2—6 NOVEMBER
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
WEEKLY UPDATE
We are sharing highlights from our curriculum each week, along with pictures and announcements. These updates are great conversation starters to find out more about what we have been doing at school.
Arts This week we wrapped up bowl-a-rama (aka bowl making). Immersed in clay, the students put finishing touches on textured, themed, wildly shaped and uniform-like bowl forms. They are now proficient in rolling slabs and transforming these flat pieces into a variety of bowl like shapes. Thursday, we got a rundown from our resident ceramic studio maven(and high school ceramics teacher), Daniela, on how to properly glaze with the myriad of stoneware glazes available. The students began experimenting with glazing techniques and will continue into next week.
Music This week in All Things Rhythm we did some major work on our native american style hand drums. We used traditional materials such as deer hide and just finished tying the skin onto the 10" wooden drum frame after soaking the hide for days. We will be putting this finishing touches on our drums next week. In Orff Ensemble, This week we have been busy rehearsing the two songs we will be performing on Friday at the Soup and Cider event. Each student had a chance !2 to
2—6 NOVEMBER
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
Math
Learning together and building community
This week Math X continued with a math lab called Vampires: Fact or Fiction. In this activity, students were introduced to an exponential growth situation involving vampires. They learned how to use Excel and used the internet to help them analyze figures. The focus of this lesson was to see a pattern in numbers that changes depending upon a multiplier, and to see that exponentials grow slowly at first and then faster and faster. Students also observed that the graph of these numbers is curved, and they worked on a basic indirect proof. This lab ties into our chapter on exponents. Math Y students logged a lot of data collected from our Pumpkin Bowling last week with Coach Rob. All the pumpkins were weighed, measured, and timed while rolling over a 20-foot distance. From this information students calculated and recorded the rate for each pumpkin. Students will graph this information next week. Math Y also finished up the chapter on pre-algebraic expressions and equations and is beginning to work on numbers with exponents.
Applied Math After discovering patterns and algorithms, last week students were able to calculate how many Trick or Treat routes there were on a map of five houses, as well as the shortest, and the longest routes to take. After much tinkering, our mathematicians were able to present solutions to their peers. This week we began scale drawings of our middle school. Students reviewed architectural drawings and learn about measurement, scale, and tools of the trade. They worked in teams to measure create drawings of each room, which they will use them to construct a model of the spaces.
Science
From our Credo: They understand their abilities, optimize their strengths and excel, and through diligence, they cultivate success in other areas of importance.
6th grade science— Is it possible for two objects of different mass to reach the ground at the same time? Well in science this week students experimented with laws of gravity and acceleration, and they learned that Galileo was correct. They conducted a lab using a steel ball and a wooden ball, first rolling them with equal force across a table and then dropping them off the table to the floor. Then we discussed how the formula A= F/M works.
Language Arts We finalized thank you notes to the River Valley Charter School for inviting us crabbing and on their drifter drop adventure. The students worked through two or three drafts, practiced using friendly letter format, and then addressed envelopes on Wednesday. We also talked about the rule of “So what?” this week. The rule states that all good writing answers the question “So what?” and has a reason and purpose,for being. !1
2—6 NOVEMBER
conduct and try their hand at the different instruments involved in the songs. We also had a mini instrument petting zoo as each student got to try playing a six-foot tall upright bass!
Community Time The students enjoyed a second trip to Lowell’s Boat Shop this week—they learned more about the history of the shop and toured the museum. They also learned about different types of wood. The folks at the boat shop explained some of the properties of different types of wood—such as cedar’s natural resistance to rot—and how each type could be utilized to best make use of its properties.
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
Exploring and Discovering
Spanish Students practiced using the construction Me gusta + infinitive this week to express likes and dislikes. They also practiced asking one another if they like to do certain things such as skate, write, or sing by replacing “me” with “te”. They conducted surveys and then graphed the results and presented them in class— which required using the third person “le” indirect object pronoun. There will be a quiz on this material next Tuesday.
French This week in French was fun! Really! The students learned vocabulary about the family. They also practiced using 'my' in French such as in 'my mother'. Once they mastered the vocabulary and grammatical point, they listened to a song by Alain Le Lait called 'Ma famille'. The students loved it so much that they decided to 'act it out' once they had memorized the lines. They had a blast with this!
