Learning Previews - Specials - January 2018

Learning Previews - Specials - January 2018
Posted on 01/23/2018
French & Spanish: Sarah Bilodeau 

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6th Grade French: We begin this week with a unit about discussing in detail our preferences by using common -er verbs as well as irregular verbs and using adverbs. We will perform dialogues and write a mini book to describe our leisure time in detail. The plan these books will be on display in the library!

7th Grade French: We began the week of 1/16 with a unit about ordering food in a French café and telling about our person eating preferences. Students will create café menus and perform dialogues about ordering in a café in Paris. They will also learn about café culture and study about Simone de Beauvoir, Léopold Senghor and Jean Paul Sartre.

7th Grade Spanish: Students began the week of 1/16 a unit about food. They will describe their favorite breakfast and lunch and use common -er and -ar verbs to tell about healthy eating habits as well as their own preferences. They will study about traditional breakfast in a variety of Spanish speaking nations.

8th Grade French: Students began the week of 1/16 a unit about the home. They will learn to give a tour of their own home and to describe their ideal home. They will use common verbs to tell what they like to do in each room of their ideal home. They will also learn about traditional lodging in a variety of Francophone regions.

Spanish: Mr. Paras 

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Grade 6: We are working on describing classrooms and classroom objects in Spanish. Students are writing about their own classrooms and what is in each room. They are saying what is there, how many of each item there are and what color each item is. Students will be writing paragraphs about some of their classrooms. Learners will then do a more comprehensive projects where they develop a dream classroom and write a description of that room. Next will be to review numbers by using math. We are going to learn some math terms in Spanish and then do some practice using Spanish vocabulary words that have to do with math. Once we review numbers by doing math, we will then talk about prices of classroom objects. Students will then review flyers with classroom objects, describe the object and say the price in Spanish.

Grade 7: Students will continue learning breakfast and lunch vocabulary words and the verbs that go along with them. They will then practice saying and writing what they eat and what they like to eat for typical meals. Learners will develop questions about eating habits and then ask them to learning partners. Once finished, we will orally report back to the class. We will go over verb conjugations quickly in order to use the correct verb form in both the question and answer. Students will keep a food journal of what they ate for 3 days and then talk about it in class. We will do this in both small groups and then move on to large groups. In class, we will write about our favorite meals that we eat for breakfast and lunch. In small groups, students will write a short skit pretending they are in a restaurant and they are ordering breakfast or lunch. The server will take their order. They will present their short skit to the class.

Grade 8: In grade 8, we will continue our work with ser and estar. Right now, we are working on storyboards using both verbs. Students will then create a poster for either ser or estar. On the poster, they will put the conjugations of the verbs and write sentences representing all the uses of ser and estar. The poster will be decorated and turned in for a project.

Learners will review colors in Spanish. We will ask about the colors of certain objects and then answer them in complete sentences. tudents will look at pictures and the colors of objects in the pictures. Students will then create their own pictures in small groups and say what colors certain must be colored.

Students will then be introduced to chapter 6A vocabulary, ( el dormitorio y los colores). We will read some paragraphs about descriptions of bedrooms and then write a paragraph describing our own bedrooms and eventually moving on to describing our dream bedrooms. Students will create their dream bedroom and then write a few paragraphs to describe it. When this is completed, we will do a gallery walk looking at all the projects and then discuss what students noticed about the other students dream bedrooms. Students will then develop questions they would like to ask other students about their bedrooms and then answer them.

Health & Wellness: Mr. McNulty
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Grade 6: Sections 6-01 and 6-03 Students have been working on how to identify and express feelings in healthy ways. Recently we have discussed what to do if you or a friend have been feeling troublesome feelings such as depression, anger, anxiety, sadness or nervousness. They have been able to identify techniques in dealing with these feelings and adults with whom they are able to talk to.

Sections 6-02 and 6-04 Students have just started exploring their unit “Mental and Emotional Health”. They will be exploring and describing what healthy mental emotional health means to them in school and with their family.

Grade 7: Students are almost done with their Conflict Resolution Unit, “Let’s Get Real”. We are learning about how to be an ally, how to get help for a friend or yourself and also how to identify if a friend is dealing with depression or suicidal thought. We will being a mini-unit called “Signs of Suicide” in addition to our ally lesson.

Grade 8: Students will be discussion contraceptive methods such as abstinence, the importance of abstinence, STIs, STI transmission and HIV/AIDS. Students will also be able to explore and identify how making healthy decisions will benefit their education, friends, family and future careers.

Physical Education: Michael O’Connell
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6th-8th Grade: All RAUC students are starting their Climbing Unit. All grade levels are participating in this Unit with the same expectations. 6th grade will learn how to properly secure climbing belts, use carabiners, belay, climb (by choice) and use universal climbing commands and communication. They will be climbing/belaying on our ‘three-tier-climber’ and ‘caterpillar climber’. 7th and 8th grade students will review proper use of equipment, safety precautions, communication commands and will climb (by choice) our second ‘caterpillar climber’, ‘three-tier-climber’ and ‘flying squirrel’.

Art: Ms. Lee 

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6th graders are working 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 through blending/shading with charcoal. This will be their last art assignment in 6th grade before they switch to theater arts next semester. It was lovely working with this energetic and enthusiastic group. Looking forward to teaching you again in 7th grade!

7th graders have finished building the armature of their masks. They are now using papier-mâché paste and strips of soft paper to create a cohesive “skin” and smooth surface for painting. Students are also discovering and learning ways to set up and clean up after themselves appropriately and efficiently.

