Partners in Learning

Today, representatives from two of the educational institutions that Saint David’s has partnered with, visited the school to lead intensive sessions with our boys.

This morning, James Basker, President of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, led a workshop for our sixth graders and their parents on “Why Documents Matter.” Our boys in Grade Six and, new for this year, Grade Five, will visit The Gilder Lehrman Collection of unique historical primary source documents as they study several periods in American History, including the Civil War and American Revolution.

In these units of study, boys will analyze works such as Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre, correspondence by George Washington, and Civil War letters, to uncover insights and information that can only be inferred from careful perusal of original documents. These insights will spark discussion around the "ideas and ideals” associated with the periods of history being studied, revealed through the careful critique of the original source.

In the afternoon, an educator from the New-York Historical Society began her session on the study of the Lenape tribe of early Manhattan with our second grade boys and their teachers. The boys were led in a discussion of the unique and particular resourcefulness of the Lenape. Guided by their teachers and the educator, the boys will soon create seasonal models of Lenape longhouses and wigwams.

Later in the year, boys will study New Amsterdam and examine Revolutionary era artifacts. This is the fourth year of our partnership with the N-YHS and we will be expanding the relationship to our "Mapping New York” unit in first grade, in which boys will explore and study historical maps of New York City from the N-YHS collection.

Saint David’s has increased collaborations with cultural, educational and scientific institutions such as the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the N-YHS in order to enhance and further the learning that occurs in the classroom, allowing our boys to explore a topic from a variety of perspectives and uncover deeper meaning from specialists in their respective fields.

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OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Sixth Graders Meet with Dr. Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Carter Emmart with Saint David's Sixth Graders This past Friday, as part of our unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, sixth graders had the great honor to attend a private lecture given by Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at AMNH. Dr. Emmart told the boys about his passion for science along with an overview of the history of the Hayden Planetarium. He also gave the boys advice on how to take scientific information about the universe and compile it into an interesting and captivating show for an audience. The boys were able to see Dr. Emmart's original sketches, which helped create the Uniview program they are using to develop their presentations. The session provided our boys with an opportunity to learn how art and science come together in the planetarium, and to obtain expert advice on developing their own space shows from one of the creators of Uniview . You can learn more about Dr. Emmart's work and Univie...

Surf's Up for Horizons at Saint David's

Little can top catching a wave to beat the heat on an exceptionally hot summer's day. Yesterday, as the temperatures soared into the nineties, the Horizons at Saint David's Eighth Grade class traveled to Rockaway Beach with their teachers for surf lessons with New York's premiere surf school, Locals Surf School. The boys have been taking swimming lessons through our program since their first summer with us in 2012. At that time, they were were rising first graders, and our inaugural cohort of Horizons students. Yesterday, they were ready to go, and, as these pictures show, they had a blast while learning a new skill. This is the eighth year of Horizons at Saint David's, a six-week multi-faceted academic and cultural summer experience whose mission is to prevent summer slide in elementary school boys from low-income families. We began the program in conjunction with Saint David's 60th anniversary in 2011, as one way that Saint David's as an ins...

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