Alpha

K/1st: Week of 9/9

A lovey can be a pumpkin! This week in Our Big Backyard… When your friends and family ask what you did at school all week you can honestly tell them you played in the dirt. Boy, did we EVER! Alphas LOVED seeing where all our friends live around Austin (and beyond). This place we live supports life of many people and creatures. We have a big river that gives us water, we have plenty of sunlight, and air so we wanted to explore the world below our feet that provided people with everything they needed to eat and use for […]

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Kindergarten student looks with magnifying glass at project based school.

K/1st: Week of 9/2

This week in Our Big Backyard… This week we expanded the circle of our community from Hyde Park to ALL of the neighborhoods in the Austin area. We explored maps that cartographers made to see where we all live. We all drew a portrait of our homes. Then we considered…what do neighbors do for one another? Some of our ideas and experiences are that neighbors help, protect and have barbecues. We thought about all of the jobs and helpers in our community…firefighters, trash collectors, police officers, mail carriers, doctors, nurses, teachers, bus drivers, etc. Then we made our Peeps! A

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Kindergarten girl reads in front of class at school with small classes.

K/1st: Week of 8/26

This week in Alpha… We’d like to send a big THANKS and deep bow of gratitude to Michelle, Sarah(and Roonie), Megan, and Katie(and Noodle), who were able to help us last-minute on our Hyde Park walk- and to Louise for hanging our beautiful self-portraits in the hallway! Doing our jobs is important! Calling out Choosing Stones for morning snack Our Big Backyard takes us to…Hyde Park! Last year we learned all about what was inside our bodies, and what each system needed in terms of care and feeding in order to stay healthy. Where people live is important to our

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Kindergarten girl chooses object out of basket at private school in Austin.

K/1st: Week of 8/19

This week in Alpha… Pickles gets a kiss from a new friend! Welcome to Alpha’s 2024-2025 Year! What a whirlwind of a week! Our first week is a blur of procedures and routines but through it all we are getting to know each other, getting to know our space, and getting to know how we want to make our room the best room it can be. We learned how important listening is when we are all together in a big group – we played “Guess the Leader!” We also had a very inspiring discussion about how people can hurt bodies

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Four elementary children sit at a table painting

K/1st: Week of 5/6

What a beautiful way to begin Teacher Appreciation Week! Thank You, Alphas! Around the World in 60 Days… This week we traveled to the “land down under!” Alphas learned that Australia is not only a continent, it is a country! It is also an island. We mapped its climatic features and figured that water might be a very important resource for people living there, because so much of the continent is desert. Alphas already knew some special creatures that call Australia “home,” but we learned why Australia is home to SO many unusual ones! It turns out that back when

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Kindergarten students work on projects at STEM school.