Charter School Ceremony

On Monday May 5th, almost 20 years to the day since the first charters were granted in 1994, Conservatory Lab had the honor to host this year's Charter School event. This event celebrates the achievements of top-performing charter schools in the Commonwealth and welcomes new learning communities into this network. As Ms. Lam welcomed all the participants she reminded everyone that the main purpose of the original charter school legislation was to create schools that would pilot many configurations of curriculum and pedagogy and to disseminate the best of those to other school districts. Since then, the state's national success in disseminating best practices lies in the Department's strong commitment to quality through its rigorous charter creation and renewal process. The charter schools in Massachusetts are the best in the nation showing robust improvements in both reading and math and outpacing academic performance growth in the state's public schools.

This year 10 charter schools had their charters renewed, Conservatory Lab being one of these, and two new charter schools entered the fold. Dignitaries presiding over the ceremony were Maura O. Banta, Chair and Mitchell D. Chester, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education as well as Cliff Chuang, Associate Commissioner. Office of Charter Schools and School Redesign.

Everyone in attendance was treated to strong musical performances by the Dudamel Wind Ensemble and the Dudamel Orchestra.

Where does our food come from? Building on their winter investigation of healthy food and nutrition, kindergarteners are exploring plant and animal life cycles, what plants and animals need to live and to grow, and how the food we eat gets to our plates.  

On Wednesday, Ms. Biro's class conducted fieldwork at their neighborhood Whole Foods Market where they investigated how customers make healthy food choices and learned about how the food they eat gets to their tables. Our tour guide, Mikaela, started us off with a question - where do you think the food from Whole Food's comes from? Students were then given pictures of various fruits and vegetables. Their task was to locate and determine where these different fruits and vegetables came from. We then made our way to the diary section where we met a cheese expert and saw cheese in it's original format, a big 20 lb wheel. We learned how to cut cheese with a cheese wire and we even got a taste test! 

After our tour, student expert groups were sent off to find ingredients for our green smoothie (ie something green, something frozen, something diary free, etc). Mikaela showed us how to combined all these nutrient-rich foods into a delicious smoothie. Students were given the opportunity to further their knowledge by asking questions, such as "Why does Whole Foods sell sweets?" Why is organic food more expensive?" How do people choose what food to buy?" "How does Whole Foods manage all of their food?" 

We ended our field work with an activity that allowed students to make healthy food choices as a group within a budget. Expert groups had to find a snack that met three criteria - 1.) It represents your food group. 2.) It is an example of a healthy choice. 3.) Everyone in our class can try a sample. Students chose items, such as Coconut Milk Vanilla yogurt (dairy and soy free), tofu with graham cracker crumbs, fresh strawberries, grapes, and carrots, and lightly salted popcorn. The students loved getting the opportunity to learn how and where they can make healthy food choices.

On Thursday, Ms. Randolph's class got a special delivery - 24 fertilized eggs from Casey Farm in Rhode Island!  Beth from Historic New England's Project Chick came to teach the students about bird life cycles and brought with her everything needed to incubate the eggs and care for the chicks.  She explained to the students what they need to know about how to take care of the eggs and then how to take care of the chicks when they hatch 21 days later.  

At the end of the presentation students got to meet three "teenage" (5 week old!) chickens just like the ones that will be born in their classroom.  Some of the students were nervous to pet the chicken but they all overcame their fears and pet Rosie, the Dominique hen who sat quietly on Beth's lap.  

Our kindergarteners are all looking forward to observing the life cycle and are ready to be good stewards of bean plants and baby chicks.