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Alumnus, Brennan Zimmer Volunteers at The New School

Alumnus, Brennan Zimmer is volunteering at The New School on Mondays. He is coordinating our first chess club. Twelve children expressed an interest, so Brennan will alternate working with 6 children each Monday. Brennan is currently a student at OCC and working at Price Chopper. What a treat to have him back in our classroom after all Read More >>

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Highland Forest

Twice a year the whole school spends two days camping in Highland Forest. This outdoor adventure provides us with a wonderful way to get to know each other better and to share in the delights of nature. Our two days are full of hours playing by the pond, catching and releasing critters, hiking in the Read More >>

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Investigations

Investigations is scheduled every afternoon from 1:30pm until 2:25pm. Most children will say this is the best part of the day, running neck and neck with gym or outdoor play! During Investigations children are offered a choice of activities. If all their “contract work” from the morning is complete they can sign up for one Read More >>

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Apple Picking at Beak and Skiff

Thanks to the Brower family, we now have our own school van. Transporting ten children at a time, we went on our first field trip of the year to pick apples at Beak and Skiff. The apples we picked were then the main ingredient for some delicious recipes the children cooked during Investigations at school. Read More >>

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Gift Giving

Our last day of school is magical. No other way to describe it. Each child is read a letter which celebrates an accomplishment of the year. The whole school listens. Then each child is presented with a gift – a box which illustrates the letter. No two children are the same. No two letters are Read More >>

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Architecture 101

Paul Otteson, Alaira’s father, came to the New School to share a strangely beautiful student architectural model in balsawood to introduce the underlying structure of a building. The students were fascinated to learn about joists and studs and to think about placement of windows and doors…

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Chinese Brush Painting

After we learned about the aboriginal art of Australia we traveled north to the continent of Asia where we started learning about Chinese brush painting. We looked at slides and discovered how the Chinese “like to draw nature” and use “a lot of white spaces.” Another child said, “The paintings are not all filled in.” Read More >>

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Fall 2012 Read Aloud

Every day we end with a relaxing twenty minute Read Aloud. Our groupings change according to the content of the book. This fall we split into two groups. The older children (in grades 3 – 8) listened to J. R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit on the upstairs rug. This book completely captivated our students, so much Read More >>

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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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Discussion Box

A custom supported by our collaborative environment here at The New School is Discussion Box. Discussion Box gives students the opportunity to voice their concerns. Students write down their concerns and place it in the Discussion Box. Every few weeks during Snack we choose an entry from the Discussion Box and the student who wrote Read More >>