6th Graders Design Boats

These 6th graders are using math and science to build boats and predict how many pennies their boats would hold.

The Land of Treble

Third graders are learning about our number system by imagining a place where things come in groups of three. Here they are playing a game called, "Race to a Trickle." In the Land of Treble, a trickle is the cost of a slurp (the pet everyone wants in Treble). Here the students roll a die, and then take gickles or bickles, trading them in until they have a trickle.

2nd Graders Celebrate Trees

The second graders completed a field guide to the trees in the Academy School forest. They celebrated by binding the books together and drinking tea made from pine needles and black birch sticks that they gathered.

Kindergarten Math with Spinners

These kindergarteners are spinning their spinners and graphing their results to see which color "wins" by getting to ten first.

Kindergarteners Study Leo Lionni

Kindergarteners are reading books by Leo Lionni. Here is some artwork inspired by one of his books and our chart to keep track of the story elements.

6th Graders Study the Dust Bowl

The sixth grade classes learned about the Great Depression when reading Bud, Not Buddy. In the enrichment room, they extended their study by learning about the Dust Bowl. After some research and reading more fiction that takes place during that time period, they wrote essays and poems and published them into these beautiful books.

Here are some close-ups of one of the books so you can get an idea of how it was constructed.

Monster Puppets

First graders made these monster puppets. They will soon write a puppet show to perform with them. Right now they are writing field guides to their monsters.

4th Graders Research Bees

These fourth graders are learning about bees in order to discover how a swarm of bees would know that their queen is locked in a car.

A TV News Show about Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

This video was created by three third graders at Academy School.

Kindergarten Engineering: Using Pushes and Pulls to Rescue My Dad's Favorite Hat

The kindergarteners in all three classes have been learning about pushes and pulls. They used that learning to come up with some ideas for how to rescue a hat from the middle of a buffalo pen without going into the pen. First they planned their strategy with some drawings. Here they are in the woods testing out their ideas.

1st Grade Engineering: Building a Defense for a Food Supply

The first graders learned how plants and animals use spikes and spines, armor and shells, and camouflage to protect themselves. They used that knowledge to design and build models for protecting a food supply that could be left outside in the woods. Here are several of their models and some action shots of them building them.

Pollinator Pins Update

The second graders had a great time selling pins at the Farmers' Market. They sold the rest of the pins at Academy School over the last few days. We raised over $250 dollars to buy flowering plants for our school garden!!!!

These kids are busy planting a butterfly bush. We can't wait to see how much the butterflies and other pollinators like the new plants.

2nd Graders Want to Help Pollinators

The second graders have learned all about pollinators and how bee populations are declining. They wanted to help by planting flowering perennials in our school garden. To raise money to buy the plants, they made pins to sell at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market. Here's their commercial:

Rockets with 1st Graders (plus one kindergartener)

These students are studying rockets. They measured the hallway to see whether an actual rocket would fit. They made straw rockets and collected data on how far they could go. They wrote the directions for how to make the rockets. And then they celebrated by shooting their rockets straight up into the air.

The Engineering Design Process as Illustrated by 4th Graders