| April 2010
News from the Head of School
Spring has sprung and the children are loving being outside without hats and  mittens! Be on the look out for the daffodils that the graduating 6th graders and their families planted last year. They are in front by the sign and on the side of the parking lot by the pool. Many thanks to Steve Ridler for spearheading this operation and proving a lasting, renewable improvement to the Taylor School landscape.
The invitations to the “Innovate and Create” celebration dinner and auction on May 15th will be in the mail by the end of the week. The dinner will be held at the Troy Country Club which is right down the road from the Taylor School. We have already accumulated many wonderful auction items! The annual Taylor School quilt squares are finished and Nancy Maynard, Susan Taylor’s sister, is currently putting it all together.
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News from the Academic Director
Dear Families,
Happy Spring! Saying goodbye to the snow pants, hats, mittens, snow, etc. has  been easy to do! We are looking forward to witnessing the new growth around us as we move through spring toward…SUMMER!
Speaking of new growth…plans for the second Taylor School garden are underway. The 1/2 class has been taking a lead role in this year’s garden as part of their Seed to Plant unit of study. On April 22nd, as part of our Earth Day Celebration, we will be inviting our children and their families to get involved in preparing the garden for planting. We will be working with the soil, building a new raised bed, and putting the protection fence back in place. Last year’s garden was a huge success and we are looking forward to this year’s harvest. We hope you can join us!
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News from Preschool
Dinosaurs rule in Preschool! The dinosaurs have invaded our classroom and there is  lots of interest and excitement as we learn facts and have fun. It is a challenge for the children’s developing social skills and self-control as they are required to control their behavior while playing with dinosaurs that are both loud and fierce.
The dinosaur cave that covers a corner of our classroom is an exciting area to practice our interaction skills. Playing with dinosaurs is generally a great way for young children to use their burgeoning sense of power and strength in constructive play. Unlike many make-believe action figures, dinosaurs are especially exciting because they were once alive and real. Dinosaurs will be our main theme area until mid-April, with books, art, cooking, songs, etc. relating to the giant creatures of long ago. Meat eaters (carnivores), and plant eaters (herbivores) will be addressed as well as the way various dinosaurs protected themselves. We will discuss the dinosaurs becoming extinct…why do you think that happened?? Finally, we will be come paleontologists and go digging for dinosaur bones, and create a dinosaur museum. It is so exciting to see how the children get caught up in this theme unit.
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News from Pre-K
March seemed to fly by. We were glad to see some early signs of spring when we went on our maple syrup trip. The days that followed were full of pancake and syrup related activities, culminating with a homemade pancake breakfast. We put photos of the trip into sequential order and made a book about the process of making maple syrup. The book is currently making the rounds to houses.
April is beginning with a unit on birds. We have been interested in the robins that seem to be popping up everywhere. We have had fun comparing and contrasting backyard birds with birds previously studied (owls, turkey, penguins). The children are eager to hunt for robin’s eggs in their yards and out on the playground.
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News from Kindergarten
The Kindergarten has been anticipating spring all month and it is finally here! We  have been reflecting on all that we have learned as a class and individually.
In theme, we are talking a great deal about bones and skeletons. We have sung and danced to many songs that help us move and learn about all the bones to our body. One of our favorite songs was “Dem Bones.” We discovered there were 206 bones in a human body. We discussed the major bones in the body. During a hands-on activity we used Q-Tips to put together skeletons representing the major bones in our body. Something interesting we discovered is that there are “scientific” names for the bones in our body. For instance our cheek is really called the zygoma.
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News from the 1-2 Class
 We’re heading to Ghana! The 1-2 Class is learning all about the various tribes in Africa. In music, the students are learning song and dance from Ghana. In class, the children are building their own drums. We have begun our discussion about symbols in art and the children have been exploring the ideas of what symbols are. The drums will be painted with Adinkra symbols that the children have selected based on their personalities. In April we will have a musician come in and teacher the children a few Afro-Cuban rhythms!
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News from the 3-4 Class
We have started a new scientific study of chemistry in a unit called Powders and  Crystals. This unit introduces students to the techniques scientists use to study unknown substances, a process called chemical analysis. Students were presented with six unidentified white substances and were challenged to differentiate between them using their senses of sight, smell, hearing, and touch. They discovered that three of the substances have a crystalline structure, and three are powders. We briefly discussed the atomic structure in these substances as we took a closer look at the Periodic Table. We also observed how each substance reacts with water, vinegar, iodine, bromthymol blue (BT B), and heat. Based on our observations, the students will then be challenged to identify the substances in four mystery mixtures based on the chemical reactions they have. It’s going to be great!
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News from the 5-6 Class
In March, the 5/6 class began a unit on writing research reports. The students were given the task of selecting a country to study in depth. Once the students had decided upon their country, we developed an outline for their research report. The students discovered how to take a broad topic and break it down into subtopics such as geography, culture, tourist highlights, government, history and interesting facts. From the outline the students knew specifically what they needed to research, so we took a field trip to a local public library to begin collecting resources for their project. The students learned how to write bibliography cards and how to properly use note cards to organize the information they collected. During the month of April, the students will learn how to use note cards and an outline as a guide to writing a research report. All their hard work and dedication to this challenging project will be showcased at our International Country Fair at the end of April. Each student will not only share their research report, but they will give an oral presentation full of facts, pictures, music, food and dance on their country. This culminating activity is sure to be a wonderful learning experience for all.
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