Writing Workshop with Dana

We are working on short story structure:  beginnings, middles, and ends. We have been discussing character motivation, dramatic conflict, and how to resolve things in an interesting and satisfying way.  It's a challenge to structure imaginative worlds, and it takes a lot of focus to show a dramatic arc in a compressed form. Our goal is to have the students publish their short (under five pages) and completed stories in a class literary magazine by winter break. 

Cursive

Students in 3rd and 4th grades have been working on reviewing all of the lower case cursive letters from the clock climbers to the hills and valleys.  As we finish up our lower case letters, students have been challenged to write two words in cursive, switch with a partner and print what their partner has written.  This is the real test - if someone else can read your writing!  What fun it has also been to practice our cursive in our pen pal letters that will be heading to Michigan shortly.  Next it will be on to capitals and practice, practice, practice!

Civil War Class Visits the Onondaga Historical Association

       The oldest group of students are taking part in a social studies unit looking at the causes and events leading up to the Civil War. This is a continuation of the Westward Expansion unit they completed last year. They have had remarkable discussions about what freedom is, what you can own and about slavery. They have learned about the economies of the north and south and the different ways of life and beliefs that existed at this time. They created maps showing triangular trade and read a short story about The Amistad. They have currently been participating in activities learning about the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad.

All the students will be taking part in a book club reading Two Tickets to Freedom, a true story of Ellen and William Craft, fugitive slaves.
To build upon their knowledge of the abolitionist movement, they took a field trip to the Onondaga Historical Society. Their day at the OHA started with a discussion about the conditions of slavery while they looked at artifacts and tools that would have been used on southern plantations. The students viewed carved faces found in the basement of The Wesleyan Methodist Church, a hideout on the Underground Railroad. Together, the students concluded that the faces were carved by fugitive slaves traveling to freedom on the Underground Railroad, although it is still unknown who exactly made the carvings.

  They watched a multi-media presentation where they met life size cut outs of individuals such as Frank Wanzer, a fugitive slave who found refuge in Syracuse with local abolitionists such as the Loguen family and Gerrit Smith. They also heard from David Noxon, an anti-abolitionist. They took part in a walking tour of downtown Syracuse showing local landmarks of the Underground Railroad and abolitionist movement. The tour stopped at the Wesleyan Methodist Church (now The Mission Restaurant) where the carved faces were found. They visited the site where Fredrick Douglas first spoke in Syracuse, the location of the escape of then slave, Harriet Powell, the sites involved in The Jerry Rescue and many more historical buildings and locations.

       The students then took on the roles of local abolitionists attending an anti-slavery meeting led by Samuel May (our tour guide Scott Peal). At this meeting Caroline Loguen (Toni Jones) shares the story of The Jerry Rescue and how 19 people, one including her husband Reverend Loguen, were arrested for aiding in the escape of a slave. The students, as abolitionists, shared their testimony of The Jerry Rescue and thought of ways to help Reverned Loguen and the others.
This is what the students had to say about their day at the OHA and what they learned:

“I didn’t know that Frank Wanzer existed or that the Loguen family existed. I knew about Noxon but I leaned about those two families and that the Loguen family had a safe house and Frank Wanzer was an escaped slave.” -Ace

“The Jerry Rescue sculpture was interesting. Jerry broke out and was trying to run away. He ran a few blocks and got caught again. The girl who made chocolates made more money than the president at that time.” -Neona

“The basement under the church was part of the underground railroad and the faces that were carved in the stone were found there. We are not sure if the faces are of slaves who died there.” -Nora

“I didn’t know churches could be so small. They didn’t build giant structures in that time period. I like that. Syracuse actually did something in history. Syracuse was known for salt.” -Asher

“I learned how people hid out in churches in Syracuse. That runaway slaves hid out there. Are Jayhawkers the same as abolitionists? Yes, I think so.” -Agnes

“The walking tour was really cool. There were so many places in just a couple blocks that had to do with slavery. I thought it was really cool and interesting but also sad. The faces found in the church was really interesting. That people would carve faces to show that they were there. Its cool that they were able to do that in a dark room. Some lady made chocolates with her own recipes. She sold them all over syracuse and bot bigger and bigger. As a slave she made chocolates and then she wasn't a salve anymore and got really wealthy and had a lot of chocolate stores.” -Marina

“I learned that when slaves reached into the cotton plant to pick it they got their hands cut. I learned that Syracuse was a hot bed of abolitionists.” -Maia

“I learned that lots of things from a long time ago, that they kept them and preserved. Like the book that said that white people were better than black people and that everyone believed it. And the key from the jail that Jerry was in was cool.” -Juliette

