What’s Happening
From September’s opening day to June’s closing ceremonies, we document and share events from all over our campus in an attempt to continuously communicate all the diverse goings-on at The Unquowa School. From school-wide events, assemblies, visiting presenters and other highlights from around campus, here’s a sample of what’s happening…
What Makes Our School Uniquely Unquowa…
Posted by Lloyd Mitchell
How much time do you have?
Grade 5 Poetry Slam @ Cafe Unq.
Posted by Sarah Raggio
To conclude and celebrate our poetry unit, Grade 5 hosted a Poetry Slam @ “Cafe Unq.” this week. The poets shared their poems and congratulated each other with handwritten Post Its, highlighting the similes, metaphors and other examples of figurative language used. The cafe served drinks and snacks which made the event even more fun. We all agreed that poetry is a great way to express your thoughts and feelings, and the students enjoyed writing their own poetry. Go Gators!
Body Parts & Animal Fun in Mandarin Class!
Posted by kellyyeh
From March to April, we focused on studying body parts and animals. The class had a lot of fun with various activities. For the body parts lesson, we sang songs and danced, and students followed my directions to draw their little monsters. The second-graders used Play-Doh to create Chinese characters such as eyes, mouths, ears, and hands. The third and fourth graders tried to make sentences describing themselves. During the animal lesson, we played silent animal acting games and sang songs. In addition, during our culture class, we continued to practice calligraphy and learned how to play Chinese Dark Chess. I am pleased to say that the students really enjoyed learning these new skills.
Honoring EARTH DAY!
Posted by Joshua Bartosiewicz
Unquowa students in grades 1-8 visited Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, CT in celebration of EARTH DAY! As you may know, we as humans share this planet with MILLIONS of different species of plants, animals and other organisms; so we decided to honor EARTH DAY by visiting the zoo to connect with just a few of the species that the planet helps provide for. Students saw animals as small as prairie dogs, as big as Bison, as gentle as a two-toed sloth and as vicious as a Leopard! During this trip, we also sat in on a Wildlife show were the zoo keepers brought out a turtle and legless lizard for everyone to see and learn about. This talk truly made everyone think about how one type of animal can be crucial for the survival of multiple other species, this significant species is referred to as a Keystone species. By the end of our day (which included a scavenger hunt through the zoo!), our students felt their place and connection with the other organisms that we’re lucky enough to share this beautiful planet with. The students have a better understanding of why it’s important to protect mother Earth!
Early Childhood Celebrates Earth Day!
Posted by Faith Barbuto
While the rest of the school was off to the zoo, the PreK and Kindergarten classes had a full run of Unquowa and made good use of it. From hands-on snacks, an edible Earth moon cake, and rolling our own Earth shaped meatballs for lunch, the kids really loved getting to be in the dining room and having some one on one time with the chefs. Next we had an animal encounter with creatures from Earthplace. We got to meet a salamander, snake, turtle and screech owl. We learned lots about these fascinating and adorable animals, all of which are native to Connecticut. After a bit of outdoor play, we scrubbed up and headed into the dining room for a pasta bar with our own homemade meatballs. The chefs surprised us with a really fun dessert, worms in dirt! Next up was an outdoor sing-a-long with the upper school music teacher, Mr. Coe. Art class was also outside and inspired by nature. Our school gardener, Ms. Amie, had some fun Earth day arts and crafts set up in the Makerspace and outside on the new picnic tables. We made bird feeders and hung them up for our feathered friends. Our Earth Day Mandarin lessons taught animal names in Chinese and focused on water pollution. As the saying goes “Every day should be Earth Day!”
I’m hungry! I’m thirsty! I’m sleepy!
Posted by Diane Nietupski
Fifth grade Spanish class worked on projects based on one of the most common verbs in Spanish “tener” (to have), and all of its numerous meanings. They used their wonderful artistic talents to portray the various meanings.