Opal School Blog
The Wonder of a Seed
In the last few weeks, children in Preschool have discovered, encountered and collected many different types of seeds: within beans pods brought from a child's…
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Opal School Online
This week, we're busy putting the final touches on the fifth module of Opal School Online. Each week in October, we've released a wealth of…
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Establishing a Learning Community
Each September, as we enter a new school year, we come together and wonder how we can transform a classroom of children into a learning…
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What does a Genre-Based Writing Study look like in Opal 4?
As we discussed on Literacy Night at Opal School last week, the writing component of Literacy Studio in the upper grades at Opal School is…
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How Can Materials Help You Tell How a Story Changed You?
by Levia Friedman, Opal School Teacher Researcher The day after these 5th grade students re-enacted the historic Snake River Crossing on the Oregon Trail, we…
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The Power of Intelligent Materials
by Kimie Fukuda, Opal School Teacher Researcher This story is from Kylee, who was quiet, shy, and new to Opal. Until the point where this…
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Intelligent Materials
A note from Kimie Fukuda, Opal School Teacher Researcher: Encountering this idea of “children’s languages” for the first time many years ago at the Hundred…
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What Do Materials Do?
Opal 1 students went to the Portland Art Museum to investigate the kinds of materials that artists use in their work. When they returned to…
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Materials and Playful Literacy
by Susan Harris MacKay Michael has chosen to tell his story with watercolor paints today. It is a story of a castle and knights with…
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Materials and Research
This post, by Susan Harris MacKay, continues from Children as Researchers of Their Own Learning, an entry featured in last week's "Documentation" module. Children are equipped with…
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