Winter 2025

DQ:  How can we be creative, have fun and fundraise for our school? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Math, LOTE, Fine Arts, CTE 

Instructional Skills Discovered: find author's purpose, analyze text structure, determine cause & effect, compare & contrast, connect themes, arguments, perspectives, draw conclusions, demonstrate fact vs. opinion, identify main idea & details, make inferences, determine point of view, connect problem & solution, sequence, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students act as designers, advertisers, accountants and production team members in order to design, revise, advertise, create, sell and keep track of their button and magnet inventory. 

DQ: How can we support our local animal shelters? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Math, Science 

Instructional Skills Discovered: analyze text structure, determine cause & effect, compare & contrast, connect problem & solution, sequence 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Self and/or Social Awareness, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students were tasked with coming up with something to occupy cat's time while waiting to find their forever home. Students design and create cat wand toys to be donated to local animal shelters. 

DQ: How does changing the setting of a story affect the characters, plot, and mood, and what new challenges or opportunities does it create for the characters? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Fine Arts, CTE

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, analyze text structure, connect themes, arguments, perspectives, draw conclusions, make inferences, sequence, make text connections - to self, text/media, world 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: In this lesson, students worked in groups to reimagine the classic story of The Three Little Pigs by changing its setting. They analyzed how the new setting influenced the characters’ choices, actions, and the overall plot. After discussing their ideas and designing a visual representation of their reimagined story, students used Google Slides to recreate the story. Groups will present their new versions of the tale, explaining how the setting alters the events and challenges faced by the characters. Through this task, students deepened their understanding of how the setting of a story shapes its mood, plot, and character development. 

DQ:  What do people do to celebrate holidays around the world? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Social Studies/History, ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, make text connections - to self, text/media, world, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Creativity, Self and/or Social Awareness, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students were tasked with learning about various countries and holidays that are celebrated during the winter. Students were able to make connections to holidays that are similar to their own and dive in to learning about various cultures. Students took trips to the Netherlands, Italy, and Mexico. 

DQ:  How can we effectively sell our products and attract consumers at a trade show?

Interdisciplinary Studies: Fine Arts, CTE, ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered: make predictions, determine point of view, connect problem & solution  

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: The students were tasked with becoming real-life business professionals and developing a comprehensive trade show strategy, including booth design, product promotion, and customer engagement techniques. Their goal was to implement these strategies during the trade show while making as much sales as possible. 

DQ:  How would you persuade Santa and Mrs. Clause to hire you for an elf position? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Fine Arts 

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, find author's purpose, make text connections - to self, text/media, world 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Creativity, Problem Solving, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: The students were tasked with becoming job seekers and 23 students completed persuasive writing to apply for one of ten positions available. Students analyzed their work traits to determine which positions were most appropriate for them. Students elaborated on their strong work abilities to persuade the hiring committee why they were the best elf candidate. 

DQ:  How can we collect, analyze, and display data? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Math, Science, ELA 

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, determine cause & effect, compare & contrast, draw conclusions, make inferences, make predictions, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking 

Task: Students were tasked with becoming a survey researcher. Students created a statistical question with a partner, where they could compare data collected from two different groups. Each partner then collected their data through research or by asking their question in person. Before collecting their data, they made predictions about the data, such as if they expected high or low variation. Students collected their data, then analyzed the results. This included finding the five number summary, measures of center, and spread. With this information, students displayed their results visually using a boxplot. Finally, they compared and analyzed the statistics that they found, by comparing the two groups and interpreting what their results could mean within the context of their question. 

DQ:  How can we compare and contrast which properties of matter change during certain physical and chemical changes? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Science

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, determine cause & effect, draw conclusions, develop vocabulary  

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Creativity, Critical Thinking , Communication

Task: The students were tasked with becoming physicists and describing how changing the state of matter of crayons impacted its various properties. 

DQ:  How does reading literature help us grow? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Social Studies/History, World Language, ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, compare & contrast, connect themes, arguments, perspectives, draw conclusions, demonstrate fact vs. opinion, identify main idea & details, sequence, use text evidence, make text connections - to self, text/media, world, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students in Ms. Zoe and Mrs. Calandrino's 7th Grade AIS English classes completed a Culture Research Project in anticipation of reading our next novel, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The novel focuses on how different cultures have their own unique set of values, beliefs, and practices. Students worked with a partner to research a culture of their choosing. Students were able to create a Canva presentation discussing their discoveries, and presented their findings to their peers. Students also created Infographics highlighting key aspects of their findings.

