Liz & Meridith's Class
We are using the bitter cold weather as a jumping off point to understand how life is in the polar regions. Suddenly Ithaca feels sunny and warm. Inside the classroom the children are on fire, taking on new academic challenges and exploring new ideas. The Extended Day children are all doing research papers on either penguins or whales and teaching their facts to other children. In the Science area we are experimenting and making our own discoveries about magnetism, buoyancy, reflection, refraction and balance.
We were especially focused on our Peace curriculum as we prepared for the MLK all school assembly. The children from all three classrooms met each day to read, sing, and learn about the Civil Rights Movement and the many important people who worked and are working for change. At the assembly each Extended Day child spoke a line with confidence into the microphone, giving a lesson to the older children and adults in our community and then lead the school in song.
This is what they said:
We are learning that some laws and rules hurt people and need to be changed. It’s painful to learn that there are laws and many things are done to hurt African Americans. But it is important for us to keep learning and interrupting actions and laws that hurt. Segregation laws enforced separation of black and white people in public places such as schools, busses, pools, restrooms, restaurants, and many other places. The Civil Rights Movement was during the 1950s and 60s. Many African Americans and some white people decided to work together and organize to try to change these laws. However it’s important to remember that African Americans have been fighting against unfair laws and actions before and after the civil right movement.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of these people. He was a gifted writer, orator, preacher and motivational speaker. He spoke for many people working with him who believed in using peaceful methods to change laws. MLK day is an American federal holiday on the third Monday of January to commemorate his birthday. Today we also want to remember that there were many many more people. Rosa Parks was an activist best known for her role in the Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott.
We now want to teach you about some important people that you may never have heard of. Malcolm X taught African Americans that to make change they must first learn to love themselves. He inspired and organized people to build black communities and supported black businesses. He preached that you must protect yourself in the face of violence by any means necessary.
Angela Davis is a professor of women’s rights, African American rights and the history of people in jail. She talks about the importance of many people working together to make change. Angela Davis believes we should focus on education and building strong communities to solve social problems. Angela Davis says “I am no longer accepting the things I can not change, and I am changing the things I can not accept.”
You’re never too young to become an activist! Ruby Bridges started at age 6 when she was the first African American child to go to the all - white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Ruby was extremely bright and an excellent student. When she went to school she was surrounded by anger, threats and protests. In fact the white parents of the school refused to send their children to school and she was alone in her classroom. Ruby required an escort of federal marshals on all sides to keep her safe as she walked into the school. Today Ruby Bridges lives in New Orleans. Ruby says that “Racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it.” That means that we as children have a lot to teach adults.
There were brilliant leaders who lived right here in Ithaca! Dorothy Cotton moved here in 1982 and died 6 months ago at the age of 88. She worked alongside Martin Luther King and was considered one of the most important heroes of the civil rights movement. Dorothy Cotton taught children and adults to organize, work together, march, and become good citizens. Many consider her biggest achievement to be the Citizen Education Program, a program to help African Americans have the education necessary to vote. Dorothy Cotton was respected and loved by many for her intelligence, strength, humor, and love for music. She loved singing and believed that music had the power to bring people together. In her honor we listen to her speak in this video and sing along with her.
I’m gonna do what the spirit says do
I’m gonna do what the spirit says do
When the spirit says do I’m gonna do oh lord
I’m gonna do what the spirit says do
I’m gonna vote cuz the spirit says vote…
I’m gonna march cuz the spirit says march...
I’m gonna jail cuz the spirit says jail...
I’m gonna sing cuz the spirit says vote
I’m gonna speak cuz the spirit says vote
I’m gonna change cuz the spirit says vote
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Virginia & Leah's Class
During these cold dark days, we have certainly brightened things up in our classroom. We continue to learn more and more about our classroom pets. There’s Ernie the Rosy Boa who children enjoy viewing feeding time and watching him slither slowly around his vivarium. Kipling the Bearded Dragon who we take out in a small group and take turns feeding mealworms; boy can he really move fast when he’s hungry! We also have Toasty the Guinea Pig who, in addition to getting fed treats quite regularly, is now a star character in a short story written and illustrated by students in our class! And, last but not least, is our Betta Fish, Opal. He is the most mellow being in our class, although we’re considering trying to teach him tricks. We’ll update you in the future.
