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Dear Lower School Families,

Time has flown by, and we’re already at the last day before winter break. We have welcomed 30 new students and five faculty members in these four incredible months. As a new mom and faculty member, thank you for making us feel so welcome.

In just a few short months, we enjoyed cherished traditions such as Founder’s Day, the Halloween Parade, the Thanksgiving Feast, and last night’s Lower School Holiday Concert. Some traditions got a twist, from adding a parent social to Back to School Night to enhancing the Halloween Haunted House with science experiments and moving it to the art room. In October, we made over 100 lunch bags for the Emmanuel Dining Hall in Wilmington to kick off our monthly Lower School Sandwich Days.

Your children engaged in exciting projects, from advanced coding and robotics for all grades to STEM activities exploring balance, cultural celebrations, and hands-on science experiments. The Lower School showcased musical talents, artistic endeavors, and cross-curricular studies of Native Americans. Please enjoy reading about some of the activities that happened this fall:

• Through several STEM activities, students learned about balance and balance points. In one exercise, students built Lego structures and sent them down a zip line. In another activity, students made balance toys, including a “field trip” to Beekley to use the drill press to make holes in the wooden blocks.
• During Community Gathering, students learned about an influential person of Hispanic descent and then shared what they had learned. We learned about more than 15 people!
• First grade students drafted and published their first personal narratives and shared them with Kindergarten!
• During Native American Heritage Month, Maureen Zieber from the Iron Hill Museum presented about Lenape culture, anthropology, and archaeology to Lower School students.
• In science, students explored core concepts through engaging projects.
  • First graders delved into animal adaptations with the Creature Power challenge. 
  • Second graders focused on ecosystems, creating terrestrial setups, and studying stream ecology at the Myrick Conservation Center. 
  • Third graders delved into forces and motion through a sports project based on Newton’s laws. 
  • Fourth graders initiated their Naturalists in Training program with an animal show featuring snakes in our family room!
  • Fifth graders have been utilizing the scientific method in a variety of experiments and labs, including the creation and testing of their own wet-cell batteries, seeing which variables would make them stronger.
• Second-grade students completed the STEM project, Balloons Over Barley Mill. After reading and discussing the history of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, students constructed a “parade balloon” that had to stand up. Students then wrote a persuasive piece convincing the judges to vote for their balloon.
• Students have learned about eight different artists (Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Alma Thomas, Vincent Van Gogh, Romero Britto, Yayoi Kusama, and Keith Haring) and created works of art inspired by them!
• After reading The Tiger Rising in fourth grade, students whittled and created soap carvings like the character from their book.
• As fifth-grade students wrapped up their Mesopotamian unit, they built and tested Ziggurat Temple marble runs.  
• Five fifth-grade students entered the Young Writers Mini-Saga contest called “Hunted.” All five were recognized for their work and will be published authors!
• Third-grade students learned how to play the recorder, and fourth and fifth-graders learned how to play the ukulele. Their talents were featured in the Lower School Performance.
• Lower School launched a Student Ambassador program offering our fourth and fifth-grade students leadership and public speaking opportunities. 
• Second graders engaged in a cross-curricular study of Native Americans, integrating reading, social studies, and writing. After exploring the Hopi, Cheyenne, Mohawk, and Cherokee tribes, students chose a tribe to feature in an informational writing piece while developing an understanding of text structures and practicing comparison and contrast.
• Third graders participated in a Mini-Market Day, a collaboration involving Mr. Burton, Mrs. Echternach, Ms. Stubbs, and the University of Delaware. Each homeroom featured four companies selling paper airplanes, fortune tellers, greeting cards, and bookmarks. Students chose products, formed companies, developed business plans, manufactured and sold their items, and reflected on profits and losses. This project lays the foundation for our upcoming official Market Day later in the school year.

As all of these exciting and educational opportunities are happening, teachers are also committed to ongoing learning. The Lower School faculty sets aside time to meet with an instructional expert from the University of Delaware’s School Success Center. They’ve learned extremely valuable insight while examining curriculum and selecting the most effective, age-appropriate, and research-based practices to support their students.

Finally, we’ve introduced and piloted a new three-block literacy curriculum called Bookworms. This fall, we initiated the Differentiated Block for the entire division, providing systematic small-group instruction for all students. Second and third grades started piloting the curriculum in November, with first and fifth grades set for January and fourth grade in February. We’re eager to share more details when we return in January. If you’re curious, check out this peer-reviewed article in the Scientific Studies of Reading on the positive effects of the Bookworms curriculum on student achievement for over 8,000 students.

Thank you for an incredible four months. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish in the second half of the school year! 

I hope you have a wonderful and restful winter break.

Sincerely,

Kimberly Wagner, Ed.D.