Category Archives: practical life

Gathering Leaves

As Fall marches on, we are watching the leaves gather on the ground. The Primary students are fortunate to have a huge conifer in their outdoor classroom, but their deciduous trees are too young to yield much of a pile. Earlier this month, … Continue reading

Posted in building and grounds, outside, practical life, Primary

Pumpkin pound

A favorite work has been in Primary the last few weeks—the pumpkin pound! Working one at a time, children first don safety glasses, and then use a hammer to pound in wooden tees. Each child may pound in as many … Continue reading

Posted in McGuffey, practical life, Primary

Displaying Self-Portraits in Lower Elementary

After lots of planning, Lower Elementary happily unveiled their new display of student self-portraits in the classroom recently. Each student’s self-portrait is now framed and sitting on a ledge shelf in our upstairs classroom space. This is quite an upgrade, and students have … Continue reading

Posted in art, Lower Elementary, practical life

Primary’s Bread and Butter

Our Primary students recently made bread! Elizabeth brought in her bread maker and showed us how she adds all the ingredients. We talked about yeast, and how it helps the bread rise. (Science!) All morning we peeked in the window to see … Continue reading

Posted in cooking, practical life, Primary

Pizza from the Primary garden

Now that it’s fall, the Primary unit is harvesting quite a bounty from their garden. Last week they gathered tomatoes, basil, and lettuce and turned it into a snack. During morning meeting they combined the ingredients and made a sauce. … Continue reading

Posted in cooking, McGuffey, practical life, Primary, science

Cubbies in Lower Elementary

As you have likely noticed if you have been in our Lower Elementary classroom this year, students’ cubbies were relocated from the classroom to the sunroom over the summer. This helped open up a significant amount of space in our classroom, … Continue reading

Posted in Lower Elementary, practical life

A Glimpse into Lower Elementary’s Work Period

Students in Lower Elementary have been delving deeper into the Albanesi Mathematics Curriculum over the past week, as well as continuing their work with Ingrid on growing their own succulent plants. We’ve also been working hard on time management skills, … Continue reading

Posted in Lower Elementary, math, outside, practical life

Starting Succulent Plants with Ingrid

Today, Ingrid dropped by Lower Elementary to teach the students there about succulent plants and to help them start growing their own. Succulent plants are generally thicker and hardier than other plants, and they require little water. Think of a … Continue reading

Posted in Lower Elementary, outside, practical life

Babysitters in Training

While school is out for summer, twelve of our students came back to school all day today for babysitter training by the Fitton YMCA. This is an extension of our Practical Life curriculum. Students learned how to care for infants, toddlers and pre-adolescents … Continue reading

Posted in Middle School, practical life, Uncategorized, Upper Elementary, upper unit

Lower Elementary’s Birdhouse Gourds

Last spring, Lower Elementary students planted birdhouse gourd seeds along part of the fence of their outdoor classroom. The seeds were quite successful, yielding around 20 gourds! Our current Lower Elementary students harvested the gourds and pruned their stems and leaves during … Continue reading

Posted in community, Lower Elementary, practical life