Author Archives: Dan Raphael

Farm Trip, Day 2

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We had a busy day at the farm. The students participated in four classes, enjoyed three great meals, played with animals, wrote some poetry, and ran around. A LOT.

They look forward to seeing you tomorrow and sharing all of their stories. We look forward to seeing you in April for the farm breakfast to share our poetry and pictures. For now, please enjoy a few shots from the trip to give you a small taste of life on the farm.

Enjoying maple tea.

Red light, green light.

Harlan and Knit.

Nature walk.

Loading wood onto the tractor.

The tractor!

Best day ever!

“Quiet Time”

Night time meeting.

Weaving

Yes!

Weaving is fun.

Getting ready to make chocolate wacky cake.

Cucumbers are a good way to learn about fractions.

More red light, green light.

Teamwork.

The chickens were popular.

First Day at the Farm

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We had an eventful first day at the farm. It is hard to believe that we have only been here since this afternoon.

The students spent the day becoming reacquainted with the farm and the animals. We ended the day with a night hike to Thyme Hill, a rousing game of “Ghost in the Graveyard,” and a bonfire.

Right before bed, the students reflected on the fun times. Some students added some “beautiful language” to the discussion.

Mia – I feel like a rock just hit me and I am about to go asleep. During the hike I felt like someone was watching me from the shadows. My favorite moment was going on the night hike  because I got to listen to all the sounds, all the sounds were like really cool music.

Leo – About the night hike: Trees silently grabbing the sky as if it’s trying to pull it down.  My favorite moment was on the bus when we pulled into the farm and seeing all the baby lambs as we arrived.

CC – My favorite moment was seeing all the new baby cows because I didn’t see them last year the names of the moms and dad cows are listed above them.

Luca – My favorite moment was hiking with friends this afternoon and then earlier back at LREI when I realized who my bunkmates were.

Milla – My favorite moment was the night time hike because it was really fun when the whole class was hiking up, it felt cool and then having the silence up at the top. I don’t get to see that in the city.

Gray –  My favorite moment was the night hike because I liked seeing all the stars appearing. The moon’s light is burning through the clouds.

Sophie – The view of the farm from Thyme Hill: The greenhouse glowing up the hill.  My favorite moment was Ghost in the Graveyard. Some people hid in the trash cans and when we heard all the clanking I was like, “Just hide somewhere else.” I wish we could have played it longer. I also liked all the hikes we took today.

Samuel – I liked the maple tea, slipping in the mud, and rolling down Thyme Hill.

Luc – My favorite part of the day was when we were roasting marshmallows and I kept dropping them and then I finally got the perfect golden brown marshmallow.

Zach – My favorite moment was when me, Gray, Leo and Chase were trying to find mysterious creatures from Gray’s book and we think we found one called “ a hide behind.” My other favorite part is that I finally made friends with a cow because last year the cows were all mean to me.

Beckett – My favorite part was when I realized who was in my bunk. Also when we arrived, I really loved the cinnamon buns and the maple tea.

Dash – About the bonfire: Wind whisking away embers of the fire. My favorite moment was playing Ghosts in the Graveyard.

Lily – My favorite moment was for 10, 15, 20 minutes I was petting the cows and talking to them (which sounds really weird). Thoughts while on the night hike: I looked up in the sky and I felt really lonely because it was so big and I didn’t feel everyone around me.

Chase – Even though it’s about to be the next day which I don’t like because it feels like time is going too fast. This day made me feel like I could live forever. My favorite part of the day was seeing the farm because I was so excited to see it again.

Freya – About the bonfire: The embers from the fire fly through the cold winter air and land on the muddy ground. My favorite moment was playing and sliding in the mud and then when Imogen, Lily and I were trying to be spies who blend in by being trees.

Mayer – On the night hike: The gray sky turns to orange as you look down; then as you look farther you see the mountains sticking up from the ground like mosquito bites swelling up. My favorite moment was playing catch with Luca, Oliver and Dash. Playing catch was fun because I don’t get to do it that often.

Imogen – I liked petting the cats because that was really fun and I liked acting like a tree, because I’m really good at blending in. And I also liked dressing up like a unicorn.

