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Simple Machines

In a 5-week online class, students in grades 2 – 4 learned about the seven best known simple machines — lever, inclined plane, wedge, screw, wheel and axle, gear, and pulley — through videos, on-camera demonstrations, discussion and hands-on activities. The purpose of the unit was to show how humans developed ways to make certain Read More >>

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Animal Classification

When Animal class began again in January of this year, we started with a book called The Butterfly and the Lamb. As is often the case, while the book seems very simple it is addressing an important issue: the difference between animals who need to be nutured for some portion of their lifespan and those Read More >>

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Finding Langston

During Spring 2021, four students in grades 4 – 6 all were in a book club reading Finding Langston. The story was about a boy named Langston and his father after they move to Chicago from Alabama after his mother passed away and Langston finding the writer Langston Hughes. Along with reading the story the Read More >>

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Solar System

  During Spring 2021, Students in grades 4 – 6 learned about our Solar System! During our class they all worked hard to learn about the different objects they could find in space which are all considered celestial bodies. The unit was designed around some of the things they wanted to learn more about. During Read More >>

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Writers Café

For much of the year, it has been my pleasure to work with Jorge, Evan, and Theo in our Writers Café. We gathered weekly via Google Meet, moving only recently to a hybrid meeting at school. Each session begins with the reading aloud of any new writing we have to share. All three of the Read More >>

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Crow Drawings

After reading She’s Wearing a Bird on her Head we learned about the remarkable efforts of Minna Hall and Harriet Hemenway, two determined women activists who founded the Audubon Society to protect birds. Then we admired the extraordinary paintings by James Audubon. Now it was our turn. We examined a crow that has been perched Read More >>

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Life

by Paul OttesonSecond semester science teacher for 7th and 8th grades  Biology has been this year’s science focus for the older students, using the curriculum suggested by the Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP). It was my pleasure to join the teaching team for the second part of the year to take on Genetics, Read More >>

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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 >>

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Hot and Cold

Hot and Cold is science unit for our youngest students which was started when the distance learning period began. We started by exploring the melting of an ice cube. How long did we think it would take for an ice cube to melt? Then we considered ways we could make the ice cube melt faster. Read More >>

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Belfer Archive Field Trip

Our oldest students, grades 5-8, were treated to a field trip extraordinaire last week. A year ago this outing was recommended by a grandparent of one of our students, but wasn’t a “fit” for our curriculum. This year as we began to plan for a Sound Unit, we knew this was the moment. So we Read More >>