Welcome to LARC

Wonder League Robotics Progress

Our teams are deep into the Wonder League Robotics Competition! Students are coding, engineering, and troubleshooting as they program Dash to navigate obstacles, using variables to pick up a medallion of their own design and deliver it to a museum.

ExploraVision Progress

Our 5th graders are making excellent progress on their ExploraVision projects. Working in teams, they are thoughtfully developing each of the intricate components of their entries for this national science competition, from researching the history and limitations of current technology to designing an innovative technology for the future. Along the way, students are weighing positive and negative consequences, identifying the breakthroughs needed to make their ideas possible, and refining their work through collaboration and revision.

Analogy Practice

With the WordMasters meet a few weeks ago, students enjoyed a friendly game of Kahoot! to solve practice analogies.

Pictionary Fun

Our 3rd graders loved playing Pictionary to continue practicing WordMasters definitions.

Stock Market Game Success

Our Stock Market Game teams are performing outstandingly! Currently, we have teams holding 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 9th place out of 103 elementary teams in the Long Island region. Students enjoy tracking how their decisions results in changes to portfolio values.

WordMasters Pictionary

Students had a blast playing Pictionary to practice WordMasters words!

Great Pumpkin Lift Challenge

Students combined collaboration, engineering, and creativity to design pumpkins that could be lifted at least two feet. They added decorative flourishes to bring their creations to life and celebrate the season!

Philosophical Ponderings

Fifth graders learned about John Stuart Mill's theory that happiness is what causes the greatest amount of pleasure for the greatest number of people. Students rated different scenarios based on what brings them happiness, discussed their ratings with classmates, and expressed agreement or disagreement with Mill.

Additional Wonderings about Caral - Supe Civilization

Our Day 6 third graders created their own inquiry questions about the Caral-Supe civilization, including “Did they have pets?” and “What food did they eat?” Students are excited to learn about the remarkable achievements of this civilization and draw inspiration from it in future lessons!

Inquiry Questions about Caral - Supe Civilization

Today, 3rd graders were introduced to the next stop on our Dawn of Creativity journey: the Caral-Supe Civilization in modern-day Peru. After receiving direct instruction, viewing a video, and reading nonfiction texts, students generated meaningful inquiry questions, such as “Did they have schools? What were they like?” and “What clothes did they wear?”

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Snap Circuits

During RISE Time, students made a device that plays the "Happy Birthday" song using Snap Circuits. When students heard it was two teachers' birthdays, they played it for them!

Diversifying Investment Portfolios

During our Stock Market Game lesson, students learned about different sectors in the stock market, researching companies in various sectors to identify stocks that might add value to their investment portfolios.

RISE Time Project Share

During RISE (Reaching for Innovation and Specialized Exploration) Time, students work on self-directed projects of their choosing. Two students shared original programs they coded, and the class loved seeing their classmates’ talents and accomplishments!

WordMasters Preparation

Students enjoyed playing a competitive game of "bases" in which they moved forward by correctly identifying WordMasters words. Our students are doing a great job demonstrating their understanding of WordMasters definitions!

Showcasing Muse Booklets

Third graders proudly showed off one of their first LARC projects -- a booklet describing a greek muse that inspired them. Students also had to pick a modern muse and students picked scientists, athletes, and family members!

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Stock Market Game Brainstorming/Research

To encourage students to diversify their portfolios by investing in companies across different industries, students completed a “Mad Libs” story featuring companies from various categories. Students then met with their teams to consider additional stocks to purchase, ensuring their portfolios included companies from different industries to help minimize risk.

Embracing the "Hard"

Fourth graders commented on how challenging the Wonder League Robotics Competition is, and they were reminded that this is the point! Students are building a growth mindset as they refine their code using spatial reasoning, trial and error, and collaborative debugging.

Wonder League Robotics Engineering

For the Wonder League Robotics Competition Mission One, students need to program precise turns using variables. They also need to design and engineer various thematic elements, such as an artifact, a museum, and obstacles. This competition allows students to showcase their creativity, critical thinking, and cooperation!

WordMasters Preparation

With their first WordMasters meets coming up in about six weeks, students played Bingo to identify definitions of their WordMasters words!

ExploraVision Progress

Students are making outstanding progress on their ExploraVision entries. Each group has selected a topic, and students are beginning their research and creating prototypes. Students are enjoying this challenging competition, which requires critical thinking and scientific inquiry!

