what we've been up to so far in September

We have had a great start to our first semester so far. Continue below to see pictures and hear about what we've been up to on Tuesdays at the Hudson Area Library and on Wednesday at Kite's Nest. Our great singing teacher, Shelly Ley,, has a blog of articles and links to accompany our Great Depression theme this semester... read on!

With Shelly Ley, we've learned jazz and folk songs of the 1930s. Shelly sings, plays guitar and shows us original film clips that really give us a taste of the music of the era, and what great music it is.

Check out the blog the kids are doing with Shelly.

Rachel King is doing a fantastic job with the programming club at the Hudson Area Library at 4 PM on Tuesdays. Emily Chameides has gone the extra mile getting Marmalade up and running on the library's computers. Here they are at work:

Here is the class I (Will) teach at the same time, Islands of the Imagination (also on Tuesday at 4 PM):

Meanwhile on Wednesday at 10 AM Larissa's been doing great stuff with the Great Depression. We saw Modern Times (Charlie Chaplain), we did a game showing how the stock market crash happened, we played family feud with Henry Ford facts, we tested how much time we could save by making sushi on an assembly line versus each craftman making their own sushi roll. 

In the history of math, we found out what numbers our names would be in Greek, thought about how Pythogoras knew the square root of two was irrational, played an estimation game, and did many function machine games. 

Our Tuesday classes meet at the Hudson Area library, 4-5:30, and include Islands of the Imagination, a writing and mapping class; and a Coding Club. Both these Tuesday classes are free, and for ages 5-11, and 12-16. We are thrilled about this collaboration with the library, and pleased that Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation has enable us to provide the program for free. 

Our Wednesday classes meet at Kites Nest in Hudson, with drop off between 10-11, and classes running from 11-2:30. These are academic-themed classes with hands-on explorations and activities, and are offered on a daily fee basis ($12 per class, or $20/all-day). 

Currently this class is mostly 13-15-year olds, but 8 and up is welcome. Email us with any questions, or look at our blog for more details. 

Wednesday Class Schedule: 11-12 Music History - Songs of the Great Depression, from Blind Willie Johnson to George Gershwin 12- 12:30 Lunch 12:30-1:30 Social Studies/ELA - The Great Depression. Using activities, reading and films to study the 1930's. 1:30-2:30 History of Math. Hands-on exploration of different systems used to organize the world in numbers. 

Join us!