WE’RE LEARNING HERE! at the Conley Elementary School

“We had to plan an outing for our family and figure out all the costs. My trip to Franklin Park Zoo cost $99 — more than I thought it would!”

One of a series of photo essays by Amika Kemmler-Ernst, reprinted from the September issue of Boston Union Teacher, the newspaper of the Boston Teachers Union.

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By Amika Kemmler-Ernst

The Conley Elementary School on Poplar Street in Roslindale serves 165 students in grades K0–6. On the way into the building from the parking lot, I notice a sign outside the small garden area saying, in English and Spanish: “We are growing food. All of it will be donated to a local food distribution site.”

Coach Kevin Collins supervises a small group of K0/K1 students with special needs who are joyfully riding tricycles around the hard-top playground or using a bat to hit lightweight balls off a shoulder-height stand.

Inside, almost every classroom is labeled with a colorful welcome sign including grade level, teacher names, and room number.

Art teacher Hilary Blair helps another group of K0/K1 children paint leaves for an upcoming school-wide art show, while students in Antonietta Brownell’s K0/K1 class learn about how chicks they are hatching in the classroom develop inside their shells.

Students in grades K2–2 work on a variety of word study activities. Rochelle Perry’s K2 students use whiteboards to write out the alphabet with lowercase letters. Second graders learn about double vowel word syllables, identifying different ways the long e sound can be spelled.

In Sara Colella’s science class, students in grades 2–3 are looking closely at caterpillars that will soon turn into butterflies!

A third-grade boy reads aloud a scene he’s created for the story of Peter Pan, while teacher Faith Nery helps other students provide constructive feedback.

Fourth- and fifth-grade students are taking a MAP test in math or doing independent reading when they complete it.