Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece has been a theme discussed by all of the children recently.  The oldest children started with comparing Greece to Mesopotamia.  They quickly discovered, from the maps we compared, that the geography had a huge influence on each civilization.  Next we looked at Greek gods and goddesses and how the Ancient Greeks’ beliefs shaped their daily lives.  Each child has drawn a picture of a Greek god or goddess and written a “who am I” paragraph for a card game we are making.   Next we looked at the differences between the two city-states of Sparta and Athens as well as the differences between girls/women and boys/men in each of these cities.  Children were amazed at how by the age of 7 in Sparta as a young boy you would be sent to military school until you we’re about 40, when you could retire.  To finish off our Ancient Greece unit, we read a book about Socrates and are preparing to reenact his trial.  All of the older students have roles in the trial and all of the students in the school will be helping by making props, being on the jury or a spectator.

Xerox

To assist children learning how to read, we offer small group instruction that focuses on the six syllable types. Using Road to Reading, and Wilson Language, each week children receive instruction that meets them at their instructional level. Typically children meet in small groups with a teacher four times a week for 20 – 30 minutes each. Students manipulate letters on a sound-board to make words which change one sound at a time. For example: (hat, hit, hot, not, cot, cat, mat, map, mop.) At other times they play games (such as Go Fish, Bingo, Word Sorts and board games) to practice these skills. In a third session they are asked to write words, sometimes sorting them into columns (such as short a, short i, short o), sometimes writing complete sentences.  Finally each child reads one-on-one with an adult to practice these skills in context.

Currently we have five groups of children benefitting from this program. We have beginning readers working on cvc syllables (such as cat, pig, log, net and bus), another group is being introduced to blends and digraphs (such as lift, glass and ship). A third group is working on reading cvce syllables (such as cake, bike). A group of older students, having mastered reading two syllable words with combinations of open, closed and silent-e syllables, have moved onto vowel team syllables. They started with vowel teams that make only one sound: ay, ai, oy, oi, oa, aw, au and ee. Once these are mastered and they can read them in two syllable words, they will move onto syllables with the vowel teams which make more than one sound: ea, ou, ow, oo, and ew.

Coins Coupons and Combinations

Students in grade 1 and 2, explored the number system using Terc’s Investigations: Coins, Coupons and Combinations. First they worked with combinations of 10, making their own Book of 10, which listed all the possible combinations of 10. To further practice this skill they played games such as Turn Over 10 and Tens Go Fish. Then we looked at the concept of doubling and imagined what would happen when we put objects into a magic doubling pot. Children wrote riddles for their peers to solve like, “I put 6 pieces of French toast and 5 pancakes into a magic pot. What came out? Solving addition number strings of three addends we practiced using our new understanding of doubles and combinations of 10 to beat the calculator and played another game called Close to 20. We discovered that sometimes our mental math was faster! Then we looked at counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and turned our attention to coins, where we could further practice these new counting skills. Finally we explored the 100’s chart and started using tens and ones blocks to help us write and solve combining and separating number sentences.

Wishes, Lies and Dreams

Inspired by Kenneth Koch's book, Wishes, Lies and Dreams children in second and third grade spent six weeks writing poems about sounds, dreams, colors, comparisons, and lies. They were most intrigued and excited about writing about lies!

White Mitten by Syris

I had a white mitten

As white as the snow

I did snow angels

I built an igloo

I even did a snow fight

And many other things

But I just wish I could find that mitten of mine

Too white is a problem

Too white is indeed

Oh what happened to my mitten

oh what happened indeed?

It might have drifted off a cliff

A rabbit might of have taken it to its den

But luckily it was in the snow right next to me

Colors by Noah

Blue makes me think of my friend Michael

Michael makes me think of blue

Red makes me think of lava

Lava makes me think of Red

Green makes me think of grass

Grass makes me think of green

Brown makes me think of dirt

Dirt makes me think of brown

Lies by Muta

I hate legos because I am a cat

I am a robber dog

I am a tree because I am an apple

I am a bee stinging dog

I am back farm                         

paper is like  cake

Sun is like the moon

Snowflakes by Moebius

If I were a snowflake

If I were a snow flake

I’d call a meeting all up in space

I’d ask all the others to come to earth with me

They’d say ok and we’d fall all down

We’d land on hats

or mittens

or jackets

or fall

on the snowmen and make them all pretty

Or we’d fall on eyelashes

or noses

or maybe even melt on somebody’s tongue and then we’d all join together and make a white blanket

and fall on the ground

so the children can have fun

Color of Earth by Mira

Black is the color of bats like any kind of way.

Pink is the sunset going by.

Blue is when the day is in the sky.   

Purple is in a drawing you see.        

Red is the colors of fall leaves.      

Brown is the color of tree trunks in the forest.                            

Yellow is the color of the sun see.    

Green is the color of grass now look. 

gray is the color of fog see look.

White is the color of a plane piece of paper.

Magenta is the color of a house.

Gold is the color of gold.

Silver is the color of jewels you  can  see. 

The End                                                                         

Crystals in the Sky by Mae

I woke up this morning and it was snowing.

