Specials Learning Previews - December 2019

Specials Learning Previews - December 2019
Posted on 12/17/2019
Library/Technology: Ms. Musher, [email protected]

6th grade: Social studies scholars will use editing software called WeVideo to record a story about an experience they had with race. This is part of their race and identity unit, and stories are often quite powerful. Recording audio gives scholars a chance to tell a personal story in their own voice, without the intimidation factor of standing in front of an audience.

7th grade: ELA scholars are wrapping up an independent reading unit, in which we focused on the skills of being a strong reader: choosing a book that interests you, asking questions, making predictions, visualizing the story, and sticking with reading long enough to “get in the zone.” Ask your scholar about the book they chose!

7th grade: Science scholars will soon write their first email to their NetPal, an employee of a local company with whom they’ll correspond until spring. We’ll learn the skill of writing a professional email, and discuss when it’s appropriate to email rather than text or call.

Health: Mr. McNulty, [email protected]


6th grade: Students are learning about the harmful effects of e-cigarettes/vaping. They will be discovering how nicotine damages their developing brains and bodies. They will also analyze advertising techniques that companies use and data that shows a dangerous growing epidemic.

7th grade: Students are continuing to peel back the different types of discriminations that exist. They will be exploring how words have impact and power while exploring their own personal identity.

8th grade: Students will be concluding their Teen Dating Violence Unit this week. After the break, students will begin their “Get Real” Sexuality Unit. A family letter will be sent home, please ask your child for it to read.

P.E.: Chris Moore, [email protected]

Grade 6: Students are learning the fundamental skills (bump and set) and rules for volleyball as they begin their Net Games Unit. After break, students will begin to learn the game of pickleball (played with a paddle and tennis ball (or wiffle ball)). Pickleball allows for students to learn the fundamentals of groundstrokes. The unit will conclude with sixth grade students learning the fundamental skills and rules for badminton.

Grade 7: Students are playing modified (alternate serving rules) games of volleyball and will be starting badminton as the net-games unit progresses. During this unit, students will learn the skill-cues for overhand-serving in volleyball and (diagonal) underhand-serving in badminton. As the unit continues to progress, students will be given the opportunity to choose between badminton, volleyball, and pickleball as class activities.

Grade 8: Students will be partaking in a variety of net games that they are familiar with including: volleyball, Newcomb, badminton and soccer-volleyball. All students have been focused on expressing an understanding of skills, rules, and game-play etiquette.

Band: Mr. Wroge, [email protected]


6th Grade Band: 6th graders continue to practice our set up and break down routine. Our first concert piece “Rock This Band” is starting to come together and sound Great! This piece offers students the opportunity to practice age appropriate music skills such as whole, half, quarter, and eighth note patterns, as well as their relational rests. We are also working on “Eye Of The Tiger” and have officially begun working on our Band, Chorus, Orchestra, Ukulele, and Urban Legends combined piece, “Where’s The Love”. This piece offers each performing group the opportunity to practice and perform together, which helps to create solidarity and unity among students of the music program.

7th and 8th Grade Band: 7th and 8th graders are sounding solid on the Band, Chorus, Orchestra, Ukulele, and Urban Legends combined piece, “Where’s The Love”. This piece offers each performing group the opportunity to practice and perform together, which helps to create solidarity and unity among students of the music program. Our practice of the Jazz Fusion tune “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” is progressing nicely. This tune offers students the opportunity to practice syncopated rhythms, ensemble playing using different harmonies, Concert Eb blues scale, and common music markings such as “D.C. al Coda” and transitioning to the “Coda”. We also continue to refine “Eye Of The Tiger”.

Orchestra: Brittany Phillips, [email protected]

The 6th grade orchestra is rocking a new piece, “Canon Power”! We are learning to play complex rhythms at different times within the framework of D major. For most students, this is the most challenging piece they have played to date. They are enthusiastic, and are working very hard to tackle new notes and rhythmic patterns. Before winter break I will introduce another new piece, “Appalachian Hymn,” that will be played as a combined 6-8th orchestra selection in our upcoming Unity Concert on January 30th. Thank you for supporting at-home practice!

