Inspiring Life-long Learning for 25 Years
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Recess Fun
A spontaneous mixed-age game of jumping from stump to stump around the fire ring during recess!
Wonder Garden
Wonder Garden children finishing up their lanterns for the upcoming lantern walk.
Apple Blossom Garden
Shown here, the little ones are finger knitting the string handles that will hold their jar lanterns for this weekend's Martinmas Lantern Walk!
Handwork: Knitting Buddies—1st & 5th Grades
Last week was the first knitting day for the first graders. In keeping with tradition, the fifth graders joined them to serve as their knitting buddies for one day, and one day only.
Each year the fifth graders bring the very first stitches of knitting to the first graders. It is a beautiful pairing because fifth graders are returning to knitting for the first time since second grade, and are knitting socks at the same time the first graders are seeing knitting for the very first time. This year it is especially lovely because the fifth and sixth graders are focusing on service projects, and what a wonderful service this is to the younger children. The little ones look forward to their time with the big, golden fifth graders, and it brings to the foreground a wonderful, warm part of the fifth graders as well, as they nurture the first graders through this process.
Grades Handwork
The children recently spent time in our dye garden harvesting flowers and seeds to be used in Handwork class. The seeds from yellow cosmos and indigo were carefully collected and will give us more beautiful blooms, leaves, and stems to work with next year. The yarn shown has been dyed by Mrs. Griffith and the children using these plants!
1st Grade: Number Sense
First grade number sense/numeracy lessons, shown here for the number six. The spatial pictures in math blocks encourage counting and measuring. These are different than the imaginative pictures used for letters.
1st Grade: Painting Rainbow
A painting lesson beginning with the three primary colors furthered the children's exploration of the seven colors of the rainbow.
3rd Grade: Lanterns & Tradesmen
During their last block, the third graders learned about tradesmen. We reinforced this curriculum during the making of our Martinmas lanterns. We made a quick visit to the world of the fisherman, constructing our lantern holders as the Fisherman constructs his net. On our visit to the world of the carpenter, we sawed tree branches into candle holders. Shortly afterward, we explored the work of the candlestick maker by dipping beeswax candles.
4th Grade: Book Reports
The fourth graders are working on expanding their understanding of different ways to present the things that they read and learn about. For this most recent report, they discussed what it means to write a summary of something and how they would encourage others to read a book, based on that summary. It was a very exciting process!
4th Grade: Library Field Trip
The fourth graders took a field trip this week to the Wauconda Area Library to select books for their next book reports, this time from the genre of Fantasy.
5th & 6th Grades: Martinmas
The fifth and sixth grade nature table honors this noble season, when light triumphs over darkness.
7th & 8th Grades: Scary Stories
Writing scary stories by candlelight on Halloween.
