Doherty
February 26, 2021
Celebrating Changemakers in Unit II
As part of an intensive Black History Month study, Doherty students in Unit II are engaging in an interdisciplinary study of Black changemakers. “The students are researching a number of people, including mathematician Katherine Johnson of “Hidden Figures” fame, Super Soaker inventor Lonnie Johnson, iconic heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, Saratoga Chip creator George Crum and so many more,” said Unit II teacher Sherri Linville. “They are creating a timeline of things that happened in the lives of the people they are studying, and they will research their life’s work.” Linville said students’ work will culminate into a presentation and facts from the students’ research will be used in a Kahoot trivia game just before spring break.
Zooming into Book Clubs in Unit III
Students in Dana Pease and Bill Schmidt’s Unit III classes are participating in book discussions via Zoom. “We have students from both classrooms reading the same books in small groups,” said Pease. “But since we can’t gather around a table together, we have Zoom meetings for live discussions.” Pease said students are working from a Schoology platform titled, “Unit III Book Clubs,” which contains discussion threads for each group. “The teachers post a prompt each day and the students respond to the prompt and also to each other’s replies to have an online written discussion,” said Pease. “It is a very academically engaging and Socratic way to unpack meaningful discourse around literature.”
Kindergarten Nature Explorers
Kindergarteners in Lindsay Pietroski and Cyndi Kenyon’s classes recently studied the winter habitats of animals during their year-long Nature Explorers program. Students read “The Mitten” by Jan Brett and later gave an oral report on an animal in their study. Students then designed their own mittens with paper and created puppets to retell their own version of The Mitten story. Afterward, the children began to question “What do animals really do in the winter to stay warm?” said Kenyon. “We went on winter nature hikes and researched firsthand what some native animals do in the winter.” The students later picked an animal to research and drew a picture of the animal, which is now featured in the kindergarten hallway in Haile Hall. The multipart project was completed by each student, who also gave an oral report of their animal, which was recorded and sent to their families. “It’s exciting to see the students so engaged in their learning. Their natural curiosity of the world provides such an authentic learning experience,” said Pietroski. “One student was studying cardinals as her animal and, when she saw a female and male cardinal fly together under an evergreen tree, she lit up and squealed with excitement because it really helped her make a connection to her recent studies.”
Observing Seasonal Change in Pre-kindergarten
Pre-kindergarteners in Julie Brackett’s class used observational skills throughout the recent snow thaw, which revealed a little color from vegetation starting to grow. “During our regular nature walks, my students have been noticing a bit of green growth and we have been talking about changes in the temperature,” said Brackett. “I shared with the students that some of the plants on campus that have been deep underground are starting to warm up enough to grow and poke through the snow.” Brackett used students’ observations and meanderings to tie into a literacy activity involving “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats, followed by an exercise in which the students were able to make foot prints in the melting snow, which is referenced in the book.
Learning Money Values in Unit I
Unit I students in Amy Kulhavik and Joan Claybourn’s classes put their money sense to good use during a fun lesson in which the students went on a scavenger hunt. During the hunt, the students were required to find the answers to riddles by solving questions involving money. “We are doing a unit on money in math and this was a fun activity where students had to figure out the amount of coins shown and then use corresponding words in order to answer the riddle,” said Kulhavik.
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