Summer Camp!

For over 44 years the Abington Friends Summer Enrichment Program in Jenkintown, PA has been dedicated to providing campers with a truly enriching summer experience. We have a strong and proud tradition of providing programs that generate the smiles and memories that last a lifetime.

Parents in the Philadelphia area have many camps to choose from when planning for the summer. With these choices comes the responsibility of selecting one that best fits the needs of your child, as well as your own schedule. At Abington Friends School (AFS) you will find summer camp programs that are responsive to these needs. For over 44 years the Abington Friends Summer Enrichment Program has been dedicated to providing campers with a truly enriching summer experience. We have a strong and proud tradition of providing programs that generate the smiles and memories that last a lifetime. Here at AFS your child can participate in a variety of camp experiences on our beautiful campus. Whether you choose the traditional day camp, a specialty camp or an academic camp, our philosophy remains the same: we want children to be happy and we truly believe they find happiness through having fun and making connections in a variety of engaging activities. We invite you to see how a summer at AFS can make a difference in your child’s life. Be sure to register early. Space is limited!

To learn more about amazing summer camp opportunities at AFS or to enroll, click on the link below!

http://www.afssummercamps.com/

Harriet Tubman Arrives at the Meetinghouse

The fourth grade was treated to a stellar performance by writer and actress Dr. Daisy Century last week in the Meetinghouse. She portrayed Harriet Tubman as an enslaved young girl, as a conductor on the Underground Railroad leading hundreds of people to freedom, and culminated her performance in her role as a spy, healer and cook for the Union Army during the Civil War. The students learned of the harshness of slavery through the eyes of a young Araminta Ross / Harriet Tubman and the love and devotion she had for her family.

The students were asked to write a reflection on the performance afterwards thinking back to what they already knew and what they newly discovered. There was such a wealth of varied answers communicated. One student commented that she loved learning about the relationship Harriet had with her father and all the things he taught her about nature and survival. It was as though he always knew she would need to know these skills to be so skilled in escaping to freedom. Another student astutely wondered if the father knew so much about survival, why didn't he escape? Dr. Century introduced the nuance of why some people stayed and others fled their enslavement throughout her performance. 

After the performance, Daisy asked the students questions that reflected information she had embedded into her script. They resoundingly knew all the answers. The students were also able to ask questions of Daisy. The questions were rich and plentiful and stretched beyond our allotted time. The students will continue their study of abolition with a deeper and richer context of what it meant to be an abolitionist.

Fourth Graders Are Pushing Their Boundaries

The Fourth Grade Curriculum is full of people who cross boundaries, especially as they begin to study Abolitionists, people who helped to force change by pushing the limits of society. We all know someone who has pushed beyond a line to cause change in themselves, the world, or both. Our students are discovering the people in their lives who have done exactly this.

This multifaceted project incorporates a range of skills and opportunities for the students. In addition to learning how to find information through questions and conversations, the students are learning how to organize the information for a documentary. This means taking a series of facts and crafting them into a story. The process is fluid and cyclical, as students move continuously between their questions, their narrations, and their storyboards. Each child’s creative process is different, and students are given the freedom to guide their own process with teacher support.

Pairing the right sound and images with their videos is a challenge students have begun to solve in a variety of ways. While some are actively seeking out license free music from the web, others are creating their own sounds in GarageBand by building tracks of loops. In effect, the students are pushing themselves into new learning and crossing their own boundaries.

Fraction Museum Comes to Second Grade

     Second graders had a great time hosting a fraction museum, which was the culminating event of our study of fractions.  Each student curated his or her own fraction exhibit using materials brought in from home.  There was a wide range of exhibits, from stuffed animals, to toy cars, to sculptures made out of beads.  Best of all, the students were able to show their understanding of fractions as part of a whole and their understanding of fraction size.

     The fourth graders, who have also been studying fractions, were guests of the Fraction Museum, much to the delight of the second graders.  While the fourth grade visitors were with us, all of the students, in both second and fourth grades worked to figure out if each fraction represented in the museum was equal to 1/2, less than 1/2 or more than 1/2.  The second grade students were really proud of their work, especially when they had visitors.

El estudio de Egipto en segundo grado / Egypt Study in Second Grade

During Second Grade Spanish Language experience, the students have been focusing on using the target language to communicate things related to their current theme of study, Egipto, Egypt. With the use of a PowerPoint, we explored the geographical location of this amazing country and its neighbors.

