06/12/2015
Paul Hurteau of OneWorld Classrooms, an Andover-based non-profit, in conjuction with AlliancExchange & IBM, recently conducted a one week residency at the Lowell Community Charter Public School in Lowell, MA, focusing on the Amazon Rainforest and combining Language Arts, Science and Social Studies themes.
The residency opened with an 'assembly field trip' during which 300+ LCCPS students traveled through poetry, slides and music to the village of Limoncocha in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Poetry writing workshops were conducted for the remainder of the week with eight 1st and 4th grade classes. The students learned poetry writing strategies, brainstormed and wrote their own poetry about animals in the Amazon. They presented their original poems, including works entitled Noisy Rainbow and Swimming in the Amazon, to parents at the school's biannual 'Specials Night.'
Third graders at LCCPS also participated in OneWorld Classrooms' K-12 Global Art Exchange. In the process, they shared original art that reflected their culture with students from six schools in the Amazon. Once schools on both sides received art from their peers, LCCPS third graders Skyped with one of the schools, located just outside Puyo, the capital city of Pastaza Province in Ecuador.
The Amazon residency was funded by AlliancExchange through an IBM grant to bring the Rainforest Curriculum to schools in Massachusetts. We're so proud to be a part of this fantastic initiative!