We were also very fortunate to have a beekeeper's hive visit the classroom for an entire week! We spent some time each and everyday learning a little more about the world of bees and how they are connected to life everywhere. We even saw some pictures and saw a few short videos from when a bee colony was making an effort to take over Virginia’s basement! Exciting stuff!!!
In addition to all of sounds practice, word building, math exploration, and sensory experiences that abound our days, we’ve been learning a bit about the physical sciences of magnets, lights, and weight. Deciphering whether objects will sink or float when placed in water, sorting objects that are either magnetic or not magnetic, and trying to balance equal or different amounts on our classroom scale are all activities being practiced everyday.
We have really been enjoying all of the family pictures that have made their way in. If we haven’t received one from your family yet, please try to make this happen or let us know if we can help in any way! We want to start group time sharing about people’s families and it would be great for everyone to be a part of it! Thank you!!!
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Donyan & Becca's Class
Winter is upon us! The snowy, wintery weather has been met with much excitement from our class. A favorite song has been “Build a Little Snowman” and many children have enjoyed building snowmen of their own on the playground. We have also had a lot of fun creating paper snowflakes to decorate our classroom.
In addition to our preparation for Festival of Light celebration of Lunar New Year, we have been studying the continent of Europe. We have been learning about where Europe is on the globe, what countries are there, and what animals live on that continent. A particularly popular topic of study has been the parts of a castle, and the children love to build castles of their own out of blocks.
In science, we have been learning how to sort recycling, compost, and landfill waste. The children take this task very seriously and are beginning to notice when recycling and compost have been mistakenly placed in our trash can. We have also been studying animal tracks and how to identify them.
With routines thoroughly established and the winter holidays behind us, we have entered a time of year where a lot of focused learning takes place. It is truly a joy to observe the progress that all of the children have made - academically, socially, etc. - since September.
You may have heard that we commemorated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day last Friday with an all-school assembly. We prepared all week by discussing some important figures in the Civil Rights movement, such as MLK, Ruby Bridges, and Rosa Parks. Children at this age tend to focus a lot on fairness in their daily lives, and so it was easy for many of them to relate to the unfairness of segregation. Admittedly, some of these discussions were uncomfortable; after all, there is a natural inclination to try to keep children “innocent” for as long as possible. Unfortunately, however, our nation’s history is far from innocent. In order to raise a generation of peacemakers who can go forth and create a more just and equitable world, we must talk early and often about institutionalized racism and prejudice - both past and present - and, importantly, express our ardent objections to it. If you want to talk to your children about these issues but aren’t sure where to start, we would be happy to talk with you about how we do it in the classroom.
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Dawn & Katri’s Class
Welcome 2019! We spent much of December preparing for our presentation at the annual Festival of Light. This year we joined Deb and Becky’s class and learned about the Hindu festival of Diwali. We were fortunate to have Veena’s parents and dance teacher join us for an afternoon. They shared about Diwali traditions from different regions of India, taught us a diya dance and brought a couple of craft projects: clay diyas and rangoli designs. Veena’s mother also came back with a collection of beautiful traditional dresses for some of the children to wear at the Festival of Light. We were honored to close the celebration with our dance of lights, ending with the peace chant - Om, shanti, shanti, shanti.
Since coming back to school in January, we first had to prepare for our Demonstration Night. It was wonderful as always; the children had fun choosing lessons to present and practicing with their classmates as well as students from Extended Day and Upper Level, and of course it is always great to have so many families attend and support their children at the evening event.
After demo night, we moved right back into our anti-bias curriculum and began having conversations about discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice. Part of our work led to research by the third years about little known African American inventors, which was presented first to their younger peers and then to the whole student body at our Martin Luther King, Jr. assembly. The results of this labor are on display in the front hall. Take a moment to acquaint yourself with these amazing innovators!
