We explored the WONDERFUL world of summary, which will take three class meetings. This first round involved reviewing what summaries are and why we do them. Some students had STRONG feelings about summary (negative, of course), so I encouraged them
Weekly Summary: Neutron and Electron Art
This week in art for both Neutrons and Electrons, we finished up our compositions that work with negative space as both the foreground focal point and as the background. Everybody’s projects turned out wonderful! Some students had a little extra
Gym: National Take a Hike Day
Yesterday was National Take a Hike Day, so we took full advantage and enjoyed a hike with each class. Electrons and Neutrons hiked to the place we have a mutual understanding is named Nature’s Playground. You likely know the spot
Gym: Relays, Red Light, Green Light
Both classes opened with great stretching and then a quick run around the pavilion and back. We moved into relays — bear crawls and crab crawls, and the winning team (in both classes) chose to finish up with a rousing
Nature Study: Cooperation
The previous week we talked about natural selection, and this past week we discussed a strategy that often arises out of natural selection: cooperation! First I lined them up on a clothesline and asked them to — while keeping their
Writing Workshop: Libraries vs. Museums
We spent the time listening to this episode of Smash Boom Best, a lively debate show. We all made notes as we listened, and paused it frequently so we could discuss the proceedings. We talked about debate and persuasion in general, hopefully in
Nature Study: Natural Selection
On Thursday we talked over camouflage and natural selection from the perspective of both predator and prey. For the first exercise, everyone got a paper bag and stuffed it with leaves, then we threw them in a pile and sorted
Nature Study: Rivers
Today we dove into rivers! We opened with an activity drawn from here, adapted for the younger crowd… We joined hands and made ourselves into a simple, winding river. We talked about the ways in which rivers move (and some silly
Personal Finance: Careers & Investing
The first week, we went through several personal inventories (interests, skills, values, etc) and discovered good career matches. The students didn’t have to choose one of these to build their future lives (and budget) on. Week 2, Elizabeth walked them
Gym: Power Words & Team Challenges
Please forgive me for not sending a gym recap sooner. Here’s the gist of what we’ve been up to so far this season. We started with a power word running activity the first official day of co-op to focus our