Blog

Breaker Space

Posted on by Danielle Ulacco

One station in our MakerSpace classroom is the Breaker Space. Breaker Space is an area where students take apart donated technology. (We are always looking for donations- especially “old” technology that students can’t identify i.e. rotary phones, cassette players!) In this space students have the opportunity to truly take risks and ask questions with absolutely ZERO fear of doing something wrong! I also provide safety procedures and safety tools such as protective eye wear and gloves.

Taking apart technology incorporates many skills. On any given day you will notice the following at this station:

  1. Communication
  2. Collaboration
  3. Learning about tools (phillips vs flat, pliers, clamps, etc.)
  4. Identifying what tools are needed
  5. Discovery of technology components: motors, circuits, motherboards, glass, plastic, gears, wheels, buttons, LCD/LED screens, power supplies, and so much more!

Students enjoy the process, but also spend time using our devices to research what certain parts are and what they were needed for in the device.

Thank you to families who stop by to drop off donations. The students look forward to it each and every class.

Middle School Health: Sugar

Posted on by Pam Pascarella

 

In Health class, the Middle School students read an article from Choice magazine discussing the effects of sugary drinks on the body. We also discussed as a group what their perceptions of healthy and unhealthy drinks were. We discussed which drinks have the most sugar and which have the least. They learned how to calculate the number of teaspoons of sugar you find in a variety of drinks. One teaspoon of sugar equals 4 grams.  For example, a soft drink that has 40 grams of sugar equals 10 teaspoons of sugar.

The students worked together to research beverages that they drink and calculated how many teaspoons of sugar each contained. The beverages that they researched were Root Beer, Sprite, Mountain Dew, Red Bull, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, and Coca Cola. We then measured out the individual teaspoons of sugar into a plastic cup to gain a better understanding of how much sugar is in each beverage.

Before the end of class, students presented their findings and shared their beverages and the sugar content. Some were surprised by how much sugar their favorite drinks had. We discussed the importance of reading the Nutritional Facts Labels as well as paying attention to the serving size per container. We also discussed how they can make healthier choices; such as drink water, dilute sugary drinks with water, eat fruit rather than drink juice, and keep a bottle of water with them at school. The students enjoyed being involved in this learning experience and gained a greater understanding of healthier beverage choices.

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 8th from 6:30-8:00pm.

This is a FWM entire family event.

Grab your “passport” and travel along with us as we visit countries near and far, sampling foods at each stop! This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures.

Upper Elementary: Busy, Exciting Week

Posted on by Brian Comstock

Our week began with pumpkin carving in the classroom. Students worked in small groups of 2-3 to clean out the pumpkin “guts” and create their own unique designs. They had a blast and we appreciated the assistance from Liz and Jayne, as well as the donations of pumpkins and tools from families.

On Tuesday, we visited New Pond Farm and experienced a glimpse in the life of Woodland Indians. Students played games, scraped fur from an animal pelt, ground corn, and sampled a variety of foods. Our guide, Claire said, “This is the most engaged group I have ever instructed.” We were extremely proud of their participation and behavior while on the field trip.

Wednesday of course was our Halloween Parade and class celebration. Part of our celebration was spent estimating the weight of pumpkins before and after the “guts” were removed. Students also estimated how many seeds were in the two pumpkins. Both had over 500 seeds, which was well above all estimates.  Finally, the seeds were seasoned and roasted so we could enjoy them with lunch.  Thanks again for the refreshments that were donated for our celebration!

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 8th from 6:30-8:00pm.

This is a FWM entire family event.

Grab your “passport” and travel along with us as we visit countries near and far, sampling foods at each stop! This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures.

Mrs. Hood’s class: I can do it myself!

Posted on by Andrea Hood

“If teaching is to be effective with young children, it must assist them to advance on the way to independence. It must initiate them into those kinds of activities which they can perform themselves and which keep them from being a burden to others because of their inabilities. We must help them to learn how to walk without assistance, to run, to go up and down stairs, to pick up fallen objects, to dress and undress, to wash themselves, to express their needs in a way that is clearly understood, and to attempt to satisfy their desires through their own efforts. All this is part of an education for independence”.
Dr. Maria Montessori

Toddlers are naturally eager to learn these things. “Do it myself” might well be the refrain for the toddler years!

Often times, our day-to-day lives make for less than ideal circumstances to help our children achieve the independence they crave. Our homes are not optimized around a little person with his height of less than 3 feet: Objects are hard to reach, too heavy, or too big for little hands to use. Our days are not set up to move at his speed: We rarely just happen to have 10 spare minutes to wait while our almost 2-year-old puts on his jacket!

Yet, enabling a toddler to become more independent has huge benefits, both near-term and long-term. Power struggles decrease when a child feels more in control. Temper tantrums are less frequent when a toddler is busy doing things for himself rather than resisting his parent’s efforts to do things for him! A child who feels capable because he can act in the world, without needing to rely on Mom or Dad for every little thing, is a child who is developing self-confidence.

This week we focused on modeling how to put on a jacket and the daily routine of changing into indoor shoes at the beginning of the morning have been introduced! Children seem to love to practice these procedures and the joy on their faces after accomplishing these tasks is just great to see!

On another note, Knick Knack Paddywhack illustrated by Emily Bolam has been the most popular book this week. Children love to repeat books and this one is a daily request, multiple times during the morning, by your children!

