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Mystery Guest – Hartwood Farmers

“Two mystery guests in one week,” the children shouted with glee! Our second mystery guests of the week were Matt Robinson and Maryellen Sheehan, farmers and owners of Hartwood Farm. Their 70 acre farm sits in the hills of Fenner, about 2 miles east of the windmills. They were invited to The New School to support Read More >>

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Mummies in the Morning Book Club:

Six students took part in a book club and read Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborn. This book club gave the students a chance to further their knowledge about mummies and pyramids. At book club meetings the students shared predictions for the up coming chapters, responded to comprehension questions, and worked through packet Read More >>

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Immigration Videos from 2012-2013

Last year at The New School, as part of our social studies unit on Immigration, each student interviewed one of their ancestors who had immigrated to America. The students took on that role and were interviewed telling their story. Click on the link below to watch the videos.  https://cloud.ensemblevideo.com/app/sites/index.aspx?destinationID=7cVkGrwsNkmOpAJdy5uwFA 

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Mesopotamia – The Cradle of Civilization

For the oldest students (grades 4 and above), our study of “Mesopotamia” – the land between two rivers – began with a discussion of “How do we know what we know?” How can we possibly know about a civilization that existed over 5,000 years ago? The children displayed a solid understanding of this concept listing Read More >>

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Motel of the Mysteries

The oldest students listened to a book at read aloud this fall called Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay. In this book, it is the year 4022 and all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of junk mail from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985.  The students thoroughly enjoyed how Read More >>

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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 >>

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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.

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Australian Aboriginal Art

To kick off a yearlong appreciation of visual arts from around the world we first looked at the word “continent.” What is a continent? How is it defined? We soon discovered that people around the world do not all learn that there are seven continents. Some places teach there are 5 continents with North America Read More >>

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Immigration for older students

The whole school has been learning about Immigration to the United States. In addition the oldest students (grades 5 – 8) studied Ellis Island. We read a book about the history of Ellis Island and how New York came to be a major gateway for immigrants coming into the United States. We learned how and Read More >>

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Immigration

Our youngest students (Kindergarten through 2nd grade) were part of the whole school discussion focused on immigration stories. Reading picture books helped us compare the experiences of immigrants from different countries, such as Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine or Haitians bravely boarding boats looking for a better life in America. As we read each book Read More >>