Kindergarten: 100 Days Smarter!
All year long, students in both kindergarten cohorts have been tracking how many days we have been in school using ten frames and numerals. This past Tuesday, kindergarten celebrated an exciting achievement–their 100th day of school! On that day, students and teachers who were interested in doing so came to school dressed up as if they were 100 years old or centenarians, as we learned that they are called!
All week long, the students also chose from a wide selection of dynamic activities and centers that highlighted the number 100. For instance, they might have decorated glasses in the shape of 100, performed 100 exercises, filled in blank hundred charts, gone on scavenger hunts, estimated which jar had 100 beans, wrote 100 words, or made creations out of 100 Legos. We even read a poem with exactly 100 words! Finally, we listened to some picture books specifically about the number 100 or the 100th day of school such as Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten, Centipede’s 100 Shoes, and 100th Day Worries.
Since today officially marked the 103rd school, that means we only have 66 more days of school remaining in the 2021-22 school year. You may wonder, but who’s really counting? In this case, kindergarten certainly is!
– Betty Chu Pryor & Missy Hartvigsen, kindergarten teachers
Sixth Grade Science Looks at Our Closest Star
Sixth graders have been learning about stars this week and had a chance to look at our nearest star, the sun, through the school’s telescope! This required a special filter, of course, but allowed us to see some of the features on the sun’s surface and get a better understanding of what a star really is. We also worked together to create an example of the “Hertzsprung Russell” diagram, which shows the relationship between the temperature of a star and its brightness. This diagram has helped scientists, and our sixth graders, better understand the life cycle of stars.
– Kaleen Moriarty, sixth grade science teacher
PE Update: Mud Week in Fifth Grade
If you happened to be walking by the driveway circle near the PAC the other day you would have seen the fifth grade circled up and holding a plank. It’s mud week in athletics, and that means an opportunity for fitness in fun. Mud week is the week (or two) in between each middle school athletics season when our athletes gear down from the previous season and gear up for the upcoming one, engaging in reflections, fitness boot camps, and either the mile run or the beep test. The fifth grade has engaged in their own mud week to continue mirroring the middle school athletics program. They’ve crushed fitness stations, played pillo polo and handball, worked on cooperative challenges, and returned to the outdoors for their sustained runs. It is the ideal way to prepare for spring athletics, and for this soggy stretch, “mud week” certainly feels like an appropriate name.
– Alex Tzelnic, physical education teacher
Seventh Grade Latin Studies Roman Britain
Upon return from February break, seventh grade students began their next unit of study and turned their focus away from the destruction of Pompeii in Italy and towards Britain as it was under Roman control. Looking at the new characters introduced in the Cambridge Latin curriculum, students are examining the tone and bias in which these characters are portrayed and are thinking critically about the perspectives and experiences of both the Romans and Britons. This week students have been focused on comprehending positions of power in a Romano-British household and how that affects the daily experiences of each character. With descriptions of skills, abilities, and occupations, students are using Latin to learn about society and structure in ancient Britain.
– Nicole Buck, Latin teacher
