Liz & Meridith's Class
We are diving into Australia. As we study land and water forms in the Science area, we realize that Australia is the largest island on planet earth and home to many remarkable animals. kangaroos and koalas are both marsupials, carrying their young in pockets until they are ready to venture out on their own. Kookaburras are birds that have a call sounding like a laugh. And what could be more amazing than the egg-laying platypus with the mouth of a duck, the body of an otter, and the tail of a beaver.
Maria Montessori believed in respecting a child’s play as their work. Some question why she didn’t focus on pretend play. The reason is that during the Primary years of 3-6 the child has so much to learn about the real word. When we are teaching about Australia, we see the child’s curiosity and imagination grow. What could be more fantastical than the kangaroo, koala, kookaburra and platypus.
This week in our Science area we started our study of outer space. It’s amazing to think of traveling high above the earth’s surface and looking at our planet. If we look carefully we will notice that Australia is also home to the amazing Great Barrier Reef, a coral reef so large that it can be seen from outer space. We are learning the names of all the planets in our solar system and appreciating constellations. We recently learned that one of our grandparents was involved with the Apollo space mission and we will be inviting him in for a visit.
We want to thank all the parents for constructive parent teacher conferences. We developed new insights into the children and we hope you left feeling the same.
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Virginia & Leah's Class
Spring has now unwrapped the flowers Day is fast reviving
Life and all her growing power Toward the light is striving
Gone the iron touch of cold Winter time and frost time Seedlings breaking through the mold Now make up for lost time
We’ve been a fortunate community to have a few days that were warm enough to enjoy a second recess already this season! And, although, the above “Spring Carol” song isn’t being seen in full, we are well aware that Spring is indeed here! Children are anticipating walks to look for signs of Spring and are asking regularly about 2nd recess. We can’t wait for the pollywogs and buds; the tulips and the pussy willows; the ‘no snow pants’ and ease of getting dressed to play!
It was delightful meeting with parents for conferences. Thank you for rearranging your schedules so that we could spend that brief amount of time together sharing information and stories about your children. We are sad to see some of our amazing group of kids move away from our EAC community, but are going to completely embrace and treasure the rest of the time we have to share with those children. And, we couldn’t be happier to continue growing our school community throughout the rest of this year and into the next. It seems unreal that some of them that started here together will one day give graduations speeches in the gym and transition into public high school together... but, how quickly time flies!
With the announcement of our 2019 EAC play - FROZEN - we are greatly anticipating that our young one’s will have quite the experience singing along this year! We’re going to really get our classroom into singing these songs and maybe even doing some performing! Then, when they see the play, there will be more excitement in the audience than anyone will have ever known! We can’t wait!!!
What an exciting Spring we have to look forward to.
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Donyan & Becca's Class
Spring is in the air! Although we've had very few days that could be considered warm, the children are already enjoying escape from the bitter throes of winter, occasionally even being able to forgo hats and gloves during recess. Now that we have passed the vernal equinox, we all seem to have a bit more spring in our step thanks to the infusion of vitamin D into our systems. And, lo and behold, illness seems to be winding down as well.
One of the most popular activities over the past few weeks has been push-pinning maps. This is an activity that is quite time consuming. It offers an opportunity to develop concentration, organization, time management, finger strength and dexterity, and the grit to persevere when it takes “forever” to complete. Sometimes they even learn a bit about geography in the process! If and when your child brings home a completed map, please be sure to acknowledge all of the time and effort that was put into it, in addition to its beauty.
We are currently winding down our study of Asia. The children have been enthusiastic about the animals of Asia, and have been delighted to share information with each other about them. They have also been making a plethora of paper lanterns and origami dogs. We will begin to delve into our study of Australia next week.
In science, the children are learning about land and water forms, which are introduced in complementary pairs. For example, lake and island are introduced together, as are bay and peninsula. They love to pour water into our land and water form models to explore and experience the differences firsthand. Also, back by popular demand - skeleton and parts of the body materials! We received so many requests about this ever popular topic that we decided to “follow the child” and put them back on the shelf for further exploration.
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Dawn & Katri’s Class
Spring has officially sprung! We celebrated the vernal equinox by drinking refreshing maple sap, balancing an egg on its end and exploring our earth’s seasonal relationship to the sun. Now we are just waiting for warmer weather!
To keep ourselves busy we are:
Outside…
- Soaking up sunshine whenever we can,
- Looking for signs of spring,
- Collecting litter from our field of dreams,
- Refurbishing forts,
- Stomping in mud,
- Playing all kinds of games.
Inside…
- Celebrating our successes with a super fun celebration day,
- Finishing research papers, short and long,
- Writing personal narratives,
- Finishing our Picturing Writing stories in preparation for the art show,
- Telling and hearing stories of Earth and its eons (Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic, Phanerozoic),
- Looking at our human history of creating signs and communication,
- Peering through a microscope at primitive protoctista,
- Watching the middle schoolers put on production of A Midsummer Night's Dream,
- Looking forward to a visit from Rosemary Wells (author/illustrator extraordinaire and Phoebe’s grandma),
- Thinking about plants and their properties.
