Library Technology | Ms. Musher [email protected]
After a series of staff meetings in which teachers had the opportunity to explore new tech tools, students have been using these tools more often in class. We are privileged to have a full set of new Chromebooks in every Core class this year, and online tools such as EdPuzzle, Google Quizzes, and WeVideo give students new ways to learn and show what they know.
7th: In Social Studies, students have begun a major research paper, in which they will answer the question, “How can people persevere when they face persecution in their lives?” This connects to the refugee memoirs they read in ELA. Students choose current or historical figures who faced persecution. Popular choices include Rosa Parks, Roberto Clemente, and Malala Yousafzai, among many others. Between now and February break, students will research and write about their person, building the information literacy skills of finding credible sources, synthesizing information from multiple sources, asking and answering research questions, selecting appropriate quotes as evidence for their argument, and more.
Health and Wellness | [email protected]
6th Grade: Students are coming to the end of their Mental and Emotional Health Unit. The next several lessons students will be learning about what causes stress, how to manage stress in healthy ways and how to deal with troublesome feelings in healthy ways.
7th Grade: Students are continuing their “Let’s Get Real” Conflict Resolution Unit. They are exploring the “isms” such as racism, ageism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ableism and anti-semitism.
8th Grade: Students will be continuing to engage in their Sexual Education unit. The next month students will be learning about Abstinence, Comprehensive Protection Methods, Abstinence and HIV/AIDs.
Physical Education | Mr. Moore [email protected]
6th Grade: Students will be culminating their net game unit focused on volleyball rotation and underhand serve form through participating in Newcomb Ball. Students will then be introduced to their creative movement unit, where students learn various rhythmic jumping patterns with coordinated counting sequences by utilizing “jumping bands” in small groups of 3-4 students. By the end of the unit, students will be working on choreographing small performances that will be presented.
7th Grade: Students will be culminating their net game unit focused on skill-based performances for both Newcomb Ball and Volleyball. Students will begin their creative movement unit, where they will implement rhythmic counting into performing a created dance or movement sequence. Students (in groups of 2-4) will work on choreography throughout the unit and be assessed upon completion of the performance based activity.
8th Grade: Students will be culminating their net game unit focused on dynamic skill-based activities and will partake in formative assessments of rules and regulations for Volleyball. Students will then begin their creative movement unit where they will implement rhythmic counting into performing a created dance or movement sequence. Students (in groups of 2-4) will work on choreography throughout the unit, and then be instructed to present/teach another group their created routine.
Band | Mr. Wroge [email protected]
6th, 7th & 8th Grade Band: We continue our work on Music Literacy, Posture, Breath Support, Ensemble Playing, Teamwork, Dynamics, Expanding our Knowledge of Key Signatures, and Playing in Multiple Time Signatures. We now have two concert pieces, “Concordium” and “We’re On A Mission To Rock”, and “My Shot” for 7th and 8th graders. In addition to our concert music we have begun our two measure improvising unit using our knowledge of the Bb blues. Learning how to improvise in the blues can help kids build musical knowledge of a popular American art form (The Blues), increase confidence, and foster creativity. Please encourage your students to practice their concert music at home in preparation for our Unity Concert on Thursday, January 31st.
String Orchestra | Brittany Phillips [email protected]
The 6th Grade Orchestra is making great strides with note reading, playing complex rhythms and bow patterns and playing with a beautiful tone. We are focusing on slurred bow strokes and swinging rhythms while learning our new piece, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” We are excited to perform “Rock On” in the Unity Concert on January 31st! Leading up to the concert, students are encouraged to practice a minimum of 4 days a week for 15 minutes. If students are unable to practice at home, please reach out to me so I can help with in-school practice options.
The 7th grade orchestra & 8th grade orchestra are diligently working through their two challenging concert pieces, “Thriller” by the late Michael Jackson, and a fun, lyrical piece called “African Adventure.” Students are reinforcing their note reading skills while tackling challenging dotted rhythms and hooked bow strokes. We will continue our focused studies on shifting into 3rd position and getting more confident with left hand vibrato. We are excited to showcase all that we have worked on in the Unity Concert on January 31st! Leading up to the concert, students are encouraged to practice a minimum of 4 days a week for 15-20 minutes. If students are unable to practice at home, please reach out to me so I can help with in-school practice options.
