This week our campus was filled with spirit! Monday's Pajama Day made for cozy classroom fun, while Tuesday's Sports theme and Wednesday's Rock T-Shirt day were major hits! The end of the week had our Eagles decked out in fashions from the various decades and we had a fun finish with Spirit Wear on Friday. What a fun week on campus!
Take a look inside to see what vibrant lessons were happening inside of TCS classrooms this week!
In this issue:
This week, we welcomed our new Transition students to TCS! The little ones enjoyed meeting and mingling with their new classmates, teachers, and surroundings.
Our Preschool classes enjoyed some time off campus this week to ring in the Fall season at the Pumpkin Patch.
Blue Room used play dough and wooden blocks to practice making shapes during center time.
Green Room cut and glued colored sheets of tissue paper to contact sheets to craft Fall leaf projects.
Yellow Room got into the Fall spirit by cutting apples and mixing ingredients to bake fresh apple pies. Students also used a mock fruit stand and cash register to create a Farmer's Market. Students took turns shopping for fruits and veggies while other students operated the cash register and managed the stand.
Kindergarten took turns dissecting apples during a Science experiment to learn the anatomy of fruit.
1st Grade celebrated the new month and Fall season by completing their October calendar projects.
2nd Grade was excited to use their new dry erase tables to solve math story problems. Each student had to write key words to help them remember to add "in all" or "how many are left". 2/3 Combo and 5th Grade came together during a buddy interaction assignment and conducted personal interviews to learn more about each buddy's favorite things.
3rd and 4th Grades enjoyed library time with a special guest reader, and worked on their student-led Art projects.
Middle School Art classes fine tuned their painting techniques, while working on their Square One art projects.
Our 5-8th Graders made their voices heard this week by participating in this year's student council election process. Our candidates worked so hard on preparing and promoting their campaigns, and the voters were really engaged in the process of choosing our 2018-2019 student council leaders.
Take a peek inside to see what vibrant lessons were happening inside TCS classrooms this week!
In this issue:
Red Room created colorful dotted art pieces with paint sticks during center time.
Green Room used different types of apples to study metrics by creating an Apple Tree Chart. Each student tasted a slice of a red, a green, and yellow apple then metrics were polled on the chart based on which apple each student liked best.
Yellow Room began their Square One Art pieces, and used Fall leaf and critter cut outs to practice tracing shapes.
Kindergarten did a fun outdoor activity using graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows to make Solar S'mores. Each student wrapped their ingredients in foil, then set them in the sun to bake! In Art class, students began learning the basics in painting in anticipation of their Square One Art projects that they will begin crafting next week.
1st Grade used concrete objects to practice their lessons, and make them tangible. In spelling, they used wooden alphabet pieces, and dice to assist with addition and subtraction problems in Match.
2nd Grade started their first "Friend of the Week" assignment and enjoyed learning all about their fellow classmate, Destiny, who shared her photo board with the class.
3rd Grade worked on their interactive notebooks in Social Studies, and in Science they did a lesson on landforms on the Sun.
5th Grade played an interactive game of Morning Yoga Flow charades to test their knowledge of different poses they learned about during a reading on Yoga in the library.
6th Grade began their "I'm An Expert" group projects in Spanish class. Each group chose a country and studied the historical, political, geographical, economical, and cultural aspects of their country of choice.
7th Grade enjoyed learning how to write in algebraic and geometric expressions in Math class, using the new whiteboard tables in their classroom. They also finished work on their Bridge Projects using popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue.
Take a look inside to see what vibrant lessons are happening inside TCS classrooms this week!
In this issue:
Red Room was immersed in interactive play this week, using legos and play dough to create their own imaginative characters and structures.
Blue Room mixed bright neon paints with gold glitter to create bold art pieces to display in the classroom.
Green Room used plastic fly swatters to make colorful painted pieces inspired by fruit flies!
