Learn from our Brook, not just a book!
Posted by Craig Knebel
The 6th grade science class took the lesson outside to come up with a definition of Erosion without looking at a textbook! They investigated evidence of erosion in our own Horse Tavern Brook on the The Unquowa School campus. Students sketched what they saw, then investigated the areas they had drawn. They were encouraged to just be kids – to discover, to ask why and how! Sometimes, a science lesson can purely just be about exploring!!!
Unquowa Cross Country Is Back!
Posted by Sarah Pollex
Our athletes know that best times are the ultimate prize. They are running against themselves and setting short-term and long-term goals to monitor their progress. On September 30, our Gators raced their first meet of the season at Penfield Beach. The tide was in but that didn’t discourage them! It only motivated our athletes to attack the course with more determination as they raced to the jetty and back again! We had a record number of runners place in the top five:
-Grade 5 girls: Dahlia 1st; Sierra 2nd
-Grade 5 boys: Oscar 1st; Jack 2nd
-Grade 6 girls: Emily 5th
-Grade 6 boys: Ryan 5th
-Grade 8 girls: Madison 3rd
-Grade 8 boys: Bryan 3rd
Congratulations to these individuals for placing in the top 5 and to the entire team for achieving personal best times!
6-8 Soccer Kicks the Season Off!
Posted by Lloyd Mitchell
6-8 Soccer trekked up to Ridgefield Academy for their first game of the 2021 season. Nerves were running and adrenaline was pumping as the squad stepped off the bus and onto the field to play against their first opponent of the season. The game seesawed back and forth for the entire first half ending with a just missed shot as the half ended by 8th grader Michael. At the end of the half, the score stood deadlocked at 0-0.
Second half proved to be another fierce half of soccer with both teams battling for possession and looking for that elusive first goal. In the final 5 minutes of the game, Ridgefield broke through our iron wall defense and tallied 3 goals in the final 5 minutes. While we didn’t come out on top, we are certainly proud of our showing in the first game in nearly 2 years! We look forward to getting back on the field for our next game! Go Gators!!!
New music!
Posted by Megan Kirk
Students were thrilled to begin working on our first piece of the year, Seasons of Love! This is a beautiful song celebrating how we can measure our lives in love. We began today learning this piece by navigating through the full score of music. Using a full score means that the students are not only seeing their parts, but the part of three other voice parts, plus the piano music. It can be a little complicated to follow at first, but everyone was really getting the hang of it by the end of class! We also talked about the harmonies we will be singing in this piece. Today we focused on the interval of a third and why in music it is a very popular harmony to use.
First Ever Virtual STEM Fair!
Posted by Karen WilliamsonUnquowa students have spent the last eight weeks engaged in an in-depth exploration of the design process. The fourth grade was asked how can we devise solutions for real-world problems? The fifth grade explored what makes a toy great? The sixth grade considered how can we design a product to solve a common, everyday problem?
Each student endeavored to solve their chosen problem through the same steps: observation, research, prototype design and construction, and finally, redesign.
Stepping!
Posted by Megan Kirk
The entire school was able to take a “virtual field trip” to the Shubert New Haven theatre to learn about a style of dance called stepping. Stepping or step-dancing is a form of percussive dance in which the participant’s entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand claps. Students learned all about this style of dance and how it originated from the gumboot dance. Rooted back in the dark gold mine tunnels of South Africa, the gumboot dance was initially a codified tap used by black miners deprived of conversation. Gumboot dancing today is one of the most expressive South African dance genres. The dance troupe, Step Afrika, performed both the traditional gumboot dance along with the more modern step-dancing. The students were captivated by their performance! We then got to take a dance lesson in which students learned the basics of stepping and got to perform a short step dance of their own! From PreK all the way to 8th grade, students truly enjoyed and learned so much from this experience!
