Here’s a snippet of what’s been happening in our Visual/Performing Arts and World Language classes:
Drama:
8th grade Coffee House was held earlier this week. It is amazing to hear the level of quality in the students’ spoken word pieces. In 7th grade, the students finished their Mindfulness Unit this week. Teaching children strategies to be in the moment can help children monitor and adjust their stress levels.
Chorus:
All grades are winding down and brainstorming artwork and music for the next semester.
Studio Art:
6th grade is beginning to study portraiture and will be creating self-portraits as part of the broader theme of Identity in the sixth grade curriculum. The 7th grade is almost done with a semester of hard, creative work. They are studying Linear Perspective and Color Theory and will be applying the concepts and skills to their final project, a watercolor landscape painting. And meanwhile our 8th graders are eagerly working on the Skateboard Deck Design, an exciting mixed-media piece.
World Languages:
In the World Language classes, our 6th graders learned the appropriate use of the comparative and superlative when writing sentences in Spanish. They are also finishing writing their pen pal exchange letter with students who attend a school in Spain. Our 7th graders, besides learning the comparative and superlative sentences, are also learning how to use the demonstrative adjective and pronouns. They are also very excited finishing with their pen pal letter. Some of our 8th graders finished studying and reviewing the present tense and now moved to the past tense. They are also learning how to replace the direct noun by using the direct and indirect object pronouns.
Other World Language classes culminated their project on food and healthy eating habits and the great contribution of the Aztec to our current diet. After harvesting their corn in the D-E garden late October, last week they had the opportunity to experiment with the process of making “Tortillas” and “Salsa” from scratch. This hands-on experience increases our students’ awareness of how long it takes to prepare a meal and now they appreciate this effort more. In our Latin classes, students prepared an authentic Roman brunch, and moving from declension 1st to the 2nd and 3rd.
