Book Buddies Returns IRL!
Posted by Faith Barbuto
We were so excited to resume the tradition of PreK/5th Grade Book Buddies, in real life! While we carried on last year virtually thanks to an eager helper, there are some things that definitely work better without a screen. Our 5th graders were excellent at taking turns reading stories to their PreK Buddies. All the groups were enthusiastic and many books were read. I was so proud of the older students, some of which were mine many years ago, and the younger ones for embracing new friends. We are already hard at work scheduling more times to meet and activities to do together. It feels so good to be back to some of the activities that truly make the Unquowa experience unique.
Eighth Graders Head to Lower School!
Posted by Carlene Gordon
A rainy Monday left us unable to get outside with our scheduled Park City Compost project but that didn’t stop service learning! Eighth graders headed to lower school to work with our younger classmates. One group headed into the Early Childhood classrooms where they assisted with leaf drawings in science class, while the another group headed up to Fourth grade to support the math lesson at hand. Our Eighth graders served as wonderful & certainly adored teachers today! Great teamwork!
Inspiring Young Mathematicians
Posted by Eric Werner
Upper Schoolers in 7th grade are hard at work preparing math lessons for TK, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade. On alternate Fridays, my 7th grade students travel across the school to work one-on-one or in small groups to teach a math lesson to their younger peers. Ranging from addition and subtraction to pattern recognition, these lessons are developed entirely by 7th grade students who have researched curriculum and designed a lesson to inspire younger students to learn and to get excited about math. This program will continue throughout the year with every 7th grade student having the opportunity to design and implement a lesson.
Bonfire stories
Posted by Karen Engelke
Unquowa is a Family
Posted by Ann Palm
Every Monday PreK students enjoy a visit from some seventh graders during their flex time. This week the seventh graders helped the PreK students choose a book from our Early Childhood Library. Then our special visitors read the books to the younger students. To hear the music of the words was a delight for our young pre-readers. Unquowa is like a huge family where young and old care for each other!
Bringing Life to Reading
Posted by Trésor Kayumba
The 5th grade literature class has been reading Baba Wagué Diakité’s A Gift from Childhood memoir. Scholars applied the reading strategy, reacting and connecting, while reading the book. We also decided to bring the book to life! After reading the chapter Catching Catfish, scholars taught each other a life skill, similarly to the character Grandma Sabou, who taught her grandson Baba Wagué the essential life skill of catching catfish, which is used both for medicinal purposes and flavorful soup.
5th grade scholar Robert commented, “It was fun to learn about the different skills my classmates have. I was glad to learn from my classmate, Marianela how to make Arepas, which is a Colombian food.” Marianela also stated that, “it felt good to teach my friends about something so close to my heart.” This assignment was a great opportunity for these young scholars to learn from their grandparents and parents a wide range of handy life skills such as sewing a button, wrapping a present, and how to mail a letter.
