Water Cycle

Over the last five weeks second graders were part of a science unit learning about the water cycle. Students have been learning about three parts of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Students learned a song to help them remember which way the water moves in each phase of the water cycle. During this unit we created a mini water cycle in the classroom; this helped the students understand and see the three parts of the water cycle first hand. At Highland Forest these students were the "experts" as we introduced a "Water Cycle Game." 

Probability

For six weeks in September and October students in grades 4 to 7 were part of a class learning about probability. We started the unit by having a mystery bag in which there were ten cubes. Students had to pull out one cube at a time and then put the cube back; they did this ten times. Then students made a prediction about what color cubes they thought were in the bag. They repeated this process two more times. We also did an activity to see what color M&Ms you are most likely to get in a bag; then we combined all our data together to create bar graphs to compare how different bags of M&Ms did not have the same amount of M&Ms in them. 

Book Club: Tuck Everlasting

Many of the older students have been reading the book Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. Each time the book club met the students were given a set of questions on a bookmark that went with the next section of reading. Students were challenged to look beyond the text and search for answers to questions. Lively discussions took place as students talked about important concepts and ideas of the story. 

Writing Workshop: Living Forever

The fourth through eighth graders have been working on a writing piece based off the novel Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. In the story the main character is faced with a challenge to drink from a spring that could make her live forever. Students were asked to choose whether or not they would want to live forever. For some students this was an easy question to answer. For other students this was a hard question. Either way it got the students thinking.

How Many Seeds are in a Pumpkin?

K +1st grade students explored how many seeds are inside a pumpkin.  We started out by reading part of the book How Many Seeds are in a Pumpkin by Margaret McNamara.  After we read about how the class in the book got messy and goopy emptying out pumpkins, we estimated how many seeds we thought were in each pumpkin and got messy ourselves!  Then overnight we let the seeds dry and started counting them the next morning.  Each pair decided to group their seeds in 10's and then count by tens to see what the totals were.  It took us two class periods to count up all the seeds we had!  We finished reading our book and learned that the size of the pumpkin isn't the deciding factor in how many seeds are inside.  It depends more on how long the pumpkin was left to grow on it's vine.  Our cleaned out pumpkins are now being used for fairy houses out in the woods.

Graphing

Students in the intermediate grades explored the many ways you can display data. The first information or data we considered was a list of our birthdays. How could we display this information so it would be easier to read and compare? Bar Graphs were the answer. Our graphs displayed the months of the year and the number of birthdays that fell in each month. We learned how easy it was to then compare and contrast.

Next we looked at the information/data we could record from a handful of pennies. First we created a table, recording the year the penny was minted and the number of pennies in that set. We used tallies to help us keep track. Then we created another bar graph to show this information.

Now it was time to learn about line graphs. Here we looked at a table showing the change in temperatures in a single month. The zig zag of our line graph showed how the temperature increased and decreased, day by day.

Most recently we turned our attention to pictographs. Here we discovered how a picture or symbol on a graph could communicate how many students were in each grade. We read and discussed pictographs where the symbol represented 2 items or 10.

Music with Ken

For many years Ken Hynson, Zerbie’s Step-Dad, has volunteered once a week to come and sing with the children. Each week he alternates singing with the younger and older students. Children learn the lyrics of songs appropriate to each age group. We have loved singing Puff the Magic Dragon, My Mother Gave Me a Nickel, Blue Suede Shoes and The Engineer and the Monkey. Thank you Ken for bringing music to the New School. 

Highland Forest Camping Trip October 2011

On October 6 the children at The New School set out to enjoy an overnight camping trip at Highland Forest. The weather was spectacular - blue skies, temperatures in the 70’s and yet there was a chill in the air during the night. The wood stoves in the cabins fixed that!

On Thursday we hiked in mixed age groups and went in search of a field! Not an easy task at Highland Forest. In the field we played Who Am I. Children had to guess which animal they had secretly been assigned and in the process discussed the interdependence of plants and animals in a field. Hiking back to the cabins we were divided into groups and played Habitat Hunt. We challenged children to appreciate the diversity of plant life as they looked in groups for shape, color, texture, size and signs of animals.  

At Skyline we sat in groups and admired the stunning landscape. Children were challenged to record what they saw in their sketchbooks. After some free time we played Treasure. Parents began to arrive around 4 pm and at 6 pm we were treated to a delicious potluck, followed by campfire introductions and a sing along. After games of flashlight tag, bedtime stories it was lights out at 9:30 pm, and if you were lucky no trips to the outhouse during the night.

On Friday before we headed out on our hikes children revisited the Water Cycle Game. Our second graders were the experts! Friday’s hiking groups were divided into two groups of older and younger students. The older students were challenged to build a shelter that could keep out water! One group was successful when a glass of water was poured onto their “roof.” The younger students went on a scavenger hunt with a partner.  The hardest thing to find in the woods was litter! As we were searching for animal tracks, three beautiful horses walked by and provided the evidence we needed. A good discussion took place as to whether horse poop could be counted as an “animal track.”  Each day we played Flash Flood, Camouflage and Dead Bug while hiking through the woods.

Children returned to school tired, dirty and full of good experiences.

From Europe to the New World

For the older student, our early American History unit began in September with a study of the early explorers to the New World. The students were divided into four groups (countries): Spain, France, England and Holland. Each group is responsible for researching and presenting information on an explorer from their country. At school we have traced a map of the world, which will soon show the travels of Robert de La Salle, Henry Hudson, Sir Francis Drake, Ponce de Leon, Cabaza de Vaca, Giovanni Da Verrazano, Samuel de Champlain, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and John Cabot. Students will also be writing a short text about their explorer, which will be added to the map. As we read, discuss, watch videos we are learning that these men explored for many different reasons. They sailed across the Atlantic to conquer, to colonize, to chart, to convert, to find riches, and to find a shorter route to the riches of Far East.

Pilgrims

Students in grades K-2 have been "time traveling" back to 1620 to explore what it would be like to be a Pilgrim setting sail on the Mayflower.  Counting by 10's, up to 390 years, students crawl through our time travel tunnel to go back in time and talk about what life is like in the 1620s and how the world was different in those days.  During classes, we have discussed how people in the 1600's knew what the world and globe looked like, why they would want to leave Europe for the New World, what they could and couldn't take with them, how long it would take to cross the ocean and the size and shape of the Mayflower.  We even went outside to measure with our bodies how long 90 yards (the length of the Mayflower) would be!  We measured from the tall grass by the gully all the way out into the parking lot, but decided that 102 passengers in that distance was a small space.  And we decided that it would be much better to be a child on the Mayflower because the ceilings were so low!  Students are currently taking on the role of one of the children that were on the Mayflower and exploring what it would be like to go on such a long sea voyage so many years ago.

Silent Sustained Reading (SSR)

 SSR is a great time for students to sit down and enjoy the pleasures of a good book.  But during this time of day, there could be more than just silent reading going on!  Many days you could see students reading to older or younger students, students reading to adults, adults reading to students, students listening to a book on CD or students participating in an online reading program.  Although the type of reading varies, the intent is still the same.  Students are reading for 40 minutes each day.

Wiggly Worms!

All of the students at school this fall have participated in science classes where they are learning about earthworms.  We have read worm books, discussed and observed worm body parts, tested whether worms are sensitive to light and dark, and whether they prefer moist or dry environments.  The younger children are creating a diorama of the worm's habitat and designing graphic posters which share what what they have learned about worms. Although all students are not comfortable touching the worms, we’ve seen quite a few students make great observations about this subterranean creature.