Colloboration on Display

Even though it's only their third LARC class ever, 3rd grade students are meaningfully collaborating with classmates from different schools at their RISE (“Reaching for Innovation and Specialized Exploration" time stations: combining ideas to create better products at MakerSpace and coding centers!

Muse Inspiration

Third graders completed booklets about the muse who inspires them most and why. Students picked different muses including Thalia, muse of comedy, and Urania, muse of astronomy. When asked why their muse still matters today, several students said: to keep AI from taking over the world!

Creative Thinking Challenge

Our students' first FFOE (Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration) Challenge is off to a great start! Tasked with designing their own original planets, students generated a wide range of ideas, explored unconventional possibilities, and developed their concepts with rich detail. Their creative products showcase the divergent and productive thinking at the heart of this challenge.

Wonder League Robotics Competition Launch

Today, our students received their first mission: programming Dash to navigate obstacles, pick up archaeological treasures, and deliver them to a museum. Students are embracing their roles as coders, engineers, creativity coordinators, managers, and debuggers to work efficiently on this comprehensive, challenging, and enjoyable mission!

ExploraVision Visions Coming to Life

Our students are ably moving through the ExploraVision brainstorming process, working in teams to identify project ideas that will improve society in the next 10–20 years. We can't wait to see how these talented problem solvers, scientists, and engineers envision their proposed technologies coming to fruition!

Young Investors in Action

Students researched companies to select stocks and build their portfolios. They learned about the importance of diversification in investment portfolios and how to manage risk tolerance.

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Young Investors at Work

To launch the Stock Market Game, students discussed the benefits of saving versus spending. After a foundational lesson on the stock market, students dove right into buying a variety of stocks, blending their personal knowledge with company research to make informed investment decisions.

Robotic Programmers in Training

We learned that the theme of the 2026–2027 Wonder League Robotics Competition is archaeology, and the missions will be released next month. To prepare, students used virtual Dash in Blockly to adjust parameters, making their programs more precise and complex. Students are already demonstrating strong debugging and collaboration skills!

Stock Market Game Launch

Stock Market Game is beginning for the season! To prepare, students learned about important indicators like P/E ratios, beta, and yearlong spreads. Students brainstormed stocks to research—some tracking investments purchased last year and others looking into companies in the news.

ExploraVision Brainstorming

Students had productive conversations as they shared initial ideas for ExploraVision projects in their groups. Students researched ideas to ensure the technology is novel but feasible to create in the next twenty years.

RISE Time

A 5th grader walked in cheering, “It’s the first RISE Time of the year!” RISE Time stands for “Reaching for Innovation and Specialized Exploration.” It’s a period of the day when students practice skills in their individual areas of strength and interest: coding, engineering, advanced mathematics, research, and more. Students went right to work, collaborating and demonstrating strong lateral thinking as they tackled each of their challenges!

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Cooperation and Collaboration in Action

Third graders displayed outstanding cooperation and collaboration during their SCAMPER Challenge. Students respected their classmates’ ideas and applied their knowledge of physics to develop the best possible “slow” ramp for a ping-pong ball.

Process over Product

On their first-ever SCAMPER/de Bono Building Challenge, 3rd graders reflected on how using SCAMPER lateral thinking techniques and de Bono’s Thinking Hats allow them to create more unique and effective structures!

Wonder League Robotics Competition Preperation

Fourth graders learned about this year’s curriculum theme: coding robots as part of the Wonder League Robotics Competition. Students explored using Blockly to prepare for the eventual competition, demonstrating creativity through original programs incorporating movement, sounds, and visual elements.

Neuroscientists at Work

We read Your Fantastic Elastic Brain: Stretch It, Shape It by Dr. JoAnn Deak. Students learned about the different parts of the brain and how to be "neurosculptors" by overcoming challenges. They reflected on how their amygdala, cerebrum, and other brain parts work in their own lives.

Exploring ExploraVision

After being introduced to the requirements of ExploraVision, students viewed and assessed winning projects from previous years to note exceptional elements for their eventual projects.

SCAMPER Challenge

Students used finite materials to build the longest possible run for a ping-pong ball that traveled the slowest path. As they worked, students actively reflected on their use of de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats and SCAMPER techniques.

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