At Abintra, the children have the opportunity for exploration and discovery every day. They use their senses to understand the world. EC students have been studying backyard birds for the last few weeks. They are learning the names of the birds, listening to the sounds they make, and learning about their life cycle. They have had the opportunity to closely observe and experience how birds are born. A Carolina Wren built a nest in the bird house on our back porch. For many days, the female bird had protected her hard-shelled eggs by keeping them warm. The children learned that that process is called "incubation." Last week, the eggs hatched and we have four small birds being fed by their parents every day. The birds have captured the children's attention and they love to listen to their sounds.  Very soon the birds will fly away and start life on their own. This beautiful process reminds us of one of our favorite quotes: "You will never have this...

It is a joy to see students choosing Spanish books to read in their own time!      Lower Elementary students have been busy! Students wrote sentences using the verb ir - to go . Using the globe, student s chose a country they would like to visit.   Each grammar lesson is presented in a natural, informal way. We use question words like   ¿Dónde?   (Where?) and ¿Cómo? (How?) to engage students in conversations.   Questions and answers are important to ensure a student’s understanding of the lesson.   We also are describing pictures using the verb estar - to be.   For example: Los niños están corriendo -   the boys are running. We are using vocabulary to discuss animals and their habitats.   Students name continents and animals, and then we play games where students ask and answer questions about animals in their habitats .   ¿Dónde está el gorila? - Where is the gorilla? El gorila está en Africa....

Hello Abintra community! We are excited to bring you updates from the Upper Elementary classroom, directly from us - the students! We have been enjoying fun activities this month! Our classroom recently received a life size human body that you can take apart and put back together. You can make the body female or male. This model helps us see how the parts fit inside your body and how everything comes together. You can often find students researching projects together. Some topics we're researching are the human body, ancient civilizations, Tennessee history, the Middle Ages, and animals across the globe. In art, Nashville potter Caroline Cercone has been working with us on making clay vases and pitchers. We also have the opportunity to work with clay freely. Rebekah Allen, award-winning playwright based in New York and sister of Office Manager Emily, visited our classroom to lead a workshop on building and developing characters for stories. T...

“With every clay project we are reminded of how clay connects us deeply to this planet."   -  Caroline Cercone, artist Abintra students have the pleasure of frequently working with clay. Clay, like water and sand, has a natural appeal and children enjoy working with these basic mediums because there is no separation between them and their work.   As soon as children are given clay, they immediately become aware that they are in charge and have influence over the material as it is quick to respond to their fingers.   With further experience, they soon begin to learn the subtle ways to manipulate clay to create what they want.   The forgiving quality of clay, and therefore the ability to readily fix mistakes, gives the child a sense of control over their project’s success which improves self esteem and self expression as they realize that mistakes aren’t going to halt their progress. Our young clay artists a...