Keys Students Dive Into an Immersive Virtual Reality Field Trip
New Delhi, India. 9:35 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. The fifteen students in Ms. Nelson’s second grade class scanned their surroundings as they described what they saw to their classmates – bustling city streets crowded with ornate monasteries, honking taxis, and energetic bazaars filled with food carts, sweet shops, and spice stalls. When it came…
Keys Fall Outdoor Education Trips Inspire Wonder, Awe, and Growth
Two weeks ago, Keys students in Grades 4-8, teachers, staff, and parent chaperones prepared their sleeping bags, hiking boots, and curious minds and departed campus to diverse outdoor learning environments around California: Point Reyes, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Yosemite Valley, and Mono Lake. While each Outdoor Education trip has its own distinct learning goals linked…
Keys School Kicks-off the 2016-2017 School Year
Keys welcomed students and families back to school this week, and the Keys School community kicked-off another year of vibrant learning and growth! It didn’t take long for students to transition from the slower, more relaxed pace of summer to the bustle and excitement of back-to-school mode. At Lower School, students and teachers have been…
Keys Student Artwork on Display in San Jose Art Gallery
Aspiring Keys School visual artists in grades K-4 currently have their work featured in a summer art exhibit in the Art Gallery at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. The gallery features new exhibits every two to three months in a variety of media created by artists of all ages. The artwork featured in the exhibit titled Bird’s Eye…
Sixth Grade Students Design, Construct, and Test Suspension Bridges
Sixth grade science students were recently challenged with designing, prototyping, and building a balsa wood and glue bridge. Their objective was to make the bridge be as light as possible, while supporting as much weight as possible. Their final products were tested and analyzed in front of a captivated audience of middle school students and parents…
Google Expeditions Pioneer Program Visited Keys Second – Eighth Grades Today
Google Expeditions is a new opportunity for schools, a product that allows teachers to take their classes on virtual field trips, immersing students in experiences that bring abstract concepts to life and giving students a deeper understanding of the world beyond the classroom. These trips are collections of virtual reality panoramas — 360° 3D photo…
Sixth Graders Build Cell Cities
Providing students with strategies to help them make sense of abstract or high-level concepts is critical to their learning process. As a means to develop a more concrete understanding of cells, sixth graders created vibrant three-dimensional cities as analogies for how cells operate. Students started by brainstorming what it takes for a city to run smoothly…
A Cinco de Mayo Celebration
Fellowship Hall was overflowing with rhythm and movement last Friday afternoon as students in Kindergarten to fourth grade formed a massive conga line that snaked in and out of the hall and had students dancing all the way to their classrooms. In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, our Lower School community welcomed special guest, Gustavo…
House Groups Design New Games
The spirit of play was alive, kicking, and on full display last Friday afternoon during a Lower School House activity. Tasked with developing a brand new, never before imagined game, the field was buzzing with Lower School students prototyping plans and refining rules. Working together in their house groups, game design required students to identify…
The First Grade Restaurant – A Culinary Learning Adventure
Small aproned chefs bustled about in the Little House kitchen each afternoon as first graders opened the doors to their restaurant, “Seventeen Students,” a project that was part of a year-long focus on communities and the interconnected systems within communities. The restaurant project kicked off with a field trip to Pieology in Palo Alto, where students…