Oliver – I liked how weird it looked when the girls were pretending to be spies, it was really confusing at first but then I realized it was really funny. I also really liked the maple tea.

Harlan – I liked petting the cats because they are soft.

Wyeth – I liked jumping on the pogo stick because my mom would never let me do that because she thinks “it’s an accident waiting to happen.” I also like how my whole bunk dressed up like unicorns, because unicorns are awesome.

Jasiri – My favorite parts of the day were the maple tea, playing Ghosts in the Graveyard and being chased by Milla and Samuel.

Wen’s Visit to the Fourth Grade

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An Immigrant Today

by Luc

LREI NY- On 2/8/17 the LREI fourth grade had a visitor. Her name is Wen. She is an immigrant from a village in China. Her village is called Xiapu. The fourth grade was very interested to hear her story. She said a lot of interesting things. This is is her story:

Wen came to NY in 1985 from Xiapu when she was 12 years old. The village she came from only had about 50 people. They were all friends. It was about the size of Sixth Avenue and Bleecker Street. You could tell what village someone lived in by their last name. The village had no heat or electricity. The teachers knew how cold the kids were so they had recess after every class so they would run around and get warm. They would play a game where they stood in a line and tried to push each other out of the line.

That kept them warm because they were pushing against each other. The windows had no glass. Instead they used paper! The village would glue the paper to their windows with rice. They had rice for every meal. It may sound bad but they played with each other a lot. They would play hacky sacks and they played ping pong. They would take off their doors and use them as ping pong tables! Sometimes they went to a plastic factory near their village and played with rubber bands.

When Wen got to NYC she was shocked. She had never seen anyone who was not Chinese.

It was crazy for her. Wen’s mom and her worked at a sweatshop as seamstresses. Wen’s whole family worked there. She thought it was fun. “Looking back it wasn’t so safe.” Wen said. “The fire escapes were blocked, and there was no elevator. It was still better conditions than where I was from.” Wen said her boss was nice but had a temper. “She was stressed because of all the work,” said Wen. Wen s first American meal was chicken pot pie and she loved it.

Now Wen has her own clothing company. In the sweatshop she worked as she learned about clothes and she said that was a great experience for her. Now Wen lives better than she did before, in NYC USA.

Hidden Figures

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Chase reports:

Our grade went on a field trip to see the movie “Hidden Figures.” We took the subway to a stop close to Penn Station. We walked about a block to the movie theater. When we entered the movie theater, my mouth dropped. The movie theater was bigger than the Great Hall in Ellis Island. We went up the escalator to the floor where our theater was. We got to that floor and walked to theater 8 where we would be seeing the movie.

Most field trips have a purpose. Some don’t. Did this field trip have a purpose? It sounds like it didn’t but it did. In reading, we read a book called Turning 15 On The Road To Freedom. It  is about a girl named Linda who marched on Bloody Sunday and on the march on Montgomery. The book involves one civil rights related subjects that Hidden Figures focused on – segregation. Segregation was a horrible thing.

I already saw the movie before we went on the field trip so it wasn’t as good as it was when I first saw it.  Some people who only watched the movie once think it’s one of those movies for entertainment. When you watch it twice, you’ll think something different. When I watched “Hidden Figures” for the second time, I understood why the producers made the movie and how and why the movie’s not just for entertainment. I mean you might be thinking, “Why would a class go to a movie in school?” That’s what I’m telling you. You learn that segregation is horrible and people are smarter than you think.

After school for homework, we had to write a journal entry pretending we were one of the main characters: Dorothy Vaughn, Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson.

It was a fun field trip.

Jasiri’s journal entry, written as Katherine Johnson.

Math Night!

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Imogen reports:

The fourth graders all made math games to play at math night. They worked on them for a very long time. Parents, students, siblings, Debra (the math teacher),  Dan, Tara, and Deborah (the fourth grade teacher) were at family math night. Debra the Lower School Math Teacher has helped arrange the math night, like she has done many years in the past. Multiplication, Division, addition, subtraction, and fractions were incorporated into the math games. While making the math games we improved on our math facts.

A few days after math night we played each others games in our classrooms. We played games that we didn’t get the chance to play at math night. We went around and and played each others games. I was surprised that there were so many different ideas and not one was alike any other. The math games were educational as well as fun! Some math games were harder than others.

