It has been such a great experience to begin the year with such enthusiasm. I love to instill the passion for Spanish in our children.

We are excited to have our own Spanish classroom for Middle School children. The students appreciate being able to switch classes and have something different this year and experience our special Spanish classroom setup.

We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the achievements and contributions of the Hispanic American Community. We also enjoyed exploring the different festivities around the world and learned how they celebrate and how they compare to our celebrations in the United States.

For the younger children, we had fun learning our greeting songs and playing games to keep them engaged. I’m very pleased to see their curious minds at work and how quickly they learned the new songs and words.

In the MakerSpace, our hands-on learners have been exploring the process of iterative design. Our makers have been testing and prototyping their solutions to complex design challenges. First up, our middle school students were tasked with creating a device to protect an egg from a long drop. The students were given the freedom to choose from recycled materials, self-designed and in-house 3D printed pieces, and laser cut components. The wide range of materials combined with the student’s unique thought processes resulted in a myriad of creative designs.

The “egg drop” challenge worked through the entire design process. Students had to think about the problem, make a plan of how they would approach it, and then test their ideas before making the final iteration. All the while, students were learning about 3D design, sourcing materials, and practicing teamwork. It was really fun to see the students’ out of the box thinking and I am so excited to be working with them in the MakerSpace this year!

The Lower and Upper Elementary students participated in and practiced skills associated with volleyball.  Students were taught the forearm pass (bump), the set, and the underhand and overhand serve. Volleyball is a team sport that can be played indoors, on grass, or at the beach. Playing volleyball has many benefits.  Playing volleyball will strengthen the upper body, arms and shoulders as well as the muscles of the lower body. Our main focus during the unit was to improve hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. The students learned and practiced with balloons, beach balls and soft volleyballs. Games that were played were, “Keep it Up,” “Four Square Volleyball,” and hitting the volleyballs over the net.  Lower nets were used to modify the game for student success.

Stories are a great way to acquire language. Pictures can be used to tell the story, while other vocabulary can be reinforced by asking children what they notice on each page. We read regularly in every class, allowing the opportunity to make connections, activate prior knowledge, and embrace new content. 

Recently, in Upper Elementary, we took our stories to a different level. We worked through the process of Storyasking, a technique used in TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). Storyasking is engaging for students, as they get to decide who the characters are, what they are like, and what happens throughout the story. The story is scaffolded by the instructor so that the students are able to stay in the target language, while also acquiring new vocabulary along the way. 

Upper Elementary students loved having ownership in the story, and they were very excited to retell the story with actions, complete word work with key vocabulary from the story, and even play a couple of engaging vocabulary games together.

In Art Humanities class, eighth year students created visual representations of Amanda Gorman’s poem titled, “The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country.” Each student chose a line or two from this poem to focus on, and were encouraged to imagine ways to express the feeling of the words using colors, shapes, figures, and other imagery. Students used a range of materials including acrylic paint, watercolor, pencil, and colored pencil. The results were beautiful and diverse; each student’s piece was unique to them while capturing what they felt expressed a specific theme or message in Amanda Gorman’s powerful, historic poem. Interpreting this poem using visual representation encouraged students to think critically about the poem’s meaning. Bravo young artists!!