Last week and this, one group in my class is learning about lines, rays, and measuring angles in math. One of the interesting things about this unit is that it begins from ideas that students this age understand intuitively, on a level that was taught to them years ago — lines and corners and points…
Point of View
The books my students are reading now in their book groups are all chosen to reflect a theme of two cultures meeting, and either valuing one another or devaluing one another. In King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, a prized Arabian stallion is sent as a gift to the King of France — but…
Reflecting on Integrity
Integrity is definitely the most difficult of the Quaker values to discuss with children. This is partly because while it’s about being good and doing the right thing, it’s particularly about trustworthiness and inner honesty, so that’s complex. It’s also, in some ways, more about intent than actions, which is likewise complicated to talk about…
Taking Notes
One new skill my class has been focusing on recently is taking notes. Elementary school isn’t usually a time when people think of note-taking as an important skill, but then again, the kids have been taking notes in one way or another for years: writing an interesting fact from Time for Kids on a post-it,…
Industrial Revolution Social Studies
On Friday, our class wrapped up our lessons on the Industrial Revolution. We had covered the basics of what the Industrial Revolution was earlier in the week, but we hadn’t yet gotten to the Trash and Treasure connection that we’ve looked at with each era of U.S. history: what did people “treasure” at this point…