Last Friday, the first grade at WTA celebrated the culmination of a multi-week project with a tour of their hand-made “Stanleyville.” Through the process of creating their own “Flat Stanleys,” sending them on trips all over the world and documenting their travels, first graders learned important writing and critical thinking skills. As their Stanleys returned to them, each student had the opportunity to write and then record themselves speaking about their Stanley’s adventure. To top off the project, the students worked together to construct a life-sized representation of the community (for their Stanleys, that is), including a school bus, shul and even a police station.

WTA’s fourth grade also had a big week. After weeks of anticipation, the fourth graders came nose-to-nose (and toe-to-toe) with history. The class traveled to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The students toured the Statue of Liberty museum, where they visited exhibits of life-size replicas of Lady Liberty’s face and foot, as well as the original torch. Then they toured Ellis Island’s National Immigration Museum, where they learned about the harrowing experiences of many of the United States’ immigrants at the turn of the 20th Century.