term one

EXAMS celebrations

Thank you for your patience with us in submitting your student's first term exams.  We put much effort in each exam to make it individual for each student (exams will be emailed out soon!). Part of crafting a healthy educational experience, is to provide your student a chance to celebrate all that he knows instead of grading against the impossible standard of excellence, relational exams consider the individual student's trajectory or growth or interest in a subject along with developmental appropriateness.  Remember, our chief goal is that children find knowledge delightful in itself.  The following are examples of all of the learning we are celebrating at Redwood!

tell me about columbus and the “new World”?

“Christopher Columbus found an island because he told the King and Queen that he could find gold. When he left the island he left some of his men there to look for gold. When he came back, he found that none of his men were there because another tribe killed all of them because they were not being nice.”

Form 1 Student, age 7

“Christopher Columbus grew up in Italy. He gave his son to some monks because he wanted to go to the Indies to find silk and gold. He tried to find a different route but he did not know that the Americas were in the way because people were having trouble going around Africa. He went to the King of Portugal to ask for money. He said he was going to stay with the route around Africa so Christopher Columbus went to another king. He said no too. He then went back to the King of Portugal. The King finally said yes. They sailed and sailed and they should have gotten there according to the miles he calculated but he just made them all keep going. Then one night, he thought he saw light but did not know what it was so he went to sleep. He put another guy in charge and Columbus went to sleep. That night, he spotted land. Then once they were on the island, they saw natives and he thought he reached Japan but he reached Cuba and Jamacia. Then one day, the Santa Maria started to sink and all of the Indians help save everything on the ship. The Indians decided to trade gold for clothing because they were always naked. Columbus decided to leave 39 men there and he sailed back to get bigger ships for all of the gold.

Form 1 Student, age 9

tell me Why Hamlet is so distressed in the first act and how the conversation with the ghost Fuels his desire for revenge?

He is mad, angry, sad, and depressed because his mom, which is the queen married his dead dad’s, brother so quickly after he died and then the ghost, which is his father, tells him that he was sleeping in his garden.Then they and his brother, which is now the king actually poisoned him by a type of liquid and he poured it into like his ear.

Form 3 student Age, 11

If you were traveling with Marco Polo, tell me about the geographical features and animals you would have seen on your route to China. OR Tell about at least two of the unique customs or practices Marco Polo saw in the countries he traveled through.

Marco Polo saw in the countries that he traveled through. So one country had an interesting way of like honoring the funeral procession. After the person would die, they would get someone who studied the stars to find out what their special day was from when they were born. And so they would wait until that day and then they would have a big caravan go across the long road, like the big roads in the desert. And they would carry the body and they would stop along the way, doing different things like resting or perform different rituals. When then get there and bury them or like scatter the ashes.

Form 3 student Age 14

choose two of the native people groups from north america that we have learned about from turtle island, describe what life was like for them.

So the first person that we learned about the Haida Gwai white people, those people stood out to me because they were very smart in making boats and some boats were like little canoes or kayaks and some were as big as the Viking long ships about 50 ft. They made the boats in the summer and they hollowed them out and then when the winter came and snow and ice made it easier to slide the boats. They slid the boats down in the water to make them waterproof.

The other people group that stood out to me were the Olmecs and it was cool that they had the giant heads and they're very dedicated in bringing that stone from 200 miles away and they didn't even have wheels. They just slid it across the sand. Their ball games were very weird and they seemed very difficult. So they just tried to hit a rubber ball that they made. The took the rubber tree sap and add in some herbs and stuff to it and it became hard and rubber-like. Then they would try to hit it with their elbows, hips, knees and heads and it's like 10 pound ball into a vertical hoop.

Form 3 Student Age 11