On Saturday April 18, 2015, Teresa’s Project Based Learning Class hosted a toy and book sale in the Common Room of Unity. We collected toy and book donations for a few weeks. We priced and organized the toys and books for a few days and by Friday we were ready to go! It was a very successful day and we made over $550 for middle school class trips. We would like to thank all the people who donated and the people and teachers who came to support us at the sale.

On Thursday, March 26, 2015, the Unity Charter School Middle School took a tour of Lincoln Center and saw a slam poetry performance. Mike, Amanda, Teresa, Deb (who was subbing for Karen), Sandy, Sandra, Marie and Joeleen were the chaperones. The students were given a tour of Lincoln first before seeing the performance. We toured The Metropolitan Opera house and some students even got to see them rehearse! The tour then moved to the building where the New York Symphony plays and then to the building where the New York City Ballet performs. Fun fact: the opening scene of West Side Story was filmed on the spot where Lincoln Center now sits!

The students then saw a slam poetry performance by Slam 103: Historical Remix. There were three performers who spoke about everyone from Cleopatra to Albert Einstein. The students were then challenged to make their own poetry and come up to speak. Two of our students spoke their poetry before the audience!

Overall, the students had a great time exploring Lincoln Center and learning about slam poetry! Thank you Karen for setting up this trip!!

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The Kindergarten and K/1 Learning Groups (Monica and Meghan) teamed up with Marie’s 7/8 for a BeeBot coding adventure! Marie’s class was given certain BeeBot facts, such as it travels 15mm with each forward/backward command and right/left turns are 90 degrees. Using this knowledge and online graph paper, they designed a grid or maze requiring up to 40 commands for the BeeBot to navigate through.

The 7/8 Graders took their design and drew it out on a 36 in. X 48 in. cardboard and added a maze theme with illustrations. Volcanoes, pets, and sports were some of the chosen themes. The 7/8 Graders also needed to make command cards for each step the K and K/1 classes had to program. On game day, students moved from maze to maze manned by the 7/8 creators, seeing if they could successfully program the BeeBots to reach the end of the maze. The students really worked together to make this a fun learning project!

In February, the fifth grade took a trip to The Seeing Eye. The Seeing Eye is the oldest guide dog school in the entire world! The students learned about the history of the facility. More specifically, the life story of Frank Morris and how he overcame the life obstacle of being blind in 1928 with his guide dog, Buddy. The story of Frank Morris serves as an inspiration for all by demonstrating that we can overcome life obstacles. The fifth grade learned about how the facility has trained 16,000 guide dogs that have served over 800 individuals who are blind.

A few months ago, the entire Unity Community raised money for The Seeing Eye through fundraising event, Pennies For Puppies. The fifth grade took great honor in making the donation on the behalf of the Unity Community! Thank you for everyone who was involved especially Megan Higgins and Stephanie Litwin who led Pennies For Puppies!

On Wednesday, February 18th, Jaida’s mom, Leanne, came in to lead the African Wild Dogs in a Celebration of Chinese New Year! We began with a wonderful PowerPoint Slideshow full of interesting facts and pictures where we learned the customs, traditions, and legends regarding Chinese New Year! Did you know that according to legend, Chinese New Year began as a way to scare off the evil demon, Nian? Citizens of China used whatever they could to create bright lights and loud noises to frighten Nian and keep him up in the mountains and away from their villages, which is why fireworks are so popular during this holiday!

Next, we learned that it is now the Year of the Sheep, and we then spent a few moments calculating the Animals of our Birth Years:

• Jan 29, 2006 – Feb 17, 2007: Year of the Dog

• Feb 18, 2007 – Feb 6, 2008: Year of the Pig

• Feb 7, 2008 – Jan 25, 2009: Year of the Rat

After we learned about Chinese New Year traditions, we then went off to our tables to transform old scrapbook paper into beautiful lanterns to keep away evil Nian!

Finally, we shared a traditional Chinese New Year citrus snack followed by a kind gift from Jaida and Leanne of a beautiful red envelope! Red envelopes (which are sometimes filled with money) are a customary gift that is given on this Holiday. Red represents good wishes for a lucky and Happy New Year!

Thanks again to Jaida and Leanne for making this such a wonderful opportunity for cultural awareness and appreciation!

Happy Chinese New Year!

From,

The African Wild Dogs

About the Author

Kimbelry McCurnin is the lead 1/2 Grade Teacher at Unity Charter School. She graduated with high honors from Boston University with a degree in Early Childhood Education. She began her teaching career here at Unity working alongside Jennifer Carcich as her teacher’s assistant from 2011-2012. Kimberly is thrilled to rejoin this special, close-knit commUnity and honored to be part of such a talented, passionate staff. In her spare time, Kimberly enjoys attending yoga classes and taking advantage of the wonderful culture and arts that New York City has to offer.