Coming to You Live!
Coming to you live from Keys School! Our fourth graders are stepping into the roles of news correspondents today, “on the scene” of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. This project connects what our students are learning in their Earth Sciences unit, specifically about plate tectonics, with their ongoing studies of California history. Our fourth graders…
How does it make you feel?
Today the worlds of Music and Art came together for our fourth graders as they dove into the realm of abstract expressionist paintings. In this unit, students learned of a famous Russian artist, Viktor-Edouard Hartmann, who was friends with many musicians, including composer Modest Mussorgsky, during the 1860s. Inspired by Viktor’s great art, Modest created…
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power
This year in Social Studies, our eighth graders are exploring the “evolution” of the U.S. justice system, from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitutional Convention to the Bill of Rights to the Civil Rights Movement, as well as contemporary legal issues. Recently, students are researching the impact of a specific Civil Rights foot soldier…
Ice-Skating: A Beloved Tradition
We value the importance of movement and physical exercise at Keys, and ice-skating is so much more than a unit in our Physical Education program. Ice-skating is a cherished tradition at our school. Our relationship with Winter Lodge, our local ice-skating rink, formed way back in the early days of Keys and has remained strong…
Stone Soup
Our first graders recently worked together to cook up two large, delicious pots of stone soup! This activity follows their Social Studies unit on food, during which time students explored how food is a window to one’s identity and ways in which food can bring people together, like in the book “Stone Soup”. Through these…
Be a 4th Grade Mathematician Day!
Recently, our fourth grade families got to experience what it is like to be a fourth grade mathematician at Keys School! Family members joined their fourth grade students as they played concept-teaching games, explored big ideas in mathematics, and even tackled a few challenges in what we call “rotation stations.” This was a chance for…
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day our eighth grade students recited Dr. King’s famous speech “I Have a Dream” to our entire middle school.
Dive in and Discover: Student Choice
We know that student choice builds ownership of and investment in learning. Dive in and Discover week provides students with dedicated time to explore a topic that is of interest to them, personally.
Dive in and Discover: Design Thinking
A guest visitor to our “Under Construction” Dive in and Discover group shared with students about how his company constructs real furniture from cardboard. Students learned about the properties of cardboard and utilized Design Thinking to empathize, imagine, create, and iterate in making their own rocket ships and backpacks to take to Mars.
Dive in and Discover: Multiage Learning Groups
Dive in and Discover week gives our Lower School students the opportunity to work in mixed-age learning groups with students and teachers they don’t frequently interact with. In mixed-age groups, the dynamics between older and younger students fosters interdependence through collaboration and independence in older students who become leaders and mentors for the younger students.…