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…
Pringles are NOT just for snacking!
Posted by Colleen Noyes
Growth Mindset Using Dots!
Posted by anniehenry
Over the course of January the entire school focused on Growth Mindset with Mrs. Henry. Students learned what it is, the importance of it, the role mistakes and failure play in our life, and the strength in resilience. Lower schoolers practiced flipping their mindsets and power in positive affirmations. Upper Schoolers learned about neuroplasticity and the literal growth we can have within our brains. The whole school ended the unit by reading The Dot, by Peter Reynolds. A story that reminds us that sometimes the best way to get unstuck is to simply get started, and that growth often means taking a risk. Every student in the school then decorated a dot and 5th graders worked to display them in our dining room. If you find yourself stuck, turn to our mural of dots and remember to have a growth mindset!
Focusing on the Civil Rights Movement
Posted by Karen Engelke
Grade 4 has been learning about several notable women in the Civil Rights Movement using the literacy skills of identifying the main idea and details and summarizing. Students have been reading passages such as The Reasons and Causes of the Civil Rights Movement, The Bus Boycott, and Young People of the Civil Rights Movement. They learned about Rosa Parks, Ayanna Najuma, and Barbara Johns in these passages. This unit integrates literacy skills with Social Studies using higher-order thinking skills. Identifying the main idea/details and summarizing a text can be challenging, but our students demonstrated their understanding by creating a creative and insightful infomap in the shape of a bus to represent key events of the Bus Boycott movement.
Let’s Draw!
Posted by kellyyeh
In this unit, third grade Mandarin students explored facial features and body parts while learning how to describe them in simple sentences, such as “My eyes are big” or “My hands are small.” Through engaging activities like “You say, I draw” and “I say, you draw,” students enthusiastically practiced their speaking skills in a fun and interactive way.
Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and his Orchestra
Posted by Maureen Diallo
Within our Language Arts curriculum, first grade has recently focused on people from our past. We fell in love with the story, Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkey. The first graders explored Duke Ellington’s music through this beautifully written, award-wining story, that showcased his life and legacy as a revolutionary Jazz pianist and composer. Duke Ellington’s contributions to jazz music are regarded as some of the most influential of the 20th century. Not only did we wrap ourselves in the amazing sounds of his music, we pictured what his music would look like in color, art, and design. With inspiration from the illustrations of Brian Pinkney, and the sounds of The Duke himself, the first graders were able to create their own Duke Ellington-inspired drawings to accompany their fact-filled writing pieces.
Calligraphy Day!
Posted by Thomas Iezin
Over the past few weeks, our 6th-grade Humanities students have been immersed in the rich history and culture of Ancient China. As they explored key aspects of this fascinating civilization, they learned about their myths and traditions, particularly the creation story of Pan Gu and Nu Wa. To conclude the unit, students participated in an exciting hands-on activity where they used ancient Chinese Oracle Bone scriptures to create a cover for this legendary tale. This project encouraged them to engage with the main concept of Ancient Chinese writing which are the concepts of pictographs and ideographs. It was a wonderful way to bring history to life and foster a deeper appreciation for one of the world’s oldest civilizations.
