The Rookery

Today my exploration math class did something unusual – we spent almost all of class on the computers.  In this time of screen ubiquity, Prairie Creek has been careful about how it uses technology.  There's a lot of junk out there.  A screen can't substitute for the rich experiences of…

Two students organizing the branches of their tree.  Fourth and fifth graders often take the tree analogy quite literally. We are at a new stage in our personal projects.  Initial research is wrapping up and students are organizing their notes to write.  But how do you know when you have…

I think I've been to Wolf Ridge with our fifth graders fifteen times now.  One would think that it would be old hat, routine.  But it's not.  Every class is based on discovery and on finding things to wonder about.  That's what makes the learning so powerful and so authentic…

“People have perpetuated blackface because we don’t teach minstrel history. If these people had ever been exposed to it in a safe classroom environment, they would know better.”  This statement from Rhae Lynn Barnes, a professor of American cultural history at Princeton, struck home for me this weekend.  I had…

  A formidable group…about to launch snowballs at me! We ended December a special Forest School lesson.  Brandon came in and taught the Herons about the perfect cooking fire and we put together hobo packets of potatoes, butter and seasoning salt.  They were delicious (and perfectly browned…thanks, Brandon!)  The Herons…

Fractions. Even for adults, the word can bring on a shudder. Often, we were taught mnemonics to help us remember things that weren't supposed to make sense: “If the bottom is bigger, the number is smaller,” “The big number goes on the bottom” or “Ours is not to wonder why,…

One of our visitors to Special Person's Day remarked, "This is my last Special Person's Day!  I'm really sad."  I was sad, too.  This was a family I've known for years.  She'd watched her granddaughter perform as a kindergartener — so excited to be on "the big stage" but a…

We had such an amazing week in the Herons.  On Tuesday, we were able to teach the rest of the school what we had learned during our pre-Revolutionary America theme.  And then, on Wednesday and Thursday, we were able to learn from new teachers. Susan Percy joined us for Forest…

The energy leading up to a culminating event is palpable and consuming.  One of the ironies of documenting the work of a classroom is that our very busiest moments when the most is going on are the hardest to capture.  In the lead up to a culminating event, every child…

  The open mic at our coffee house.    On Friday, the Herons celebrated the publication of our literary magazine, The Heron.  Every student Would you want to share a park bench with this bear? successfully published a piece of writing.  This is quite an accomplishment.  Students selected a piece and…