Health & Wellness: Mr. McNulty
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6th Grade: Students have wrapped up their Hygiene Unit this week. Students learned the importance of hygiene, how to practice having good hygiene and how their hygiene affects others. In the coming weeks, students will be learning about personal nutrition, MyPlate, essential nutrients and how to put together a well balanced meal.
7th Grade: Students are in the final weeks of their bullying unit. They have been learning about Anti-Gay Bullying, how words affect others, how to be an ally and who they can turn to if they witness or are bullied.
8th Grade: Students have just started their Substance Abuse Prevention Unit. They will be learning about the effects of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco and prescription medication. Students will explore how these substances can affect their body and their future and also what the consequences are for underage use.
Physical Education: Michael O’Connell
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6th Grade: Students are just starting their Field-Games Unit. Over the course of the next six classes, students will continue to develop an understanding of movement, manipulative (throwing, catching and dribbling) and tactical skills associated with small group and large group invasion games (ultimate, flicker, capture-the-flag) and sports (soccer, lacrosse) played outdoors.
7th Grade: Students are just starting their Field-Games Unit. Over the course of the next six classes, students will demonstrate an understanding of movement, manipulative (throwing, catching and dribbling) and tactical skills associated with small group and large group invasion sports (speedball, lacrosse, flag-football) played outdoors.
8th Grade: Students are just starting their Individual and Dual Activities Unit. Over the course of the next six classes, students will learn the rules and the movement, manipulative (striking) and tactical skills associated with tennis.
6th - 8th Grade Band: Mr. Wroge
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We are currently rehearsing “Bad” by Michael Jackson, which we enjoy playing together! We are also working on “The Chronicles of Narnia”, and “Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple for 7th and 8th graders. As always, we continue to reinforce the basics such as music literacy, ensemble playing, posture, breath support, play position, and rest position. We are moving closer to our spring concert on May 18th so please have your student practice concert music at least 15 minutes per day.
String Orchestra Gr. 6-8: Brittany Phillips
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6th grade orchestra: The 6th grade string orchestra has been applying their knowledge of key signatures and the Blues through a study of improvisation. Students were able to expand upon their knowledge of D major arpeggios and learn a walking bass line pattern. Next, they learned about the history of the Blues and the notes of the D blues scale. Every day during warm ups students take turns improvising over a D blues vamp. We have had a great time studying the blues and we are now putting the final touches on our concert piece, “Rhythm N’ Blues.”
The 7th graders have done a great job working through some tough passages in “Pirates of the Caribbean.” They have learned to quickly read accidentals and tricky rhythms. Our goal is to have this mastered by our concert on May 18th. Additionally, students are putting the finishing touches on their rock tune, “Cannon Power.” This piece is fast moving, upbeat, and very fun. It pushes students to listen and follow dynamics as they play difficult rhythmic patterns in a round.
The 8th grade students are working diligently to work through their new challenging piece, “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers. This classic tune is fun to play, but it is very challenging-especially for cello students who are learning to shift into third and fourth position. Students are also chipping away at “Pirates of the Caribbean,” focusing primarily on watching the conductor for tricky transition parts. I am very pleased with the growth of our 8th grade students this semester, and I am confident that they are ready for new challenges in their high school ensembles. Parents, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding signing up for the CRLS orchestra.
Chorus, Gr. 6-8: Joshua DeWitte
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6th: Chorus students continue to work on the next phase of their recording label project. Each group is creating a Google site which will advertise their label and present their music. Students will begin recording their projects after our concert on May 18th. We are working on 3 songs for the concert; The Rose, Shake It Out, and The Ship Song. This concert will feature numerous solos for which singers will audition over the next week.
7th: Chorus students continue to work on the next phase of their recording label project. Each group is creating a Google site which will advertise their label and present their music. Students will begin recording their projects after our concert on May 18th. We are working on 3 songs for the concert; The Rose, Shake It Out, and The Ship Song. This concert will feature numerous solos for which singers will audition over the next week.
8th: 8th graders recently chose the songs they wish to sing to represent their class at their graduation. After the concert on May 18, we will begin working on their graduation pieces. Students continue to work on the next phase of their recording label project. Each group is creating a Google site which will advertise their label and present their music. Students will begin recording their projects after our concert. We are working on 3 songs for the concert; The Rose, Shake It Out, and The Ship Song. This concert will feature numerous solos for which singers will audition over the next week.
General Music: Ms. Kristi Giannini-Campbell
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6th graders begin "Guitar Games" - a unit that has them strumming, chording, and composing on guitars in teams of four students, while they explore genres of American music.
7th Graders will apply learned concepts of rhythms and song forms to the music composition process using guitar, drums, and computers. They will start projects for their final portfolios including a song history, song analysis, and 1 composition.