The 7th grade orchestra is growing and stretching in this season of learning new music. We are grappling with challenging key signatures, complex dotted rhythms, and slurred and hooked bowing patterns. The 7th grade orchestra is making steady progress with “We Shall Overcome”, while mastering notes on the lower strings. The orchestra has mastered “Where is the Love”, and they are playing in the challenging key signature of F major with great energy. Before winter break I will introduce another new piece, “Appalachian Hymn,” that will be played as a combined 6-8th orchestra selection in our upcoming Unity Concert on January 30th. Thank you for supporting at-home practice!

The 8th grade orchestra is doing an exceptionally great job with their concert music selections this year. We are putting the final touches on “We Shall Overcome” and “Rhythms of Africa”, paying close attention to rhythmic intricacies and adding mature techniques like playing with vibrato. I have noticed major improvements with students’ note reading skills, and this makes learning new music fun and exciting. Before winter break I will introduce another new piece, “Appalachian Hymn,” that will be played as a combined 6-8th orchestra selection in our upcoming Unity Concert on January 30th. Thank you for supporting at-home practice!

Chorus: Joshua DeWitte, [email protected]


6th Grade: We are busy preparing for our concert on Jan.. 30 at 6 pm. We will perform a program around the theme of standing up for ourselves and others. 6th grade is producing a beautiful sound as they work on supporting their sound through their diaphragm and producing unified vowels. In addition to our work on the concert, students learned about vocal health. Over 30 students auditioned for solo parts in the upcoming concert. Though only a few were chosen, I was impressed by the number of singers wiling to take such creative risks. Lastly, students are working on a project to turn a book or story they know into a musical and present a scene from that musical.

7th Grade: The 7th grade chorus has worked hard and is making a powerful sound. As we prepare for the concert on Jan. 30, we continue to discuss how to express the meaning of each song. Over 30 students auditioned for solo parts in the upcoming concert. Though only a few were chosen, I was impressed by the number of singers wiling to take such creative risks.

8th Grade: 8th Grade is busy preparing for our concert on Jan. 30 at 6pm. We will perform a program around the theme of standing up for ourselves and others. We continue to explore how to best express the meanings of our pieces. One of our song selections, “Glory,” features the baritone section rapping one of the verses. Several student leaders are now leading their sections in sectionals during rehearsals. The high school chorus teacher, Mr. Stefanov, will stop by one of our classes and discuss chorus options at CRLS in January. Over 30 students auditioned for solo parts in the upcoming concert. Though only a few were chosen, I was impressed by the number of singers wiling to take such creative risks.

Percussion: Joshua DeWitte, [email protected]


7th and 8th Grade: In Urban Legends, students continue to develop rudiments and fluency with reading notation. 7th grade is now playing 3 pieces and beginning to listen to each other to create a unified sound. 8th grade is working on a level 3 piece, “Max,” which challenges each player. We will perform at the Unity Concert on Dec. 30 at 6 pm.

Music Studio: Jamal Fairbanks, [email protected]


6th Grade: We are continuing our ukulele journey, diving into more chords, learning new strumming patterns, and playing more songs. After pairing up and performing duets with each other in class, we’ve begun learning tablature, a form of notation for string players. This will be another way to access thousands of songs. 7th Grade: The students that chose to work as CEOs of their own record label are adding the students who chose to learn the guitar on their website. We’ve also spent time examining social concepts and ideas created by artist whose music is featured in music videos. We’re asking questions such as: What message is the music video trying to convey? How are the lyrics reflected in the video? 8th Grade: 8th grade has finished up their CEO projects and have dived into a unit that examines social concepts and ideas created by artist whose music is featured in music videos. We’re asking questions such as: What message is the music video trying to convey? How are the lyrics reflected in the video?    

Ukulele: Jamal Fairbanks, [email protected]
 

Grade 7th/8th: Students are continuing developing their library of ukulele chords and technique, the building blocks of learning and creating ukulele music. We’ve added several chords to our arsenal, along with adding a percussive element to our playing. We are continuing to prepare the music for our upcoming Unity concert with the band, chorus, and orchestra.

Art: Lucia Lee, [email protected]


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, curvy contour lines and blending/shading with charcoal. This will be their last big art assignment before they move onto theater arts next semester!

7th graders have finished building the armature of their creature soft sculptures. They are now using papier-mâché paste (glue powder + water) and strips of soft paper to create a cohesive “skin” and smooth surface for painting. Students are practicing ways to set up and clean up after themselves appropriately and efficiently.

8th graders are finishing up their drawing assignment in which they accurately enlarge a 4x6 image of their choice onto a 12x18 paper using the grid method. They will then transition onto a Notan cut-paper design project, which uses the interaction between positive and negative space. Notan is a Japanese word that means light-dark.