Some made board games others made ball games and some made card games. Some math games were, Math Bowling, Multiplication Chutes and Ladders, Math skeeball, and more! The fourth graders had two months to make the math game. I think the math games are a very important part of the 4th grade year.

For many pictures from Math Night, check here.

Tenement Inspectors

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Samuel reports:

Today I was inspecting buildings when I got a letter from somebody who needed an inspection at 97 Orchard Street. Some  inspectors and I went to 97 Orchard Street. When we got to Orchard Street we saw the building and we met the landlady on the steps of the house and went in. the place was dirty. there were mice cockroaches pieces of news paper and cloth.

The landlady told us that all her tenants were just throwing their stuff on the floor and that attracted mice and cockroaches. We asked her if she had any toilets that worked. She said she had two toilets in the hallway but   only one worked. She showed us the toilet and she pulled the lever but the toilet didn’t flush. She told us that the person who works for the plumbing doesn’t do a very good job so that’s why the toilets weren’t working. We asked her if she had any animals in her tenement. She said that one of her tenants had a chicken but the tenant always said that she didn’t have one. The landlady said that we could talk to the tenant, so she led us to the tenant’s apartment.

When we went into the tenant’s apartment we saw cockroaches everywhere. I had to sit near a dead cockroach. I asked the tenant  if she had any livestock in her room. She said that she had no livestock in her room. A new tenement inspector said “What is the chicken feather doing here and you said you don’t have a chicken!”  One of our bosses told the new Inspector that we should be nice.

We said that she had many cloths that were dry near the stove. We told her that was a fire hazard and she had to move the cloth before her house caught on fire. The tenant said that the cloth was damp and there would be no fire.  We asked her a question which was, “Do you have any running water in your apartment?” The tenant said that she didn’t have any running water and she was very thirsty. The only way she could get water was to go up three flights of stairs  to her neighbor’s room to get it.

Then we finished up our inspection. We went back to headquarters to see if the building passed or not. We all agreed that 97 Orchard Street did not pass the inspection. We talked about the landlady and the tenant. We tried to find a way for both of them to get what they need. We talked about all the vermin ( Rats and cockroaches) we had seen. 

After our meeting a couple of us went to a place to get bialys. I got a garlic bialy and so did most of us but one got onion. After bialys we went to go get some pickles. I usually don’t like them but this time I did. That was my day.

                                                                                               

A Field Trip to the Tenement Museum to Meet Victoria Confino

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The Trying First Day in America for an Italian Family

By: Abraham Stron (Oliver) 

LOWER EAST SIDE-  It is 1916 January 12th and an Italian family that just immigrated from Venice has been found by a settlement house worker and has taken them to 97 Orchard Street to help them get settled in their new home.

An Italian family with eleven children and two grown-ups has just finished immigrating. They got off the boat and they were the very most dazed. They took one glance at Ellis Island and had to blink twice before the kids started running around in joy.

The parents did not. They stood there and stared in terror as if they knew what the evil secrets of the island held. “Come here children, I have something to tell you about this island.” “What is it mother?” asked the one who looked to be the youngest of them all. “You must look your very best from the moment you step in, to the moment you step out.” “Okay,” said all the children.

They stepped into main building at Ells Island and the children had followed their mother’s advice very well, they looked their very best. They walked up the stairs and they were in the Great Hall.

It was the first time in days that the family could be standing on hard surface with no wibble wobble. They were fed jello and bananas when they heard their last name called over for inspection.

They had made it through the first the second the third the fourth and now came the fifth and final inspection test. “Have you committed any crimes?” “No.” “Well I’m sorry to say but here it says that you stole someone’s shoes on the boat ride here.” “What!” “Oh! Wait that was someone else. Congratulations, welcome to America!”

They went down the Staircase of Separation to the boat and got on it with joy as they made their way to the Lower East Side.

When they got off the boat, they were confused as for where they were supposed to be. The mother decided that they were just going to walk around until they found something or someone that could help them.

The family had been walking around for awhile until a settlement house worker came over to them and asked them if they needed help “YES” said the entire family. The settlement worker told them to follow her. They did exactly that and they were led into this tiny apartment to this little room where lots of young immigrants were being taught how to be American.

