Fun and productive week as we near the end of the second trimester and welcome lighter and warmer days!
Before I begin, huge thanks to Ms. Ferris for scheduling an amazing theater group to come perform for us this morning and to all of our students for their excellent attentive audience skills. Check out the Educational Theater Program's website and info about the play we saw here: http://etpnorthwest.org/
6th Grade Social Studies
I'll keep this brief as 6th grade parents received a more detailed email earlier this week. 6th graders are working hard on prepping for our Museum Exhibition Day on March 6th. Anyone is welcome to stop by and observe as students share their knowledge with the rest of the school. After our Museum Day products and exhibition is complete, 6th graders will complete some larger expository writing assignments to round out the trimester.
7th and 8th Grade Social Studies
Splitting time between learning the best strategies for how to study for a comprehensive assessment and our slavery unit are going well so far. This week students were assigned "expert" groups based on different content strands from this past trimester. Tomorrow they'll prepare a presentation and study guide based on their topics and share these with their peers on Friday. Students also worked on their document analysis skills based on two types of slavery related sources: photos and written narratives. Our document analysis focus for this week is how can the historical record be huge and limited at the same time? As an intro, students wrote and discussed activities in their lives that leave evidence and we speculated about which of their activities would leave the longest lasting evidence for future historians. The types of layered question responses that we use to interpret sources are methods used prevalently in high school Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes; these pre-AP and pre-IB strategies will no doubt be a helpful skill in students' high school successes, regardless of what courses they choose.
7th Grade Oceans
As this enrichment oceans and arts course winds down, students are starting a project they've been asking about the possibility of doing for some months now: lino cuts. I have a few lino cut prints in my room as well as an example carved linoleum fish done by one of our fantastic subs and local artist, Ms. Gordon, which often receives "when do we get to do that?!" comments. Well, the time is now! Last week students wrote about and then shared personal experiences with oceans--we had a good mix of humor, fear, and humble respect for the ocean in these stories. Based on their experiences students will choose a scene from their stories to make a carving of. This week we're drafting on paper, next Monday we'll carve, and next Friday we'll print. Should be super fun and look forward to Warhol-esque prints coming home soon!
7th Grade Homeroom
I've never included Homeroom in my updates, but today was too much fun to leave out. Today students were greeted with sign welcoming them to the "Sound of Silence Sanctuary". We enjoyed a completely quiet and peaceful homeroom as students gathered their materials, signed up for lunches, and completed the morning puzzler. I think the experience of deliberate silence for even just 10 minutes was a powerful experience and helped all of us with great focus throughout the day. Be sure to ask your student about it--it was pretty amazing, I think we'll be trying it more often when we need a good reset day!
****Everyone: Advertising Help Please****
A quick reminder of two upcoming school fundraisers: Child Fun Night and the 7th Annual Plant Sale. Child Fun Night is on March 4th and the Plant Sale is on March 9th (both fundraisers have been organized by your students!!!). Be sure to spread the word and help out their amazing efforts.
Lastly, remember to check out all the great resources on my blog. Homework reminders, assignments and rubrics, fun pick-me-ups like the "awesome pep-talk", Challenge Assignment, Student and Parent Extras tabs, and much more!
Thanks and have a great rest of the week!
-Mr. Radich
