Muscota New School Blog

10/1/07

Occasional News from Inside Room 105 of Muscota
[newly named The Animals]

I have so much to tell you. Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for being understanding and forgiving of my absence the week of 9/24—9/28. Personally it has been a very trying time for me and my family, and I can’t thank everyone enough for taking care of my extended world as my energies were needed elsewhere. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this time period please don’t hesitate to email me or engage me in a dialogue in person or via your child’s take home folder.

The week prior to my absence we had a democratic election in our classroom. We were tired of collectively being referred to as “Christopher’s Class” or “Christopher and Carmen’s Class” as indeed it is truly all of our class. Every child was asked to add a name to the collection of possible names for our class. There were fifteen distinct names, ranging from Rainbows, Clouds, various individual animals, The Animals and my choice The Quats. After we generated names, we voted. We had two polls. The first poll allowed the children to vote for as many names as they liked. The two most oft chosen names were Clouds and The Animals. We then had a silent vote using cubes and two separate colored containers. The children deposited their cubes in the container, which stood for their favorite name. By a landslide 15 to 8 The Animals won. So we are now collectively known as The Animals.
Our work culminating on Friday of that week (September 21, 2007) which was the International Day of Peace. We spent Wednesday and Thursday making pinwheels, decorating the papers used to make the wheel as Carmen, Nina and myself tacked them to pencils to use as the shaft. On Friday we went to Inwood Hill Park, convened with Lailany and Vanessa’s Classes to have a ceremony in the park celebrating peace. We read a Pablo Neruda poem, both in its original Spanish and an English translation [I have included both along with this letter].

This past week we have also started learning to play the complex game of chess. Chess master Manuel will come every Tuesday morning to glean us a bit more of the strategies, structures and rudiments of this timeless game.

So now we have a group name, a sense of what it means to complete projects together and a growing curriculum for our year of kindergarten together. I enjoy sending these notes home and will post them on our blog, and would love to add many more photos of children doing work; unfortunately I have not received a release to use all of the children’s images publicly. If you have any concerns regarding the use of work or images please feel free to see me about it. Using the children’s images in these newsletters bring to life the inside of the classroom—it is especially valuable for those that do not regularly visit the classroom, or for children whom are not as forthcoming about the nature of our work together.

Lastly, we are very into Eric Carle right now. We have read about twenty of his books and will continue to study his work as an author and an illustrator. We will shortly be trying our hand at creating pictures in the style of Eric Carle. I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Carle read two of his books at Barnes and Noble. He signed his new book and a flash card for the class. I will attempt to attach a short video clip of the appearance on our class blog on Muscota.org. Eric Carle makes several appearances a year in New York, his website is a fantastic place to learn where he will be, what works are available of his for sale and fun little bits for the whole family to enjoy. However, if you are taking a road-trip north through Massachusetts and have an hour or so to stop in Amherst, at Hampshire College there is The Eric Carle Museum. The museum highlights Mr. Carle’s work as well as many other inventive, creative and magnetic children’s authors and illustrators. It is well worth the visit. I make it there once or twice a year.

Important Dates
• Monday, October 8, 2007 — no school (Columbus Day)
• Friday, October 26, 2007 — Mad Hatter’s Day More information on this event next newsletter
• Wednesday, October 31, 2007 — half day (Professional Dev.)