In the Omega classroom, we have been building rockets! As a part of our “Scientists at Work” unit, we have been building rockets out of paper, cardboard and other materials. They are powered by a small isobutane reaction, similar to the explosions that power an internal combustion engine. The Omegas have been learning about the [...] Read more »

The alphas have been working on community building. We are looking at, reading about, and having discussions about ways to communicate and how to acknowledge feelings. We have been playing a lot of games together during open choice to practice what we are learning. We read about Martin Luther King, Jr. and watched part of [...] Read more »

The Alpha 2-Tau room has been working on bar graphing! We are collecting data using tally marks and creating our own graphs. We are also using graphs to answer math questions.  Our class has also been focusing on doing Random Acts of Kindness about the school and using tally marks to record these. Last week [...] Read more »

The Alphas recently received a letter from the Municipal Manager of the Town of Rockingham thanking them for sending money from the penny drive to help rebuild their covered bridge.  You can see the whole letter, but here is an excerpt… “Their generous donation of over Fifty Six dollars to the efforts to rebuild the [...] Read more »

This session, Mark taught a short course called Codes and Secret Messages  This week, Mark put  some ideas from the school-wide physics theme into his short course.  The group used their knowledge of sound and waves to send messaged via cups and kite strings. That’s right, the classic tin-can phone, only with updated materials!  Several [...] Read more »

Bread & Butter Farm in Shelburne welcomed students from The Schoolhouse for a hands-on field trip so the students could experience first-hand what a real working farm is like. The students were divided into two groups. Half the students headed to the greenhouse to learn about growing lettuce, kale, spinach, and Swiss chard while the [...] Read more »

Fran Huntoon is a former teacher at The Schoolhouse, who now is in instructor in the University of Vermont’s Vermont Math Initiative (VMI).  VMI is a comprehensive, statewide, mathematics professional development program for elementary and middle school teachers. Since September 2010, Fran has been working with the faculty at The Schoolhouse, meeting about once a [...] Read more »

The Alphas have spent the fall heavy into research. We’ve done some light experiments- bending light, making reflections and creating rainbows with water and sunlight.We also did some experiments with density and buoyancy and made science journals. We are all over incline planes and are seeing them every where. I love hearing them talk about [...] Read more »