The Weekly Bulldog
October 3, 2019
From Tim: Nothing says “end of a unit” like releasing the curriculum content into the wild
What does a cricket eat? How can you tell a male from female? Can they swim? Ask any student in Catalina, Sally, Luanne and Anne’s class; they’ll know the answers: Pretty much anything, the males chirp, and no, they don’t swim. Their classroom completed a thematic unit on crickets, which concluded last week with an intimate and quite precious ceremony to return the subjects to the outdoors – complete with thoughtful written homages to each named cricket (Daisy, Pearl, Rainbow…). Nothing says “end of a unit” like releasing the curriculum content into the wild.
Thematic units across our school allow students to explore a topic in depth, from multiple academic disciplines. This particular K-1-2 class initiated their study by sharing some class background reading – cricket picture books and articles – as well as offering to one another what they already knew about crickets. Following our British Primary emphasis on allowing children to ask they own questions and explore their own interests, they generated a list of what they wondered about – “Do they have a brain? How do they chirp?”. Once they had accrued enough background knowledge, students created a cricket habitat, specifically designed for optimal cricket health and comfort. Each child got their own cricket to study and care for during the unit.
It seems to me that both objectives, study and care, were critical and fundamental to the unit’s success. Students studied cricket habitat, observed changes over the two weeks – who knew crickets molted? – and learned about cricket lifecycle. They kept a classroom chart that tracked feeding times for their crickets, and they made a running classroom list of notices – “They poop a lot.” Along the way, children learned about caring for a living being. They learned a bit about respect for even the tiniest of creatures, and I expect they took away new understandings of the interconnectedness of life in our natural surroundings.
All the best,
Tim
Top Five Things
1. Make our day!
If you're not visiting campus during the golden half-hour between 8-8:30 a.m., every visitor must take a moment to sign in at the front desk -- that's everyone from parents and grand people to siblings and lunch-dropper-offers. Signing in at the front desk and wearing a visitor lanyard at all times helps staff recognize adults who are authorized to be on our campus. Thank you.
2. Hook up your King Soopers phone # for Stanley
As of today, just 26 families are using the new phone-number-connected King Soopers shoppers program that diverts 5% of your charges back to Stanley’s PA and teacher grants. Let’s double that by Halloween - can you help? All you need is your phone number and a click to setup your King Soopers account. (Our code is HK327.) Then, just enter your phone number at checkout every time you shop.
3. Book fair gives back to volunteers
During Halloween Week, Oct. 28-31st, the Book Fair will be open in our library. Before we can welcome students to the fair, Allan our librarian can use help from volunteers -- as he says, "It is super easy and fun and you get a discount on all purchases as well as a free book for helping us out!" Sign up here.
4. Tonight's high school night for 8th graders
5. Fall Fest
Upcoming Events
October 3
Discover Stanley 1 (evening session)
Stanley Bricks n Brews pickup basketball
October 4
Discover Stanley 1 (morning session)
October 5
Lowry Foundation 25th Silver Anniversary Celebration
October 7-8
October 10
October 11
Autumn Breakfast in Extended Day
October 14
October 16
October 17
Admission Open House, 9-11 a.m.
October 18
K-8 Early Dismissal, 12:15 p.m.
Stanley British Primary School
Email: admin@stanleybps.org
Website: www.stanleybps.org
Location: 350 Quebec St., Denver
Phone: (303) 360-0803
Facebook: facebook.com/stanley.british/
Twitter: @stanleybps