This week, the children are finishing up their landscape pictures in art class. This project was inspired by Wolf Kahn, a German born American artist. Kahn is known best for his work with warm and cool colors using pastels and oil paint. Before the children started their own landscape paintings, they took time studying Kahn and observing a variety of his works. Afterwards they produced their own wintry twist based on Kahn’s art work.

In Maker Space, the second years are working with Ms. Ulacco on making a cardboard city. The children are learning to plan, collaborate, and then create using the Glowforge. The process starts with picking what type of building they want to design. Then they are tasked with sketching their idea, outlining in permanent marker, and then submitting for print on the laser cutter (The Glowforge). Assembly is next!

During PE class the first and second years enjoyed a friendly game of castle ball. The objective of this game is to knock the other team’s “castle” down. Once the castle is knocked over the children build it back together and continue the game. The children work together as a team while practicing both offense and defense skills. It also allows students to focus on passing and blocking while sharing strategies with one another.

We had an exciting week in Lower Elementary. On Wednesday, the children wrapped up their Writer’s Workshop unit on Personal Narratives with a publishing party. Each child had the chance to share his/her writing with the class and most of the children proudly read their stories aloud, showing their illustrations to their friends and teachers. During this first unit, each child published at least one piece of writing and many published two or three! They are very enthusiastic about their writing and often don’t want to stop when it is time to move on to another activity. It is so wonderful to see their enthusiasm blossoming!

We believe in the importance of movement and, in addition to starting our day with movement, we regularly incorporate it into our day in between lessons and during transitions. This week we enjoyed doing some yoga poses led by first year students. We practiced a combination of traditional and invented poses. The children loved it! There is naturally a lot of movement throughout the work cycle. Children move from working on the floor to a table and back to the floor again, as they like. We have now provided an option for the children to do their work at a standing desk and several children enjoyed doing some of their work while standing this week.

We start every morning with a community gathering. During this time, the children are enjoying practicing the songs they’ve learned in music class for our upcoming holiday concert. Thank you, Ms. Kim, for sharing your beautiful piano accompaniments with our class!

On Tuesday, we had a four legged friend come to visit. Aris, a Newtown K9 came to show off a few tricks with Officer Felicia and Officer Matt. The children were thrilled to hear that he’s only two years old and has already caught two bank robbers! Thank you for your service, Officers Aris, Felicia, and Matt.

We are continuing to work hard as the holidays are fast approaching. In geometry, the first years had a blast listening to the “Love Story of the Lines” while learning about convergent, divergent and parallel lines. Then, they used the Box of Sticks to demonstrate their understanding. After learning about the common protractor last week, the second years are working on measuring angles with a common protractor. Last but not least, the third years enjoyed their supplementary angles lesson.

“One by one, we count our blessings as we come to share this bread. Let us gather ’round the table, join our hands, and bow our heads. May our hearts always be thankful for the gifts that we receive. One by one, we count our blessings with our friends and family.” -John Farrell

Last week was a beautiful celebration of all we are thankful for. We spent last Monday baking bread together with the generous donations and help from our wonderful parents. Special thanks to Magda, Christine, and Tameria for spending their morning working with the children. On Tuesday, we shared with each other as a class that we are thankful for many things. Among the most mentioned were: family, friends, our homes, the Earth, enough food, and our school. Wednesday was spent at our Thanksgiving ceremony. We gave thanks with a poem and a song before sharing bread with all of the children in the school.

Our daily, uninterrupted work cycle has many benefits. It allows the opportunity for children to learn to concentrate, work on tasks until completion, and to participate in the planning of the work they will complete each day. They learn to work cooperatively with peers at their own grade level as well as younger and older children. This time also allows us to work individually with each child, giving lessons and providing guidance and help as needed with their work. It is also this work cycle that provides us with the ability to individualize math, spelling, and language lessons. The children have been hard at work this week, happily working with friends and independently.