Native Americans and their Biomes Part II

After creating a landscape depicting the biome where their Native Tribe lived, children were given a Native American myth or legend to read and study. Each child was challenged to retell the story to their peers using all the skills ably demonstrated by gifted storyteller, Vanessa Johnson. Some of skills the children identified when Vanessa shared some oral stories were: She showed enthusiasm, used voices of different people, used the audience to interest and involve the audience, used eye contact and spoke loudly. The children took this assignment seriously and enjoyed the retelling of some fascinating stories. Some of the books children studied were the Abenaki tale: How two feathers were changed from the loneliness and the Inuit tale "Kayakatuk" and Coyote Makes a Man - Native American Story from the Great Plains.

As children fine tuned their text describing the language, culture, beliefs and way of life of their tribe, we collected one more time to synthesize the information we had amassed over three months of study.

Flying Airplanes!

How do airplanes fly? That is a question that our younger students (K-2) explored during Investigations. They made paper airplanes and tested them to see how far they could fly. Then they modified their planes to see if they could get them to fly farther. They compared their recorded distances to draw their conclusions.

Civil War Class

The oldest group of students finished up their in depth study of the Civil War. After learning about the local abolitionist movement and underground railroad here in Syracuse at the Onondaga Historical Association, the students analyzed the causes of the war from both the north and souths perspective. They read and interpreted the inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. To better understand what life was like during the war, they read and analyzed primary source letters from women, children, nurses, and confederate, union and black soldiers. As a home project with their families they interpreted the Gettysburg Address and put it into their own words. In small groups, they studied the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Each student researched and presented about a Civil War Heroine. To summarize and round out the unit they watched the Freedom: A History of Us videos A Fatal Contradiction and A War to End Slavery where they had remarkable discussions sharing their ideas and feelings about freedom, contradiction, the emancipation proclamation, reconstruction, Gettysburg, how students learn about the Civil War in the south, law and equality.

Mr. Wizard, aka Buzzy Dale, Mystery Guest

The New School now has its own Mr. Wizard! Buzzy Dale (Chloe's father) is sharing his love of teaching science and knowledge as we explore electricity and magnetism. His first demonstration had the children enraptured as he demonstrated how electricity flows through conductors, and is stopped by insulators. He also demonstrated how materials vary in their resistance and how electricity creates heat and can be used to do work. The use of a blow torch caused all kinds of excitement! There is more to come!

Megan Wagner-Flynn visits as a Mystery Guest

Megan Wagner-Flynn visited The New School, not as Evan's sister, but as a Mystery Guest! The students guessed that she was here to share about her experience as a former student at The New School and they were right. Megan brought 3 of her end of year gifts she received. She shared the meaning of each gift, which represented her passions, her strengths and things she was working towards improving at that time. Megan also shared some meaningful memories and why she appreciates The New School, then and now. It was a wonderful opportunity for the students to appreciate their school. Thank you Megan!!

Phil Brill, Mystery Guest

Phil Brill, Valor's Grandpa and author of a children's book, The Red Bottle, was in town visiting his family. He offered to come to school and share his real life story that inspired him to write The Red Bottle. He shared the lovely story of his trip to the beach where he found sea glass. He talked about the process of turning this experience into a book. The students were intrigued with Phil's illustrated story boards that became the pictures in his book. The students had to search for the hidden bottle in each picture! Students are now busy taking turns reading the four signed copies of The Red Bottle that Phil was generous enough to give to The New School.

Writing Workshop - The Elements of a Good Story

A small group of older students have been discussing the important elements of a great story. First we considered setting and the children created a drawing or map of a place or setting that intrigued them. The following week we discussed character and the importance of considering the inner as well as outer traits of a character. Children created character sheets listing their main character’s outer (physical) traits as well as his/her inner traits. Inner traits include thoughts, feelings, and dialogue. Finally we discussed plot and the importance of having a beginning, middle and end to a story. Often children struggle with ending their stories so it took effort to think of a problem and events leading up to its resolution! 

When asked what were the elements of a good story the children shared: 

• good stories have adventure, problems and a plot. Good stories have settings.
• a good story has interesting vocabulary and words.
• a good story has humor.
• a good story has feelings and characters.

When considering what makes an interesting character the children shared: 

• a character has to have personality and we need to know what motivates him or her.
• a character has to show his or her feelings.
• a character has to have a way of speaking.
• we need to know what a character likes or dislikes.