To honor the contributions of Black people to the world, we began in January by exploring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Each morning, we read a different book about his childhood, activism, and leadership, helping children build a picture of who he was and why his message still matters today. The USN also watched an educational video about Dr. King and saw how other children celebrated his legacy by creating a "peace tree" to honor his ideas and values. Inspired by this, our Neighborhood kids noticed a large paper tree in the library and asked Siobhan if they could turn it into their own peace tree.

This was a powerful moment of developmentally appropriate learning—where children took an idea, made it their own, and connected it to their sense of fairness and care for others. Each child reflected on how they could contribute to a more just and kind world. They expressed their ideas through statements about love and peace, then strengthened their fine motor skills by cutting or “punching out” a large leaf to add to the tree. This process involved thinking, articulating, and creating, all of which helped solidify their growing understanding of justice in a way that felt real and personal to them. If you're curious about your child’s contribution, stop by the library to see the Peace Tree in full bloom.

As we entered Black History Month, we built on this work by exploring what it means to be a hero. Each day, we read 3-4 cards from a deck featuring influential Black figures, both past and present, across many fields. These "Black Hero" cards sparked meaningful discussions about what makes a person heroic. Children journaled about their thoughts, making connections between the people they learned about and the values we strive to nurture.  Themes that came consistently up were kindness, fairness, and the courage to make change.

One child noticed that Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t included in the deck and asked if she could make a card for him. This simple observation grew into a collaborative research project for the Honeybees, Grasshoppers, and Beetles. Together with their teachers and Siobhan, they gathered biographies and stories about Black leaders in a range of careers from ice skaters and ballet dancers to NASA scientists, entrepreneurs, environmental activists, and athletes. Each child chose a person to learn more about, diving into books and discussions to gather facts and create their own profile of an inspiring individual.

At this age, children are building their schema for what is good in the world and what still needs to change. They are learning, through these stories and projects, how to recognize dignity in others, how to collaborate rather than exclude, and how to see themselves as part of a bigger story, one in which they, too, can make a difference. These lessons lay the foundation for a deeper, lifelong understanding of the world and their place in it. 

Maple Sugaring

February was a busy month and we rolled straight ahead into maple sugaring season, culminating in our schoolwide celebration of all the students's hard work at Maple Fest. Thank you to all families that attended! As you know, every year the children's knowledge of the process of sugaring expands. The children helped Evan at each step of the process. They identified sugar maple trees, determined if the tree was mature enough to tap, collected sap and poured it into the sap cooler, and wrote data onto our daily sheets. Preparing the outdoor sap cooler was a particularly fun activity this winter, as we had enough snow on the ground to build a big, insulated "cocoon" around the big vat where the sap was combined. The cooler our kiddos helped build kept the sap refrigerated outdoors for several weeks before it was time to fire up the evaporator!

The yearly task of the USN students is to tally the total gallons of sap collected. They learned about liquid volume units of measurement, the gallon and the quart. They learned how to add the whole numbers (gallons) first, before adding up the fractions (quarts). To add fractions we used a very hands on approach by manipulating blocks which represented 1/4, 1/2, and 1 gallon. It was the perfect exercise which was solved using Number Talks and various strategies of addition the children are already familiar with like make 10 facts; doubles and near doubles facts, place value, and breaking up numbers (expanded form). The process of graphing sap collected included a chance for children to practice fine motor skills to manipulate scissors around the craggy margins of a felt sugar maple leaf. It took a lot of work and concentration to succeed. Some kids enjoyed cutting the leaves so much, they did extra cutting and then sewed together some maple leaf stuffies! The Beetles, Grasshoppers and Honeybees also did some Maple Scrabble math, where they had to add the values of letter tiles that spell maple vocabulary words and then answer questions after their addition work. Scientifically, they realized days that produced a lot of sap and days that we barely collected any. They noticed variables that could affect the flow, such as temperature and whether the sun was shining directly on the tree, or the size and age of a tree.  For a literary connection we read many books and stories about maple sugaring season. some funny and fictionalized and many nonfiction. We revisited the acrostic poem format and the children chose a mapley word. We hope you had a chance to read all the poems on display at Maple Fest, as well as the childrens' collection of maple drawings both in the binder and in the Memory game cards. 

Chicken Home Improvement Project

Anyone who spends time with Randolph students will notice something very special about them: They are strong critical thinkers. They are also deeply connected to their home away from home (Randolph, of course) and take seriously their charge as stewards of our campus and all living things abiding here. They are observant and pay close attention to all that surrounds them. When they notice a problem, they aren’t afraid to ask questions or to bring it to teachers’ attention to try and figure out a solution. That is exactly what happened with our current chicken run.

The Hummingbirds noticed a problem…The current chicken run is a bit dilapidated. The fencing is starting to sag and fray in areas and the gate we go in and out of to feed and care for the chickens is falling apart. The chickens can get out, and more importantly, predators can get in. Red-Tailed Hawks have been quite interested in our chickens this year and on more than one occasion, the hawks have made their attempts to get our beloved hens. Thankfully, they have not been successful, but it has made us very aware that something needs to be done! 

As critical thinkers, our Hummingbirds started to discuss what they can do to fix this problem. The solution they landed on was that the chickens need a sturdier, covered run to keep the chickens in and predators (including the hawks) out! This realization started a flood of questions: How will we get the money to get a new run? How do we build a new run? Who is going to build the run? What supplies would we need? Where will we get the supplies? How big does it need to be? How tall does it need to be? All of these were important questions that we began to explore.

