Teachers Giving Gifts 2012

On the last day of school each child came home with two important things. A memory box from the teachers, celebrating something important about the past year, and a letter that articulates the depth of each child's achievement. Often children will focus on the memory box, but the letter is the most important part. We encourage parents to take time to sit down with their child(ren) and read the letter again, stopping often to talk with your child about its contents. 

The end of each year is always very emotional. It is hard to say goodbye to children. We will miss Martin, Eyeruse, Tamirah and Sarea.

Children making and giving gifts

Every year children randomly are assigned another student to make a gift for. When they present their gifts they share an appreciation which explains why they made the gift. In the picture above a child is being presented with a handmade joke book. Other gifts included a board game about whales, a model of a T-Rex and a Komodo diorama. The whole school community listens intently to these thoughtful gestures of friendship and understanding. 

Shakespeare visits

Shakespeare visited the school to share his life story, to answer questions and to listen to the older students recite their monologues from Macbeth, Midsummers Night's Dream, The Tempest  and Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare also listened to a song students wrote and admired the replica of The Globe which they designed and built.







ShakespeareWritten by the older children 
Verse One:
Once there was a boy named Romeo

With special thanks to Ken Hynson

And a girl named Juliet

They loved each other like two love doves

But their families always felt regret

CHORUS

Shakespeare, oh Shakespeare

What will happen next?

Shakespeare, oh Shakespeare

Among bards you are the best

Verse Two:

Another tragedy was Macbeth

Who killed the king to get his crown

Something evil this way comes

In a puddle of greed he drowned

CHORUS

Oberon, the fairy king

Sent his faithful servant Puck

To sprinkle a potion on sleeping eyes

But their scheme had little luck

CHORUS

Chittenango Landing

Chittenango Landing
Originally uploaded by New School-Syracuse
To support our study of local history the whole school visited Chittenango Landing where we some of the things we learned about archeological digs, what it was like to live on a canal boat and how canal boats were brought into a dry dock and repaired.

Rock Art

Rock Art

Students transformed rocks into animals using acrylics

Map-it on Ipads

What on earth?!  Alan (Ben and Greer’s dad) taught us how to use the ipads he brought in, to make our mark in mapmaking.  Now we know how to find the school, and our own house, spreading the image to even ‘drive’ the route home.  We went outside to take pictures with the ipads, of locations and images we want on our map of the area around The New School.  An exciting afternoon--and more to come.  We will be working with other groups over the next few weeks. 

Electricity!

The second graders have started to explore electricity this spring in their science class.  As a start to this unit, we have been exploring static electricity using plastic wrap and paper towels.  We've discussed, explored and read about positive and negative charges atracting and the students have had a blast!  What we enjoyed watching the most was salt particles practically "flying" up to meet the charged plastic wrap.  We had to check that one out a few times.  Sticking balloons to walls and friends has also been fun.  Or latest experiements include trying to charge balloons with different products - such as nylon, paper towels and plastic wrap.  Then we put the balloons near each other to see what happens.  There is a lot of sparks flying in this class lately.