Family Tree Town Meeting

On Friday, December 21, Tomáš, Nikita, Sofia, Asha and some other kids were singing at a Town Meeting, and one of the songs they sang was Family Tree. The song is below, so look below and you'll see the whole thing first hand. It was great. Hehehe. [Tomáš]

Our Poetry Celebration

On 12/19/07 we had our poetry celebration! Our parents came in to read our poems and wrote comments in our comment books (made by Leila and Nikita). We (Abby and Andrew's class) had to pick three, four or five poems for a book of poems. Plus the kids also got to read each other's poems and write comments too. We felt very very proud to have our poems read in public. We got to bring in food and drinks. We had the publishing celebration first thing in the morning. [Nikita and Isabel R.]

Our Trip to the Wyckoff Farmhouse

Yesterday we had a trip to the Wyckoff Farmhouse, and we learned how people lived in the olden days. We learned that you had to sit around all day and do things like make butter and turn wool into clothes. And - believe it or not - 13 people lived in one small room about the size of your kitchen. And you know how I said about making butter? That's one of the chores the kid's would do. [Isabel R.]

Building Without Columns

So... we found out that architects can support weight (like a highway) by using columns, and we found out that two columns, placed side-by-side, are stronger than columns placed in single file. But what happens when the columns are too narrow? That's been our challenge this week. We've worked with some of the narrowest materials we could find - toothpicks. We've been looking for the strongest shapes and supports. [Andrew]

Movement

Each week, on Wednesdays, we've been having a movement class with Rachel from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. We've learned to move through self-space and group-space, to contract and expand, to create positive and negative spaces with our bodies, and a whole lot more. Take a look at today's action! [Andrew]

Publishing Our Poems

This week we have been adding things to our poems for the publishing party. It's been really interesting adding comparisons to our poems and repetition in our poems. First we picked out three poems to publish then we started adding things to our poems. It was really hard to pick out three poems because sometimes we had more then three poems and sometimes we had less than three poems. Now we're in the position where I am not sure what we're doing so don't ask. We have been working a lot a lot on line breaks! [Isabel R]

Theo "Life Lake"

Elijah "Angels Drinking Cofee"

The Highway in our Back Yard

On our way to the Kentler Gallery last week, we walked over (and under) the BQE. We noticed that it was constructed with beams and columns, like the ones we used in a paper and block experiment earlier in the week. We made models of the highway with classroom materials, and then we went back to the footbridge to draw. [Andrew with photos by Layla]

Drawing

Yesterday, we walked to the Kentler Gallery in Red Hook. We looked at drawings and sculptures that artists have made of plants around the city. We paid particular attention to the ways that plants can appear in the city either planted by people or growing wild. At the gallery, we drew. On the way to the gallery, we took photographs. [Andrew with photos by Abby and Theo]

Building Our Own Lighthouse

After our trip on Wednesday, we took our on-site drawings and created models of the Little Red Lighthouse out of whatever materials we thought we needed. Some of the buildings included details like the spiral staircase in the center, the windows in the side, the fences on the bottom and top, and the concrete slab that the lighthouse sits on. [Andrew with photos by Alain]

What It Feels Like to Be a Building

On 11/16/07, we read a book called What It Feels Like to Be a Building. We learned some new things about buildings and shapes. Our names were on pieces of paper and were picked out of the jar, so we could go to perform something in the book. Lisa (Nikita's mom) came in to read the book and teach us. But one time she asked all of us to make an arch. Here are some words we learned: beam, squash, arch, column, corbel. [Lena and Nikita]

The Little Red Lighthouse

Our class went to the Little Red Lighthouse on Wednesday with Maria Cadillac's class, and we got to take pictures inside of the Little Red Lighthouse. We got to look at the Hudson River. 15 kids at a time could go in the Little Red Lighthouse. When those kids came out, they ate lunch, then 15 other kids went in. Then after all the kids came out, everyone took their social studies notebook and did homework - not real homework but questions we had to answer like that. When everybody was done, four kids were making a movie, then they all got bored, so some of those kids went to play tag with other kids that already started to play tag. [Sofia and Asha]

From Elijah's notebook

From Layla's notebook

From Leila's notebook

From Tomáš's notebook

More Poetry

Of course we are still writing poetry this week. Asha and Joshua recorded theirs, and you can hear them below. When you listen to Joshua's poem, see if you can find the comparisons that he made - there are four of them. Comparison is the poet's tool that we've been studying, and Joshua went back to revise an earlier poem just so he could add a few. [Andrew]

Asha "Marbles"

Joshua "Pokemon"

Choice Time This Week

Alex is writing a Pokemon story. Theo is making a submarine out of Kinex. Renee is building a big house out of straws. Matthew is making a picture of an artist with watercolor. Kamau is building a tunnel out of Kapla blocks. Joshua is making a scrap building out of paper. Autumn is making a dotted picture with watercolor. [Isabel M. with photos by Matthew]

Newspaper Buildings

Today we experimented with more materials to find out how buildings are made so strong. We rolled newspaper into logs and then tried to make free-standing structures that would be big enough to fit a 2nd grader! [Andrew]

Watching Pigeons

Our observations of pigeons continued last week. First we studied the different colors that pigeon feathers can take, and then we went outside to tally the birds we saw. Most of us agreed that there were more spread and blue bar pigeons around the school. [Andrew]

Project Time NYC

This week Asha, Nikita and Layla are making a museum. Kamua is making a roundish building with paper. Terence is making the Empire State Building. Nick is making Rockefeller Center. Sofia and Ibuki are making a Rolts Building out of cardbord. Mattew, Zo and Tatiana are making the Twin Towers out of Kapla blocks. Renee and Isabel are totally freaking out trying to make a museum. Theo and Tomas are also freaking out trying to make a park with a flag in it. Briana and Ivonne are making a clock tower out of real paper. [Isabel R. with photos by Isabel and Leila]

Bird Feet!

In science today we continued our exploration of the pigeons in New York City. We looked closely at the feet of different kinds of birds and thought about what each foot might be best at - hunting, swimming, scratching, climbing... Then we created bird feet from clay and drew them in our science journals. [Andrew]

Alain

Autumn

Alex's drawings

Poetry!

We've been writing poetry for weeks already, and the poems just keep getting better. This week we've especially been working on using descriptive language that comes from getting the five senses involved in writing about something. This week we also started recording our poetry, so that it can be shared. Listen to our first recordings below. Enjoy! [Andrew]

Renee "My Daisy"

Sofia "Popsicles"

Isabel R "The Crazy Room"

In a dream,
When I was two
I had a crazy dream.
Puppets sprang from the wall.
There was a mouse in the house.
It was scary.

Lena "Ellie"

Project Time NYC

This week has seen the beginning of "Project Time NYC". This is a twice-a-week opportunity that we'll have to explore issues in the city and its architecture through projects. One of the highlights from the week was Adam's model of the Brooklyn Bridge complete with the subways and tunnels nearby. Another highlight was Nicolas' model of a cathedral in paper. [Andrew]

The Promenade

This post is just to get the blog started.
Last week... we took our first trip - to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade - officially kicking off our exploration of the city around us. Thanks to Mike D'Elia (Adam's dad) for remembering to bring a camera (which I didn't!) and for sharing these great pictures. Next week, we're off to the top of the Rockefeller Center - moving our perspective on the city from "person's-eye view" to "bird's-eye view". [Andrew]