The Nueva School Login (opens in new window/tab) Calendar Search Admissions Racial Equity & Accountability Support Nueva Alumni Icon MENU Home / About / News & Events / Nueva News All News Photo Walk Series: Rainy Mornings in the Lower School Jim Morrison, director of student outreach & special projects Nov 2 2021 Our new Photo Walk Series aims to provide the community with a snapshot in time—a celebration of work being done across grade levels, content areas, and divisions. On two cozy rainy mornings, students in the lower school were hard at work building, participating in reading groups, reflecting on their identity and experiences, and preparing for the busy days ahead of them. The Name Poster Project To kick off a new project, students in Emily Mitchell’s first grade gathered to read The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi as a class. The Name Poster Project will have each student exploring the history and meaning of their full name. Their work will highlight the central themes of identity, community, research, and connection which run throughout the first grade curriculum. Second Grade SEL Lisa Hinshelwood worked with her second grade SEL class on an identity unit focused on listening and perspective-taking. The students individually chose from and responded to a variety of universal, shared characteristics such as “I am the oldest sibling,” “I speak more than one language at home,” or “I have a grandparent who lives far away" by sharing something positive or negative about each characteristic. Students then met in groups to discuss their reflections and hear other perspectives of a shared reality. Reflecting on the activity on her blog, Lisa wrote, “Understanding how others feel and understanding their perspectives builds a strong community and allows us to help each other. When we have put ourselves in each other's shoes, we can also be change makers by helping those outside of our immediate communities as well.” Squeaky Clean Wednesday Morning for Computer Science A new squeaky clean Wednesday morning ritual: Shelby Divan and her fourth grade students do some deep cleaning of their laptops before diving in computer science. Moments later, Michelle Grau arrived from the I-Lab to lead the students in their work with Java. Teamwork in Fourth Grade “Think of a time when you needed a team of people to accomplish a task.” Teamwork was the theme for the week as fourth grade students kicked off their morning meeting with Sarah Merkt and Sam Rubin by responding to this prompt in their journals. Each week the fourth grade focuses on a theme and explores the characteristic in a unique way each day of the week. After introducing the theme on Monday, the class reads a picture book or participates in a grade-wide activity on Tuesday, reflects in their journals on Wednesday, uses Greek theater to explore the theme on Thursday, and ends the week with an examination of the theme through the lens of history or currents events. Building Structures in PreK PreK students were working on building structures with levels and experimenting with different ways to assemble structures using glue, tape, and gravity. Meanwhile, another group of PreK students plays checkers with lead teacher, David Robinson. “If you are working as a team," David said, "you should check in with each other about whether you want to take turns or talk about your team’s next move together.” Snack Time First grade students had a quiet and efficient snack before heading off to their next adventure. “I don’t care if my bottom gets wet, I am going to sit on the grass and relax,” said one hungry first grader. LOWER SCHOOL NEWS MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS UPPER SCHOOL NEWS CAMPUS NEWS ALUMNI NEWS ATHLETICS NEWS VOICES Read More Halloween at Nueva Photo Walk Series: Rainy Mornings in the Lower School Mavericks Making Waves: September 2021 < > The Nueva School Contact Directions Calendar Donate Follow Us Facebook (opens in new window/tab) Vimeo (opens in new window/tab) Instagram (opens in new window/tab) Twitter (opens in new window/tab) LinkedIn (opens in new window/tab) Youtube (opens in new window/tab) Hillsborough Campus 6565 Skyline Blvd. Hillsborough, CA 94010 650-350-4600 San Mateo Campus 131 E. 28th Ave. San Mateo, CA 94403 650-235-7100 Site Map Powered by Finalsite