We learned the vocabulary for the cardinal points: norte (north), sur (south), este (east), and oeste (west). We discovered that Egipto está en el noreste de Africa, Sudán está al sur de Egipto, Libya está al oeste de Egipto and El mar Mediterráneo está al norte de Egipto. Ask a second grader what it all means! To reinforce our learning, we used a large floor map to find different locations. The students became more confident with every opportunity to connect a verbal request for a location to the site on the map.

To further connect the Spanish language experience with their Egypt study, the second graders also learned Spanish descriptive words that identify some of the gods and goddesses that ancient Egyptians believed in. Because many of the names of the dioses y diosas do not change (only in pronunciation), the challenge was provided to learn adjetivos (adjectives) to describe them. Dioses y diosas flashcards, bingo game and crossword puzzles were created to help reinforce the learning.

At Egypt Night, many second graders shared Spanish vocabulary that describes some of the gods and goddesses they researched. You would be amazed!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

We are so glad families had the experience of visiting our Ancient Egypt Museum. It was wonderful to see our second graders proudly sharing their wealth of knowledge. While we look forward to our next unit of study, we have assured the students that they can continue to explore ancient Egypt on their own with their amazing research skills.

There is a special event taking place at the museum this weekend:
Egyptomania! takes over the Penn Museum
Saturday, March 21, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm

It's a celebration of all things Egyptian at this World Culture Day. Egyptomania! brings the galleries to life with a variety of activities including hieroglyph workshops, Middle Eastern drumming and folk dancing, a “What in the World” artifact game—and short talks from renowned Penn Museum Egyptologists.

Perhaps there will be a rainy day over spring break when your child might enjoy this wonderful video, Building Pharaoh's Ship.
On PBS: http://video.pbs.org/video/2331305481/

Or if you have Amazon Prime Instant Video:
http://www.amazon.com/Building-Pharaohs-Ship/dp/B003E4AXJC/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1426687801&sr=1-1&keywords=Building+Pharaoh%27s+Ship

Here is a link to a few (well, maybe more than a few) photos from our trip to the Penn Museum: 
Field Trip photos
And here is a link to photos from Egypt Night: Egypt Night Photos

Pajama Day is next Wednesday!

Come to school in your pajamas on Wednesday!  Sometimes it's fun to have a wacky Wednesday.

Kindergarten's Maple Sugaring Trip

Our kindergarten classes were delighted to have many family members join us on a beautiful day to learn about maple sugaring. Our lesson at the Churchville Nature Center began with a Lenape legend that answered a student's question, "How did they know how to do this?" Then, we learned about the parts of a tree and how they function by making a live kindergarten tree!

Next, we went outside to get a firsthand look at the process to make maple syrup.  We  had a chance to see how the trees are tapped and taste freshly collected sap, we practiced drilling in a maple branch and saw where the water would be cooked off.  Then, to our taste buds' fancy, we tried artificial syrup and pure maple syrup.  We really liked them both, but our taste buds were able to pick out the pure maple syrup.

We are fortunate to live in the only region in the world that has just the right elements to allow maple sugaring to happen!  If you weren't able to join us in person, follow our visit in the slide show.  You can see the snowy weather we had last week in the background and the wonderful, sunny day we experienced on our trip!  It was SWEET!!

This free slideshow design made with Smilebox

April Book Group for Adults

                        Lower School Book Club

Join us for our next Lower School Book Club for adults led by Ann Botel-Barnard, our Language Arts Specialist. We are excited to come together to share a love for a great story!

Book: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Location: Lower School Library

Date: Monday, April 6, 2015 from 8:00-9:00am.

Enjoy a light breakfast and great conversation as we discuss what we loved about the book, what we had questions about and what we could connect to. Feel free to join us even if you have not read the entire book. You will still have a lot to contribute and the discussion will enhance your reading of the book. You are welcome to bring adult friends and relatives that are also interested in discussing this book.

RSVP: Ann Botel-Barnard  abotelbarnard@abingtonfriends.net

This powerful novel explores what it means to be a family in conventional and unusual ways. Of course, what family today is not a little unusual? As you read this engaging novel, you will feel a range of emotions from joy to sorrow and from questioning to a sense of resolution.  Karen Joy Fowler won the Penn/Faulkner Award for best fiction writing in 2014 for this book and was one of only two American authors shortlisted for the 2014 Mann Booker prize.

4th Grade Visits the Philadelphia Flower Show!

We had an absolutely wonderful trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show on Tuesday!  This trip was the culmination of our partnership with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Meadowbrook Farm. It was quite an exciting day, filled with all kinds of wonderful surprises!  

Taking the train into town was very adventurous!

When we arrived, Jacqueline Fisher from PHS met us to lead us through the show.