Music Studio | Mr. Fairbanks [email protected]
6th Grade/7th Grade: Both 6th and 7th grade are continuing their journey of playing the ukulele! They are currently improving their ability to play several chords that will serve as the building blocks for the songs the students will choose and learn. Through patience and perseverance we will continue building strength in our hands while developing our sense of rhythm.
8th Grade: This week we will begin our journey playing the wonderful instrument from Portugal/Hawaii: The Ukulele! The 8th grade will learn of its roots and begin learning good playing technique as well as some chords that will provide the foundation of song learning!
Chorus Gr. 6-8: Joshua DeWitte, [email protected]
6th Grade: We are busy preparing for our concert on January 31 at 6PM. We will perform a challenging program. 6th grade is producing a beautiful sound and rose to the challenge of singing “Somewhere Only We Know” in 3 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. In addition to our work on the concert, students learned about vocal health. Students auditioned for solo parts in December. There will be 9 solos in the concert divided between our repertoire of 4 songs.
7th Grade: The 7th grade chorus has worked hard on their most challenging repertoire yet. They are now singing confidently in 3 parts. As we prepare for the concert on Jan. 31, we continue to discuss how to express our music. Students auditioned for solo parts in December. There will be 9 solos in the concert divided between our repertoire of 4 songs.
8th Grade: 8th Grade is busy preparing for our concert. The choir is now singing in 4 parts! We continue to explore how to best express the meanings of our pieces. Several student leaders are now leading their sections in sectionals during rehearsals. The high school chorus teacher, Mr. Stefanov, will top by one of our classes and discussed chorus options at CRLS in late January or early February. We also discussed vocal health with an emphasis on the changing voice. Lastly, 8th graders performed musical interpretations of some children’s books. The performances were outstanding. We hope to tour some elementary schools in the district!
Percussion: Gr. 7 - 8
In Urban Legends, students continue to develop rudiments and fluency with reading notation. We are working on Drumfire 2, a complicated piece that features each section. We will perform Drumfire 2 at the Unity Concert on Dec. 31 at 6 pm. We took a field to CRLS in December and participated in a drumline class.
Spanish | Mr. Paras [email protected]
6th Grade: For the next few weeks, we will be working on numbers, days and months, (The calendar.) Students will learning the numbers from 0-100, the days of the week and the months. There will be some activities that we do online. In small groups, students will look at calendars and then ask and answer questions about the calendar. Students will then go to other groups and talk about their calendars. We will then turn our attention to describing the weather in Spanish. Students will look at pictures of different weather and describe them using weather terms. In class, we will look at some weather forecast and then students will make up their own forecast for different areas of the country. In class, we will present our weather forecast by talking about the weather and saying what the degrees is. Lastly, students will pick their own areas of the world and research the weather in that region. They will then report the weather of that region back to the class.
7th Grade: Students will continue their work from last year on conjugating verbs. We will review what a subject pronouns is, what an infinitive is and the verb endings for “AR” verbs. In class, we will practice using these verbs and work on writing sentences about different topics. Students will then create verb transformations using “AR” verbs. We will also be doing various activities with “AR”verbs. Students will then go onto learning about the verb ending for “ER” and “IR” verbs. In class, we will learn some commonly used verbs and write sentences using “ER” and “IR” verbs. In pairs, students will make up a cartoon strip or a cartoon and write sentences about it. Students will do some readings that have incorrect sentences and they will have to correct them. Lastly, students will learn about definite and indefinite articles. We will talk about their meanings and how to make them plural.
