Renata McAdams

Creating Worlds

In my classroom, we are well and truly launched on creating our own worlds! As a culmination of our Earth science unit, our literature studies, and our social studies emphasis this year on government circles of influence, responsibility and authority, each student in our class is designing a world of their own.  There are four…

The Earth Moves (And we take note!)

3rd-5th grade science right now is focusing on the concept of plate tectonics and the structure of our planet. We had two very different science lessons last week: On Tuesday, the 3rd and 4th graders took part in a very simple experiment. I had collected some small rocks and wood chips during recess, and I…

Chicago Friends School Student Newsletter

My class is currently composing the second edition of the Chicago Friends School newsletter. This is an entirely kid-generated project, with the entire project proposed and then planned by my students, with only very light editing imposed by me on the final product. The concept was first brought up by a student over a month…