First, we had a special surprise!  Jacqueline treated us to the Butterfly Experience exhibit.  It was quite an amazing experience.  The students had Q-tips with nectar to entice the butterflies to come to them.  There were so many butterflies!

One of the highlights was seeing our "Pennock Plates" which are the sculpted plates the students made which were inspired by plates found in the Pennock home at Meadowbrook Farm.  The students hadn't seen the plates after they were glazed, so it was quite wonderful to see them for the first time at the show!  This was our science/art project that was done with the staff of Meadowbrook Farm.

Next it was time to explore the show with Jacqueline. She explained to us how the exhibits come together, and we talked about the inspiration for the different displays. Favorites included Cinderella, Nightmare before Christmas, Tarzan and Frozen. Other favorites included the jewelry made from plant material and the pressed flower pictures. It was a truly magical day! In the words of one student: "I really didn't expect to love it so much. I thought it would just be a lot of flowers. But it was so much more than that. I felt like I was transported into a whole new world."

Drumming in Early Childhood

In the Early Childhood classrooms, we have been playing different types of drums! 

We started by learning a rhyme:

Snowflakes, snowflakes all around,

Whirling, twirling to the ground,

Softly, softly floating down,

Snowflakes, snowflakes all around.

Here is a VIDEO of the Cardinals version!

We also discovered that we could feel the vibrations of the drums when we lay on the floor!

Check out this YouTube VIDEO of the Cardinals Rumbling!

Here's a look at some of the drums we have be using:

Hand Drums (Frame Drums) come in different sizes and we hold them in one hand while we use the other hand to play.

The Gathering drum is normally play with mallets but we played it with our hands. We sit on the floor with this drum and it is big enough to share with a friend!

The Tubano drum also comes in different sizes. They are all the same height but are different widths. the bigger the drum the lower the sound.

2nd Grade Egypt Masks in Art

The second graders have fully embraced their study of Ancient Egypt and have been exploring Egyptian art motifs and ancient figures in art class. The second grade artists started their process by examining images of funerary masks from Ancient Egypt. The students designed their own masks, imagining themselves in Ancient Egypt as a regular person, a pharaoh, a queen, an anubis or even a cat! They created a plan for their designs and built additional features to add to their masks, like beards, ears or hair.

Once the planning was complete, they joined the resource teachers during Community Time to create their masks out of plaster. The students worked collaboratively and took turns being the model for the creation of a mask or one of the creators. As a group, we discussed how it would feel to be the model, how we can check in with each other and how important trust was in our group. When the students were ready, they got to lie down on the table, close their eyes and let their peers get to work laying down plaster strips on their face.

After the plaster hardened, the students were amazed to see their likeness in sculpture form! They then had the chance to add on their additional sculptural elements and fill in their noses and their mask forms were complete. The second graders are looking forward to painting and decorating their masks.

Special Guest in Science Class!

Last week, both Kindergarten and 3rd grade were treated to a special presentation by parent scientist, Alix Davatzes.  Alix is a professor in the Earth and Environmental Science Department of Temple University, and is a familiar face in Lower School science.  She and her husband Nick, who is also a Temple professor, have done many geology lessons over the past few years.  Alix spoke to the third grade about her field work as a geologist, and a few lucky students got to dress up in all of her field gear.  Next, we poured over a geology map to learn about tectonic activity all over the world.

 In Kindergarten, Alix started the lesson explaining the three types of rocks; igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.  She taught a song about the three types of rocks, complete with hand motions! Next she showed the students many different types of fossils.  The students then made their own fossils by pressing shells into clay.  They made some beautiful specimens!

First Grade Reads Books Featuring Henry and Mudge and Annie

First grade has fallen in love with the characters of Henry, Mudge and Henry's cousin Annie. Cynthia Rylant captures the experiences of children and the way that they perceive the world as well as the love that children have for their pets. For the past few weeks, reading workshop has commenced with a chapter read aloud and children sharing their connections, and engaging in the comprehension strategy of envisioning a scene in detail and then describing their visualization to a partner.  Children have connected to the feelings of worry, loneliness, taking one's pet to the vet, growing friendships and closely noticing the natural world.


These books have been favorite choices for the first graders to select for their own just right reading. Cynthia Rylant is a master of using descriptive language in her writing- another benefit of children reading her books and incorporating her beautiful vocabulary in their own speaking and writing. The reading level of these books range from first grade in the Puppy Mudge series through second grade in the Henry and Mudge and Annie series.  Students in kindergarten through second grade love to listen to and read books in this series.