We have also been moving onto new explorations in math, geometry, geography and word study and reviewing those from the past. Imaginary island, the land and water form mat, and the rock cycle. Suffixes, capitalization, and logical analysis of sentences. Golden mat subtraction, Checkerboard multiplication, test tube division, and geometric form of multiplication. Angles, quadrilaterals and circles. Whew!
Next up, we will be shifting our cosmic focus to the birth of our Earth some 4,500,000,000 years ago. This study of the Earth will be the basis of our history curriculum for the next few months.
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Deb & Becky's Class
Happy New Year! Our class returned to school from winter break rejuvenated and ready to dive back into lessons!
Our studies in History have brought us deep into the Earth’s layers and the rocks and minerals that make up the Earth’s crust. We began our study of the geological Timeline of our Earth with the Hadeon and Archean Eons - the formation of the crust, the oceans and the tectonic plates.
As we shifted our focus to the Earth and her inhabitants, we began our study of the Five Kingdoms with the most ancient and simplest of organisms - the prokaryotes. We then moved to the Eukaryotes, beginning by looking at the great diversity among the protists. The children enjoyed looking at samples of the ‘invisible world’ under a microscope. We will soon move on to ‘nature’s recyclers’ and discuss their importance to our world.
In geography our studies have focused on the various land and water forms that make up our earth. The older children are using their familiarity with these forms to create their own “imaginary island” complete with islands, waterfalls and fjords!
Our budding writers are feeling quite proud as they finish their Time of Day books. It has been quite remarkable to watch them marvel at their own growth, both as writers and as artists, since the beginning of the year.
We hope you enjoyed Demonstration Night as much as we did. The process that our student teachers go through in preparation for their presentations is quite inspirational. Each child picks a lesson to give, creates a lesson plan and then practices the lesson enough to feel comfortable enough to present to everyone. The beauty lies in not the lesson itself, but in the character of the child who brings their full self to what they are doing. Truly admirable!
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Melani & Sophia's Class
Winter is upon us, and our classroom feels busy, cozy, and vibrant. Along with the snow, January brings long, uninterrupted stretches of work time to our classroom, to dive into big history lessons, science experiments and new math concepts. The community is a peaceful and productive one, with children beautifully managing their own work, and learning to respectfully resolve conflicts as they arise. Our Monday morning “Life Talk,” is a time for children to reconvene, and share thoughts and experiences from over the weekend. This is a special time in our classroom, as the children practice sharing from the heart, and actively listening to their classmates.
Time of Day books are finished! And this brings an opportunity for the children to read their work aloud, and to give each other constructive feedback. We are practicing giving specific compliments such as, “the colors you painted the sky are really vibrant,” rather than “I liked it.” The children’s pride, sense of accomplishment, and admiration for each other is palpable as they share their hard work with each other. Now we move onto story writing, with a focus on beginning, middle, and end, character development, plot, and setting.
In preparation for the Festival of Lights this year, our class chose to study Christmas around the World. We researched the Christmas Story, and talked about the significance of the birth of Jesus in Christianity. We then researched Christmas traditions from different nations, such as the Philippines, Nigeria, China, Guatemala, Germany and the Ukraine. Our contribution to the Festival centered around the children’s own research, and it was exciting for them to share what they’d learned with the larger community.
For demonstration night students prepared to share their expertise on a favorite Montessori work with family and friends. Demonstration night is a time for children to gain mastery of a specific material, as well as to practice public speaking. Test tubes, science experiments, puzzle maps, and the Clock of Eons, were just a few of the lessons the children presented. It was wonderful to welcome families into our classroom for this special evening!
Martin Luther King Jr. Day propelled the junior level into a study of inventors and innovators of color. Our lions completed research about different African-American inventors, and were excited to educate the class about what they’d learned. At our all school assembly we thanked and honored these innovators, many of whom have been ignored, misrepresented or written out of history. Thank you to Dr. Valerie Thomas, Garrett Morgan, Alfred L. Cralle, and Marie Van Brittan Brown for bringing us the 3-D movie, the fire safety hood, the traffic light, the ice cream scoop, and the home security system!
