Thursday lunch clean up

Our class has lunch clean-up duty every Thursday. It's a small, but important responsibility shared by the 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 homerooms. At the beginning of the year, it was often a chaotic, inefficient process. A surprising number of kids clearly had no idea how a broom actually works. More recently, the class has gelled into a (usually)effective and efficient team, and they even seem to enjoy the work. This photo was taken immediately following an impromptu broom dance by Gabe, who is probably thrilled and relieved that I'm not posting video of it here. On Fridays, the lunch room is cleaned by an assortment of volunteers from all of the homerooms, and I'm proud to say that there are always at least a few representatives from our class who help out.

Beginning our study of Identity

Our theme for the months of November and December is Identity. It's a rich, wide-open topic that we're eager to dig into. This morning, we started that by conducting a class inventory of traits. 

Students answered a series of (mostly) yes or no questions: 

1. I have detached earlobes.
2. I can roll my tongue. 
3. I have dimples. 
4. I am right-handed.
5. I have freckles. 
6. I have naturally curly hair.
7. I have a cleft chin. 
8. I have allergies.
9. I cross my left thumb over my right when I clasp my hands together. 
10. I can see the colors red and green. (I am not color blind.) 
11. The hairline on my forehead is straight. 
12. Are you male or female? 

They then polled their classmates on their responses, generating a set of data on the entire class. We'll be using this data next week in Math, and in STEM as we begin to explore the idea of heredity and genetics. We'll also be tying it back into the dichotomous keys we made earlier this year. 

It was a fun morning, watching kids trying to roll their tongues, asking each other if they had detached earlobes or not, and examining each others' hairlines (very carefully, of course, for fear of inviting the return of the scourge of lie...). 

Today, I learned that it's really, really difficult to convincingly draw someone rolling their tongue. 

EB: Imaginary Worlds

In our Imaginary Worlds EB recently, we've partnered to create elaborate stories about images of fantastic cities, drawn pictures and comics based on readings of original fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, and revisited the dystopian future envisioned by John Wyndham in his short story The Wheel. 

 

Kaeli and Christopher populate a city in the stars with robots with the downloaded personalities of human refugees. 

Elliot and Adi share a bizarre world that really defies simple description here. 

Sydney seems to feel that I've been overdoing it with class photos lately...

Art Class

In Art, we've been working on glazing our coil pots, working on drawing selections from a still life, and developing line drawings in preparation for a block printing workshop by a guest artist next week. Art is always a busy, buzzing, and productive hour of the day! 

A quick peek into Math class

A quick glimpse into the Math room. This morning, they were working on percentages. When I popped my head in, they were discussing how to calculate sales tax and sale prices. 

County Farm Park projects with City of Ann Arbor Naturalists

We spent this afternoon tromping through Britton Woods in County Farm Park with two guest speakers from the City of Ann Arbor. 

The kids explained their various projects to our guest speakers, then set off to data collection and discussion with our experts. Questions were asked and advice was sought. Some students were able to refine their studies a bit, setting the stage for a full afternoon in the park this Friday afternoon. 

Malletts Creek

Music with Josh

Harp and laptops: Music Class at Summers-Knoll

Planning time is absolutely crucial to a teacher, especially in an environment as responsive and organic as Summers-Knoll. Much of my planning time happens while the kids are at Music, which is unfortunate, as anytime I happen to poke my head into Josh's room, I'm drawn in by what the kids are doing. It's invariably engaging, compelling, and FUN. 

Ask your child about their work in Music! Josh is doing wonderful things in class!