In the Front Yard this morning, Teacher Katherine engaged children in a weekly ritual that is traditionally reserved for teacher preparation time in most programs. Years before, Katherine chose to slow down the easel set up to include children’s ideas of the palette. They mixed, named, and wrote the recipes for each color. This recipe book…
A few children gathered at the mini-studio to work on partner observational drawings of sunflowers. The area had an arrangement of images of sunflowers and of fresh and decaying ones that invited children to cut, pluck, and examine their structure. Teacher Jen: When you take a closer look at these sunflowers, what do you notice?…
While creating start and finish flags for our ramp games, the children discussed the idea of having a New School-West flag. Together they have been exchanging ideas of what should be on our flag. As the conversation continues, we are finding some threads and look forward to seeing how collaboration on one flag can reflect…
Persona dolls offer the children opportunities to act out real life incidents and experiment with role playing. In the East Wing classroom, we have introduced dolls named Hector, Jane, Jill, and Sylvester and given them background stories. We use these characters during morning and afternoon circle time to play out common encounters and to encourage…
Before the children went into the Atelier to meet with Stuart, our sound and music teacher, the group sat on the couch and chose books to read. Gus chose Llama, Llama, Red Pajama. As we read, Gus would point to the highlighted words and ask. “What is that word?” He then would listen to the…
Our Atelier is a space to work without distractions which allows focus, dialogue, and meaningful work to evolve over long periods of time. It is a place where materials and concepts are explored and used as tools for self-expression, sharing ideas, collaboration, and developing hypotheses. During the first weeks of school, the West Wing…
The Front Yard is a space where both EW and WW gather to meet and work together. During their first appointment, WWingers Leo and Mabel joined EWinger Henry in the mud pit. Teacher Adriana: I wonder what we can do together. Leo: I don’t know. Henry: Umm, we can make a hole together. He begins to…
Books can be found everywhere in NSW. We have a large library of children’s books, bookshelves in the classroom, baskets of books in both classrooms, and even a basket in the Middle Courtyard to greet families as they transition into their school day. We strongly believe in the power that books and storytelling have to…
Under the Sand Area structure, Teacher Flora noticed an opportunity to practice listening skills in a naturally unfolding game. Harel set herself up as a storyteller and sat in a seat on the lower platform. The children playing under the slide formed an audience. When she finished her story, Isla continued it creating a threaded game.…
Paki (Olive’s dad, EW) joined us for our last Friday’s Farmer’s Market trip! Teacher Roxanne, Paki and Olive, Bea, Miro, and Archer hopped on the #33 and shared a strong image of children as public transportation riders, capable collaborative players with ideas of their own and curious, open foodies! The Venice Community Council had…