"In fifth and sixth grade, they can have full conversations with me
and they're not too tall . . ."
-- author Eoin Colfer, commenting on his teaching experience

This site will help you get to know our group and follow us through the year. A link to an overview of our curriculum is at the bottom of this page. You can learn about ongoing activities through FYI, our newsletter (see menu above). Although short homework assignments are not listed here, ones that span several weeks can be found in Long-Term Assignments, such as our current 1st-person reading project.

Another useful link is on the menu at the top, titled "Supplemental Pages." There are many links to it embedded at this site, but it's worth checking it directly from time to time.

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Social studies provide the basis for much of our classroom work. This year, we have three major topics. We've started with a multi-week imaginary journey to Oregon as part of a wagon train in the 1840s. Students will encounter many of the challenges that faced those early pioneers and learn about the impact of this migration on the Native Americans they met along the way. They'll keep diaries to describe their experiences and their decisions. We hope they'll all reach their destination before the snows begin to fall.

Then we'll take a world-wide look at structures, especially bridges, but also monumental structures of many kinds. We'll make connections among geography, mathematics, physics, and materials science as we learn how and why such things are built, why they stay up, and why they fall down. Let's hope all of our toothpick bridges stay up long enough to pass the weight test!

Then we'll return to 19th century America to learn about the Civil War. What were the differences that led our country to go to war with itself? Was it really all about slavery? What happened at Gettysburg to make it a turning point in that war? How did Lincoln's assassination affect the subsequent Reconstruction?

We'll look for ways to connect these topics with our work in mathematics and language arts, and we'll invite our specialists to look for ways to integrate some of this into their own curricula.

And, of course, we'll be keeping up with current events. Who knows where in the world that will take us?