Our thanks to the people who write to us through comments on our posts. We love hearing from you!
Thank you to the student who gave us her photos from the Black Rock Forest Trip. They are now posted in our Photo Archive Page.
At assembly, on October 15th, we were introduced to David Macaulay, Dalton’s Original Mind Scholar.
Each student brought their newly acquired sketchbook and David walked us through a series of drawing exercises. The emphasis was on how drawing helps us explore and understand our world. David explained that there is no right way to keep a sketchbook and that there is no such thing as a wrong drawing. He also showed us one of his own which was filled with observational drawings, written notes , quick sketches and drawn ideas.
We have started off the Year of the Sketchbook by decorating the covers of our new blank books. There will be time for each student in Farnsworth House to free draw, respond to trips, poetry and books read aloud. We are looking forward to how the sketchbooks evolve and develop. Stay tuned!
To find out more about David and the sketchbook go to blogs.dalton.org/sketchbooks
This past month, we took a trip to Ellis Island to learn more about immigration. Click on each image below to hear the students’ podcasts. Enjoy!
I enjoyed the first week of school at Big Dalton even though it is different than Little Dalton. During our first week of school we had math everyday and we reviewed our multiplication tables. Art is on Mondays and Wednesdays and we made black and white collages. I enjoyed that very much, I always have loved art. We have LASS every day, LASS stands for Language Arts Social Studies. We either worked on our net books, (small computers) which are very useful even though they’re small, or we made maps of our journeys from Little Dalton to Big Dalton. We have science every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday and we’re studying minerals. I enjoy that because I collect rocks and minerals and I like seeing other minerals that I don’t have in my collection. We have Law/LASS every Monday, and I the class because we didn’t get Law at Little Dalton. I have learned a lot of ways that we are connected to the Law without even knowing it. Every Tuesday and Thursday we have Music and my group is trying out the violin right now. I have learned a lot about the violin. I never knew about pizzicato which means plucking the strings with our fingers. We have Writing Skills every Wednesday where we are learning better script. Lab is every day and if you don’t finish some of your work you can finish it during lab. If you have finished everything you can draw or read. We have PE/Dance every day. We also have playstreet which is when you go out onto the street and play with balls, jump ropes, footballs, and run around. When a car comes down the street a teacher yells, “Sidewalk!”, and everyone runs onto the sidewalk and squats. We also have Library every Friday, (the Big Dalton Library is much bigger than the Little Dalton Library). Finally we have Citizenship every other Friday, and Assembly the alternate Fridays. During assembly everyone at Big Dalton gathers in the theater and sometimes people preform something on stage or give a speech. Also there are usually announcements. I can’t wait to find out more about Big Dalton!
-sd
The first week of school in fourth grade was a lot of fun. With age certainly comes responsibility. Now we have desks instead of tables and the extra space is great! I think that our netbooks are one of the best parts of fourth grade. This is what I am writing my post on right now! The netbooks are great because they are so easy to operate, fun to use and their size is very convenient. All in all, they are a great machine. My favorite subject is math, because it is fun to work with numbers and it can challenge my brain. My teacher is Mr. Wade. He is really funny and I am proud to be his student. I think Dalton is a great school!
-mg
Fourth grade has been awesome!! Music is really fun because we are learning violin. We just learned how to use the bow. Before we learned the bow we only did pitsicatto. Our teacher is a violist. Later we are going to learn percussion, clarinet, and group music. In P.E. if you are in the first group you have dance every other day. There are three groups. In P.E. I am doing a soccer unit. Even though I don’t really like soccer, I am looking forward to gymnastics in the spring. Playstreet is fun because there is so much room and all the fourth grade classes have it at the same time. Only problem, every time a car comes we have to get off the street. Still it’s a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to going to Plymouth Plantation in the spring! Fourth grade is really fun!!
-ac
I love fourth grade so much!!! My first weeks were so much fun. My favorite subject is music, because we are learning to play the clarinet!! It is very hard to see the keys, but it is still fun to play. My second favorite subject is law. In law we get to learn about the courts and fairness. At our first class of law, we all had to share erasers to show fairness. Now my third favorite subject is art. In art, I am sewing a piece of screen like embroidery. The piece of string is orange and the screen is white, and I am making lines with the string. Math and science are fine, though not my favorite subjects, we do have fun activities. All of my teachers are so much fun!!!!! I love Big Dalton!!!!!!!!!!
-is
The first few weeks of Big Dalton were great. Here are some the highlights. Right now in Music we are studying how to play the violin. I like violin a lot. I have just finished learning pitsicatto. Now we are learning to use the bow. I think violin is a fun instrument. Playstreet is different from roof because you play on the street instead of on a roof of a building. I like playing different games with my friends. This year we have PE five days a week instead of four days a week so we can work off some of our energy. PE is my favorite class. Right now we are doing soccer. Fourth grade is the awesome!!!
-ka
There are a lot of things that are different at Big Dalton than at Little Dalton. I will now list them and the reasons why. I however must say before I present you my list that BIG Dalton is way bigger than LITTLE Dalton! Big Dalton has dance. I cannot tell you if this is good or bad, because I have not been to dance yet. There is PE everyday. Some people hate it, some love it. I don’t really care one way or another. There is Law, which is cool, and we have done Author blurbs, which are awesome!!! We got to interview each other and learn new information about our classmates.At Big Dalton we have play street instead of Upper or Lower Roof, which I do not like because it doesn’t have a jungle gym . We each get our own net book, which is so, so, so, cool!!! We do not have to share them with anyone so any time you need a computer you have one. We play instruments in Music which is difficult, yet fun! We get our lunches in the hall, then go to our classrooms to eat. And since we’re on the ninth floor, we can take the elevator in the morning. All in all, fourth grade is very cool.
-mh
So far the first few weeks of school in fourth grade have been great. Some of the great things about school are: we have our own desks and our own netbooks plus playstreet is awesome. During playstreet we get to play with our friends in other houses. During math and music we also mix up with other classes. In art we are studying Kurt Schwitters. He created a word used in art called Merz. In music we are learning to play the violin with and without the bow. P.E. is everyday and we are studying dance. One of my favorite classes is Law because we get to try cases and be the plaintiff, the accused and the judge. During spelling we usually get about 5 pages of homework so its not so bad. We also get more lunch choices. In science we are learning about predators and prey which is pretty cool. So far school’s been really fun.
-rd
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