Spanish Students Learn, Share About El Días de los Muertos
Spanish students learned about and celebrated the traditional Mexican holiday, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Through different audio activities, students engaged in hands-on projects. Sixth grade students are making educational posters to teach the Belmont Day community the differences between Halloween and the Day of the Dead; they learned the traditional celebration icons from the eighth grade students’ projects displayed on a touchscreen in the Barn.
Seventh grade students followed this presentation to create altars to honor a friend, family member, or an artist who inspired them. The eighth grade students created an interactive display with the traditional icons, adding their voices to the presentation. The audio is in Spanish, and they also wrote the Spanish and English versions to enrich the display experience.
There are many events in the Boston area to join the celebration, immerse in the Hispanic culture, and have a fun and rich experience.
– Ana Maria Restrepo, middle school Spanish teacher
Kindergartners Trek to the Garden
After a unit on pumpkins, kindergartners took the first of what will be many trips to the school garden with Ms. Solomon. Not only did they get to pick flowers, but they harvested and later tried purple carrots and celery! As an added bonus, kindergarteners left two pumpkins near the garden as a science experiment. What will we see when we return to check on the pumpkins? If you see a kindergarten scientist, ask them about their hypothesis.
– Missy Hartvigsen and Elizabeth Ho, kindergarten teachers
Fourth Grade Ventures to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
The fourth graders had a wonderful visit to the MFA last Thursday. Students enjoyed locating artifacts from our “Mapping the Ancient World” project at the museum. Once they found their artifact, they shared facts about the civilization it came from with their group of classmates and chaperones. Students also visited the Greek art gallery, which is the favorite gallery of a character in a novel we are reading in class. Students were able to see the character’s favorite statue and look for clues to solve a mystery in the book. The final stop was with Madame Pellenq in the French Impressionists Gallery. They enjoyed having time to sketch some paintings they were learning about in class.
– The Fourth Grade Team
Sixth Grade Looks at Effects of Earth’s Tilt, Rotation
In science classes his week, sixth grade students manipulated physical models to demonstrate their understanding of the “reasons for the seasons.” From demonstrating how characteristics such as axial tilt work to explaining why they matter, students also played with different “What If?” scenarios to identify how Earth would be different should the characteristics cease to occur. Plenty of illuminating moments were shared between students, and they weren’t all from the flashlights they were using!
– Bill Hamilton, sixth grade science teacher
