1st Year Program 2025-2026

What’s up for next year?
Please click to see

Bittersweet
by Ellie Turnbull

The gate swings open, revealing a huge garden.
I hear the creek trickling by:
gurgling,
babbling, making me smile.
Hot sun like an open oven beats down on me, 
turning my fair skin pink.
I reach for a raspberry. 
The sweet warm fruit tastes like half-baked pie. 
A thorn like a fang punctures my palm:
blood and berry stains,
happy creek, hot sun. 
The end
of summer.

Me
by Hazel Brown

Dirty blond hair glows with striking highlights
like gold wheat in summer heat,
from long days surfing on the boat.
Hair waves in soft wind: white caps on milky green water.
Playful and creative books with the smell
of fresh paper whisk me away
from the real world. I curl up:
sleepy cat purring on our sage green bed.
I smoothly move like a graceful crane through
punches and kicks of my
favorite sport.

Cozy
by Addy Archibald

A cool soft breeze brushes
through aspen groves
like spiders’ silk. The roaring
stream, angry as a bear, rushes past 
to join bigger waves downstream. Leaves 
perform tricks on an invisible rope in moist air.
Golden offerings spin off bare branches 
onto cool earth.

To print a list of all your VOCABULARY to date, go to the 1st Year Vocabulary page OR play to study your words on Quizlet!

1st History Zoom code: 825 7790 9700 passcode: 653438
1st English Zoom code: 823 9870 9913 passcode: 120601

Please have your students read books from the 4th-6th Grade Reading List during the year.

Remember that these lists are not an indication of reading level, but are created to give students a background for their upcoming years of study at the NFS. Please do NOT have children read books from lists that are in their reading level, but above their NFS class level.

See pieces written by WW students (2nd-6th graders) from 2000-2023 HERE.

See pieces written by 1st Year classes (6th & 7th graders) from 2001-2020 HERE.

Fibonacci Links to explore:

Numbers in Nature reveals the secrets of the Fibonacci sequence in an exhibit from the Annenberg/CPB video.

Dr. Ron Knott's website on Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Section in Nature is a great place to explore the Fibonacci sequence. His site allows you to see many of the ideas we discuss in WW and continue to explore in the 1st Year Program.

“Teaching is mostly listening, and learning is mostly telling.”

                                                            -- Deborah Meier, 1995

Cinquain
by Mary Parker (2006)

North Fork:
World History —
Continuously writing poems.
We learn without realizing:
Achievements.

Pieces now in play:
(updated 4/12/26)

Hazel:
Fame paragraph
Research Report: FASHION >> Intro paragraph, three supporting paragraphs + Interview + conclusion
G-R Times: article, ad, Letter to the Editor

in-class Project: FASHION — Timeline; 4 art pieces (typed captions); map

Pink poetry: The Right Words

Addy:
Fame paragraph
General to Specific poem
Research Report: ART >> Intro paragraph, three supporting paragraphs + Interview + conclusion
G-R Times: article, ad, Letter to the Editor

in-class Project: ART — Timeline; 4 art pieces (typed captions); map; bibliography

Pink poetry: Poem of Feeling; The Right Words

Ellie: G-R Times: ad, Letter to the Editor

Pink poetry: Poem of Feeling; General-Specific; The Right Words