Tiny Harvest Put some seeds in your pocket Feel the promise of what may come after the winter has had its say Know that this bounty was made possible by the hunger of little ones and the sweet allure that drew them near Nature’s gifts are on full display at Miquon. This fall, students explored the cornucopia around them through experiences designed to engage the senses. They touched, smelled and tasted herbs from the garden; baked butternut squash and fried eggplants; they cut down tall sunflowers, rubbed the dried petals away and then listened to the delightful “ting” sound … READ MORE »
The enthusiasm the children are showing for this project is infectious, and it comes back inside with them to the classroom where they village bring questions to research. READ MORE »
The 2nd/3rd grade group has been exploring the social studies theme of Power through the lens of dynamic, powerful (or powerless) characters. READ MORE »
A new community forms in all of the small moments of those early weeks, as friends reconnect around familiar interests, or new kindred spirits are discovered. The groundwork is laid for a year of sharing and listening, working through differences together, and discovering ways to hone our learning skills with one another. READ MORE »
In the past couple of week the 5th and 6th graders have been working on composing their own music by layering ostinato phrases on the Orff instruments. Here Diane & Jeri’s group perform a sample of such music. Each child had to choose two notes out of a pentatonic scale (five notes) and apply them to one rhythm pattern out of a palette of 20 available. The instruments were arranged in groups of three so to be able to divide the class in smaller groups and guarantee a low, mid, and high register in each group. With the possible … READ MORE »
Since spring break, we have been exploring the world of the ancient Greeks during the classical period of 5th century B.C. Athens. Among other things, we have read about the large role that poetry played in that society. April, which is national poetry month, is also a time of almost unbearable beauty on campus. It has inspired all of us in Wendy & Sara’s group to bring out our inner poets. We are challenging ourselves this month to memorize a favorite verse (as an Athenian citizen might have done) and to try our hand at writing poetry of our own. … READ MORE »
As a relatively new mom returning to teaching, I thought this would be the year that I leaned heavily on all of my previous work as I figured out how to juggle responsibilities at home and wholeheartedly engage with children during the school day. I imagined implementing trusted curriculum that I had struggled with and refined through previous experimentation. The plan was to conserve intellectual energy (a.k.a. brain power) while still delivering the goods. I found out that it doesn’t work that way–energy and enthusiasm are not things to be hoarded for later use; instead, they are continually generated through the process … READ MORE »
Wendy and Sara’s group wrapped up our Theme exploration of ancient Egypt recently with an event to bring together many facets of our learning about this time and place. We chose some projects to celebrate aspects of this civilization that captured the children’s imagination, and invited our friends from the 5/6 groups to visit. They had the chance to share in typical foods, watch some skits about inventions and discoveries of the time, to sample our versions of such Egyptian discoveries as beeswax perfume and mineral inks, and play games our kids invented using inventions on a timeline and the dimensions … READ MORE »
A recent activity in math, measuring the heights of everyone in the fourth grade, had the children wondering how long the whole class would be, if they laid down head-to-toe. This question led us to add up the heights in inches, feet, and then meters, but also to try to visually estimate how the length of the group altogether would compare to some spaces around campus. Would we stretch all the way down the driveway outside our class? If not, how far? How about across Miquon’s woodchip field? The lower field? We recorded our guesses, and then students went around … READ MORE »
