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Elephant in the Garden Book Club

Our 7thand 8thgrade students have spent the last several weeks reading a fantastic book, “An Elephant in the Garden by the acclaimed author Michael Morpurgo. Students have read through the eyes of Lizzie, a teenage girl living in Dresden, Germany during the second world war. Through Lizzie’s eyes students read about the horrific bombing of Read More >>

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Teaching and Learning through Games

Why do we play games?  What do they accomplish for teaching and learning? We have games for math, language arts, social studies, science and strategy.  We have games for inside and outside. We have cooperative and competitive games.  We have games we buy and we have many more games teachers and children have made. As Read More >>

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Persuasive Essay

Our four oldest students participated in a four-session writing short course on persuasive essays. The students read and listened to examples of persuasive writing. They learned how writing is only persuasive when there is an audience the author seeks to move. They learned how research, reasoning and anecdotes could be used in crafting strong supporting Read More >>

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Poetry Poetry Poetry

The oldest students were part of a poetry unit this fall where they had to study the work of three different poets. Many chose lyricists. They were asked to select three poems for each poet or lyricist to study. Next they had to write an analysis on this body of work. We asked students to Read More >>

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Cursive Refresh

This fall, students in grades 4-8 participated in a cursive class that reviewed (and sometimes retaught) all upper and lower case letters of the alphabet.  There was much discussion and practice with our lowercase letters: clock climbers, kite strings, the loop group, and hills & valleys. There was some difficulty and triumph over the “bridge Read More >>

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Read-Aloud at Reading Time

Once a week our youngest students gather together for their own read-aloud during the school-wide reading time. Some of them are just beginning to learn to read. Others have developed some reading skills and are just beginning to read independently. They all enjoy listening to a good story together, sharing their thoughts and questions about Read More >>

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Bees

  Last year our Student Teacher began a study of bees with some of our students.  They used a multi-disciplinary approach using some reading, making a 3D model of the external parts of the bee, and writing a Haiku about bees.  This year we did a short unit to finish up our look at bees Read More >>

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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 >>

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Explorers- Social Studies

The explorer’s unit required students to first examine the difference between nomadic and settled homes. Students also examined nomadic lifestyles and how they are similar/different to an explorer. Students discussed why explorers choose to explore (to find new places, see new things, learn new things, etc.). Students were assigned a specific explorer and completed book Read More >>

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Small Moments- Language Arts

Small Moments was a lesson that met once a week for four weeks. Each week we would read a small moment from a children’s book to notice the details used by the author. The students would then have time to journal their own small moments and focused on enhancing their own detail writing. Students worked Read More >>