Saving The Animals Project

16th May 2023Website Admin

In this Project, Year 8 were tasked with answering the big question, ‘How can we increase awareness about animal cruelty?’ This involved them conducting extensive research into the mistreatment of animals and presenting their findings at a symposium on animal cruelty for their peers.

As part of the project the students also developed their graphic design skills on Canva, visited Champions Wharf Play Beach and read extracts from Animal Farm.

Teacher’s Reflections

  • Students were fully captivated by the topic and excited to expand on their knowledge.
  • I am so proud of what Gevurah has accomplished with their analysis of Animal Farm.

Students’ Reflections

I thought the project was very good because the big question is very important to the world.

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Journeys Project

16th May 2023Website Admin

In this project, Years 3 and 4 worked on an extended project which explored the themes of journeys. This involved them studying the exhibitions of famous explorers like Ernest Shackleton and journeys to Ancient Egypt.

The students also completed their own ‘sponsored journey’ from the old site of Gesher in Kilburn to our new site in Pinner, for which they were tasked with using as many different types of public transport as possible.

Teacher’s Reflections

  • The students were able to acquire an extensive knowledge about Egypt, including what the country is like now and how that differs from how it was in the past.
  • The project was well-rounded and covered various curriculum areas such as geography, history, art and music.

Students’ Reflections

My favourite part of the project was the transport museum

I learnt how to wrap a Mummy with linen

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Graffiti Project

16th May 2023Website Admin

In the project, Year 7 focused on exploring different types of diversity and the promotion of inclusion within our community. Each student was tasked with designing and creating their own friendship bench, which they presented to the school.

To help ensure the benches accurately represented the messages they want to share, the students carefully critiqued and refined their designs. They also created original pieces of poetry that celebrate diversity.

Teacher’s Reflections

  • Creative expression was a great way to develop imagination, problem-solving skills and confidence
  • In terms of improving the project for next time, setting clear deadlines for different parts of the project is a good idea

Students’ Reflections

I really enjoyed painting the mural, it was really colourful and fun to paint!

I liked making the Eiffel Tower in Life Skills and I liked shaping the chicken wire.

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How Can People Help Minibeasts Project

16th May 2023Website Admin

In Spring Two, Zayit Class worked on an exciting project linked to their topic of ‘Minibeasts’, They focused on improving their knowledge of scientific vocabulary, how minibeasts are important to the environment and how people can help to protect them.

The main focus on their project was to develop their art and design skills by designing and making minibeast hotels. Through this task the students also worked on giving and receiving feedback about their designs.

The exhibition for the project involved Gesher’s Senior Leadership Team cutting the ribbon as part of the grand opening of the hotels.

Teacher’s Reflections

  • Engaging with all children involved the different learning and play opportunities
  • Rewarding to see all the children make great progress towards their communication targets
  • Challenging to build the minibeast hotels, however with a lot of teamwork and encouragement the children made great progress

Students’ Reflections

My highlight of the project was going to the environment centre.

The project was fun and I learnt how to make a minibeast hotel

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Natural Disasters Project

1st May 2023Website Admin

In this project, Years 5 and 6 explored the different types of natural disasters and how communities can protect themselves when they occur.

They also made their own safety documentaries to raise awareness of natural disasters. These were accompanied by stop-animation effects, posters and survival kits.

The students also created their own ‘mini-worlds’ for the final exhibition to further demonstrate the impact that natural disasters can have on communities.

Teacher’s Reflections

  • I felt we covered a huge amount of detail when exploring each natural disaster due to the longer nature of the project
  • At times it was challenging to find external visitors to talk about their experience and I would have liked to expand our reach further into the local community

Students’ Reflections

My highlight of the project was going to the Natural History Museum

The project taught me that the weakest part of the hurricane is the middle

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Why Should We Celebrate Diversity Project

4th March 2023Website Admin

In this project, Year 8 learned about the importance of diversity and then applied this knowledge to create their own comic books about discrimination. Students developed their characters and storyline in English lessons and used their Art lessons to explore different comic book styles.

Once the comic books were finished they had their very own book signing where they sold signed copies of their brand-new comic books to parents, teachers and fellow students.

As part of the project, the students also visited Watford Football Club to find out more about how discrimination can effect professional sport.

Teachers’s Reflections

  • This was a meaningful project for our students and their awareness of discrimination and diversity broadened enormously.
  • Next time, it would be good to explore other software options and some of the students found the app we used to be a bit limiting.

Students’ Reflections

This project taught me that it is good that we are all different and we should still treat everyone in a good way.

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Humane Society of Palouse

15th December 2022Website Admin
Editor’s Note: This project was the project mentioned in Ron Berger’s Interview.
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The fourth-grade crew at Palouse Prairie Charter School hosted an evening of art, poetry, and inspiration to benefit the Humane Society of the Palouse (HSOP). At this Celebration of Learning, students presented their final product for the EL Education curriculum “Poetry, Poets, and Becoming Writers” (ELA, Grade 4, Module1). For this module, students read Sharon Creech’s free verse novel Love That Dog and studied the art of poetry along with Jack, the main character who is inspired to write poetry about the dog that he adopts from an animal shelter. As a crew, they were inspired to “adopt” animals from their local Humane Society, make coloured pencil sketches of them, and write poems in their voices to inspire others to adopt animals.

