It’s hard to believe that we have entered the month of May, our last full month of the school year. There are many exciting events to look forward to, like Expert Night Presentations on Monday, May 22nd at 6 pm and our trip to Washington, D.C., at the end of the month on the 30th.
We enjoyed welcoming grandparents into the classroom last Friday and watching the middle schoolers interact with them was a real pleasure.
Science
6th-year Earth Science students have finished their unit, Tides. Their next unit will be, Phases. From this unit, students will be able to describe the patterns of the moon’s appearance in the sky, describe the moon’s motion in space, and explain the lunar cycle. To fully comprehend many of these objectives, students will participate in numerous hands-on activities, modeling moon phases using food and in-class manipulatives.
Humanities
With the 6th-grade Humanities class finishing their class novel, The Eye of Ra, last week, they completed culminating activities surrounding the book. First, they wrote a reaction to the novel using a few guided questions to help them. Then, they had a wrap-up discussion using the reactions as their guide. Next, students wrapped up their group writing of the last chapter and discussed how their predicted endings either did or did not happen. Finally, students began an essay examining the change in the novel’s protagonist, John. The 6th grade also completed a unit of vocabulary this week.
The 7th grade continued their class novel, Animal Farm, and also continued to learn the historical context behind it. They specifically learned about the October Revolution of 1917 and key players during and right after this time. Specifically, the class learned about Nikolai Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin. At the end of the week, students were asked to identify which characters in the book were representative of historical figures of Russian history. The 7th grade also completed a unit of vocabulary this week.
The 8th grade had a busy week with both expert presentations and history. They began their first run-throughs of their expert presentations and received a first round of feedback. Next, students continued reading their class novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here. This week’s chapters mentioned Indian Boarding Schools, so we spent time discussing what they were and how the progression of movement of the Native Americans in the U.S. and treaties being created led to these schools that attempted to change the culture of Native Nations in youngsters. Finally, we read the Declaration of Independence, which mentioned the British legislation imposed on the colonists following the Seven Years’ War and the Boston Tea Party. Students researched and presented these last week.
Have a beautiful weekend!