Marybeth & R.J.’s Class Notes

For the last month we have been busy building our knowledge of whales and whaling through a series of local excursions and workshops with specialists in science and history. We have visited graveyards, museums, and historical sites and are ready to round out our understanding with some book research. In keeping with our tradition of students as mentors, our research teams have been responsible for the teaching and exchange of in-formation with their classmates.

We will spend the next month working toward the goal of publishing a class magazine on our subject. To that end, the children have been exploring magazines and journals for the purpose of identifying their attributes, and are thinking about what they would like to contribute to our publication. Some children have already identi- fied their topic and angle, while others are still narrowing down their specific area of interest. The magazine will include features on local history, indigenous practices, specific artifacts of whaling, and on commonly asked questions about whales themselves. For example, are killer whales really killers? Although our focus has been primarily on the past, we are also discussing present day, environmental impacts on the whale population.

The class recently participated in a “history mystery” where they explored images of etchings found on the walls of Sylvester Manor. This activity invited them to think like historians as they analyzed an artifact in order to inscribe meaning to it. The activity called upon many critical thinking skills such as observation,
evaluation and synthesis.

While a research team made up of some of the elders was at Sylvester manor, the rest of the class measured out the dimensions of the blue whale, which spanned the length of 16 students and 3 adults, head to foot!

On Friday we welcomed parent Zuzanna von Salm, who ran a wonderful workshop on crystals. Thank you Zuzanna!

The date for our end-of-year class dinner has been set for June 5th. Please be sure to save the date. —May 2, 2025