"We prepare students to engage in the world that is and to help bring about a world that ought to be."
Lower School Projects Honor Quaker Testimonies & Adapt To Safety Protocols
Grade 1 students are currently immersed in projects that have a unique interconnectivity between classes, connect with the School’s annual theme of “Taking Care,” and honor the Quaker testimony of community. Though teachers and students have had to adapt their strategies and studies due to Covid-19, teachers have successfully pivoted and found safe in-person strategies married with digital solutions to create and distribute work.
As part of the Post Office project, students in Jennifer’s and Emma's class are learning about the U.S. Postal Service through different activities in the classroom including a thorough stamp study. Ben Frisch, Chris Cincotta, and Linda Chu also shared their stamp collections with students. This year the class is featuring staff from behind the scenes at the School that help keep Friends running smoothly during the pandemic. Students are currently in the interview process with several individuals from Bo and Beko to Alyson and Laura. They will then design a commemorative stamp for each person and write a summary of their work. The stamps will be used in a Pen Pal Project that the first grade will be conducting in the future and will also be displayed in the school building. Although students will not be able to deliver their letters personally this year, teachers have crafted a digital solution on Seesaw, which will be shared in the coming weeks.
The 1MS Quaker Airlines project is the culmination of their global studies work and guided by the Quaker value of community. First graders in Matt’s and Samantha’s class will soon embark on five trips to destinations around the world where they will be immersed in different foods, culture, music and languages. Before spring break, the students went on walking tours of their neighborhoods, studied the five boroughs of the city and learned about New York state before expanding the study to cover the United States and the rest of North America. Next, students created their own passports to prepare for their “travels” to destinations around the globe, including: Italy, Kenya, China, Brazil and Australia. During each trip, the students will learn about the country’s people, geography and language through books, videos and interactive activities. Throughout the study, they will gather all of their documents and travel materials to be compiled in their own personal atlas.
Students in Jaja’s and Katherine’s class are learning about influential people from New York and made some cityscape art in the styles of Faith Ringgold and James Rizzi in the Neighborhoods project. Students are currently in the midst of collecting data and surveying their neighborhood. This week they will be learning about some of NYC's most famous monuments as well as continuing to take neighborhood walks and examine their unique characteristics and culture. The class is planning to begin mapping and building their own neighborhoods later this month.
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Friends Seminary actively promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in all its programs and operations, including admissions, financial aid, hiring, and all facets of the educational experience. To form a community which strives to reflect the world’s diversity, we do not discriminate on the basis of race or color, religion, nationality, ethnicity, economic background, physical ability, sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. Friends Seminary is an equal opportunity employer.
Friends Seminary — the oldest continuously operated, coeducational school in NYC — serves college-bound day students in Kindergarten-Grade 12.
