When the children planned for the walk, they agreed to visit someplace new. As they looked at the map, Laz placed a dot where he thought the group could visit. Aiden used a marker and started at New School-West. Laz created a second, longer route. He said, “So we can get lots of exercise” but…
The children, who last met to represent sunflowers by drawing, met again to revisit their findings. We looked through our sketches and the pictures documenting their investigations. Theo G., who just joined the group for the first time, got to hear what the children discovered when they took a closer look. They revisited their observations…
By asking a provocative question, Teacher Jennifer invited the “There’s a Fly on my Hat” song group into symbolic communication and story structure. Teacher Jennifer: How would someone know how the song starts? Archer: You could just show them. Jennifer brings out paper and pens. The children communicate about which symbols to include. The story…
In the West Wing, one of our strategies to build a strong sense of community is to provide experiences that initiate collaboration. One of the ways we are doing this is through a weaving we call “The Thread Game”. The children explain how it is played: Arrow: I passed it to my partner, then she passed it…
Just as there are systems for mixing paints at the easel, so are there systems for using the space. Emilio is engrossed in careful painting with multiple colors. He has taken one pot of mixed paint from the shelf, loads a clean brush, paints, then washes and dries his brush before returning the color and…
In the Atelier, we introduce water, liquid food coloring, and eye droppers to the children as an avenue to explore the different hues and values of color in an open-ended way. As the children squeeze, pour, combine, and measure, they share their discoveries and make connections with each other. Fiona: Look what I’m making.…
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…
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…
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…