ABOUT LAGNIAPPE LEARNING
Lagniappe Learinng was born while Ms. Alexander and Ms. Harper were researching top STEM schools. Many of these schools had outdoor classrooms, with gardens, chickens, tree stump seats and chalkboards. Our goal is to provide WESS scholars with opportunities to engage in real-life learning situations with special emphasis on inquiry-based tasks related to engineering and environmental studies.
The 2021-2022 school year was a challenging year for our scholars. It was the first year of on campus learning for many of our scholars due to COVID. The school year was interrupted due to Hurricane Ida. Our campus remained mainly damage free with the exception of the library. The library was closed due to roof and water damage. Our scholars did not physically visit the library, but they had access to digital books using EPIC and Tumble Books. Ms. Harper moved to one of the STEM Labs and a great partnership was formed between Ms. Alexander and Ms. Harper. The collaboration brought STOP & STEM a monthly schoolwide time where all scholars complete a schoolwide STEM challenge linked with a picture book read aloud, Skype a Scientist, STEM Stories and more to our scholars.
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The partnership now has the goal of bring Lagniappe Learning to WESS. Lagniappe Learning, our outdoor learning lab includes gardening and chickens.
Ms. Harper has started Books and Beaks. Scholars read to their favorite chicken. The goal for next year is to move Books and Beaks to the outdoor entrance of the library. Our goal for the green space next year is adding a compost bin, a rain barrel and recycling.
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LAGNIAPPE LEARNING
Offering a learning bonus for our scholars