We are visiting...
- Other classrooms for lunch dates,
- A bakery at Cornell,
- An alpaca farm in Trumansburg,
- The library every Friday for new literary finds,
- And Upper Level, if you're a Lion!
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Deb & Becky's Class
Weather paintings and poems in Picturing Writing
Equinox and the lengthening of the day
Looking at the animals and people of the biomes of the world
Caring for our environment with a classroom ‘no trash’ policy
One o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock, four . . . practicing reading time to different intervals and calculating elapsed time
Memorizing math facts
Enjoying our friends and the promise of warm weather
Singing for ‘Frozen,Jr.’ auditions
Paleozoic Era - the Ages of Invertebrates, Fish, and Amphibians
Rocks, minerals, and fossils
Interesting works everywhere, industrious students
Naming land and water forms and creating an imaginary island
Grammar - adverbs and conjunctions
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Melani & Sophia's Class
It was wonderful to see parents at conferences this month, and to share some of your children’s incredible work with you. Their productivity and excitement continue to amaze us. We have been honing in on math fact memorization and practice, and the children are enjoying skip counting and playing math fact games as a whole group. We are introducing and reviewing fractions, and the children are working with measurement, money, and time, in addition to the four basic operations. The classroom is full of mathematical knowledge, conversations, and connections.
In History we have moved into our study of the Phanerozoic Eon, or the evolution of all life on earth. Children are now able to recreate and draw the Timeline of Life, and to discuss the difference between Eons, Eras, Ages, Periods, and Epochs! In the coming weeks we will dive into the Paleozoic Era and the Age of Invertebrates. The children will study each of the different phyla of invertebrates, and will complete research at their own level about invertebrates that fascinate them.
Our two latest read aloud, Punished, and The Number One Car Spotter, have been great successes. Reading aloud gives the children opportunities to question, visualize, make connections and notice windows and mirrors of the characters’ lives.
The Big day this month was the reveal of the all school musical. By now, we’re sure you know it’s Frozen Jr.!! Auditions for TIgers and Lions were held last Thursday and Scripts with CD’s were handed out today! If your child is a cast member please listen to the CD in the car and at home, so that your child hears the music repeatedly. Please read the script with them to support them to know the story before the read-through on April 10th.
Bears will also be involved in an end of the year play. The topic and process will be revealed toward the end of May.
Hopefully the snow will end and mud season will arrive again. We are working to reduce plastic bag use, so we will no longer be sending muddy clothes in recycled shopping bags. If you send in a cloth bag, we will gladly use it to transport muddy clothes/clean clothes to and from school. Thank you in advance for the changes we are all making to support reducing plastic bag use.
Hopefully, the sun will shine and dry the playing field and its warmth will coax new flowers and plants. Our study of Kingdom Plantae will resume!!
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Upper Level
This is a very busy time of year in all curricular areas. The research project focus now is in revising written drafts and completing a professional, polished final paper which is due April 2. Students are recognizing that they have become experts in their chosen topics.
In Science, the first years are learning to decode the secret to the Universe: the elements of the Periodic Table! They understand the organization of the elements and their personalities- from those temperamental alkali metals to the rather snobbish noble gases, and everyone in between.
In second year Life Science, students have moved through three kingdoms, learning about the value of bacteria and fungi to our planet. They have created their dances of the protists. By collecting samples from various surfaces in the classroom, we have discovered that the water fountain has much more bacteria growing on it than even the bathroom toilets! Also “a clean dish” might not be so clean. We are working on our dishwashing skills.
In third year Human Biology, our “medical students” have begun to share their lessons and presentations in their areas of specialty. We explored the nervous system and how information moves from one nerve cell to another. Next we learned about the bones in the axial and appendicular skeletons and the parts of a long bone. Our gastroenterologists explained how the body takes in food and the organs that help the body use it. We have an understanding of how our pulmonary system supports the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. In addition to learning the functions and parts of skin and nails, there was a discussion of common skin diseases such as acne and skin cancer. In the next weeks, we will hear about the cardiac system and infectious diseases.
In Upper Level, the study of geography explores earth science. The oldest students have been looking at map making and types of maps. Using a concrete material, they have constructed contour maps of an imaginary island. They have created their own imaginary islands with various land and water features. Now they are revisiting the idea of a food chain/web as they research appropriate plants, animals and fungi to inhabit their islands. The second years had an introduction to oceans and spent a morning at the Museum of the Earth to learn about coral reefs- “the rainforests of the ocean”, their significance to ocean life and their decline due to human activity and the issue of coral bleaching.
First year students will be exploring the characteristics of minerals and examine a collection of “mystery minerals” attempting to classify them based on exploring each of the 7 properties.
In Math Strategy, students have been applying methods such as drawing a picture/making a model, acting it out, guess and check and looking at patterns as ways to solve word problems. In Geometry 1, students have been measuring angles with a protractor as well as bisecting angles with their compasses. They have been proving that the three angles in any acute triangle equals 180 degrees. Third year students have begun their Raspberry Pi & Programming Unit led by Deb Adams, who joins us each Thursday morning. This valuable opportunity gives each third year hands on experience with basic coding in Python.
