Upper Elementary Publishers
3rd graders in UE celebrated their final day of “publishing”. After studying the poem, “The Sea Wind”, by Sara Teasdale, the students embarked on a week-long process of brainstorming, drafting, revising, and committing to a final version of their own poems about the ocean. As author/illustrators, they were also able to curate corresponding watercolor paintings that reflected their work. On the last day, they were able to present their poems to their classmates. Every one of our writers received rave reviews!
Middle School History Class
The Middle School students are learning about “European Exploration and Settlement” from multiple perspectives. During ‘Individuals & Society’ class, students examined a historically-based picture and hypothesized how the European nations explored and established settlements in the Americas. The particular image was of Christopher Columbus and crew claiming San Salvador for Spain. While acting out each character in the scene, they were able to project varying viewpoints about the landing and proclamation that this land, which had been lived on by the natives for centuries, was now being claimed for a far off kingdom. Later in the fall, they will make connections to modern-day political boundary setting and land-based wars to better understand the idea of conquest and man’s relationship to the land.
