The children continue to represent cacti in the Atelier with multiple materials. Using our cacti metaphor in the East Wing, we continue to explore how to navigate relationships when friendships get prickly. Olivia, painting a cactus: How do we make the spines white? Naomi, using dyes on canvas: We don’t want green! Cindy considers these…
Journals
“It’s a Shofar.” – Eli
During East and West Wing morning meetings, Kenny (Harrison’s dad, EW) and Lori (Golda’s mom, WW) played the Shofar horn, a family tradition, in celebration of Rosh Hashanah. In the West Wing: Lori: If we live in a group of people, we have many ways of doing life. Holidays connect us to the way our…
“There is rhythm in your names.” – Hillary (Christoph’s mom, WW)
Christoph’s mom, Hillary, is a local librarian and came to play borrowed ukuleles and sing songs at morning meeting. Hillary: We can sing this song where I get to learn all your names. There is rhythm in your names. You have beat inside your names!” The children and Hillary sounded out their names to the…
“Quinn is moving a long way.” – Lily
Quinn had a goodbye circle in the East Wing. She’d already moved and is now attending a school closer to home. We gratefully supported the classroom with our trusty conceptualization from The Invisible String that shows us we remain connected through love even when we can’t see each other. Teacher Jen read the book and…
“How does it sit?” – Dylan
We returned to the Atelier to follow up on the interest in a standing clay person made by the East Wingers. Teacher Amy: Dylan had some curiosity about the figure the East Wingers made last year. Dylan: Yah, how does it stand up? We examined the figure for differences between the one that stands and…
“I can support you.” – Elliot
From the very beginning, our intention as teachers has been to foster connections among children, as well as to recognize and highlight when children use their own strategies to seek connections with each other. Below are the conversations that are taking place in our classroom: At the end of appointments, Rondie asked the group for…
Mrs. Nelson’s Book Fair
School was bustling with activity on Saturday at our annual Book Fair. The event was a great success, raising funds that will be used to enhance our library selections and systems, and also bringing together current and alum families. A huge thank you to Book Fair Chairs Amy Weiss (Sonia, EW & Mira, WW) and Emma…
Checkout our Library books!
Thanks to everyone who joined us for Mrs. Nelsen’s Book Fair! A special thanks to those who donated new books to the NSW library – Library books are for CHECKOUT in the kitchen. Your child has a library card on file in the box. Find your child’s card Write (with your child) the title of…
Day in the Life
Fatim (Dylan, WW) spent some time observing and documenting the flow of the morning at NSW. All I can say is I still cannot believe my daughter goes to school here! I did not realize how much interaction there would be during the invitation to pick an activity. It is such a special and wonderful…
Points of Connection
We shared a new book in the Atelier. We Are All Dots: A Big Plan for a Better World incorporates the classroom mantra of Welcoming and the value of community. With a classroom intention on perspective-taking, we began the discussion on what it means to be part of a whole. We focused questions around: How does one…