Starting in late January, four of our second and third graders began a small-group “book club” focusing on the story “Snake and Lizard” by Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop. We began our group by examining the front and back covers, book jacket, and illustrations to…
This winter and spring of 2026, students in grades 6th, 7th and 8th have been learning about plant and animal cells. We started our cellular exploration by looking at many parts of the cell and learning about the most important parts that help the cell function. …
Starting in late January, the first and second graders at The New School began a new Subject Study reading books focusing on friendship. Throughout the course of the study, we are reading stories with underlying themes that demonstrate appropriate social interactions,…
In the winter and spring of 2026, the third and fourth graders continued their study of early American history. We delved into information about Plymouth, Massachusetts, Manhattan Island, Jamestown and more. Students have read and responded to questions based on the…
In Science class, students learned about the water cycle. In the first experiment, they observed how collected water evaporates and condenses inside a glass jar representing our earth and its atmosphere. We observed how the water droplets pull together and become…
First- and second-grade students have been participating in Listening Center. During this class, children listen to a story without looking at the pictures. While listening, they draw a picture related to what they hear in the story. They may begin drawing at any time…
The third and fourth graders this fall have begun to learn about the history of the 13 Colonies. We started this unit by reading a book titled Small Wolf by Nathaniel Benchley. In this book, a young native boy discovers people on Manhattan Island that he has never…
Inspired by the teaching of Kenneth Koch, and his brilliant books Rose, Where did you get that Red and Wishes, Lies and Dreams, students in grades 4, and 5 explored their poetic talents, some for the very first time. Each class began with a mini lesson, which included…
Adrian, Caelum, Arcadya and Cora were part of a book club reading Alexander McCall Smith’s Akimbo and the Elephants. Children were assigned to read a chapter of the book each week. Some children read independently, and others read out loud to a teacher. In class we…
Our Reconstruction unit started with a few simple questions: What is History? Who cares? Why Study it? The overarching theme to the students’ answers was that we study history to learn from it and to not repeat it. Then students considered the Declaration of…
Students in grades 5-8 participated in a Digital Literacy class this year. Just as students have to learn how to be citizens of our world, country, community, school, and family, this class taught students how to be responsible and safe citizens of the digital world….
Students in grades 4-7 participated in Pixie Class. Pixie is a philosophical curriculum designed to encourage students to think critically about social topics. This year, as we read about Pixie, an elementary school student, interacting with her peers, teachers,…
Some of our students have participated in a printing class this year. We spent the first part of the year carefully practicing the proper formation of each letter, both upper and lower case. Over the last couple of months, we have been focused on transitioning our…
A group of our younger students have been part of a class where we first read the book, Wacky Wednesday by Theo LeSieg, and illustrated by George Booth. Then every week they meet to write sentences in their packets, describing the wacky things going on in each…
Small Moments is a personal narrative writing unit from Lucy Calkins. Students were asked to think of a small moment in their life they could stretch into a detailed and structured story. These young writers began with brainstorming before writing a draft, revising,…
To finish up our Haudenshanee unit, we looked at the stories that were associated with the different clans of the heron, turtle and beaver. Students learned about the importance of the natural world to each tribe and where some of their folk stories came from. As we…