I felt like a snowflake drifting through the air making

a blanket of snow like crystals in the sky.

Lies by Jonah

I never lie.

I am a deciduous tree.

My mommy is a naked coral tree my daddy is a Italian cypress

my brother is a jacaranda.

My aunt is a dragon tree.

My uncle is a banyan tree.

I hate compost.

I love chainsaws and axes.

I hate koalas and tree kangaroos. I love forest fires.

I love humans.

Snowflake by Greer

I am a snow flake white as the clouds

When I fall I see lots and lots of things

Slowly, slowly I fail

I see people running in big boots and hats with pom poms

yelling and playing and sledding on me

Some say they’re cold but I’m not

Someone picks me up and rolls me to a ball and makes me into a snow man. 

I’m part of the head

I see the kids walk away and say The snow is melting

And slowly I melt into water.

The Hateful Monster by Dash

This strange monster

thinks green is so ugly

He can’t stand it and

he thinks red stands

for death and he

doesn’t like blue

because it is blood

and yellow is so bad for

him and aqua looks like poison and white makes

him sick.

I am a Pie by Mira

My mother is a coconut and

my father is a pie.

I have an idea why

Beacuse I am a pie

My Grandma is a lollipop

My Granddad is a snickers bar.

I have no idea why

because I am a pie.

I have a little sister

Her name is little Blister

I have no idea why

because I am a pie.

Why am I a pie?

Because I am a pie. 

Fred Jaquin Mystery Guest

To enrich our study of the Ancient Greeks, Fred Jaquin, Association Professor at Onondaga Community College and Department Chair of the Chemistry & Physical Science Department was a mystery guest at The New School on February 12, 2014. Fred shared his passion and knowledge of the solar system and constellations. At the end of his presentation he shared a myth written by the Anishinabe tribe that explains the origin of the Big Dipper. Our children loved listening to the story of How Fisher Went To the Skyland.

Rigamajig

The Rigamajig  is a new large-scale building kit conceived for hands-on free play and learning. This unique toy was conceived and designed as a custom play feature for the High Line Park in New York City, by independent toy designer Cas Holman of Heroes Will Rise, and Friends of the High Line, in collaboration with early learning educators, woodworkers, and children.

Rigamajig was launched in 2011 as the High Line Children’s Workyard Kit, and will be distributed by KaBoom, a national non-profit that has partnered with Heroes Will Rise to provide easily accessible, cognitively challenging play opportunities that include science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) to all children in diverse communities. 

This collection of wooden planks, wheels, pulleys, nuts, bolts and rope allows children to follow their curiosity through play. There are no right or wrong answers. Children create contraptions to convey buckets, three legged spaceships, elephant movie projectors hiding under robot monsters, and all-purpose “Rigamajigs”. The act of playing and building is the goal, not the finished product.

The New School is the first school in the area to have access to this unique learning material. Mary Cunningham created a slide presentation about the New School's experience with the Rigamajig.

Click here to view the slideshow.

Science Fun

The older students spent one month in the fall of 2013 rotating between four science centers where they explored and experimented with various science concepts. The liquid station assessed the students’ ability to use measuring equipment, make inferences about discrepant events and formulate questions in the solution of the problem. The Ball and Ramp station assessed their ability to make observations, inferences and predictions based on data collected. The Magnetic and Electrical center assessed their ability to use a magnet and an electrical tester to collect data, to make generalizations and make inferences from their data. Finally at the Unknown Object center the students were assessed on their observational skills in describing an unknown object and their ability to raise questions. At each center the students were all required to use communication skills and work cooperatively with a partner, though they were responsible for completing their own packets and observations. The centers were designed by the New York State Education department and were formerly part of a hands on performance test given to 4^th graders on NYS.

Solar System

The youngest children started learning about the Solar System in January. Children developed questions they wanted answered about each plant.  As we listened to The Magic School Bus, Lost in the Solar System, and books by Seymour Simon children drew and wrote notes about each planet. We started with the gas giants and then moved onto the smaller planets closer to our own orbit. During Read Aloud these children listened to Sally Ryde’s To Space and Back, gathering information about man’s exploration of the solar system. Children will be assigned to be “experts” on a specific planet and responsible for presenting the information, gathered by the whole class, at our Science Celebration. Each science project will include a paper mache model of the planet.

Ancient Greece

The whole school is involved in studying Ancient Greece. The 2^nd and 3^rd graders focused their study on how the Ancient Greek civilization has enriched our own culture. We looked specifically at theater, architecture, democracy, and philosophy. Students created a book illustrating their discoveries. One field trip involved visiting Thornden Park’s amphitheater and comparing it to the modern day theater at Syracuse Stage. After looking at the construction of ancient Greek temples we went on a “Column Hunt,” informally tallying the number of Ionic, Doric and Corinthian columns in parts of downtown Syracuse. In our books we shared our favorite Greek gods and goddesses stories after listening to D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. When we studied maps, we noticed how important the Mediterranean and Aegean seas were to the Greeks, using them for travel and trade. Finally we learned about the philosophers – especially Socrates - and will be participating in our own re-enactment of the trial of Socrates.