On a cool autumn morning, a bus full of K-8 School Around Us students and their three teachers arrived at The New School ready to work together on collaborative science explorations. 
Evan Dewdney was already stoking the fire in our brick oven, generously built for the school as a senior project a few years back. The goal of the day was to foster connection between the sister schools and create nurturing peer mentorships.
Each TNS student was paired with an SAU student based on interests and ages. After an initial meeting to talk about the day, each pair rushed to the white board to sign up for desired activities. In addition to pizza (and in the afternoon, dessert) cooking, options included egg drop and rocket ship construction, children’s story writing, batiking, board gaming, and nature weaving. 
The smell of pizza permeated the school all morning. The pizza crew, supported by Ally, was busy pressing dough, spreading toppings, and providing some intermittent photo ops.
In the Wentworth Discovery Room, Christine and students made their softest egg-drop contraptions and 
designed ways to use mouse traps to extinguish candles. This adventure provided lots of creative problem solving experience!
Evan supplied an array of children’s stories for inspiration, while his group imagined and wrote their own story complete with pictures.
Marylyn’s group created nature weavings, first by running ropes between two trees, and then weaving in a variety of objects picked right from the school’s back yard.
Amy and Rae-A supported the group working on batik flags, each student doing their own drawing.
The game group worked independently and was self-directed. Some engaged in competitive bananagrams, while others concentrated on their next move in chess.
For more pictures of this amazing day, visit our flickr album here.
