Life Sciences

Rough/Smooth

Lessons that make a deep impression come from first hand experiences. When we go outside to observe and experience things in their natural environment, then bring those elements into our classroom environment, our connections become deeper. The children are invited to touch the collected items and are given the vocabulary for experiences and concepts such as brown, gray, small, long, smooth, rough, hard, and soft. This is classification where even the youngest child can be a participant. Exposure and deep curiosity lead to further interest, lively discussions, and a broader vocabulary enriching the experience.

The purpose of the sensorial area in the Children's House curriculum is "the education of the senses". Through sensory experiences children develop intelligence and an understanding of things, people and the events around them. The sensorial materials are designed to help children learn how to classify size, dimension, color, form, shape, texture, weight, sound and taste. The pink tower and the brown stair are two classic sensorial materials in our Montessori classroom.

Over the past two weeks, many of the children are busy in the sensorial area of the classroom building extensions with the brown stair and the pink tower. Senji and August took their work one step further creating these beautiful posters. The boys traced the bases on corresponding colored construction paper and then cut them out. Then they carefully arranged the pieces and glued them to the large white paper. They worked collaboratively over several days to complete these projects.

Go out and enjoy the snow!

For the past few weeks all Upper El students, including sixth year students, have been reading Tuck Everlasting for literature group. We have never all read the same book, and usually sixth graders have their own reading group, but we decided to bring everyone together around this one book for a variety of reasons. First, the language in Tuck Everlasting is incredibly beautiful and very poetic at times. We used passages from the text and written assignments to extend the current poetry study. We are always looking for ways to create additional leadership opportunities for the sixths, so we brought them back into lit groups as models and mentors.  Finally, this is a book that asks big questions about how one should live his or her life. Nine to twelve-year olds are developing their moral reasoning and asking big questions about fairness, kindness, and our responsibilities to one another. Tuck created many opportunities to consider such questions individually and as a group. If you have never read Tuck Everlasting yourself, it is a great book for a cozy winter night!

We look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday at 1:30 for our Poetry Performance.

It has been a profound week of learning and community. On Monday, Anna from the Women's Freedom Center continued our series on conflict. She focused on gender inequality, perceptions of gender in our society, domestic abuse, and healthy dating relationships.   Her approach was very interactive and our students were laser focused. Here are some student reflections:

            "Anna was focused on gender equality, not a reversal of the roles we see in our society today. I learned a lot about abusive relationships and their relation to gender roles in our society." Izzy

            "The most surprising thing I learned was how the gender stereotypes can range from childhood bullying to a popular music video. It is clear that pop culture is not helping." Emmanuel

            "The most revelatory subject was about gender equality. I think that people completely overlook it. I especially think that when someone says, "man up", or "that's not lady like" they do not realize that it is a harmful statement." Sarah

            "I was nervous going into today. I was thinking Anna would be one of the people who would only talk about women's rights and how men beat women. It really surprised me how many teens are in abusive relationships." Ian

            "Everyone believes that gender equality would make a better world, but no one is willing to take action." Greta

We continued this depth of conversation and engagement in a very different environment on Tuesday morning when five local veterans from the Brattleboro American Legion joined us to talk about their experiences and beliefs. The breadth of their experience spanned living in Brattleboro during World War II to a recent deployment in Afghanistan. We also hosted a veteran of the Cold War who was stationed on nuclear submarines during the Cuban Missile Crisis and two veterans of the conflict in Vietnam. It was a profoundly moving morning. Again student reflections:

            "I found myself scratching my head when the Afghanistan veteran talked about how nobody wanted to go to war but he went because he felt like he needed to protect his country. It was just mind boggling." Sophie

            "The veterans had been through it all, they just had to reach into the outer layers of their memories and remove something they usually locked away. Memories of loss and friendships, leaving and coming home." Isabella

            "Getting to hear the veteran's stories and experiences was very saddening and heroic." Jazmin

            "Where should I begin? Well for starters, the whole thing was unsettlingly inspiring. Here are five perfectly sane human beings sitting in front of me, arms and legs still intact, cheerfully promoting the things my parents and teachers have convinced me to hate. As much as I'd like to write off war as an evil thing done by evil people, I can't." Colin

            "When the veterans were talking I could see how much they have been through. I was feeling a little confused because I didn't know what to think. I saw how much they sacrificed but I had really mixed thoughts about is war right or not." Bella

            "I loved the perspective of Richard being home during the Second World War. It really got me in the heart. I don't really know how to describe it." Aidan

We are now approaching the end of our study of conflict. Students are redrafting specific outlines, writing final papers, and finishing the films on their personal understanding of peace. On Monday we begin the creative process of Performance. Performance is a way we can reflect on our collective learning from through the year and give it voice through music, drama, film, and poetry. Performances are on March 7th and 8th at 7pm.