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.

Gym

Gym time is an active time.  We play lots of different games and split into all different types of groups.  On this day, we had multi-age groups.  One group played a tag game while the second group enjoyed playing with the parachute.  We encourage kids to play safe, fair and hard in every type of gym game we play.  We always start gym games with a talk about what we're playing and end each game with a circle where we can discuss the positive parts of the game and the parts that we could improve upon the next time we play.

Contract Time

Contract time can consist of many different things happening all at the same time. Here are some photos of children playing a game, working with a teacher, working on their own and playing in gross-motor centers. We're off to a great start this year!

Native American Exhibit

The New School’s Native American Exhibit

Pueblo – Andy Zamora and Nick Russell
Navaho – Zerbie Hynson and Emmy Newman
Tlinglit – Sam Pullman and Quin Delia
Seminole – Evelyn Caldwell and Martin Welych-Flanagan
Sioux - Bobby Simmons and Savannah Krabacher
Iroquois – Haleigh Summers, Syris Dwyer, Muta Pamoja
Apache – Neona Krabacher, Alaira Otteson, Sam Propp
Cheyenne – Autumn Kerr, Greer Foley, Gulliver Brower
Cherokee – Monae Lender, Jonas Hine, Mae Cohen
Black Foot – Eyeruse Wonders, Maia Gostin, Ben Foley
Shoshone – Ciara Jones, Max Newman, Brandon Warren
Nez Perce – Ace Wischman, Nora Vancalcar, Lola Gostin

All the students at The New School collaborated on a culminating activity that involved researching twelve different Native American tribes. The youngest children (K-1) had been listening and responding to Little House on the Prairie, the middle students (grades 2-4) studied the explorations of Lewis and Clark and the oldest students (grades 5-8) studied the tragic clash of cultures as the pioneers moved westward.

The Native American exhibit required small, multi-aged groups of students to research the clothing, way of life, traditions and beliefs, homes and the biome of one specific tribe. The children had to represent this information two dimensionally, three dimensionally and in writing. Our goal was for students to appreciate each Native American tribe as a different culture and how each tribe's culture is affected by geography.