8th graders will learn to read lead sheets, what to listen for in music, and prepare final portfolio presentations about music genres.
Spanish Grades 6-8: Mr. Paras
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In 6th Grade Spanish, we will be moving on to class schedules, classroom objects and describing your classes. We will also learn verbs that go along with this topic. We will have students make a daily schedule of their classes and describe them, what they like about them, etc. Students will also be interviewing each other about their classes and what they like/don’t like about them. Our RAUC stars will then be making posters where they will pick their favorite class and tell us about it. They will include information such as the name of the class, what they may need for the class, the name of the teacher as well as other topics.
7th Grade students will be introduced to a new unit. Students will learn about places in the community. To go along with this, they will learn the verbs ir- to go and hacer- to do. Students will draw a map a city and label the names of the building. They will also write about what they do in each city using the verb hacer. Students will then interview a partner about what they do in certain stores, what they buy in those stores and how much they think certain items may cost.
8th grade students will continue working on clothing vocabulary and the numbers up to 1,000. In class, we will act out scenes of a person trying to buy something and a store clerk working with that person. We will have students describe what people are wearing and also have them design outfits they would like to wear and the prices for each article of clothing. Students will also design outfits for certain places they may go which may include places such as a concert, the mall, the beach, the mountains, a formal dance, skiing, a sporting event, etc.
French: Grades 6-8 Ms. Bilodeau
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Grade 6: Students will work on a project this month to create a promotional video about RAUC for potential French exchange students. They will use irregular verbs in the present and school vocabulary.
Grade 7: Students will create their own origin myth using irregular verbs “venir” and “aller” as well as talk about their future plans and study professions vocabulary. They will become familiar with Francophone Africa as well as read children’s tales based on Bambara and Malinke myths.
Grade 8: This week students will read aloud their Paris past tense short stories. After, students will begin a comprehensive review of middle school French. They will write and perform dialogues as well as make art projects that represent vocabulary and culture themes from 6 & 7 grade. The theme for May will be shopping and we will review food and clothing vocabulary as well as common -er, -ir and -re verbs and common irregular verbs.
Art - Grades 6-8: Ms. Lee
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6th graders are starting on an Op Art (short for optical art) project in which they create 3-D spheres on a 2-D surface. The optical illusion effect is achieved by using a checkerboard design and blending/shading with charcoal. Before the break, we looked at many fun and trippy examples of optical illusions that use colors to trick the eye. 6th graders also became familiar with the artwork of Bridget Riley, a painter who is well-known for creating Op Art paintings that seem animated.
7th graders are using the interaction between positive and negative space in creating their Notan designs. Notan is a Japanese word that means light-dark. Positive space is the main object, focus or subject(s) whereas negative space is the space around and in between an object or the subject(s) of an image. Students are now in the drafting and experimental stage of their designs. Encourage your child to look at illustration examples of how negative space can also be used in a clever and creative way in advertising. The Bronx Zoo and Girl Scouts logo are two examples, as well as illustrations from this website: http://www.creativebloq.com/art/
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8th graders are still continuing to use the grid method and techniques on their two-toned high contrast self-portraits. They first used the grid method to draw and enlarge the shapes of their facial features onto a canvas panel, which is a laborious process. Some students get very detailed and break the squares further down into tiny squares, which helps them to draw with much more accuracy. When the outline and shapes are complete, they will then turn their drawings into paintings. Students who are on the painting portion of the assignment are experimenting with painting techniques and learning ways to edit, touch up splotchy areas and fix mistakes.
Theater Arts: Summar Elguindy
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6th graders are about to begin a unit on storytelling and character work. They will explore multiple ways to tell interesting and creative stories on stage. They will learn about storytelling using song, dance, rhythm and rhyme, narration and more. Students will work on a final project telling an original story in front of their class.
Library Technology: Ms. Musher
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6th: Science students are continuing their Science Workshop research into a topic of their choice. By the end of this week most will have evidence to support their claim (the answer to the question) and will be thinking about how to present that evidence to their classmates. Their research questions are fascinating! Ask your child about their Science Workshop claim, and what cool things they’ve learned about it. They will also be learning a new online tool, Piktochart, for creating “infographics” to present information in an eye-catching way.
7th: ELA students celebrated Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 27 as part of Poetry Month. Many students chose to read a poem to the class as extra credit, and carry it in their pocket all day to share with others. Ask your child about their poem, if they chose one!
8th: Science students are finishing their biomimicry product designs, which use ideas from nature to solve human problems. They will present their projects this week. Since I taught the research portion of the project, I will be part of the Shark Tank-style panel to whom they’ll need to sell their design. Ask your child to practice pitching their biomimicry design to you!