EcoFair!

The annual Summers-Knoll EcoFair is at the end of this month: Friday, Oct. 29. For those who are unfamiliar with this tradition, the EcoFair is an all-school activity party, held on the Friday morning closest to Halloween. There will be multiple stations/activities for the children to participate in, but perhaps the most fun of all is in the costumes. Everyone—staff, teachers and students (and any parents who'd like to help out)—is encouraged to come to school in a hand-made costume manufactured from recycled/reused materials. Many of the children design and make their own costumes, which of course is an excellent learning experience. Feel free to be creative! The "recycled materials" part of the costume can seem intimidatingly restrictive, but remember: not all recycling is in the form of old cans! Hand-me-downs, thrift-store purchases, ScrapBox finds... all are excellent possibilities.

Gwinna

Yesterday, I finished reading The Wizard of Oz aloud to the class. In preparation for the theme that starts next week—flight—I offered the children a choice of two books, both of which center around children who can fly: either Peter Pan, or Gwinna, by Barbara Helen Berger. They chose Gwinna. It's a beautiful book, though not much known. It's not as long as some chapter books we'll read, so perhaps we'll have time for Peter Pan, too.

We're going to try a new reading system (new to me, too!). I'll be reading aloud to the children at the beginning and end of each day, and so we need the chapter books we're reading to be in school each day. However, if any child wants to take the book home to keep reading in it, that will be allowed for one night, on one condition: if that child reads ahead at home, then he or she needs to pick out a couple of favorite pages from that reading to share with the class. This will be good practice reading out loud, and will allow the children to share their favorite moments in the book with one another. I am discussing with the children the importance of practicing their readings out loud at home before bringing the book back. I look forward to seeing what moments in the story strike them!

A lovely outdoor day...

The kids have such good ideas! This morning, after we'd listened to The Wizard of Oz some more and practiced our gavotte on the playground, I asked the children to settle in for some quiet reading time... and Melissa immediately suggested that we do our reading out-of-doors. What a brilliant suggestion for a beautiful breezy morning!

After a little while spent indoors writing sonnets, horseback riding continued the outdoor trend, and we ended the day by heading over to sit in County Farm Park while creating personal coats of arms for our Renaissance Feast. What a beautiful Friday.

Pendulums

Last week, we put our best feet forward for the beginning of a year of scientific exploration. First, the children read a short illustrative story, and then engaged in discussion about the necessity of experimentation to prove one's ideas. We learned a bit about the scientific method... and then we began. Following in the footsteps of Galileo Galilei, we created pendulums out of beads and string, and set them swinging. The children showed immense patience and dedication as we timed the pendulums to see how long it would take for them to come to a halt. I was quite impressed!

Renaissance men and women

We are well launched on our Renaissance theme! This week, we have learned a little about the nature of the Renaissance, and my mention of humanism led the children to initiate a very interesting conversation about the nature of religion on Wednesday. They were both respectful and articulate, and listened to each other very well; it's an excellent beginning to a year of intellectual exploration!

We've also written sonnets (with Joanna), and learned a few rhetorical devices which we've applied to self-introductory speeches. Rhetoric was widely taught in the Renaissance. I think we'll devote some extra time to spelling, this month, too, since the codification of English spelling was a Renaissance phenomenon. And this afternoon, we began learning to dance the gavotte!

First day of school!

As you can see, we are off to a good start!

Themes for the year

Welcome to our class, everyone!

Here is the list of the Summers-Knoll themes for the coming year:

Sept: Renaissance
Oct: Flight
Nov: Leonardo da Vinci
Dec: Salt
Jan: Theatre and Puppetry
Feb: Simple Machines
March: Poetry
April: Food Science
May: American Prairies

The December theme is different from that which will be followed by the rest of the school. This occasionally happens at Summers-Knoll, and when the theme of "salt" was proposed last year, I got much too excited to give it up. I think we're going to have a fantastic time!