Willowwind School
Featured Projects
Each year, Willowwind students embark on project-based learning endeavours that highlight curricular goals and integration with the arts, as well as personal interests and passions. Project expectations, independence, and sophistication evolves as students journey through our elementary program. Throughout the year, you'll find students researching, collaborating, connecting with community resources, and finding their voices. Whether researching, writing scripts, and building props for a puppet show or reader's theater performance, or combining art, literacy, and history to create an personal timeline collage, multi-faceted projects like these allow students to approach and explore academic topics from many angles.
ROBOTICS
In 2024, our fifth and sixth grade class dove into the world of robotics. Over the course of several months, students researched the science of robotics and learned about coding. They worked in teams to design, build, and program a robot to solve a real-world problem. A wildly engaging and successful STEAM adventure!
Designs Inspired by Nature
Created in 2024 by the racerunners (1st & 2nd grades)
To culminate their study of habitats and ecosystems, first and second graders were challenged to build a shelter inspired by specific animal features. Students ventured to the Natural History Museum for inspiration and sketch practice. Art, STEAM, and literacy classes worked together to make the shelter models come to life!
Origins of Me
created in 2022 by the painted turtle class (2nd & 3rd grades)
Students spent the winter months diving into their ancestry and asking big questions, like, “Where did I come from?” and “What is my connection to the universe?” This project was a part of a larger, year-long study of the origins of our planet and the living creatures that call Earth home. Students explored how the Earth, its systems and inhabitants, have changed overtime. They then put the microscope on themselves to examine where they came from and how they have changed over the years. Students created a personal timeline collage to represent big milestones in their lives.
SOLAR SYSTEM PATH
A learning and community engagement project created in 2023 by 4th through 6th grade students
Willowwind School's 4th-6th grade students and teachers spent several weeks researching the eight major planets in our solar system, as well as Pluto and the Sun. They worked in teams to research a planet of their choosing and wrote a summary of what they learned. Students then collaborated on composing a tanka, a Japanese form of poetry similar to a haiku, inspired by their planet.
This project demonstrates a collaboration with our learning and the broader community. The project was on display at Court Hill Park for the community to enjoy during the summer and fall of 2023. The project path began with the Sun at E. Court St. and S. Westminster St. and extended nearly 1/3 mile along the Court Hill Trail, where visitors will found kinetic sculptures representing ten celestial bodies. Accompanying each sculpture was an informational sign with the students’ research and original poetry.
This project was supported by many teachers, staff members, and parent volunteers at Willowwind School, as well as Tyler Baird and the City of Iowa City Parks Department, Jim Rogers at PlexiCraft Inc., and Jay Herman of Herman Enterprises.
Below you’ll find process photos beginning with the first meeting students and teachers had at Court Hill Park with the IC Parks Dept; the many steps of creating the multimedia planet sculptures; ending with the unveiling of the signage which contains student research and original poetry.