Nope, not crime scene investigation! Kindergarten is using a thinking routine called CSI: Color, Symbol, Image to help them create mental pictures that encapsulate the lesson. Having studied creation in Genesis 1, students contemplated what color best represented the creation of the world to them. Some chose blue for all the water; some thought brown or green representing the ground or living things made better sense. Then students created their own symbol and image to represent the world.
Mrs. Dougherty’s class has painted a beautiful canvas with Colossians 3:16-17 printed on it to auction off on facebook to raise money for Funis Runis. Students planned the work together, each contributing something to the overall production.
1st grade creates headlines for their Bible story.
Students are choosing a color that they feel best represents the current chapter in Charlotte’s Web. Students must defend their choice before charting it together.
Learning to spell in 1st grade is much more fun when you do it with friends!
After their trip to Penzey’s, the 5th grade made their way next door to Swanky’s Taco Shop for lunch. What a yummy way to experience different spices!
As the 5th grade begins their study of the Age of Exploration, they learn about the spice route that Marco Polo opened up overland to China and the race in Western Europe to find a water route to the Indies. Taking a trip over to Penzey’s Spices was not nearly as arduous as the (ultimately fatal) trip that Magellan took to circumnavigate the globe, but it did give the 5th grade the opportunity to smell and taste all sorts of exotic spices like curry, paprika, ajwain, cardamom, and charnushka.
Thank you so much, Penzey’s!
Mrs. Hickman’s class conducts their mock trial to determine the guilt or innocence of Nick Allen, the infamous, nefarious student in Frindle who thumbs his nose at the school authorities by whipping his classmates into a frenzy of disobedience and disruption. (This writer may have her own opinion as to the guilt of the defendant!)
1st graders are already preparing for Advent! All 1st graders memorize Luke 2 in first semester and present it at the Christmas Choir Concert. As they discussed the story, Mrs. Peckham wanted her students to understand the heart of the matter, so she used a thinking protocol called “Headlines” to help her students structure their thinking. She asked them, “What would the headline in the newspaper say to get people to read the whole story?”
The 5th grade has been hard at work to determine the guilt or innocence of Nick Allen, a precocious 5th grader from the novel Frindle who invented a new word, much to the consternation of his teacher, Mrs. Granger. Charges of disruption and disrespect were brought by the prosecution, while the defense maintained Nick’s innocence in the matter.
A solemn hush fell over the classroom as the judge (Mrs. Dougherty) took her seat. Everyone, lawyers, witnesses, bailiff, and defendant, had prepared so hard. The jury, Mrs. Wells’s 4th grade class, took their seats across the back of the classroom. Nick Allen was sworn in.
Both sides presented their evidence, called witnesses, and made an emotional plea to the jury. The deliberations were fierce, almost resulting in a hung jury. Wisdom, however, prevailed, and the jury returned the verdict:
Court is dismissed!
Westminster Academy 