I was struck this week by the momentum of our learners. They get their hands sunk into a project, and they just want to keep going. We do our best to make space for that and often have staggered transitions to allow individuals to take a few extra minutes to finish up...

After our Thanksgiving holiday and two snow days to start this week, everyone was pretty excited to finally be back in school. "It was so boring," griped one child. "I'm so glad we're back!" It feels like we are solidly in winter though we have talked about how the sol...

Kids love their routines, but the weather changes had all of us on our toes this week: snow and ice, warm breezes, and even a dramatic thunderstorm that sent our kids inside from recess. I love how all of the kids just roll with the changes. They pile on the layers, tr...

We have two weeks worth of school happenings to condense into our blog this week. It's a big job, but we'll do our best to give you some accurate snapshots and some of the highlights.

Cheryl's PreK Reflections

The preschool got to continue their tour of our school's comm...

Learning through play is a big part of what we do at our school. Children roll dice to collect ones, turn those ones into tens, and eventually turn their tens into hundreds. They role play "store" and exchange money for acorns or fruit or fancy sticks. We act out diffe...

I love the moments of discovery that pepper our days - a child discovering how different combinations of "apple counters" make 10 or the thrill in predicting that ketchup will be an acid. Our multiage classroom means that there are always eager audiences for any discov...

We do lots of little things and big things to help cultivate our school community. We sing, dance, and play together. We sit down together and talk out our problems and brainstorm solutions. When someone is having a tough time, we try to support her with a hug or with...

It was a rich week for applied learning. A parent volunteer led our children in how to change a tire. Two girls told me with confidence, "Yeah, we jacked up the car, took off a tire, and put on the spare. I could definitely do that on my own if I had to." Our youngest...

We are always asking our students to stop and look a little closer. "Look at your friends face. What do you see?" "Look at this story. What part really 'popped' for you? How did the author do that?" "Look at that brand new butterfly! What do you see? How is it differen...

We had one of those lovely moments this week where Theresa encourages me to throw my carefully planned schedule out the window in favor of letting the learning settle a little deeper. All of the third through fifth graders were immersed in making their "boxes." They we...