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Upper Level
January means research paper, STEM project, and Language Arts units on African American History.
Students arrived back the first day from vacation to discover which of their research choices they would be pursuing. First years and students new to the project spent a morning or afternoon at the public library finding just the right resources. In the following days we developed guiding questions and started the note taking process. Students have worked through their first resource. Many students have daily plans to help them chunk out this long term assignment. Thursdays is our day to meet in research groups to check in on progress, have a work time and get the next lessons on the process. We encourage students to keep resources in school for these work periods and only carry one book back and forth to home.
Our first full week of the New Year we reconnect with a STEM project. Teams of students led by third years were tasked with building roller coasters. We discussed potential and kinetic energy, acceleration and friction and set teams to brainstorm, design, build and test their creations with the goals of creating the longest track possible on their support structure and keeping their marble in motion for the longest amount of time. Teams built supporting structures with columns, beams and diagonal supports. The next task was to construct track with straights and curves. Teams exhibited great creative ingenuity incorporating funnels, loops and half pipes. The culmination of the project was first EACMSI Roller Coaster Rally, where teams showcased their designs- in action.
In Language Arts each year has begun its study of African American history. Rich discussions fill the air in each room with topics such as the whitewashing of history, the Civil Rights Movement and understanding that the fight for equality continues today in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Upper Level parents are invited to our informational meeting on Tuesday, February 5th at 7 in the Annex (Upper Level) about our Big Trip to Boston in May.
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Middle School
In addition to a busy academic schedule in December, the Middle School engaged in a variety of big, complex community service activities as well. Components of our Occupations Curriculum, we prepared for and ran our second Coffee Shop December 6th, set up, hosted and broke down the Holiday Bazaar December 7th and held our second Community Lunch on the 12th. Each of these opportunities allowed students to develop and hone skills, apply their learning, collaborate, problem solve and serve their school and wider community. Middle School students also played essential roles in setting up and breaking down the chairs, boughs, lights and other infrastructure for the Winter Concert and Festival of Lights. This service is a source of pride and satisfaction for Middle School students whose hard work, care and efficiency is acknowledged and appreciated by administration, faculty and staff.
A special aspect of our work in December was the role that the Middle School played in serving people outside our school community. For many years, we have supported families served by The Advocacy Center. December’s Coffee Shop and the Holiday Bazaar were both dedicated to raising funds to support twelve families this holiday season. Both ventures held important meaning for students. Knowing that they were raising money to provide gifts and holiday cheer for folks experiencing hardship at this time, Middle School students approached the focused, persistent work it takes to plan and implement these multifaceted events with a deep sense of purpose. During the Holiday Bazaar, Middle School students did a beautiful job supporting younger students as they made their selections, acting as clerks, cashiers and bagger/wrappers, each step of the way honoring their younger schoolmates' earnest efforts to find items for family members.
We’re grateful to the school community for supporting the Coffee Shop and Holiday Bazaar so enthusiastically. Through students’ and parents’ active participation, we raised $1,600! We are also immensely thankful to Upper Level for making the decision to contribute proceeds of their Halloween Carnival to this effort; with their donation, it pushed our funds over $2000. With these proceeds, the entire Middle School shopped at Target Monday morning, December 17. Working from lists provided by Advocacy Center staff, students were offered a budget to work within and endeavored to stretch each dollar to best satisfy the needs and wishes of each family. The week before this outing Patrice Jennings provided her annual lesson on shopping at a big box store, background that was put to good use by students as they consciously navigated the commercial landscape expertly set up to lure customers into unnecessary impulse purchases. Returning from the store, students received a lesson in three-dimensional geometry applied to gift wrapping as they worked to conserve wrapping paper and tape in the process of lovingly preparing a beautiful, festive collection of gifts.