DQ:  Where does energy come from and where does it go? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies/History 

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, determine cause & effect, draw conclusions, make inferences, make predictions, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Flexibility, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students assumed the role of designer and mechanical engineer, planned an investigation, and created a model to demonstrate how energy transfers. They tested the Conservation of Energy Law (Energy is neither destroyed or created. It just changes form.) The students constructed a Spool Racer and tested the relationship between winding a rubber band and how the energy is transferred to mechanical energy (potential and kinetic energy). In the end, they explained the cause and effect relationship between starting energy (potential) and the movement energy (kinetic). Finally, they related this to riding a bicycle in their own lives. 

DQ: How does a writer decide what they are going to write about? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA , STEAM

Instructional Skills Discovered: determine cause & effect, compare & contrast, draw conclusions, sequence 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task:Students created and flew paper airplanes then created a narrative writing piece about their experience. First students followed directions to build their paper airplanes. Next students were given time to fly and race their airplanes with other students in the class. Once they were done flying their planes, students completed a narrative writing planning page. After their planning page was complete students worked through the rest of the writing process to complete a short narrative of their experience creating and flying paper airplanes in class. 

DQ:  How does data drive our society? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Science, Math

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, draw conclusions, make predictions, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students were tasked with becoming researchers in order to portray and analyze data pertaining to real-world scenarios. 

DQ:  How can we be creative, have fun and fundraise for our school? 

Interdisciplinary Studies:  Fine Arts, ELA, Math, Physical Education/Health 

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, analyze text structure, identify main idea & details, connect problem & solution, sequence, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Students have been learning about the folk song “Tideo.” Students were first tasked with learning how to sing the song. Students were then tasked to find a partner to perform the movement with. They identified where the repetition was in the words with the added movement to it and how to respectfully interact in a movement activity with another student. The class then sang and performed the movements together.

Students were taught about finding the rhythmic breakdown of notes using the Eastman Counting System and the simple meter of 4/4. With this knowledge, students dissected the song and labeled each note with its corresponding number or syllable. 

Students used the Treble Clef to determine the pitches that need to be played on instruments based on where the notes were placed on the musical staff. Students combined the rhythm and pitches of the melody and performed the song on the glockenspiel as an ensemble.

Students incorporated the bordun accompaniment using various orff instruments such as xylophones, metallophones, and single bass bars. Students were broken down into separate groups to practice and prepare for the final class performance. Students were tasked with communicating and collaborating creatively not only within their small groups but within the entire class ensemble for the final class performance. 

DQ:  Can you build a trap that will catch and contain an elf? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, Science, Fine Arts, Math

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, determine cause & effect, connect problem & solution, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness, Flexibility, Incorporate and Give Feedback, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task:  Fourth-grade students participated in a challenge in which they were mechanical engineers who attempted to build a trap to catch an elf. The purpose of this STEAM activity was to encourage students to brainstorm, think critically, and work collaboratively while exploring science concepts. The students were given a limited amount of string, a plastic food container, marshmallows, popsicle sticks, foil, clay, and a Lego minifigure. Their job was to build a structure that would trap and contain an elf. The participants were presented with some constraints:

· They couldn’t use anything to hold or prop up the structure.

· The tower had to stand for at least 30 seconds before being measured.

· They had 5 minutes to brainstorm and 20 minutes to build.

This exercise helped students experiment with various shapes and structures to see which one (s) were the strongest and most stable. They were able to reflect on why different designs may be more successful. Finally, the activity exposed students to using a trial and error (iterative) process to learn from successes and failures. This life skill can be applied across multiple disciplines and careers.

DQ:  How can we inspire and encourage other students to engage with our school garden and participate in its activities? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA, ENL, Fine Arts

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, find author's purpose, identify main idea & details, make inferences, connect problem & solution, make text connections - to self, text/media, world, develop vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Self and/or Social Awareness, Actively Listen and Speak 

Task: Mrs. Rand and Ms. Rubenstein's class were tasked with creating an informative video, pamphlets, and mindfulness activities to motivate their peers to become active participants in the garden. Students learned about the garden and read and responded to articles highlighting the importance of school gardens. The video they created highlighted the various activities that happen in the garden, including planting, harvesting, reading, writing, science projects, creating artwork, relaxing and reducing stress and anxiety and more. The students asked the building administrators to speak about the garden in the video. An expert on the program Final Cut Pro visited the class to teach the students how to use the program. 

See the video link here: https://youtu.be/JS8LzvGYXv0?si=VSpjIR_J1k8ksVpK