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Seen and Heard: Field Trip to Art Rage

On Wednesday, October 11, 2017 the older children visited Art Rage, an amazing gallery which celebrates the use of art to raise awareness of social justice issues. The current exhibit, Seen and Heard, invited local women artists to submit artwork to commemorate the 100th anniversary of New York State signing women’s suffrage into law. These Read More >>

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Salt Water Biome – the Ocean

Students in grades 1, 2 and 3 were part of a unit that recently studied the ocean. Students working with a partner explored the characteristics of a specific layer of the ocean. They researched and wrote a short paragraph describing their assigned layer and the animals that inhabit it. Students selected and illustrated two animals from Read More >>

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Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)

Visual Thinking Strategies provides for open-ended discussions of visual art, increasing students’ critical thinking, language, and literacy skills along the way. We had two groups using VTS this year, one Kindergarten-1st grade students and the other 2nd-4th grade students. Students look at a work of art and consider a question such as “What’s going on Read More >>

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Mrs Piggle Wiggle Play

Students in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade working with a partner are writing plays based of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle Books. These books are filled with short stories where Mrs. Piggle Wiggle cures children from tattletaleitis, being a cry baby, and even destructiveness. Each pair of students picked one of the stories and they are putting their own Read More >>

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Syracuse Stage’s Mary Poppins

The whole school went to see Syracuse Stage’s production of Mary Poppins yesterday. What an extraordinary production is was – full of magic and marvels. The acting, singing and dancing was terrific. We were spellbound. Below is a picture of the set that was transformed effortlessly into living rooms, rooftops, banks and parks. Quite extraordinary. Read More >>

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Are Lyrics to a Song Poetry?

The seven oldest students are taking part in a poetry class, which was inspired by Bob Dylan’s recent nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature. We started the discussion discussing the difference between a poet and a lyricist. It was interesting that all but one student didn’t feel that Bob Dylan deserved the award. They Read More >>

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Field Trip to Cornell’s Museum of Ornithology

Cornell Museum of Ornithology   The whole school spent the day in Ithaca at Cornell’s amazing Museum of Ornithology. What a treat. The original reason for going was to view the extraordinary mural that is painted on one of the walls – it shows life-sized paintings of birds from every continent. But there was so Read More >>

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Roger De Muth Studio

  Have Van Will Travel: A small group of the older students took a field trip to Cazenovia to visit the studio of illustrator, designer, Syracuse University professor, Roger De Muth. During the visit Roger explained his creative process, and showed the evolution of his illustrative styles. He stressed the importance of writing things down, Read More >>

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Biomes – Deserts

This spring the youngest students continued their study of Biomes which was started in the fall. Most recently we turned our attention to deserts. We read and discussed books such as Why Oh Why Are Deserts Dry? and A Walk in the Desert. We watched the Magic School Bus All Dried Up video which focuses Read More >>

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Grasslands

Our youngest students continue their study of biomes. In December we moved our focus from the rain forest to grasslands. We listened to books and learned how grasslands are very different to rain forest. There are very few trees in the grassland and there are two seasons – a wet season and a dry season. We watched videos Read More >>