Daily Journal Time

Everyday children have half an hour of writing time. Sometimes this is used for printing practice, phonemic  instruction, spelling, and writing workshop. Every week children have time for free writing.  Children can choose to write by hand, use an alphasmart or type on the computer. Younger children can dictate their stories.

Rooster Play

In early December the youngest children performed a play based on the Ancient Chinese story of how the rooster lost his horns. Ladies and Gentleman.

We are glad you are here to watch our play. The play was a collaborative effort, with each child adding details until we told the story. The children spent weeks making their own costumes and props. The play was performed for the older students.

This is the story of how the rooster lost his horns.

It is a story from Ancient China.

Let me first introduce the actors in our play. Please welcome:

Syris is the sun

Mae is the rooster

Sam is the cow

Ben is a ghost

Greer, Brandon and Max are the dragon

Lola is the worm

Maia is the barn

Alaira and Gulliver are horses

Jonas is the scarecrow.

And I, Ace, am the narrator.

We wrote this story together.

Let’s get on with the show.

Once upon a time shadows moved in the barn. There are horses and cows in the barn.

Bar-B-Q, the rooster, had the prettiest horns in the world. The rooster was walking about admiring his horns. All of the animals were asleep and the dragon came closer and closer to the barn and he was breathing fire. The dragon lived on Mount Olympus.

It was a cloudy night and it was ready to rain. The scarecrow was scared. The rooster was going around in circles. The dragon said to the worm, “Ask for the horns. I want those horns.” Then it started to rain and it washed the dragon’s fire away. The rock glistened in the rain as the worm slipped by.

The worm said to the dragon, “Don’t breathe any fire.” Suddenly a bright light came on. It wasn’t the light it was the sun. The cloud went behind the sun. The worm asked the rooster if he could borrow his horns. The rooster replied, “Will you give them back to me?” The worm said, “Yes” The worm took the horns from the rooster and then the dragon flew away with the horns.

The rooster was very upset.  The rooster did not know what to do, so he decided to wait. The rooster saw the worm and yelled, “You nasty worm get back here.”  And he chased him around the barn. The rooster called at the dragon as he sailed by but soon the dragon was out of sight.

The End

Probability

I have been teaching probability over the past 5 weeks to students in grades 5 to 8. Throughout those five weeks, even though some have been short, we have covered a significant amount of content. The students have dealt with both theoretical probability and experimental probability. They have dealt with the concepts of flipping a coin and rolling of the dice through both worksheets and games/activities. To introduce the idea of probability to the students I gave each student a package of skittles and asked some simple probability questions to get them interested in the concept. Recently, we have talked about independent and dependent events. As we are finishing up the unit the students will be required to take a 10 question test on what they have learned. Dan Trahan

Physical and Chemical Changes, Acids, Bases and Salts

In science class, students have been learning about physical and chemical changes as well as acids and bases. We have learned about the characteristics that provide us with evidence that either a physical or chemical change has occured. We have had labs that dealt with testing multiple solutions and the students were required to record observations and to decide whether a physical or chemical change has taken place. In regards to acids and bases, the students have learned what the term pH means and why scientists use pH levels. In our labs we have tested mutliple solutions using cabbage juice as the indicator to decipher if the solution was acidic or basic. - Dan Trahan

Barnes and Noble 2010

Haleigh
Originally uploaded by New School-Syracuse

Children were invited to attend our Barnes and Noble poetry night. There was a great turn out of families. After the children took turns sharing their favorite poems they had opportunities to enjoy face painting and puppet making.

Haiku

Our youngest students have enjoyed listening, reading, illustrating and copying haiku. Each student has made a book of their four favorite haiku. Each page offers the opportunity to illustrate and practice writing. For young children there is so much to remember! Where do I start the letter? Does it go into the basement, or  attic? Have I left enough space between the words? Did I remember to start each line of the haiku on a new line? Your child's book will be coming home soon.

Block Centers

 Every day kindergartners and first graders enjoy opportunities for creative play. In small groups of three or four, as they play with blocks, cars, geotracks and marble runs, they learn how to collaborate, share ideas, and negotiate with each other. The children have also collaboratively designed a landscape of popcorn kernels, rocks, and twigs, explored  seashells and a variety of sea creatures in the ‘water table' and most recently playing with our "Tree House" has encouraged rich conversation about the rain forest as tree frogs and insects jump from layer to layer !

Cats and Dogs

The youngest students have been exploring different ways to make 12.  In class we've had discussions and demonstrations of how if we had 12 cats and dogs, that could be represented with pictures and numbers.  Each student was challenged to find all the ways to make 12 with cats and dogs and then explain how they knew they had found all the different ways.  Some students used chips to help them count, some used their fingers, some did the counting in their head and others used the pictures of the cats and dogs.  Students are next practicing their skills with finding different ways to add to 11, 16 or 21 - using turtles and frogs!

Martin Welych-Flanagan

Humane Society of United States published this article about Martin in their September 13, 2010 issue. 

Orders for his bracelets continue to pour in!

Paper making with Holly Greenberg

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Originally uploaded by New School-Syracuse

Video of Holly Greenberg showing children how to beat the bark!

Poem in a Pocket Day

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves. Did gyre and gimble in ..... Hugh Humphreys came to share his love for reciting poetry, to jumpstart our enthusiasm for Poem in a Pocket Day.  Hugh, a retired judge, writes for the Madison County Historical Society, and is an artist, whose work is at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (GSENHL) and National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro. 

Zerbie reading Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky 

Hugh Humphreys

Papermaking Field Trip

Holly Greenberg with students

Holly Greenberg with Lola

Max, Syris and Alaira enjoying the slime

On November 2, 2010 the whole school visited Holly Greenberg, (Gulliver's Mom) at Syracuse University's Comart building to learn about the ancient Chinese art of making paper. The children learned the Kozo bark first had to be cooked, then pounded. Each child was given the opportunity to pound away! The pounded Kozo was mixed with water and some okra slime. Many of the curious children asked to dip their hands in the slime!  Finally each student had a chance to sift and and swish the bark, first in one direction, then the other. Afterwards the paper was transfered from the bamboo frame to a wet felt.  This part of the process is called "couching" which literally means "putting the paper to bed.

Quin making paper

Greer transferring the paper to the couch

Weekly trips to Soule Library