Before we could dive too deep into all this, we had to do some measuring and figure out how big the current run is, so we could begin to plan for the new one. Coincidentally, our Tang Math program happened to introduce area and perimeter at the very moment we needed it! After working through the Tang Math lessons, we took our math groups to the chicken coop. One group worked on measuring and figuring out the area, while the other group worked on the perimeter. Both groups practiced using measuring tapes to measure all the sides of the coop and run, and then drew the floor plan on graph paper, being sure to label all of the measurements. They worked together within their groups to calculate the area and perimeter of the coop and the run. Our beloved wooden unit blocks were a perfect, concrete way to visualize and calculate area by building an array to scale with the current run. As a whole group, we used our measuring skills to find out how tall we will need to build the run, since we want to put fencing on top to keep predators out.

Measuring the Coop and Run

Using Unit Blocks to Calculate Area

Drawing the Coop and Run to Scale on Graph Paper

This week we began writing our New York Agriculture in the Classroom grant proposal with The Hummingbirds. We presented the grant proposal questions to kiddos and had them help formulate the answers that will be submitted to the organization. From here we intend to work with kiddos to write the RFP as a group, which will be hitting your inboxes sometime in the near future! Then the next phase begins! We will be looking through responses to the RFP and narrowing down who will be the best fit to help us achieve our goal of building this new run. If we get a really big response, there may be some interviewing The Hummingbirds will have to oversee. Some really cool, real world things are happening right now and we cannot wait to see how they turn out! 

We are still basking in the glow of the smiles and the sun that shone down on us for Maple Fest! It was wonderful to welcome families to campus to share the work and play that has filled our days for the past few months. At Maple Fest, the Downstairs Ducklings had four play invitations: the pretend pancake kitchen, sap toss, syrup drip painting, and our drip data. We hope you got a chance to explore our spaces as well as read our "museum placards" which shared the meaning behind our work. We are including those documents here (make sure to scroll through) for closer looking!

Creek Visits

For the past month on Wednesdays, The Ducklings have been spending Choice Time down at Hunter Creek, and we plan to continue these visits for the remainder of our school year. During this time, The Ducklings have been immersed in all things creek, practicing slowing down their bodies while exploring, noticing, investigating, and being present. 

What are the benefits to visiting the same place over time?
With so many spaces and places to explore, why have we chosen to return to the creek each week? "Creek Wednesdays" are now a part of our routine, and the extended time we spend there each week gives children the opportunity to develop a deeply complex and layered relationship with the creek. We can observe changes in the ecosystem, weather, topography, flora, and fauna; we can interact with the creek in different ways depending on the season; we can focus on different aspects of the creek, like taking a listening walk or counting how many birds we see. As our relationship to "place" builds, children build comfort and familiarity, and each week is a "return" rather than a "visit." We create memories that we can revisit and remember, recorded in our creek journal, with photographs, children's drawing, and children's word reminding us of our previous trips to the creek. Each trip brings new connections and new wonderings as we become more intimate with the creek's workings. The teachers offer invitations and materials through which to explore, while also taking note of the children's natural observations and wonderings. We can't wait to see where our creek study leads! Read our creek journal below and let us know...what are you noticing? what are you wondering?

Animal Tracks Project

As we teased in our last update, we have been hard at work on a class book! Each child has chosen an animal to research, draw and paint, create a stamp of its tracks, and write clues about. Participating in a multi-step project that children return to on multiple occasions engages long-term memories and supports the creation of complex and layered connections. Children develop familiarity with a topic or subject, creating continuity in learning so that children can build on their skills and knowledge over time. Working in a very small group or one-on-one with a teacher allows each step to be individualized to a child's strengths and areas of support. We see, over time, that the children are developing confidence in their own abilities as they become "experts" on their animal.

First, we utilized technology to start our research process. Every child chose a reference photograph of their animal to print out, choosing one that clearly showed their animal's body shape and colors. Then, we searched the Randolph school library to pick an informational book that we thought we would be helpful to learn about our animal. If the school library didn't have a book available about our animal, we were able to search the public library and place a book on hold, that a teacher picked up later in the week.

Creating the illustrations for our books was a multi-step process in and of itself! We started by using Sharpies to outline our animal's body, face, arms and legs, tail, etc. We used our reference photos to look carefully to find the shapes of each part and how they fit together. Then, we used oil pastels to create our animal's "markings," like spots, stripes, and fur. Finally, we filled in the rest of our animal using watercolor paints. Our goal was to make our animals look as life-like as possible, so this required attention to detail and some color-matching.

Our project extended into our BEAM time in the studio as Nina supported us with making stamps for our animal tracks. Using books and the computer for research, we found the tracks that belonged to our animal and made a practice drawing on scrap paper. Shapes and counting were an important part of the process, as we found out that our animals had different kinds and numbers of paws, hooves, feet, and toes. We transferred those drawings to craft foam. A teacher helped us to cut out the foam and use hot glue to attach the foam pieces to a wooden block. We painted the stamp and then stamped our own set of animal tracks! It was so exciting to see the footprints appear on the paper.

As a keystone of the Project Based Learning model, finding an expert in the field is essential for providing the students with authentic feedback, and motivating them to push beyond their comfort zones to produce work of excellent quality.  Enter Vivian! As the owner and publisher of “About Town,” (a long-running paper that highlights local history and business), she is the perfect partner to our fledgling publication! She visited with the Woodpeckers, sharing her experience, as well as constructive criticism and praise to help us improve our work.  Most exciting of all, she has agreed to publish our next Beak Jr. issue as an insert within the next issue of About Town! The Woodpeckers will have their work distributed to over 100 locations throughout Ulster county! 

If you missed it at Maple Fest, or otherwise want to share with friends and family, here is a link to the 2nd edition! Please read, share widely, and enjoy!

2nd Edition Beak JR