8th Grade: In grade 8, we will be working on the numbers 100-1,000. Students will create math problems using these numbers that other students will have to solve. We will then review all kinds of verbs including “AR”, “ER” and “IR” verbs as well as some irregular verbs. Students will then learn about word order in sentences and how it is different in Spanish and English. After this is completed, we will practice by making sentence strips and also have sentence races where students will have to write sentences competing against other teams. We will then move onto the differences between ser and estar. When do we use each verb? This will be our main focus between these two verbs. Students will go over the conjugations and then in pairs create posters for ser and estar. These posters will include sentences using these verbs and include pictures. Students will then move to reading small paragraphs and writing small descriptive paragraphs using ser and estar. Lastly we will be creating interview questions using ser and estar and students will pair up to ask and answer the interview questions. Students will then present some of their interview questions to the class.
French & Spanis | Mr. Pischner [email protected]
6th, French Students will continue working with our T’es Branché textbook by navigating our “Métro” stations circuit, where students rotate through a series of tasks involving listening, reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary games, and reflection/self-assessment. Our new learning targets get students (1) asking how things are going; (2) telling how I am; and (3) using expressions for saying goodbye. Students also need to get used to making up classwork any time they are absent (for any reason, including pull-outs). All make-up work is posted on our Google Classroom, as are the instructions for logging onto the T’es Branché eBook. I accept make-up work up until closing of semester grades, but it is always better to get caught up sooner. I am happy to help students during lunch and after school by appointment.
7th, French Students will continue working with our T’es Branché textbook by navigating our “Métro” stations circuit, where students rotate through a series of tasks involving listening, reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary games, and reflection/self-assessment. Our new learning target gets students distinguishing between and using informal and formal registers when greeting someone. Students also need to get used to making up classwork any time they are absent (for any reason, including pull-outs). All make-up work is posted on our Google Classroom, as are the instructions for logging onto the T’es Branché eBook. I accept make-up work up until closing of semester grades, but it is always better to get caught up sooner. I am happy to help students during lunch and after school by appointment.
8th, French Students will continue working with our T’es Branché textbook by navigating our “Métro” stations circuit, where students rotate through a series of tasks involving listening, reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary games, and reflection/self-assessment. Our new learning targets get students (1) inviting someone to go to a place, and (2) accepting or refusing an invitation. Students also need to get used to making up classwork any time they are absent (for any reason, including pull-outs). All make-up work is posted on our Google Classroom, as are the instructions for logging onto the T’es Branché eBook. I accept make-up work up until closing of semester grades, but it is always better to get caught up sooner. I am happy to help students during lunch and after school by appointment.
8th, Spanish
Students have accelerated faster than anticipated and have covered (1) telling time; (2) parts of the body; (3) classroom objects; (4) months; (5) using “gustar” to express likes and dislikes; and (6) describing personality traits. Students will next learn to: (1) talk about school schedules and subjects; (2) discuss what students do during the day; and (3) ask and tell who is doing an action. Grammar that allows students to communicate on those topics include rules about adjectives, ordinal numbers, subject pronouns, and conjugating “-ar” verbs in the present simple. Students also need to get used to making up classwork any time they are absent (for any reason, including pull-outs). Students can see me after school for making up work.
Art | Lucia Lee [email protected]
One 6th grade section is finishing up their Leluja-style cut-paper project. Leluja is a form of Polish art that involves the use of symmetry, nature, and a central tree-like form. They sketched out a first draft and developed their patience and paper-cutting skills in cutting out the design. Students will then use the draft to trace their designs onto colored paper and cut out the final draft. The other two 6th grade sections will begin 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.
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 have just finished their Notan designs, which use the interaction between light-dark and positive-negative space. They are now beginning to experience the grid method in drawing as well as various drawing techniques to accurately enlarge a 4x6 image of their choice onto a 12x18 paper. This project is time-consuming, 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.
Theater Arts | Summar Elguindy [email protected]
6th grade: Students in two sections of 6th grade are working on building tools in their actors toolbox. They have been practicing using facial expression and body language in order to tell stories on stage. They are about to begin exploring tableau and pantomime as methods for communicating without words. One section of 6th grade is working on their final project using dialogue in scripted scenes.
8th grade: Students in 8th grade just received their scripts for A Midsummer Night's Dream and will begin exploring their characters and scenes in preparations for a festival in April. While we rehearse for this performance students will begin a playwriting project.