Students engaged in fieldwork at the HSOP to learn about the organisation’s mission, meet all of the animals in need of adoption, choose an animal to “adopt” for their project, and hear stories about the animals’ lives to inspire their work. Several experts helped students study and practice the arts of poetic writing, coloured pencil sketching, and poetic reading. Experts helped students develop a poetry and artist’s toolbox, both of which we turned into co-created criteria lists for high-quality work. This work clearly reflects students’ attention to craftsmanship and responsibility for their learning.

At the fundraising event, students read their poems, displayed their art, and sold posters and greeting cards showcasing their work. The crew raised $942 for the Humane Society of the Palouse and was awarded a “Humane Society Hero Award” for their extraordinary work of service and compassion to promote our local organisation and inspire the adoption of animals who dearly need a home.

Teacher Reflection

  • Beautiful high-quality drawings that draw the reader in
  • Shows a project that could be replicated at different grade levels in both rural and urban settings
  • Inspirational model of a project that involves service work
  • Excellent idea for a fundraiser for a nonprofit organisation.
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Here Now, Gone Tomorrow

15th December 2022Website Admin
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
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As a collaborative project between the Chula Vista and North County campuses, students created and published a children’s book detailing their chosen endangered species challenged with the impacts of climate change. Students created a watercolor illustration of their endangered species which was included in the children’s book. Our created children’s book is now being used to help educate other students and the public, on how human impact has become problematic for our wildlife. This project was aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.

Teacher Reflection

This was such an impactful project dealing with a very important issue, not only in our country, but worldwide. Students were able to be scientists, researchers, artists all in one through this project. To have the students create their own learning around this issue by exploring this phenomena really allowed for them to want to become activists. Also, the cross-school collaboration allowed for our schools to come together. We feel literacy is very important and we wanted to find a fun way to incorporate it in a math and science classroom. We saw students step out of their comfort zone, and we teachers did too. We had no experience using watercolors, and it was great learning experience, which we shared with our students.

Student Reflection

I feel good about helping the earth, because now I know ways to save the environment in the future.

—Rishi

I didn’t know I could paint. My animal looks really cool!

—Leo

The best part was seeing my book on a website. People can buy it and my name is there.

—Illeana

To see or purchase the book, visit http://www.blurb.com/b/7640975-here-now-gone-tomorrow

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Toy Story

15th December 2022Website Admin
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
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In the Toy Story project, second graders explored the essential question, “What is the magic of toys?” To investigate this idea deeply, our students visited a local preschool and became buddies with these young children. They surveyed their new friends to learn about the types of toys they like, their favorite colors, favorite characters and so much more. After finding trends in the data collected, the students used this information to design the perfect toy for their preschool buddy. After many drafts, critiques, revisions and prototypes the students took their designs to MakerPlace (a DIY workshop in San Diego) in order to professionally create the toys. Students also studied story elements by reading a variety of stories that have a toy as the main character. They incorporated the elements they learned into a story about the toy they created for the preschooler. And then they learned the writing process in order to publish their story in a board book for their buddies. Finally, our second graders returned to the preschool to give both the toy and the book to the preschoolers.

Teacher Reflection

When designing this project, it was important for us to have a product that was minds on, hands on, and hearts on. Since every second grader loves toys we thought that would be the perfect fit. This project felt like a great blend of allowing the students to have choice and be creative while learning many essential math, reading, and writing skills. Throughout the project, we wondered if our students would be upset to give away a toy and story they had worked so hard on but we were pleasantly surprised at their eagerness to give a gift to another child. We felt like the authentic audience in the project was also another driving force in its success.

Student Reflection

“The magic of toys is they can come to life. They encourage kids. They’re adventurous. They help kids imagine.”

—Joshua

“The magic of toys is that they have feelings too. They can talk!”

—Zuri

To learn more visit:

http://jsteffan9.wix.com/digitalportfolio#!toy-story/c5ic

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Come Play With Us

15th December 2022Website Admin
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
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High Tech Elementary Explorer had a run-down grassy area as a part of its playground, and a real shortage of options for creative outdoor play. Patricia Lim and Stacey Stevenson decided to create an inquiry-based project about the nature of play, in the hopes it could ultimately transform the underused space into a nature playground.

They began their project by asking some open-ended questions: Why do children like to play? How do they like to play? What allows children to be creative, to pretend, to build, to be active?

Stacey and Patricia launched the project with a trip to a nature playground, where their classes played for hours and also reflected on how they played, and how the materials they encountered encouraged them to play. In the following days, when they were back at school, they observed other students playing. Finally, based on their observations and field work, they began a process of re-designing the run-down play area. Children made sketches of their ideas, and gave and received critique from classmates as well as older students and adults in the school. They voted on final ideas for various areas of the playground, which ultimately included a sand house for pretend play, sticks and rocks for building, stumps for balancing, a water wall, a music/sound wall; and a giant tire for climbing.

The final weeks of the project were spent building. Each group also created safety rules for each play area, and wrote how-to books to teach other children how to use the new play area.

Project Learning Goals

This project met many standards for kindergarten learning, including counting; measuring; data collection; observation; reflection; persuasive speaking; drawing a model of a proposed solution; giving and receiving critique; and writing informational how-to manuals. Social and emotional learning goals included collaboration; negotiating over final products; analysing what makes playtime fun; and understanding and creating rules for play spaces.

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