The Links Teachers, consisting of evan, Nina, Amy, Michael and Siobhan, are a group of teachers that work with each child in our community. They each hold a special expertise and through intentional collaborations are committed to  to weaving those skills throughout our daily learning experiences. We are excited to find the ways that art, science, music, numeracy, literacy and books can collide in surprising ways.  Below, you will get a glimpse into how these teachers are starting off the year as we consider our themes of change and identity while we also learning about the land our school has settled on. 

I wanted to get kids thinking about what kind of artists they might be, asking questions like: 

What is my style?

How can I use art to express myself?

What medium or tool is my favorite to use?

How can I challenge myself?

Part of this artist identity exploration is trying out all different materials and styles to see what feels best to each artist.

I’m so happy to be putting that thinking and research into practice with the help of all these curious and enthusiastic students we have here at the Randolph School. 

Here’s a sampling of some of the things that have been going on in the library so far:

Some of our elders have started a project to chart the favorite books and genres of kids and teachers at schools. Stay tuned for more about that soon. 

Upstairs Neighborhood and Carriage House kids have been helping to make a sign for the Authors and Illustrators corner of our Picture Books section– a project that will lead into broader discussions about representation and inclusion later on in the year. 

I can already tell from the buzz and the book checkouts and the curiosity and the enthusiasm that I’ve witnessed from these kiddos so far that this is going to be a great year in the library. I look forward to many changes–both big and small–that will make this the best possible library it can be for everyone here in our wonderful community! 

This week we hit the ground running and got right to the essence of what Links field experiences are all about: equipping ourselves with some journals and other needed research tools, formulating a plan, and then heading off on an adventure in search of plants, animals and other natural phenomena to observe and ask questions about. The youngest students were prompted to search for “treasure that falls from trees' and the elder groups were asked to think ahead to Harvest Feast in a few months and figure out what we could start gathering and working on now. Both clues lead groups quickly to the abundance of ripe apples gracing our trees this season, but we couldn’t help stopping to investigate other treasures like black walnuts and wild cherries along the way and stopping to listen closely to the rich cacaphony of trilling insects that breed in this period of seasonal transition. Counting the numbers of legs on different types of invertebrates and comparing the size and texture of different types of seeds exemplify the inevitable opportunities for hands on scientific learning that reliably result from even the briefest of excursions across our campus and provide jumping-off points for future lessons from anatomy to life cycles. And all that before we even got to the apples.

As we took the time to walk around our campus, using our sense to take in information and form questions, it became abundantly clear that we had an abundance of apples(232 and counting). As we took a closer look at the trees and their fruit, it was also clear that other creatures and organisms were just as interested in consuming the apples as we were. We had to act fast! 

This became the focus of our work with children over the course of the week.

With our Downstairs and Upstairs Neighborhood friends this work took the shape of a scavenger hunt. Using our senses and our muscles we worked together to locate the apple trees, pick the fruit and cart it across campus. Many students were surprised that the skin of the apples looked brown an blemished. Was the fruit rotten? Would it taste yucky? A taste test soon revealed that the apples were sweet and delicious. Phew! An important lesson on not judging a fruit by its cover.

We played games that were rooted in how to hold and focus ones attention individually, and work together as an ensemble. We talked about how the subtle fall colors that are emerging are signaling the end of one season, and how we can  through music and play hold those stories as a community.