We are also pleased to hear some of our students able to sing the whole song in Spanish, La Lechuza, which we introduced a couple of weeks ago. If you are interested in learning the lyrics of this song to sing it with your child, please feel free to let us know! We will be more than glad to share them with you!

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 8th from 6:30-8:00pm.

This is a FWM entire family event.

Grab your “passport” and travel along with us as we visit countries near and far, sampling foods at each stop! This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures.

We hope everybody had a great Halloween! Stay sweet!

Mrs. Thomas – A Gross (Motor) Halloween! :-)

Posted on by Stephanie Thomas

The back field offers the children a wonderful place to run, jump, and tumble safely. What could be more fun than all of that? Why, adding pumpkins of course!

Thanks to your generous contributions, the children not only enjoyed the gourds and pumpkins in our environment, they also “picked” sugar pumpkins from our “patch” in the field.

The children were delighted to arrive to the field and see the pumpkins in the distance. And we enjoyed watching them exert big energy and use their large muscle groups to run, bend, lift, and carry their weighty pumpkins to a wagon. They were all tired after this event, but it was the kind of tired that comes from doing fun work.

A big thanks to all of you for donating to make this event happen. It appeared very simple, which is appropriate for this age, but it took a lot of planning and execution on the part of our class parents, Lisa Jackson and Elle Nicholson. THANK YOU, Lisa and Elle!

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 8th from 6:30-8:00pm.

This is a FWM entire family event.

Grab your “passport” and travel along with us as we visit countries near and far, sampling foods at each stop! This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures.

Ms. Kayser’s Class: Happy Halloween!

Posted on by skayser

Halloween is always such an exciting holiday for the children! The cool, crisp air, getting to dress up in a costume, and of course, the special treats we get to have after trick or treating, make for such a special and memorable night. This week the classroom has been buzzing with excitement for the much anticipated celebration.

This week we were lucky to have Luke’s parents, Jenai and Sean, come into our classroom and help us carve a class pumpkin!  The children got to vote if they wanted a happy or scary pumpkin, and then shared input on the decorations and shapes of all the facial features.

We were amazed with how intently they sat and watched as Sean cut open the pumpkin to reveal the gooey center. Each child got to take a turn at scooping out the inside of the pumpkin and investigating first hand what it feels and looks like.

Once the carving was complete, the children voted on a name and our pumpkin officially became a part of our classroom family. Welcome Mr. Smiley! The children spent the time after Mr. Smiley was finished to write stories and draw beautiful pictures about him for us to display.

We hope that you and your family had a fun and safe Halloween!

Ms. Kayser and Ms. Alli

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 8th from 6:30-8:00pm.

This is a FWM entire family event.

Grab your “passport” and travel along with us as we visit countries near and far, sampling foods at each stop! This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures.

Holiday Festivities in Lower Elementary!

Posted on by Ashley O'Connell

Halloween was a fun filled day! We started our morning by joining Upper Elementary and Middle School friends on a march around the school. We then celebrated and enjoyed some delicious treats in the classroom! (Thank you to the parents who brought snacks in).

Halloween provides us with such a good opportunity for cooperative work led by our elder students! Cooperative work gives students the chance to share the responsibility to make choices, solve problems among themselves, and deal with conflicting ideas. First, the children worked in small groups, which were led by third years, making a plan for how they wanted to carve their pumpkins. Once the plan was made, then it was time to get their hands dirty! They worked as a team to empty all of the seeds out of the pumpkin and then carved out the design they brainstormed together. We have such a kindhearted, collaborative, and creative group of children in our class this year!

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 8th from 6:30-8:00pm.

This is a FWM entire family event.

Grab your “passport” and travel along with us as we visit countries near and far, sampling foods at each stop! This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures.

Middle School: A Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

With the excitement of Halloween, it was an energized week in Middle School. Costumes were top-notch for those who dressed up! This week’s cooking elective made three tasty treats for the Halloween party: a chocolate mousse cemetery, a black cat cake, and pumpkin pie muddy buddies. Aside from the festivities, classes were productive and insightful.

In Humanities, we had a writing-focused week. 6th years are writing their final piece for the empathy and compassion unit and using the knowledge from their descriptive writing lessons to enhance it. They are writing a multi-paragraph letter to the main character of Out of My Mind, Melody, and responding to a specific instance in the book they can personally relate to. The 7th years finished drafts of their multi-page persuasive papers for their Community project, the culmination of their unit on Utopian/Dystopian societies. 8th years have started each day with a mini-lesson, specific to a writing technique that is the applied to their personal narrative drafts.

The 6th and 8th year science classes have been busy working on their topography projects. Students used the glow forge to program, scan, and cut each layer to accurately represent elevations of their map. The 7th years represented Boyle’s and Charles’ Law (volume, pressure, temperature) using a variety of materials. Students were able to demonstrate Boyle’s Law by exerting pressure on a liquid and recording the decrease in volume of gas.

Math classes were busy this week. 6th years continued to work on fractions, 7th years are working to solve inequalities, and 8th years are solving inequalities as well as compound inequalities.

Thank you for your time, meeting with us during conferences. We greatly enjoyed discussing your child’s/children’s progress!

Global Culinary Night is Thursday, November 8th from 6:30-8:00pm.

This is a FWM entire family event.

Grab your “passport” and travel along with us as we visit countries near and far, sampling foods at each stop! This community event is for FWM families to gather together and share a unique dish from their cultural, ethnic, or regional background while also sampling dishes from other FWM families’ cultures.