The settlement worker said, “I’m a little busy right now as you can see so I will take you to this other young immigrant who has been here a while and might help you settle in a lot more then you are.” The family agreed and they followed her into this very tiny apartment where they were introduced to this young woman by the name of Victoria Confino.

“Come in, come in,” said Victoria with a little nervous laugh. “The chairs and the bed are open for sitting. Ok. Do you have any questions?” said Victoria with another nervous laugh.

“I do!” said Wyeth in the back. “

What is it,” said Victoria.

“How did you find a place to live because are looking for one?”

“Well…”, said Victoria with another nervous laugh. “I did the same that you are doing, our settlement house worker pulled my family and I over to come stay here and we have been living in this tenement ever since!”

“Thank you Victoria”

“Any more questions?”

“Yes,” said everyone in the family. Victoria answered question after question after question after question until there were no more questions. They had figured out everything they needed to know. Where they lived, where the baker and fishmonger were and everything else.

“Thank you so much Victoria” said everyone. They were on their way out to their new tenement and they knew that they had a very long first day in the Lower East Side.

Fourth Grade Class Looks At Primary Sources

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By Freya Sutter

LREI- On January 11th, a fourth grade class looked at Victoria Confino’s primary sources. Victoria Confino was a Turkish immigrant.

The fourth grade class looked at Victoria’s ship manifest, naturalization certificate, her second grade report card, and a postcard from her village in Turkey. When the class looked at the manifest they noticed that where it said that the country that Victoria came from, Greece, was crossed out and Turkey was written in. We guessed that Greece and Turkey were fighting over land at that time so that is why it was like this. 

Next we looked at a naturalization certificate. The certificate was made in 1921, eight years after the Confinos came to America. On the manifest, Victoria´s youngest brother, Isaac was 11 months old. When we looked at the naturalization certificate we noticed Isaac wasn’t on the certificate. Instead, there was a nine year old boy named Jacob. We speculated that Isaac and Jacob are the same person and that Isaac changed his name.

After, we looked at Victoria’s second grade report card. Victoria was 10 when she was in second grade. Usually people in second grade are seven, but since Victoria had never been to school before and she couldn’t speak english the school put her in a lower grade. At school,  Victoria did well for someone who didn’t speak english.

The next day Dan and Tara’s class went to the tenement museum where they saw the Meet Victoria program. They got to ask an actress playing Victoria questions about life in America.

Trunks Unlocked

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By Cecilia Cunningham-dePedro

 LREI- These past few weeks, DT4’s class has been studying Immigration from the early 1900’s.  Sometimes, we were acting as the immigrants. One of the things we learned was that every immigrant had a chance to bring something to America from their home country. That could be photographs, clothing, soap and more. But the immigrants had to carry those objects by a trunk. So in shop we made trunks.

First we had to pick the size of our trunks. Some people, depending on what they wanted to bring, made big trunks. I made a small trunk because I am bringing my needle and thread from Ireland. The first thing we did was measure. Our pieces of wood had to be smaller than 15 inches.

After that we took what we had made so far and nailed the pieces of wood together. Some of us sanded the wood to make it look old- fashioned/older. Sanding the wood also makes it smoother and less likely to get splinters.

We then attached locks and handles to make the trunk easy to carry. Handle examples would be using leather and nailing mini nails into the top of the wood, using brass handles already made, or making your own handle. Some examples of locks would be, a small latch, an inch iron brass lock, or personalizing a latch.

We also were allowed to use ‘stain’ which makes the trunks look like oak wood or maple. The common trees that grow where your home country is, you might want to make your wood look like the tree.

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A Way to Solve Multiplication and Division

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By Dash

In fourth grade we have been doing multiplication and division. We use arrays to help us while doing our work. We show our work on the board.  Problems like 6 x 5 are easy and fun. We have studied our combinations up through 12 x 12. When we get a harder problem we are learning new ways to solve them.

In the picture below, Tara wrote down my work in red. I didn’t know this by heart at the time so I did 13 x 4 which is 52 and then I did 52 x 2 which is 104. I knew I needed to double 52 to get to 104 because 4 is half 8.