“It was cool because we know what everything looks like now and it was cool to see what has changed and what buildings are still here. The church is still standing but it’s a restaurant now. I wish they would have kept the door to the jail so they could show that they key actually fit the door. I noticed that one of the streets we crossed was Montgomery, that reminded me of Jayhawker. They said Syracuse was a hot bed of abolitionists. There were hundreds. Obviously more than a lot of cities. I wonder if the Loguen family still lives in Syracuse.?” -Jonas

“I knew the restaurant, The Mission, was there but I didn’t know that was the same church that had slaves staying in the bottom of it. I didn’t know there were abolitionists who lived in the south.” -Jake

“The history of where we were walking is amazing. The history is somewhat bright. Like Frederick Douglas’s first anti-slavery speech in Syracuse. It’s impressive that he started out talking to 5 people and ended with 500. I wish he was still alive so I could send a letter to him. Syracuse was famous for it’s salt.” -Josh

“I didn’t know there were so many abolitionists in Syracuse. It was like they lived everywhere you looked.” -Ben

You can view all the photos of the trip to the OHA on our flickr site. https://www.flickr.com/photos/20502001@N00/

Layers of the Earth

The youngest group of students has been learning about the layers of the earth.  We started off our unit by reading parts of Gail Gibbon's bookPlanet Earth/Inside Out and How to Dig a Hole to the Otherside of the World by Faith McNulty.  As we learned about the many layers, we made small models out of clay and are in the process of making LARGE cardboard models that will include the many layers as well as what we can find on the crust of our earth.  As we finish up our earth models, we have gone on to read and learn more about how magma comes up from one of the layers and out of volcanoes!

Upper Case Printing

Working once a week with our youngest children, we have studied and learned how to form the capital letters A through E. While this sounds like a simple task, there are many things to consider. First of all where to start the letter? This is hard for some youngsters who are used to forming their letters from the bottom. Other things to consider is that  our letters have to be written from left to right, and each child has to consider spacing between the letters. Then they have to consider the size of the letter and work hard to make it fit between the lines. Some children struggle with how to hold their pencil. In the coming months we will work our way through the alphabet and then return to learn about the lower case letter formations.

Native Americans and their Biomes

 We started our unit by studying physical maps of the United States. We also looked at and discussed maps that show climate, and precipitation. Then we studied the biomes of North America and compared their boundaries to the physical map.

            After reading about each biome and sharing what each had to offer in terms of plants, wildlife and “abiotic features,” we colored our own biome map of North America. Given all this information, the children were then asked to consider what the life of an indigenous tribe living in each biome would be like. They had to identify sources of food and water and other resources. Would the tribe be nomadic or settled? Our goal was for children to grasp how the culture of each tribe is affected by the geography of the land.

            In class the teacher modeled how to read for information about a tribe – we chose the Sioux. As we read from a picture book the children identified important information we will be using later. Children were then assigned their own individual tribe, and given picture books describing their homes, clothing, foods, and way of life. They soon learned whether their predictions of whether the tribes would be nomadic or settled were correct. Children looked for, and made notes about their tribe’s beliefs, tools and weapons, language (was it oral or written?) and its many art forms. To support their research each child was assigned an historical fiction novel set within their biome. In small groups children will share what important cultural information each author included in the book about the tribes living there.

Then each child started a long-term art project depicting the tribe they researched and illustrated as much of their culture as possible. 

Highland Forest, October 2014

In many schools children are taken on camping field trips to celebrate the end of the year, as a reward you might say. At the New School we visit Highland Forest twice a year. The first time is scheduled near the start of school, and the second trip is within weeks of the end of the school. Without question, the most important field trip is the first one because we continue to reap its rewards all year.

Giving children two days of outdoor activities where they can explore nature in a picturesque setting helps them get to know each other. It is amazing to watch children spontaneously gather and work together to build fairy houses, shelters, or to simply play games filled with imagination in the woods. These shared experiences help children build relationships that carry over and benefit their school experiences for the rest of the year. We expect each child at The New School to be able to work with every other child in the school. This is a huge expectation, which the children meet time and time again.

This year’s Highland Forest adventure provided hands-on opportunities to examine tree leaves. We looked at pinnate, palmate, parallel veined, and lobed leaves. We classified leaves and painted them. Children in groups of four or five built shelters from available resources in the forest after being told they only had 30 minutes to accomplish the task. They enjoyed this so much they want to return in the spring to spend two hours perfecting their architectural designs. The younger children looked for birds nests and other signs of birds in the forest. We all sang and danced around the campfire and listened to great books during the day and at night after snuggling in our beds after the lights were turned off. The greatest reward was that the children loved their time in the woods and getting to know each other.