Halloween on Parade!

The Lotspeich Lower School and the Early Childhood Center (ECC) had spooky, spirited Halloween parades this morning! ECC students paraded around the outside of the Early Childhood Center, which was festooned with Halloween decorations provided by pre-kindergarten parent Stephanie Wong. Children in grades one through five walked around the upper field track as Creative Dramatics teacher Russell White announced their names. There were many creative costumes on display, including numerous superheroes and princesses, a box of mac and cheese, and a whirling tornado! 

Click here for more photos from the Halloween parade!

Pumpkin Math in Pre-kindergarten

Pre-kindergarten teacher Kiki Schneider put a fun fall spin on math! In a recent lesson, pre-kindergarteners participated in pumpkin math. During morning meeting, Schneider held up a pumpkin and asked each student to estimate the circumference using a piece of string. They were also asked to estimate how many lines they thought were on the pumpkin. Students then practiced writing their numbers and practiced basic addition skills. “Students drew popsicle sticks with addition and used Unifix Cubes (brightly colored, stackable cubes) to represent the numbers on the popsicle sticks,” Schneider said. They then learned the lifecycle of a pumpkin, carved their pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern, and roasted pumpkin seeds!

Second-graders Learn the Importance of Kindness

Second-graders recently learned how a small act of kindness can create a ripple effect, spreading kindness to many others. Lotspeich school counselor Seraphine Schomber spoke to students about kindness and read the book, “Each Kindness,” by Jacqueline Woodson. “I do this lesson toward the beginning of the school year to help start the conversation about how our actions impact others in a positive or negative way,” Schomber said. “I want students to realize that they can impact others through acts of kindness, no matter how small.” Schomber and her students discussed the book as they read. “Each Kindness” is told by a young girl named Chloe, who, along with her friends, is unkind to a new student named Maya. Maya moves away, and Chloe realizes she should have been kind to Maya, but missed the opportunity. Schomber told students the book illustrates how important it is to be kind to others. She asked second-graders to think of something kind to do for someone else before the next guidance class and gave students a “Kindness Bingo Card” to fill out as they completed nice acts.

First-graders Practice Number Sense

On the 43^rd day of school, which fell in mid-October, first-grade teacher Jennifer Egan asked her students to write “43” on a whiteboard anyway they could think of. Some students made tally marks, others drew 43 circles, and still others wrote math problems, such as “40+3.” The lesson helps students build their number sense, which grows by connecting numbers to students’ experiences. “Number sense is an important foundational skill for primary learners,” Egan said. “Students are demonstrating their understanding of how to represent numbers by using tally marks, tens and ones, and addition/subtraction. We then focus on how numbers are all around us and how we use them in our everyday lives at home, work, and play.”

Third-, Fourth-graders Study Relationship Between Plants, Animals

Third- and fourth-graders in Kate LaBare’s science class are studying the interconnection of plants and animals in a unit focusing on pollination. Students recently utilized the outdoor classroom by visiting the Middle School pollinator garden, which attracts pollinating insects. “We conducted a field study on how many pollinators visit each flower,” LaBare said. “Students were amazed by how much activity and work was happening in an area many walk by every day!”