Notes from the Field

Storytelling through song.

Walter (Sicanni) Purizaca joined us at our weekly all school meeting this morning to show us how stories are told through music in his culture. Using handmade flutes and drum, Sicanni, a Native American from Peru, played a "storm is coming" song for PCS students. Sicannni also played the Flight of the Condor -- drawing in students' study of the condor from Spanish class with Miss Sonia -- and he spoke (in both English and Spanish) with the children about the spirituality of music in Peru, the way that the flute's sound travels over the geography of Peru, and his own travels around the globe.

Volume 2 Issue 2

Volume 2 Issue 2 of the PCS Post was published this Wednesday by the Upper Primary editorial board. Upper Primary students plan content, assign articles, write, edit, raise funds and produce the PCS Post.

After a reflection on their successes and challenges from this second issue, UP students are submitting feature proposals for the next issue: a subject-specific Special Edition. Stay tuned.

Early Childhood students are making babies!

The focus for Early Childhood during the “Telling Our Stories” is on students’ own earliest childhoods — the kids are working with facilitators and family to understand and tell the stories of their infancy.

This week the student nursery started filling up as students began making babies from rice that correspond to their own birth weights!

A Collaboration

In a Peconic Community School first, we hosted a neighboring school for an art collaboration! First, second, third and fourth graders from Oysterponds Elementary School in Orient visited our Lower and Middle Primary classes to work with Anna Fris and Agathe Snow, as well as Oysterponds teachers, to construct creatures from recycled materials. It was a bustling afternoon of creativity, collaboration and community with an environmentally conscious message.

And, also:

Continued work in Lower Primary on their family tree books; coins; fractions; multiplication; immigration narratives in Middle Primary; family homes in Kindergarten; more primary source research by Upper Primary; and clearly awe-inspiring guitar with Mr. Don in Early Childhood.