Yellow Room used sound blocks to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star along with teacher Courtney in Music class.
Kindergarten visited the Art room for the first time this year and used various-sized leaves and white paint to create silhouetted nature pieces. During a Science experiment, students mixed different solutions to see what the different combinations created!
1st Grade studied the illustrations of Syd Hoff, and used his book, The Young Cartoonist: The ABC's of Cartooning, as a guide to sketch their own dinosaurs.
3rd Grade worked on their addition assessments together in Math class.
5th Grade learned the value of mistakes during a lesson on "The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes" by Mark Pett and Gary Rubenstein, then wrote short essays on their own past mistakes and created motivating mantra pieces to be displayed around the classroom. They also did their 2nd STEM project of the year so far, using construction paper, one piece of tape, and scissors to measure their own paper strips that were combined into a paper chain.
Middle School Art students wrapped up their first project, a watercolor painting based on the work of Russian Artist Wassily Kandinsky. His use of shapes, line and color to create abstract works was a natural connection to our participation of International Dot Day, a celebration of the creativity within all of us. From there, they moved on to the exploration of different watercolor techniques.
7th Grade Science testing different medicines and tracked the healing effects of each throughout the classroom during a lab. In Math class they were each given a budget and set amount of materials to construct their own group suspension bridges using popsicle sticks.
Inspired by the popular children’s book, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds this special day celebrates creativity and making your mark! Art teacher Matt (and his puppy Chanel) got the entire TCS community involved all week with creating projects centered around the dot, culminating with each class forming rings of circles around each other. In the words of the book, “make your mark and see where it takes you!”.
Take a look inside to see what vibrant lessons are happening inside TCS classrooms this week!
In this issue:
Blue Room got into the spirit of International Dot Day by decorating their own cut-outs of small colorful circle shapes, and spent time mixing colors during a painting activity.
Green Room did an emergent lesson on shapes using ice cream as a theme. By mixing shaving cream, glue, and different color dyes students crafted art projects in the flavor of their choice (vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry), and drew their own ice cream cones using the different shapes they are learning.
Yellow Room took their first campus field trip to the library this week, stopping off at the pond to discover the different insects and rocks that their TCS community offers.
1st Grade started work on their family books and used a vintage toy turntable to create colorful spin art.
2/3 Combo began working on their I-Charts to assist the students with generating meaningful questions about a topic and organizing their writing by using a structured guide while researching.
5th Grade presented their summer vacation travel projects, a STEM assignment. Each student had to construct their own geometric buildings using index cards and pictures from their Summer travels.
6th Grade crafted projects in celebration of International Dot Day in Art class and began to get familiar with Google Classroom and Khan Academy.
7th Grade learned the difference between historians and archaeologists and how the two work together to develop our understanding of the past in History class.
8th Grade English began their study on the classic tales of morale by the Greek storyteller, Aesop and his series of Fables. In Science, they learned about the types of hazardous materials, specifically magnesium which they used to created fire during a lab.
Take a look inside to see what vibrant lessons were happening inside TCS classrooms this week!
In this issue:
Each year, our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (and their teachers) head out for a "back to school" retreat. This year, our students went on a kayaking adventure where they reconnected, made new friends, and created bonds that set the tone for the upcoming school year.
We have officially kicked off the 2018-2019 school year! Our returning students enjoyed the classroom updates made over the summer - flexible seating, new work tables, and new window shades - while our new students became familiar with TCS surroundings by meeting new friends and settling into their newfound experience with ease. We look forward to another great year here at The Country School; welcome back!
Every Summer just before the start of the new school year our faculty, staff, and parent community come together to welcome the newest additions to our TCS family. New families mingled and shared stories over wine and a beautiful catered spread courtesy of local restaurant, Romancing The Bean. Thank you to Melissa Wiener and Lilly Pino of our fabulous Parent Association for planning such a lovely welcoming party, as well as our amazing faculty and staff!
