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
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
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
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
This year so far in BIG D is the best. I kind of miss Little D. Little D is where I went to kindergarden through third grade. We have music and we are learning how to play the clarinet. The clarinet is so much fun. It has a unique sound. We just learned how to put the clarinet together. This year we have desks. Last year we had to work at tables and keep all of our supplies in a cubby. Desks are better because you can keep your supplies close to you. Art is so much fun. We are studying Kurt Schwitters and we are making collages. I am using the coolest materials for my collage. We all put a hand in the garbage and made our collage out of what we pulled out and then washed our hands.
I CAN NOT WAIT FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!!!
-pw
Fourth grade is the best!!! One of my favorite highlights from the first week of school is play street, which is recess except on the street. We play football, box ball, jump rope, wall ball, soccer and much more. One of the other highlights of the week is having P.E. every day of the week. In P.E. we play a lot of sports. I also like music because this is the first year we are playing percussion and woodwind instruments. I love fourth grade!!!
-jf1
What I like about Big Dalton is that if we get to school on time, unlike at Little Dalton, we get to use the elevators. In Little Dalton we only get to use the elevator if you have an injury. I also like that we get our own Netbooks. They’re like mini computers and we have Tux Typing on them instead of Type to Learn. In Big Dalton we get a totally different teacher for math class. In Music we are learning how to play the violin. We play with our hands before we learn to use the bow. In the the next semester we are going to play the clarinet. I am enjoying our study of E.B. White. We have written author blurbs about our classmates. In P.E. we’re playing fun games in Project Adventure and playing soccer. We have Playstreet instead of Upper Roof at Big Dalton. At Playstreet we play football, wall ball, box ball and catch. When a car wants to un-park itself the teacher yells, “Sidewalk!” and we all run to the sidewalk and crouch. Big Dalton rocks!
ab1
