells. To get a better understanding of plant cells we visited E.S.F. (Environmental Science and Forestry.) We went there for two and a half hours and in that time we visited two different labs. The first one we went to was Chuck Read More >>
Writing Workshop with Dana
We are working on short story structure: beginnings, middles, and ends. We have been discussing character motivation, dramatic conflict, and how to resolve things in an interesting and satisfying way. It’s a challenge to structure imaginative worlds, and it takes a lot of focus to show a dramatic arc in a compressed form. Our goal Read More >>
Industrial Revolution
The older students collaboratively drafted a letter to President Obama voicing their concerns after the garment factory tragedy in Bangladesh. We are waiting for a response… June 1, 2013 Dear President Obama, We are sending you this letter to express our upset and distress about the families of the more than 1,000 victims of the Read More >>
Mystery Guest: Ruth Heller
Ruth Heller gave us so much information about her healthcare workers’ union, 1199SEIU, which we could relate to our study of the industrial revolution. We had great questions and comments as we thought about workers’ rights past and present and other human rights the union supports.
Microscopes
Our nine oldest students are participating in classes on using a microscope and making slides. To start off this class and after watching a video on the parts of a microscope, students were paired and asked to find those parts on their microscope – which were all different from the video! This was more challenging Read More >>
Midsummer Night’s Dream
The older students at The New School thoroughly enjoyed Syracuse Stage’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Once again we were treated to front row, center seats. Following are comments, compliments and observations made by our students Ben, Ciara, Ace, and Maia particularly enjoyed the costumes: All the costumes were very detailed. The costumes were really Read More >>
Decimals
Students in grades 5 and 6 were part of a Decimal class based on the teaching of Marilyn Burns. To ensure students understood the relationship between decimals and fractions students used tens blocks to represent wholes, tenths, hundredths and finally thousandths. Playing games such as Sum and Difference, Decimal Wipe Out, Smaller to Larger, helped Read More >>
Biography Book Club
Students in this book club read a biography of their choosing over the summer. When they returned to school this fall, they had to answer questions about their biography and create a poster advertising a speaking engagement by the subject of their biography. Students then had to write a paragraph summarizing the book and create Read More >>
Bubbles
Everyone has played with bubbles at some point in their life. However, many people may not think about what a bubble really is. What makes a bubble a bubble? Six of the students in grades 4-7 investigated the science behind soap bubbles through hands on experimenting. While we were doing our experimenting on bubbles and Read More >>