Here is our awesome TA Skye in action leading a literature discussion. (Notice her school spirit for mismatch day in the Upper School!)
literacy
Buddy Dr. Seuss Celebration!
Wrapping Up Our 2019 Iditarod Literacy Unit
Today we finished up mushing novels (Oh, Stone Fox, how do you manage to wrench my heart every time?), wrote Iditarod poems, and even headed to the MakerSpace to make tiny Iditarod dogsleds out of nearly all reused materials (to continue our reusing challenge). More Iditarod posts still to come . . . .
Our Winter START Team!
Jessica Weil: Jessica is a sophomore at Dartmouth who is majoring in English and loves to read lots of books. She is from Cleveland, Ohio, and likes to dance and sing. This is her first year in the START program, however, she has worked with Miss Blessing before and is super excited to work with her class again!
Lucy Ranieri: Lucy is a freshman at Dartmouth from right outside Cleveland, Ohio. She has not yet decided on her major, but she has interests in economics, biology, and government. She loves all kinds of art (especially oil painting and drawing) and was the president of her high school art club. Lucy loves to visit the Dartmouth Jewelry Studio, is a member of the cheer team, and is a first-year volunteer for START.
Kate Packard: Kate is a first year at Dartmouth from Massachusetts. She hasn’t declared her major yet, but is planning on studying linguistics, psychology and theater. She loves all types of art, particularly the performing arts, and has taken a musical theater class at Dartmouth. She also loves creative writing and is currently taking a creative writing class. She is very excited for her first year with the START program!
Connections, Connections
To celebrate completing our latest read-aloud, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, we created our own pretend Metropolitan Museum of Art right in Mrs. Jarvis’s classroom. In the book, Claudia and her brother run away from home and live in the MMA. While they are there, they connect with a mysterious angel sculpture, hunting down clues to find out its story.
Today we invited two marvelous artists to share their work with us. We saw a variety of types of art and heard the stories behind them. We learned that artists practice a long time, often beginning at a very young age. Mrs. Jarvis explained how instrumental some of her family members were in helping her develop as an artist, for her elementary school did not have an art program. She allowed us to look at some of her work from long ago and compare it to some of her work recently. A student asked Mr. McFarland how long it took to create one of his sketches, and he shared a quote that a sketch might take “five minutes plus twenty years.” What do you think that means? Does it match our growth mindset thinking?
One of my favorite moments was hearing that the inspiration for one of Mr. McFarland’s works was Euclid! He brought in a very old geometry book and explained the thinking path that led to the gorgeous pastel we were viewing. Not only is math everywhere, but how wonderful to know that our passions in one area of study can benefit another area. Connections!
Finally, we each browsed through art books hunting for a work of art that connected to our own heart. We wrote about why we loved that particular piece. Stay tuned to the student blogs to read all about it!
Husky Howl!
Countdown to the Iditarod!
1 day, 20 hours, and 29 minutes until the Iditarod!
We are . . . .
using the internet safely
thinking of strong keywords for searches
skimming articles for the information we want
locating answers to the questions we have
discovering more about Alaska
conquering the winter doldrums with an exciting mental trip to the tundra!
Stay tuned!
Even Better With Snow!
Welcome, December!
We decided it is like reading in a nifty ice cave.
Young Reader’s Day 2016!
What a totally glorious celebratory day! On Your Mark, Get Set, READ!