This four week for our oldest students unit looked at the structure and function of a typical animal cell. The animal cell’s organelles were described and discussed. Students constructed a large model of an animal cell, working in class and independently in pairs on their contracts. Students watched a PBS short and discussed the Read More >>
Bubble Science
This fall, students in grades 6-8 participated in a unit on bubbles. We started this unit by creating a small and large frame that could help us explore soap solution. Students were then asked what they would like to know about soap bubbles and what surfaces they would like to test to see if they Read More >>
Power, Privilege, Persecution, Persistence and Poverty
As the oldest students started to create a annotated time showing the century from 1850 – 1950, they revisited and reviewed last year’s study of the Industrial revolution. Here we learned how inventions fueled a transformation of the US economy. The booming economy brought with it huge social problems in regards to how workers and Read More >>
Bloom’s Taxonomy
The oldest students were part of a short unit where we explored Bloom’s Taxonomy. What better way to learn about higher and lower level questions than to write your own after studying and discussing each level of Bloom’s framework. Just as responding to higher level questions is more challenging for a reader, they were also Read More >>
Civil War
This year we are doing a small group class on the Civil War with a small group of middle school students. As a part of this class our goals are: To understand that by the end of the American Revolution, slavery had already become an issue in the new and growing country. Beginning with the Northwest Read More >>
Sewing
Six of the oldest students just completed an exciting sewing project! First the children had to get certified by the Fayetteville Free Library’s staff. An hour long course taught them the parts of the sewing machine and how to thread it, fill a bobbin and more! Our second class involved designing a bargello patchwork quilt. The children selected fabric, donated by Read More >>
Spanish with Amanda
Spanish this semester went so well! Ace, Ben, Greer, and Jonas were all such wonderful students ready for each class with great participation and questions! We started off the semester working with “Las Palabras del Día” (The words of the day) where we started basic vocabulary acquisition. At first, we learned about basic Spanish conversational Read More >>
Things too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry
Over the past six weeks the students in sixth and seventh grade have been reading the book Things Too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry by Susan Vaught. This book is about a girl named Dani who sets out to solve the mystery behind why her dying grandmother, who used to be a write,r stopped Read More >>
The Microscopic World
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 >>
Variables and Inequalities
In Math class the 7th graders have been developing their abilities to solve for a variable in a equation and have recently been introduced to solving inequalities. The amount of background knowledge and problem solving abilities students bring makes each class very enjoyable to teach. Students recently learned how to graph inequalities on a number Read More >>