The Rookery

I'm typing this while I watch the fifth graders practicing for the reading MCAs.  I feel very grateful that I'm at a school in which test prep is put in what I consider its proper perspective.  We'll spend about an hour getting acclimated to the format of the reading test…

In the week before spring break, we were very busy — motors, Morse code, static electricity, lightning, capacitors, and electrolysis were all on the docket. We'd spent so much time on current electricity that Rachel and I were excited to explore static charge with the students.  Rachel's mini-lesson on lightning…

4th graders received their invitation to join Northfield's 5th grade band.  It's a very popular program at Prairie Creek.  Often on band days, students give spontaneous concerts but on Thursday they gave a more formal presentation, inviting the 4th graders to ask questions about individual instruments.  Here's a snippet of…

We were very lucky to have Eric Johnson (S.W.'w neighbor) come in today to share his energy expertise.  Little did I know when Eric contacted me to collect information about our solar panel that he would be such a resource.  As he explained to the Herons, some people have baseball…

Rachel and I know better than to trust the internet.  That's why we both tried to make lemon juice batteries this weekend.  When they didn't work, we compared notes did some more research and thought we'd gotten the wrinkles ironed out.  Time for the big leagues – a lesson with…

The Big Birds had a wonderful day on Tuesday celebrating pi.  Yes, we were a day late (March 14 is officially Pi day because the date is 3/14 or 3.14) but it gave everyone time to memorize a few extra digits.  Students either measured the circles to discover the ratio…

Right now the Big Birds are studying fractions in math and I've been working with my group to multiply and divide with fractions.  For multiplication, I had the students reflect on what multiplication meant before we began.  We then applied those definitions to make sense of multiplying by fractions and…

Every morning, the Herons get together for a 15 minute "reunion" (spanish for "meeting.")  It's lead by a different student each day but follows the same format – students welcome each other, share announcements, make short shares (5 words, no questions), long shares (questions allowed) and then play a game…

The snow was perfect, the rivalry was simmering, there really was not choice but to abandon the P.E. lesson plan and head out to the big field for a giant snow ball fight (which I recently learned is Japanese team sport called yukigassen)  It was an epic battle against the…

Caroline just shared with us the final report from the evaluation team that visited our school in late February, the culmination of our self-study process.  The report will be shared with our authorizer, Northfield School District.  The introduction was written by Rob Hardy, after he and his team observed classes,…