Thank you to those of you who attended the Art Show and Pizza Dinner! The Middle School students did a wonderful job setting up, doing their jobs, and taking down the event. It was wonderful to see the community come together and enjoy food and conversation. Next week, we will let you know the charity the 8th years choose to donate the proceeds.
This week in math class, the 6th years began their patterns and rules unit. So far, they’ve worked with patterns and graphs and are learning about scaling and intervals when reading and drawing graphs. They have also been working on arithmetic and geometric sequences. The 7th years continue their brief introduction to trigonometric ratios. They have learned how to use the tangent ratio to find the length of a side and concluded with the sine and cosine ratios. From here, the 7th years will continue working with area and perimeter of polygons. The 8th years continue working with quadratic graphs and their properties. They’re working with the formula to find the line of symmetry and the vertex of a parabola. They are then plotting points in order to graph quadratic functions.
In science class, the 6th and 7th years are beginning to assemble their display boards for next week’s Science Fair. Students are excited to share and display their hard work. The 8th years are continuing their unit on space titled, Minor Bodies of our Solar System. Students tested the difficulties of being an astronaut, performing simple tasks such as opening a CD case, grabbing a pencil, or writing their name wearing gloves. Students also performed a lab demonstrating the formation of an impact crater using plaster of Paris and marbles.
In Humanities, 6th years continue looking at Afghan culture as they began to read, Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai. The book takes place in 2011 and discusses the influences of the Taliban on culture in parts of Afghanistan and the plight of a family traveling to the U.S. for refuge. The students were surprised to learn that at its genesis, the Taliban was not a terrorist group. They are learning through the novel and class lessons the progression of the Taliban as well as the struggle between the people and the Taliban with regards to religion, culture, and everyday life. The 7th years studied the historical context needed to begin George Orwell’s Animal Farm. They learned the differences in the political economic systems of capitalism, socialism, and communism, and then took a look at revolutions: why they occurred, what the goals were, and if goals were achieved. Specifically, they looked at the American Revolution as well as current Sudanese protests and the Yellow Vests in France. This all built up to learning about the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the history building up to it. We are excited to continue reading Animal Farm next week. In 8th year Humanities, we finished the novel, Witness, and are ending our analysis on the novel. Classes surrounding our analytical work have been rich and challenging, which has been exciting to see. We also took pause to discuss some of the controversy following the burning of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. What are the feelings surrounding this by nationals and foreigners? Why so much controversy over donations? What are the ripple effects of this? We spoke about the outpouring of donations after the Notre Dame fire to the three historically black, Louisiana Baptist Churches that were burned to the ground at the end of March-early April and victims of hate crime. I love allowing students to have a platform to give honest opinions and hear each other’s perspectives while respectfully disagreeing. It’s a great age to start including your children in these discussions and modeling civility while doing so.
All-in-all it’s been a great week! We look forward to seeing you next Thursday at the Science Fair!
