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Lower School Newsletter Archive

Fall 2007

Fall 2007 Newsletter
From Mary Ellen Kenny, Lower School Head

New school shoes are a bit scuffed and the leaves are changing color, sure signs that the school year is fully launched. Autumn is a glorious time in the lower school. The children arrive with playful energy and they work with a notable sense of purpose. They are increasingly comfortable in their surroundings and new friendships are beginning to blossom. Students and teachers are immersed in a wide range of meaningful learning experiences.

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the Lower School Curriculum Night. We hope it provided you with insight and formed a foundation for a meaningful dialogue with teachers about your child's experiences at PDS. A deliberate flow of communication will continue throughout the year. The fall conference is the ideal opportunity to look at work samples, understand how your child approaches learning and to ask questions about his/her progress. In addition, you will receive seasonal newsletters from me that provide an overview of the experiences currently engaging the interest of lower school students. Teachers will keep you informed with periodic newsletters of their own or with publications generated by the children. We hope these efforts will spark conversations between you and your child and will help you feel connected to life at PDS.

To a great extent, our curriculum is formed around questions. Teachers use their understanding of child development to identify the big, compelling questions that interest children. They also encourage children to raise new, often unexpected questions as classes actively engage in the learning process. Broad topics that focus on the relationship between people and their environment provide the framework for our explorations and interdisciplinary studies. This year, some questions our students are investigating include:

Children address these and other questions in many ways. They hypothesize and conduct research to see if their notions are well formed. They examine artifacts, create models, read, write, discuss, compare, sketch, paint and draw conclusions based on their varied experiences. Following is a sample of activities in which children in the lower school are currently engaged:

Pre-K Our youngest students are getting to know one another, are
learning to make transitions and are becoming familiar with important classroom routines. They take great pride in singing favorite songs at morning meeting and many recognize the letters
H-E-L-L-O in the daily message. They note seasonal changes each week with their buddies and create lively drawings to represent what they observe. In the coming weeks the pre-k will venture into the community to visit Stony Kill Farm and to see a production of Frog and Toad, by Arnold Lobel, at the Bardavon Theater.

K As a way of getting to know one another, the kindergarteners made charts and graphs that record what they have noticed about eye and hair color. They had a beautiful day for their first trip to Sprout Creek Farm. They met turkeys, chickens and goats and had a chance to examine the beehives. They will return to the farm frequently this year. A current exploration in math is helping the children notice patterns everywhere. Their work will culminate in a Pattern Museum, which will be open to the rest of the lower school.

1-2 The 1-2 students began the year by closely observing the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. The study provided them with chances to observe, predict, record and develop their sense of wonder each time they released a newly developed butterfly. Their study of the Hudson River is also off to a lively start with trips to the Norrie Point Environmental Center, the Poughkeepsie water treatment plant and a visit to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College to see paintings inspired by the river.

3-4 Third and fourth graders are studying forest ecology. Their investigation includes "woods walks", adopting trees to study and a close-up examination of the forest food chain. In math they counted the kernels of many ears of corn (a Mayan staple) to launch some work with big numbers. As a culminating event all fifty third and fourth graders became part of a human bar graph that illustrated range and median. Mayan folktales are being read and discussed as the study of Mesoamerica continues.

Faculty News
Teachers at Poughkeepsie Day School are expected to participate in workshops, conferences and courses as means of staying current in the field of education. They are also asked to visit at least one other school during the course of the academic year. This fall members of the lower school faculty are venturing forth to pick up new ideas and refine the practices that make our program meaningful and vital.

Kindergarten teachers Lenae Madonna and Robbie Puglisi will take part in a two-day workshop at Bank Street College called: The Youngest Scientists: Hands-on Adventures. They will collaborate with other teachers and explore new methods of making science both accessible and intriguing to young children.

Gretchen Lytle (3-4) will also travel to Bank Street College to take a workshop to enhance her teaching of literacy. An Overview of Remedial Programs for Teaching Reading and Writing (grades k-8) will be taught by the director of outreach at The Mary McDowell Center for Learning in Brooklyn.

Stephen Currie (a.k.a. Math Guy) recently received word that he has been chosen to speak at the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) national conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. His topic is a data analysis project he has done with our 3-4 classes in the past, "Can You Name All of the People in the World?" Stay tuned for more details as the conference date, in April, draws near.

Rachel Silverman (1-2) and Ruthie Shaw (literacy specialist) will attend a workshop led by Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D, entitled From Phonics to Fluency to Proficient Reading. Ruthie will also attend a presentation given by Lucy Calkins called: The Reading Workshop: Turn your Students into Real Readers!

Next week I will be a facilitator at The Beginning Teachers Institute, sponsored by NYSAIS (New York State Association of Independent Schools).

The lower school faculty visited the Frances Loeb Lehman Art Center at Vassar College to view the permanent collection of paintings. Shortly we will select a painting to use for a division-wide interdisciplinary project called Take One Picture (more details coming).

Early in November the entire faculty will work with psychologist Maria Alba-Fisch to explore how we can help our students develop resilience in dealing with academic, social and emotional challenges. We hope to provide a similar workshop for parents later in the school year.

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF
On October 25, a group of Vassar students involved in fund raising for UNICEF will meet with our 1-2 and 3-4 classes to provide them with information about the organization and to invite them to participate in the well-known program "Trick or Treat for UNICEF". Participation in the program is voluntary; more detailed information will follow.

Friendly Reminders
The before-school program begins at 7:30 a.m. each morning. Parents are very welcome to send an early morning snack for their child that can be eaten before heading off to class.

Our school day begins at 8:20 a.m. Children should arrive between 8:10 and 8:15 to have enough time to care for belongings and visit with friends before morning meeting begins. Getting your child to school on time can make a bog difference in his/her day.

The dining room is the location for student pickup at the end of the day. For safety reasons all children must be signed out before departing and the person designated to meet the child must check in with the teacher before leaving. Teachers will wait with children until 3:15, because we know that it's possible to run a little late once in a while, but the expected pickup time is 3:00 p.m. After 3:15, children will be brought to out after-school program.

Please call us early in the day if your child is home sick or will be late for school.

With colder weather on the way, please be sure your child has appropriate clothing for daily outings at recess. Don't forget to put your child's name on EVERYTHING!

Important Dates

Thanks

That's all for now. Please don't hesitate to be in touch with questions, concerns and good ideas!

Best to all,

Mary Ellen Kenny
Lower School Head