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…
NEW! Pen & Paper – Volume 14 – 2023-2024
Posted by Eric Snow
The Best Way to End our Social Studies Course…
Posted by Trésor Kayumba
One of the most important reasons to learn history is to gain an understanding of how it impacts modern society. Too often we fail to see how our past has influenced our present, and this leads to a level of disconnect. For our final assignment in sixth grade humanities, we wanted to highlight our individual cultural heritage–where we came from and how we celebrate this history today. Culture is nuanced and layered in a way that can lead to true appreciation and understanding of one another.
The object of this assignment was to bring to life the richness of culture and its impact on our lives. Too often, young scholars experience school without ever having the opportunity to pridefully share and learn about their own cultures.
American history, particularly colonial history, is often written as a story about European settlers, Enslaved Africans, and Indigenous people. This assignment allowed us to expand our knowledge and demonstrate that there are many cultural groups who have been a part of American history and have contributed to this country. Their cultures have also enriched our society. This assignment acts as a reminder that cultures and traditions are critical to what is best in our society. As Blair stated, “I really enjoyed learning and tasting all of the delicious foods from all of the cultures.”
During their research, the sixth grade had to examine and learn about the roots of many cultural expressions including the origins of foods, dance, and clothing. This assignment was inspired by the incredibly informative documentary entitled, High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America.
PreK Beach Day!
Posted by Faith Barbuto
We spent our last full week of school studying vowels and symbiotic relationships, pretty high level stuff! Of course the highlight of our week was Beach Day – it was non-stop educational fun from beginning to end. We started the day with our auction winner helper, London, painting our feet! These footprints later became mermaids and the students answered the question of whether the mermaid should choose love or family. Students created ocean themed movement and breathing cards to bring home for some mindfulness on the go! Next we went on mindful imaginary journey to the beach and our first round of 5th grade reading buddies recorded what we would see, smell, touch, taste and hear at the seashore. They also brought us heartfelt cards and homemade gifts, bookmarks! For our first snack we made savory versions of edible oceans. Our math project was based on a mermaid story about finding the courage within. We made bracelets of courage to remind us to be confident and made extras to present to our 5th grade reading buddies. Next out to the playground for sand box and water toy fun! After a pizza lunch and ice cream truck treat we put on our swimsuits and got ready for the main event- the octopus sprinkler!! In a moment that made the day truly special, the class was joined by some of our favorite 8th graders for some old fashioned childhood fun. Next up our second hands on snack- this time a sweet version of edible oceans. Judging by the pics this was the winner!
Opposable Thumbs!
Posted by Joshua Bartosiewicz
- One student from each group taped their thumbs to perform simple tasks without the advantage of an opposable thumb.
- Timing how long it takes to turn to page 54.
- Cutting clay.
- Recording the time!
The 7th graders ended their Unit and learned all about adaptations, speciation and evolution. The students had a ton of excitement in this lab as its main purpose was to model and simulate what life would be like if humans never evolved to have opposable Thumbs. Opposable means opposite of, the thumb is opposite (or perpendicular) to the other fingers therefore referred to as opposable. Our thumbs allow us to perform tasks with ease, but if we didn’t have these magnificent advantages, the simplest of tasks would be incredibly difficult to almost impossible.
In this lab our young scholars were split into groups and there was a designated timer, a person with full use of their hands and another person with their thumbs taped to their hands, which would limit their ability to use their hands. Both the person with full use of their hands and the person with their thumbs taped would perform the same tasks (1 at a time) and the 3rd person would time how long it took for each of them to perform the task(s). Tasks included; opening a ziplock bag, turning a book to a specific page, cutting clay, writing and more! To conclude, the students had a blast as they saw who was more efficient at completing the tasks and they understood the importance of opposable Thumbs as well as how evolution occurs.
8th Graduation from Composting!
Posted by Thomas Iezin
Over the last 30 weeks our graduating 8th grade class has spent part of their service learning with Park City Compost Initiative learning the science behind compost, and how to properly maintain a compost pile. In our own Unquowa garden with food scraps from our Unquowa kitchen the 8th graders got to learn about porosity, bulk density, vermicomposting, carbon sequestration, understanding the macro and micro organisms lifeforms that take part in a compost pile, and most importantly why composting our food scraps is so valuable and impactful to our environment. After their 30 weeks of learning and hands-on practice, they have not only graduated 8th grade but have all also become certified Compost Apprentice’s!
Teacher Olivia!
Posted by Thomas Iezin
6th grader Olivia recently had the full teacher experience! She prepared the lesson plans for Early Childhood classes last week, and helped Señor Iezin teach PreK and Kindergarten students all about Shapes and Family. Teacher Olivia helped start the class off by doing our hello song, and prepared for our two activities; drawing and labeling our family tree and a quick review game for shapes. Finally, she helped wrap up the class with our good-bye song! Thank you teacher Olivia, you did a fantastic job!