As part of their year-long study of Vermont, the 2/3 students selected an influential Vermonter to research ways he/she has impacted our state and culture. As a culmination of their learning, the class created a Wax Museum to teach others about these influential Vermonters. Visitors to the museum were encouraged to push the “wax statue’s” button to hear the person’s biography.

The 4/5 class at Vermont Day School has been immersed in an integrated Global Studies and Art unit, called Messages of Human Rights. Learning about the Declaration of Human Rights, the US Bill of Rights and the Civil Rights era, the project helped students shape their personal beliefs and viewpoints. As a culmination of their learning, each student created a mixed-media piece of artwork to express his/her own personal idea, belief or message about human or civil rights. The art pieces were on display for the school and parent community to view at our all-school project based learning share last week.

As part of their exploration of Inuit culture, the K/1 class made “soap stone” carvings to add to their museum gallery. Through reading fiction and non-fiction text, they learned that the Inuit created carvings for a variety of reasons. The purposes might be functional, such as for fishing hooks and sewing needles, or more spiritual, bringing good luck to hunters.

 

 

Did you know you could taste books?  Rate books?   Neither did the 2/3 class at Vermont Day School.  A book tasting is when a person is looking for a new book and might need to try a few before they decide.  The 2/3s were trying to choose a series of books and they did so by tasting a few.

The tables were set, the books were displayed, the rating cards were standing by, the taste of a snack was ready to go.  Seats were taken, books were chosen and finally “you may read” rung through the air.  With the timer set at three minutes per book, patrons were asked to taste a book and then rate it.  While reading patrons were served a taste of a snack.   They did this four times before they decided on a series to read!

As part of their current Chemistry unit, the 2/3 class is exploring matter, practicing how to measure and categorize matter, and learning about the three main states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. They brainstormed similarities and differences between the states using Venn diagrams, and had a lot of fun (and got really messy!) testing out Oobleck to see if it acts more like a solid or like a liquid. The students were intrigued to find out that sometimes it acts like a solid (it retains its shape when you hit it hard) and sometimes it acts like a liquid (it takes the shape of the container it’s in). Next up….investigating how matter can change from one form to another!