This is also an exciting time of year for us as the Junior Level Lions have begun to visit for part of a day to experience what Upper Level is like in preparation for their transition next year. Soon we will also have a joint lunch for UL 1s and JL Lions to ask questions and share advice. April 25th is our Research Fair and we would love to invite Junior Level families, especially the Lions, to come and see what students have learned through this big term project.
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Middle School
Dr. Nia Nunn visited the Middle School twice this past month, the reverberations of her heel tapping and finger snapping reminding our students to listen deeply to each other, share deeply of themselves, and breathe deeply to regain center. As a seasoned activist and teacher for social justice, Dr. Nunn brought activities that strengthen the work we have done around identity and creating a community of conscience. Dialogue about self-talk and actualization led to rich discussion of cultural norms around verbalizing personal strengths and humility. After her first visit, Dr. Nunn left the students with an assignment: to read examples of poems that bring home culture into the classroom: For my People and Where I’m from poems; and then to write their own poem or about an object from home with personal cultural significance. During Dr. Nunn’s second visit, each middle schooler shared what they had written with their peers, first standing to recite loudly and clearly across the circle they formed. Snaps of appreciation followed each recitation, with only seconds of silence preceding the next. Like popcorn they each took their turn. What follows is a sample of the poems shared.
Casper Fox
I am from Ithaca, NY
I am from the woods and the wilds
I am from dusty old libraries and places filled with art
I am from cool tea sipped under the hot sun
I am from cold, whispering winter winds
I am from the silence after rain
I am from a house with a little fluffy dog, always licking, always playing
I am from video games and classic movies
I am Casper
Alexa Martin
I am from skiing
From basketball, and horseback riding
I am from my household, loving and loyal
From my messy room,
and “the chair” that’s always full of clothes
I am from the daffodil
That blooms every day
I am from family traditions
From microwave meals, peanut butter blossoms
I am from taco Tuesday and key lime pie
From “hurry up!” and “love you Lulu”
Baked ziti and polenta
I am from Afton Golf Course
My kind and loving sister
I am from the Miami Dolphins,
From my year in Marseille
I am from travel, and packing small suitcases
From my pets, Chloe and Luna
I am from Marvel, and SNL skits
From sailing in the BVI
I am from Psych with my sister
And AOS with my friends
I am from the fight for women’s rights
And from the snakes in the grass
I am from pineapple juice
And the willow that fell
I’m from the pictures on the wall
I am from everything, big and small
Fiona G-K
I am from living room dance parties, and a house full of cooking
I am from a giant family
I am from people who live life for others and devote themselves to people in need
I am from Catholics, and many games of hide and seek
I am from academic perfection and determination, competition beyond what you could ever think
I am from athleticism and many games of Frisbee
I am from football Sundays, and, have I mentioned food?
I am from messiness and fighting,
I am from disagreements, slammed doors, but most importantly
I am from kindness, and passion, and fighting for what you deserve, and standing up for what you believe in no matter the cost
I am from LOVE
Julian B.
I am from paper
From joyful books and homework
I am from a warm hearth
A place that is always comfortable and loving
I am from scones, a long time to make
But the reward is worth the wait
I am from snuggling and blankets
Always warm on the inside, no matter what is happening on the outside
I am from loud family around a table
From jokes and playful teasing
I am from planning the next meal
During the one we are at
Always looking forward to what we will do next
I am from loud stories and laughter
Talking about the day (or the next)
I am from Password and Trivial Pursuit
From those games and many others more
I am from “I love you” and always the same reply
“I love you too” and I can see why
Tess Mc Lafferty
I am from dog leashes
From sporting bags and bookcases
Yards full of lacrosse and soccer balls
Stone paths leading from each room
Dog bones so many they could make a wall
Trees that could touch the moon
I am from all the sunset walks at the park
Ms. Elizabeth’s Halloween décor straight out of a movie
The secret waterfall that should have been Cornell’s trademark
From the nearby old movie star home that was once very groovy
I am from Grandpa Fred and Grandma Tibby
From Uncle Avigit’s Indian accent to my aunt’s hard Boston tongue
From Grandma Eva’s garlic to Aunt Donna’s sweets
They may not all be blood but they are family
I am from “I don’t know Margo”
And “sugarplum fairypants”
From “you do you, girl”
And belly hurting laughs
I am from snappy grillers and kibba
From birthday breakfast and the birthday ring
I am from the prize box
From diaries and family trees
Only so many photos and family albums
I am from Grandpa’s war stories
And Gram’s farm tales
From Grandma Tibby’s resistance
And all of their hardships and fails
I am from these moments
Only a few written in stone
I am from these memories
And with my roots I shall never stand alone
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CALLING ALL ALUMS!
Let us know what you’ve been up to by contacting Director of Marketing and Communications, Wendy Houseworth.
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