History Ghosts of explorers past mysteriously appeared in the Middle School cemetery last Friday morning. Students did a great job entwining their research into creative spooktacular tombstones. They were well presented and shared during Community Time on Friday. This week, students learned about the Vikings; contributions in History. Through readings, video clips, and a webquest, our young explorers were able to sail their ships along a Viking route to stop and discover historic facts. Wednesday we learned about runes and the Futhark language used by some Vikings. Our students wrote their Viking names based on their parents and grandparents, and whether they are a ‘son’ (as in “Ericsson”) or ‘dottir’. During Geography on Wednesday, we detoured a bit to talk about Vikings. Students read about the Viking homeland, their incentive for exploration, and the lands that they ‘discovered’. They used maps showing routes that Eric the Red led to Iceland, Greenland, Vineland, and to the ‘New World’.
Socratic Seminar The students tackled their first visual text this week—Flag by Jasper Johns. The group continues to do well listening and inviting others to speak, and we have a set a new group goal of making seminars more student run. They are beginning to dig deeper into some of the big ideas that surface, and I have begun writing these ideas on the board as students bring them up (sometimes they aren’t aware that they’ve touched on a rich topic). Soon I’ll turn this job over to students (with coaching).
From our Credo: Sparhawk students are willing to learn. Courageous in the face of unknowns, they are wiling to ask questions and persevere until understanding comes. Sparhawk students respect themselves enough to do their best, or hold that as a goal. !3
9—13 NOVEMBER 2015
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
WEEKLY UPDATE
We are sharing highlights from our curriculum each week, along with pictures and announcements. These updates are great conversation starters to find out more about what we have been doing at school.
Arts
Socratic Seminar
Glazing and practice were the orders of the week, in preparation for Soup and Cider on Friday. We hope that you were able to see the lovely bowls students and faculty crafted and to hear the performances our music students have practiced so diligently. The event was like a good soup—inviting, a melding of many good things, warming, and fulfilling. It was wonderful to see members of our entire community—from pre-k through 12 and even a few alumni—gathered to celebrate and support the art programming. Thanks for your support!
This week students discussed an excerpt from a letter Hernán Cortés wrote to Charles V of Spain in 1520. The letter was a description of the markets of the Aztec Capital of Tenochtitlan, and the discussion covered ideas about the rich and poor, trying new and strange foods, and relationships between powerful and powerless people. Students continue to take on the running of the Seminar; this week two students took turns recording the big ideas on the board, which I had been doing to this point. !2
9—13 NOVEMBER 2015
Learning together and building community
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
Math Math X is finishing up lessons on Scientific Notation and exponents. They have learned how to multiply and divide numbers with exponents, multiply and divide numbers in scientific notation, and are applying these skills to word problems. Math Y- Students continued their work on exponents and began divisibility rules and prime factorization this week. Using one inch square tiles, they were able to calculate and make patterns of factorization for numbers. Using the tiles, they graphed how many ways they could plant a given amount of flowers in a garden using equal rows. This served as a metaphor and visualization for the concept of factorization.
Applied Math Students continued to take accurate measurements of our Middle School and make scaled drawings. Many of our young architects began the elevation drawings of each wall in the room that they were assigned. We are looking forward to carefully putting the plan of each space together, creating one large floor plan and then starting our model.
Science Students conducted an experiment called Newton's Banana, however in keeping with the season, we used gourds. They drew a diagram and steps of how to find the mass of the gourd using a spring scale and string. They had to successfully use the formula of F = M x A and the recall that the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8m/s2. The seventh graders have been learning about Newton's laws of motion. We performed a couple of experiments that demonstrated that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an
From our Credo: They understand their abilities, optimize their strengths and excel, and through diligence, they cultivate success in other areas of importance.
Language Arts This week we began to talk about short fiction. Although this seems on its surface to be an easy genre in which to write, it is full of pitfalls. So as a group each class composed two lists—one that answered the question “What’s easy about writing bad fiction?” and the other that answered the question “What’s hard about writing good fiction?”. Next week we’ll start talking about character development and other techniques
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9—13 NOVEMBER 2015
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
Community Time We started off Community Time with an activity called “Sculpture Garden”. Using vocabulary words from the magazine, students paired off as “clay” and “sculptor”. After partners discussed the meaning of the word, the sculptor moved the clay into a position that expresses the word. All the sculptors then walked around the 'garden' and reflected on the meaning of the word as each sculptor described her or his piece. After this immersive activity, students worked on a magazine quest. They worked in pairs to find information about the Maya, and responded to questions about the civilization.
Exploring and Discovering
Spanish Students took a quiz on the construction me gusta + infinitive this week, which is used to express likes and dislikes. We’ve had fun practicing asking one another what we like and don’t like to do, as well as learning different infinitives and acting them out. We ended this week with a video of the Danza de los viejitos (“Dance of the little old men”), a folk dance from Michoacán, Mexico.