These were rich opportunities for our middle schoolers to step outside their own lives, consider the needs of others and be of service. Service is one the tenets of our Montessori middle school program. Prepared well by the broad, deep curriculum in the younger classrooms here at EAC, our middle schoolers are poised to act with usefulness and agency in the world.
Returning from Winter Break, we’ve hit the ground running. January has seen us dive into a deep exploration of race and Civil Rights history. Using excerpts of the film “Race the Power of an Illusion” as a departure point, students considered race from biological and cultural perspectives to appreciate how race is socially constructed. With that frame, students could better understand the concept of systematic, institutionalized racism as we watched excerpts of Eyes on the Prize and pursued research of historical advances and setbacks in civil rights in the United States. Our presentation for the annual MLK Day assembly was based on a study of “white-lashes”, a term coined by Van Jones following the 2016 presidential election, documenting racially-motivated challenges to civil rights successes and advancements. Students developed text and found images to share in a slide presentation accompanied by the entire Middle School singing the iconic social justice anthem “If I Had a Hammer”.
In science, our botany studies of the fall have given way to a study of weather and climate. You’ll see some pictures of students at work in the lab, conducting a variety of experiments meant to parallel processes at work in our atmosphere. Occupations continues apace and you’ll see students at work in the “woodshop”, garden and kitchen. We’ll be launching a study of Shakespeare in the days to come, so next time perhaps some pictures of that!
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Music with Linda Chen
Extended Day children have engaged themselves with singing, dancing, and playing instruments in their music classes. They enjoyed singing the songs with various movement activities, and were able to accompany songs through the use of non-pitched percussion instruments. Children in Extended Day read and listened to a great story and music called, “Run, Run!” from Memories of Childhood by Octavio Pinto. This is the story of a lazy cat and a running mice. The children had the opportunity to choose either to a cat or a mouse while listening to the music. Through movement, they experienced joy, freedom, rhythm, and a unity of music. We also explored singing Mi-Sol melody vocally. Already, they are developing a repertoire of songs and an ability to use musical singing voices, as well as enriching their rhythmic coordination ability. We will continue to explore on other musical concepts, as well as learn a variety of songs as the school year goes on.
The Junior Level children have studied a variety of musical concepts and vocabulary through songs: rhythm (short/long), pitch (high/low), melody (downward/upward), and dynamics (loud/soft). They developed a repertoire of songs/chants and an ability to use musical singing voices, as well as enriched their rhythmic coordination skill. “Pumpkin Soup” and “Boom Chicka Boom” and “Grizzly Bear” were our favorite! We also explored different sounds of the instruments and learned how to use the non-pitched instruments as an accompaniment for many songs. We played triangles, finger cymbals, drums, rhythm sticks, and claves. Stories and books offered us a great opportunity to integrate storytelling with creative body movements, singing, and instrument playing. These included “Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type” and “Peter and the Wolf”.
Upper Level First Year students showed great enthusiasm dancing to the Native American chants/songs. We gathered around in a small circle as we practiced our dance steps and spins. Many of them enjoyed keeping the beats with the drums, shakers, and bells while others danced. Did You Hear Wind Sing your Name?: An Oneida Song of Spring” offered us a great opportunity to integrate storytelling with body movements and playing instruments. We engaged a number of different instruments to create a carpet of sound while reading the story. Second Year students continued to develop more complex musical concepts such as rhythm (4 sixteenth,1 eighth & 2 sixteenth, 2 sixteenth & 1 eighth) and syncopation. Singing “J’entends Le Moulin” and “Funga Alafia (Song of Welcome), simple ostinato patterns were performed on the drums, claves, finger cymbals, and triangles to the group. Complementing their study on the Medieval and Renaissance, the Third Year students explored Renaissance dancing in many different styles. We moved to Handel’s “Sarabanda”, which was in triple meter, slow, and smooth with a binary form. Singing, “Jubilate Deo”. We enjoyed singing this song in many different ways: unison and rounds.
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We thank you for all you do; our collective engagement allows us to steward the lives of children in a meaningful way.
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