My City School - Blog

Teaching Math - Remotely!

12/15/2020

Like other educational facilities, MCS made a hard turn this year from teaching in person to teaching online. This was a big challenge for all subjects, but Math was particularly challenging, considering our usual hands on approach. However, we quickly found that though switching to a virtual world created some initial challenges in math class, it actually had a lot of potential to make our class even stronger with their math skills!

When we approached remote learning for Math, we knew immediately that we wanted our students to still have a hands-on approach if at all possible. We sent manipulatives home for each student so they could have their own set to work with at home. We also used some online virtual manipulatives to create a more interactive experience between teachers and students. Over the summer, we discovered a treasure trove of activities on Desmos and Geogebra that closely align with our philosophy of inquiry and exploration. In addition, we have been able to create physical packets of work that our students can work directly on, so that they are not losing ground on content, but they are also pushing their technology skills forward and have grown so much.

Rather than flipping back and forth between the physical and virtual worlds, we have created a truly blended model that leverages the best of both worlds and ensures that our students are learning deeply and making connections between the physical, visual, and mathematical worlds.

The History of Zen

12/8/2020

This Time, it's History! We've been working on our Medieval Japan unit in Social Studies, and have been zoning in on the practice of Zen. Here, we have looked at the geography of Japan and the indigenous religion of Shintoism, and how that influenced Zen Buddhism. The students will be constructing their own personal Zen Gardens made out of popsicle sticks and sand. We are excited to see these finished projects, and get a chance to get our hands a little dirty! We're also playing a quick-paced game during class that involves reading, recall, and attention to learn content for this unit. Being able to build at home really helps make this learning come to life!

Making Molecules at Home!

10/6/2020

What makes Science even better? Making it edible! This week, our students learned the intricacies of molecules digging in hands-on, and building their own molecules out of gumdrops and toothpicks. Using an explicit labeling system, we color-coded our candy to match different elements, and took those elements to the next phase to create our molecules. Students even used a variety of toothpicks to represent stronger bonds between elements! Try using edible elements with your child at home to remember chemistry - it's a treat!

Interactive Language Arts - Digital Edition!

9/15/2020

Adventures in Remote Teaching continue! This past week, we worked on our visualizing and descriptive vocabulary by describing concrete images to our partners in small groups. Each student envisioned a tree, and drew a picture of what they saw in their minds. We then compared our images, noting the similarities and differences, and added description words to try to make our trees match.

By focusing on Visual Vocabulary, we enable students to get ready for their Descriptive Writing Projects, strengthen vocabulary, and identify how each student processes and holds information. This also focuses the importance of our language and how they help us create images in people's minds. Words are power, and they help us put someone right in the middle of the world we recreate, the event we describe, or even a fun thing we did over the weekend. Not to mention, words are lot of fun!

Science Matters - Studying Matter and Density at Home

9/8/2020

This week at MCS, we jumped in feet first to study the makeup of all things in our world - Matter! Everything in our world is made of matter, and it takes on many different forms, densities, and weights. Through hands-on experiments at home, students were able to observe how density of some objects can change if subjected to different environments, even if it's matter does not.

Students blew up balloons to help illustrate how even air has density, even though we can't see it. By comparing a blown up balloon in a bucket of water to a flat balloon, we noticed that the air inside changed the buoyancy of the balloon, and therefore its density. Similarly, when we placed a blown up balloon in a freezer, we saw it change shape as the air inside cooled down - again changing its density. Who knew studying air could be such a gas?!

Try doing some science experiments like this at home and see what you discover!

Remote Learning, the Hands-on Way!

3/20/2020

Just because we're stuck inside doesn't mean learning has to stop! MCS students are doing an awesome job learning remotely through Zoom classes during the shelter in place order. We're even keeping up our hands-on learning practices by building watershed models for Science at home!

If you're looking for some learning activities to do with your child at home, check out our FREE lessons for remote learning! They're complete with hands-on activities and directions to make at home learning fun :)

We hope all the schools out there are finding ways to communicate with their students and keep learning going! Together, we can do it!

Awesome Anatomy at SJ Tech!

3/5/2020

Ever wonder how our hearts works? Or how our muscles and bones support our weight? We did too, and this week we were lucky enough to see the body explained at the incredible Body Works exhibit in San Jose! Students are investigating different systems of the body for a class project, so it was awesome to see how they work first hand (outside of how we experience them every day, of course!) Did you know that our Circulatory System can circle the globe twice? That's pretty amazing :)

Students also got to experience some hands-on engineering by building robots using circuit boxes, and Giant Tinker Toys to help design a catapult. By experiencing Science this way, we got to see how robotics and engineering works in practice, and actually build machines the way professionals in the industry do! Keep your students' minds moving, and build a machine at home today! There's no limit to what you can make!

Getting Active with Algebra

2/27/2020

Time for math! For the past few weeks, students have been diving head first into algebra on all levels, and have been doing so well developing new concepts. At MCS, we love breaking math into parts, and building the problem first so we can make the bridge into symbolic thinking. Students get to create a visual representation of the math, using categorizing and executive functioning skills to organize like terms. By learning this way, students can explore different approaches to math, and decide which way helps them the best. Some students even walk away loving math! It's awesome!

Science Fair Champions Once Again!

2/27/2020

It's happened again! Once again, it's time for Science Fair for our students to dive into the Scientific Process! Our integrated STEAM curriculum lets our students get into detail with collecting data and building graphs in Math, working on our Scientific Writing in Language Arts, and presentation and composition in Art. Through all their hard work and studies, our students were able to place in 2nd and 3rd, out of over 100 entries, in the San Francisco Science Fair this year!

This year, one of our featured students chose to focus her project around the effects of sugar on the human brain. She conducted research by survey, inviting test subjects to participate in the No Sugar Challenge for a week. After analyzing her data and comparing results, she found that out of her sample, most test subjects reported feeling overall less foggy and more focused after not consuming sugar for a week! Congrats to her, and all our students for all their incredible hard work on their projects - You guys are amazing!

The Magic of Cells - Adventures in Science

2/14/2020

The cells in our bodies do amazing things! They run our organs, repair skin, and keep us healthy as we grow. This week, we got to investigate the workings of our own cells and the scientific makeup of human beings at the Exploratorium.

It's not enough to just read about what's going on microscopically inside us; you've got to see it in action to really witness the magic. We saw our skin up close, got to study the differences between our facial structures, and even saw cells in a living heart! Students also noted different skin types and the bacteria found there (gross, yes. Interesting? Definitely!)

Our cells are impressive, but the way our senses help us understand the world around us is also incredible. Students dove into exhibits about perception, sound, and the physics of color and light to discover how our brains make sense of the world! So amazing to see the incredible machine that is the human body at work!