French In French, the students learned how to introduce the members of their families. Then, they each presented a family tree, which was either their own or an imaginary one, such as the dog family. On Thursday, they helped make a Ratatouille for Soup and Cider event. They practiced their cutting skills and learned how to say the vegetables in French.
History We stepped back in time this week to the Maya Civilization. Students learned the characteristics that make up a civilization and why each are important. On Monday they began a KWL (Know, Want to know, Learned) chart. Students offered their knowledge and questions and everyone made a chart in her or his notebook as we recorded ideas on the board. We watched a brief video about Maya culture and began talking about the elements of civilization.
Athletics Coach Rob led our students in games of basketball this week. While he offers skills-based work around passing the ball, guarding, and taking shots, the most valuable skills he helps students develop are many and not often explicit: sportsmanship, perseverance, self-calming, resilience, keeping a positive attitude and perspective. It is exciting to see everyone absorbed in the pace of the game, and to watch them come together as team players.
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16–20 NOVEMBER 2015
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
WEEKLY UPDATE
We are sharing highlights from our curriculum each week, along with pictures and announcements. These updates are great conversation starters to find out more about what we have been doing at school.
Arts
Socratic Seminar
A few weeks back a student asked if we could make ocarinas in class. The interest stemmed from a popular video game series The Legend of Zelda. This week, we started working on this form—what an incredible opportunity to connect an interest from the students’ present day world (video games) to none other than our thematic study of indigenous cultures of the Americas! I shared some history with the students— ocarinas were crafted and played by the Aztecs, Maya, and Incas. Cortez brought them to Europe along with Aztec dancers he brought to tour Spain and other European countries. Eventually, the instrument made a comeback in 1991 in The Legend of Zelda as a "magic flute."
The text for this week’s seminar was a summary of the Aztec creation myth. Some of the things students discussed included cycles of creation and destruction, the Aztecs’ closeness to nature, and the reasons for myths. The students continue to make progress on including everyone in the conversation and keeping the conversation on topic. They are also taking over the tracking of the big ideas and comments in the conversation, all in pursuit of our goal to make seminars !2 student run.
I prepped all of the students to exercise extreme patience through the process as the true challenge is actually getting sound out of the clay forms. In addition, students are crafting clay rattle forms which are guaranteed to give a gratifying rattling sound.
16–20 NOVEMBER 2015
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
Math
Learning together and building community
In math this week, students studied how the Maya performed mathematics. Using sticks and stones, students were able to work in a base 20 system, moving sticks and stones to different squares of a chart that represented different numbers. Once students learned how to get individual numbers, they were able to add and subtract them. This is a great tool for critical thinking, borrowing numbers, and it was just a plain old fun opportunity to learn something linked to this year’s theme.
Applied Math This week’s Applied Math class was a Science-based complement to our unit on forces and motion. Students designed, crafted, and tested parachutes for ping pong balls and wooden balls. They conducted three trials with the different balls, collected data (recorded times with a stopwatch), and compared results. Next week our young scientists will have to adjust their designs so that that both chutes make the balls drop at the same time.
Science Seventh grade science is finishing its study of Newton's three laws of motion. To summarize the unit, the students worked in groups to create and present skits that demonstrated each law. We had a cartoon, a 'mom and dad' team, and demos using basketballs and rolling chairs. Everyone loves Bill Nye the Science Guy, and this week Bill engaged us in fun and exciting scenarios based on Newton's three Laws of Motion. Students answered questions pertaining to the video while watching and listening. They then worked in groups preparing skits that explained each law. They composed skits that clearly stated each law, and they had to explain how their skits illustrate the law. Monday will be showtime. From our Credo: They understand their abilities, optimize their strengths and excel, and through diligence, they cultivate success in other areas of importance.
Language Arts This week we worked to identify the problems that main characters face in fiction. So everyone spent some time listing problems from books they’ve read, and then we compiled these together. We also identified “what ifs” that authors explore in their stories, and students worked on their own “what if” lists. One reference point for us was Roald Dahl’s question—“What about a chocolate factory thatt makes fantastic and marvelous things—with a crazy man running it?” We’ll start working with characters next. !1
16-20 NOVEMBER 2015
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
Community Time In keeping with our theme, students used the Maya syllabary to select glyphs that represented the sounds in their name. It was fun and challenging to create a picture that represented each of their names; everyone really got into this project and the results were beautiful. Many ventured to create their last names also. We also arranged tasting evaluations of edible and drinkable chocolate. Students tasted samples of chocolate with varying percentages of cocoa, spiciness, and sweetness. They then used tasting charts to write down their observations about each preparation. Next week, we’ll revisit these notes to see what inferences can be made about our society and Aztec society based on our different palates.
