The children in the West Wing are taking their first group walks in the neighborhood. A chance to explore our surroundings revealed a shared knowledge when they encountered a brick wall. Miles: Look at this brick house. Let’s blow it down! Rufus: Blow, blow, blow! Miles: We’re the wolf. The West Wing teachers were surprised…
We have some new faces in the West Wing. Welcome to Helena Dubrawski and her family Heidi and John and her brothers Kai and Taj who have just moved back to L.A. after living in Palm Springs for a couple of years. Helena just started on Monday, October 7th, and the children are busy setting…
At New School-West, we have established a Birthday Book Tradition where children and their families bring a favorite book to read to the group. The Birthday Books are donated and kept in the classroom to revisit. They eventually become a permanent part of our whole school library with a special bookplate inside the cover celebrating…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…