Our first art class was dedicated to the study of colors. We started with a quick talk about everybody’s favorite color, and then read “Mix it up!” by Hervé Tullet together. Quarks enjoyed this interactive read, there was plenty of
Weekly Summary: Watercolor Leaves / Leaf anatomy & Photosynthesis – Quarks – Nature Study
This week the Quarks further dabbled into the topic of Autumn leaves . We reviewed why leaves change colors. Then touched on the process of photosynthesis and explored basic leaf parts . They looked through field guides to identify which
Weekly Summary: Week 2 – La Crosse – Quarks – Gym
Week 2 – Potawatomi, Pegnegewen (stickball) + DIY Lacrosse sticks We began Quarks gym with gathering at the far pavilion to look at real examples (thanks Vicki!) as well as images of La Crosse Sticks, discussed their function, forms and
Weekly Summary: Week 3 – Relay Race 10.19.23 – Quarks – Gym
This week began class with reading a traditional folktale of the Hmong; a group of indigenous people of Laos titled – “Nine-in-one, Grr! Grr!” by Blia Xiong. If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s a classic “trickster” tale that
Weekly Summary: Bodies and bridges / teamwork exercises – Quarks – Gym
We started class with warm up exercises moving our bodies in various forms : “as big as we can be” and “as small as we can be”. The kids then shared shapes they can make with their bodies, then we
Weekly Summary: Fall Leaves – Quarks – Nature Study
First week of co-op the Quarks were introduced to their nature journals . We will be exploring recording our findings in them the rest of the year . The week theme was Autumn leaves . We observed the color shades
Weekly Summary: Metal Tooling – Quarks – Art
Last week we experimented with metal tooling. Each kiddo created their own design on paper first. We then taped that over a piece of heavy gauge aluminum and used paint brush handles to trace over that design effectively embossing the
Weekly Summary: Rocks – Quarks – STEM
We continued our rock discussions this week. We began with a classification activity where they had to cut and paste pictures of rocks and decide if they were igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary. There were some healthy discussions about how how
Weekly Summary: Agriculture – Quarks – Nature Study
Today we talked about plants in a very particular context: as crops! I brought some compostable trays with multiple compartments, and these were the “farms” — each of the compartments being a different field. I made up a story about
Weekly Summary: Shadows – Quarks – STEM
What better way to embrace the sunshine than to study shadows today? We started out discussing what we knew about shadows. And low and behold these little smarties knew all the facts I was going to give them. They did