Independent Studies students are continuing to work on self-directed projects that include portrait drawings, altered books, a comic-collage-painting hybrid, soft sculptures, landscape paintings on canvas boards, and intricate cut-paper projects inspired by contemporary artists such as Nikki McClure and Peter Callesen. Projects also include designing and building a cardboard shoe sculpture as well as designing and painting on sneakers for sale in the future.

Theater Arts: Summar Elguindy, [email protected]


6th grade: The 6th grade has been learning to use a healthy stage voice when performing. They have been creating characters voices and interesting dialogue. They performed reader theater with a comical play, The Magic Touch. Currently, students were given slips of dialogue and are in the process of writing their own original short scenes to be rehearsed and performed for the class.

8th grade: The class has begun planning movements and stage blocking for their festival play, 10 Ways to Survive The End Of The World. Students have also been exploring play structure and telling stories using body language and facial expression.

Spanish: Nick Paras, [email protected]

Grade 6: Students will continue to work on talking about their likes and dislikes using the verb gustar and activities that they enjoy or do not enjoy. We will be creating a small book using this verb or a poster stating things they like or don’t like. These will be written in full sentences. We will then move onto telling time. Students will review the numbers 0-60 and then tell the time on each clock. Students will then tell what time of the day they do certain things. On google classroom, students will create a document where they show a picture of something they do and then tell the time that they do it. Lastly, students will learn body parts in Spanish. We will talk about how to use the vocabulary and also play simon says to practice body parts. The games will be student led. Students will then create their own person and then label all the body parts. Finally, we will learn the verb doler and use it with body parts. Students will practice it by writing sentences.

Grade 7: We will talk about items that are in the classroom. How do we describe what is in a classroom. Students will pick their favorite classroom and write sentences describing the classroom that they chose. Students will then describe what is in each others backpack in Spanish. They will be using full sentences using AR verbs to tell what each item is used for. We will then move onto breakfast and lunch vocabulary. We will start by learning the verbs comer, beber and cocinar. Then students will talk about what they like to eat for breakfast and lunch, what they usually eat for breakfast and lunch and what their ideal meal would be for breakfast and lunch. What is usually in your refrigerator? Students will make a list of items that are usually in their refrigerator including food and drinks.

Grade 8: Students will learn vocabulary in order to describe their bedrooms. This will include the colors so they can say what color each item is. They will then be given pictures of bedrooms to describe in Spanish. We will also learn how to make comparisons in Spanish. We will make comparisons about things in the classroom and around the school. Who/what is taller, younger, older, more athletic, serious, artistic daring, etc. Students will then move onto learning about stem-changing verbs. How do we conjugate them? How do we use them in sentences? In class, we will practice both. In this unit, we will work on o-ue stem changing verbs. Lastly, we will learn about using superlatives. How do we use them to say something is the most or least, the best or worst. We will do this by creating sentences using the superlatives and students will write about what is the best or the worst thing for them.

French: Neil Pischner, [email protected]


6th grade: I continue to be impressed with how the 6th grade is navigating our immersion classroom. Each class, students are employing a variety of strategies that foster independent learning. This month, students continue their work with last month’s performance targets by learning new tools to create opportunities especially for presentational speaking and writing. These will include tasks that students can work on at their own pace, using both computers (e.g. recording and then listening to their own spoken French) and more manual kinds of mini-projects, such as making “foldable” scaffolding sheets for vocabulary review. Due to the recent snow day and field trip, we need to specifically wrap up the from the previous month: (1) students will practice expressions of politeness and more ways of saying goodbye; (2) students will learn how to count 11-19. We will see if we have time to learn a song before Winter Break.

7th grade: Students will learn review vocabulary about places in one’s community and then use this to ask for and give directions using interrogative expressions (Où, Où se trouve + the formula “est-ce que” and/or rising voice intonation). Students will also make a slideshow presentation about a neighborhood in Paris, but that will more realistically be in January.

8th grade: Students will be doing both formative and summative assessments on the material covered so far this year. Thus, we will be playing games to check for understanding and also taking a practice and an actual test. This will be important data as students become more aware that in the Spring a recommendation needs to be made by myself as to which level of French students will enter at the high school. Last, we will talk about possibilities for portfolio artefacts so that students can be well-prepared by end of the year.
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