8th graders are still continuing with using the grid method and various drawing techniques to accurately enlarge a 4x6 image of their choice onto a 12x18 paper. This project is time-consuming, but important, as there are a lot of details involved. It is also designed to help students build confidence in their drawing abilities by visually and physically breaking down a complex image into smaller parts. Students relearn how to draw what they actually see, not what they think they know.

Band: Patrick Wroge, Director of Bands
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6th Grade Band: We continue to work towards our Unity Concert on February 1st. Songs we will play are “We Are On A Mission To Rock” and “7 Nation Army”. Through these pieces and others we will continue the focus on music literacy, proper playing position, breath support, ensemble playing, proper embouchure formation, and the use of dynamics and how they play a major role in the outcome of a piece of music. One of my goals with the 6th grade is to have them join the older kids on a couple of pieces. Please remind your child to check the lesson schedule weekly.

7th and 8th grade Band: We continue to work towards our Unity Concert on February 1st. Songs we will perform are “The Incredibles” and “7 Nation Army”. Skills we always practice in Band are proper playing position, breath support, proper embouchure formation, ensemble playing, dynamics, literacy, and being a team player. Please remind your child to check the lesson schedule weekly.

String Orchestra: Brittany Phillips 

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The 6th grade orchestra is eagerly preparing for the Unity Concert on February 1st. Students have been working on their D major scale and arpeggio patterns, and are able to focus on producing a beautiful tone with their bow arms. We will also continue to work on rhythmic and melodic notation to strengthen our sight reading skills. Keep up the good work, 6th grade!

The 7th grade orchestra has been working hard to master our two concert pieces, “Themes from Canon in D” and “Dragon Slayer.” We especially enjoyed adding an exciting percussion part to “Dragon Slayer.” These pieces showcase students’ growing comfort with performing various major and minor scale and arpeggio patterns. Students are growing more comfortable with their note reading, and many are ready for more advanced repertoire. The spring semester will bring lots of exciting new music. We look forward to seeing you at the Unity Concert on February 1st.

The 8th grade orchestra is preparing for an exciting visit from Ms. Laura Umbro and the CRLS orchestra on January 26th. Students will work on their current John Williams piece, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, and will have an inside look at what it sounds and feels like to be a part of the high school ensemble. I would highly encourage all current RAUC 8th graders to register for the CRLS orchestra. Additionally, students are putting final touches on “Themes From Canon in D” that will be performed alongside the 7th grade ensemble in our upcoming winter concert on February 1st.

Chorus, Gr. 6-8: Joshua DeWitte
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6th Grade: We are busy preparing for our concert on Feb. 1 at 6 pm. We will perform 3 songs, from a recent pop tune to a traditional choral piece about immigration through Ellis Island. 6th grade is producing a beautiful sound and rose to the challenge of learning “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,” a fairly complicated piece in terms of harmony. The choir is singing more confidently in 2 parts. Students have worked on supporting their sound through their diaphragm and producing unified vowels. The primary goal of the upcoming concert is to express the emotion and meaning of the pieces of we perform.

7th Grade: The 7th grade chorus has worked hard preparing for our concert on Feb. 1 at 6 pm. We will perform 3 songs, from a recent pop tune to a traditional choral piece about immigration through Ellis Island. Students also created and recorded a short radio program that analyzed another youth choir’s performance. We are exploring what we can learn from other choirs. As we prepare for the concert on Feb. 2, we continue to discuss how to express our music.

8th Grade: 8th Grade is busy preparing for our concert. The choir is now singing confidently in 3 parts! We continue to explore how to best express the meanings of our pieces. Students have been working on “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,” a complicated 3 part piece with parallel harmonies which are difficult to sing. Students are working in small groups on recital pieces. We have a class recital of solos and small ensembles in February as a celebration of the work they have done over the past two and a half years.

Music Studio: 6th Grade: Brittany Phillips 

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The sixth grade music studio class is making great progress with our study on acoustic guitar. Students comfortably groove through the 12 bar blues, and some students are trying out keyboard and percussion in addition to the guitar. We have been working on an arrangement of “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley, and even had Ms. Jen Aldana, a local singer/songwriter, visit our class to help us grow more comfortable with singing while playing the guitar. We are looking forward to learning more chords and growing more comfortable with our singing voices in the spring semester.

Music Studio: 7th Grade: Joshua DeWitte
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Students are working on telling a story through music. They finished their movie scoring projects. Students had the opportunity to provide peer feedback and then spend another class processing the feedback and making changes. We are currently watching the projects in class. They are some of the best film scoring projects I have seen. We will now begin a unit on world music, beginning in China.

Music Studio: 8th Grade: Joshua DeWitte
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Students created a musical mix of “American Music.” We explored the diversity of music that makes up American popular music today. We are now beginning to answer the essential question, why did Africa have such a strong influence on American popular music? We watched a documentary titled, “Soundtrack of a Revolution,” which chronicles how music was used as a form of protest during the Civil Rights. We will continue thinking about protest music.

Library Technology: Sam Musher 

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Every Friday, 6th grade science students work on an independent research project. They are learning to think like scientific researchers, who take notes about a subject from authoritative sources and then write a claim about it that can be supported with evidence. The topics vary widely, from iPhones to black holes to gymnastics. Ask you student what they’ve chosen to research!

We recently received a large order of new books in the library, which the ELA teachers and I have been sharing with all grades, and more books are on the way. Ask me if you want suggestions for your student -- finding the right next book for each child is my favorite thing. If you have suggestions about what I should buy for the library, please email me anytime.
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