Exploring and Discovering
Spanish The students had a great time learning new clothing words this week. I borrowed a small slew of costume clothing from the theater and we played receptive and expressive games to learn the names of each article of clothing. We also practiced asking and answering the questions ¿Qué llevas? (“what are you wearing?”) and ¿Quién lleva (el vestido)? (“Who’s wearing [the dress]?”). On the grammar front, we worked with definite and indefinite articles (to say, for instance, “a dress” vs. “the dress”) and talked about noun/article agreement. We also started working with appearance adjectives, and we will play some “Who’s who?” games with these adjectives.
French This week in French, the students learned how to say their age and ask somebody's age. They practiced many short dialogues, and at the end of the week, they performed a skit that included all the vocabulary they had learned from their first day of class. They pretended to be having a picnic in France. They had fun performing it and were proud to be able to say so much in a conversation. To wrap up the week, they relaxed on their picnic table and watched Muzzy. Everybody loves Muzzy!
History We continued our study of the Maya Civilization this week in a number of ways. First we presented a powerpoint about the characteristics of the Maya Civilization. As they recorded informational notes on the topics, your inquisitive children opened up in great conversation. We also watched a reenactment video of an early Maya game similar to basketball. We extended this study during community time this week.
Athletics Coach Bob ran basketball skill on Tuesday and a great game with the kids, while Coach Diane held a kickball game on Thursday. We’re looking forward to a joint Athletics class with the eighth graders on Tuesday!
From our Credo: Sparhawk students are willing to learn. Courageous in the face of unknowns, they are wiling to ask questions and persevere until understanding comes. Sparhawk students respect themselves enough to do their best, or hold that as a goal.
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30 NOVEMBER—4 DECEMBER 2015
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
WEEKLY UPDATE
We are sharing highlights from our curriculum each week, along with pictures and announcements. These updates are great conversation starters to find out more about what we have been doing at school.
Socratic Seminar This week’s text was a story of a shipwreck from a book called “The Royal Commentary of the Inca”. The story is true, although students questioned the author’s reliability because of several details. How did the author discover this story? Did he hear it first hand? As the group pushed beyond the facts, they discussed themes of survival, skill, luck, and determination, shelter, prayer, and depression.
Indigenous Influences (visual art) This week in art class the students got their clay whistles to sing and their rattles to dance! I feel a clay instrument band is in order. Next week the students will be finishing up these pieces up,by adding designs, patterns and finishing touches. !2
30 NOVEMBER—4 DECEMBER 2015
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
Math
Learning together and building community
In math this week, students have been learning the Distributive Property and how to use Prime Factorization to factor numeric and algebraic expressions. The latter is a multi-step mathematical process involving previously learned skills. After students demonstrated some sample problems on the white board, I was pleased at how well they did. One student said, “Wow, this actually fun!” Another added,” Yeah, everything we learned is coming together”. Kids loving math…well that just made my day!
Applied Math In Applied Math class students continued on their drawings of the Middle School. We worked in the Maker Space, which is a new space designed for students to develop their creative ideas three dimensionally. Many students completed their interior elevations, while others are continuing with dimensions on the more complex hallway plans. Our next step is to piece the floor plan together and cut foam board for the walls.
Science Seventh Grade Science—We have been studying the conservation of momentum. Students were able to experience this first hand in our marble lab, where we saw the marbles in a tube exchange momentum with the marble(s) on a ruler. Sixth Grade Science— Momentum was this week’s Science lesson. Students explored Newton's Law of the Conservation of Energy by experimenting with wooden balls, marbles, toy cars, and metal washers. They demonstrated that when two objects collide, the total momentum of the objects before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the objects after the collision. Students carefully chose materials for models used to conduct experiments to show this transfer of energy. From our Credo: They understand their abilities, optimize their strengths and excel, and through diligence, they cultivate success in other areas of importance.
Language Arts Students thought about creating believable characters this week. I demonstrated how to fill out a main character questionnaire (with lots of student input), and we compiled a list of things that writers must do to create three dimensional characters. Students completed their own main character questionnaires later in the week, and will start working on leads to their stories next week.
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30 NOVEMBER—4DECEMBER 2015
SPARHAWK MIDDLE SCHOOL
Community Time Students conducted a simulation of the Columbian Exchange by passing import and export trade cards amongst themselves. Afterwards, our young historians discussed and tallied whether they felt they benefitted from the exchange or not. Many felt they did benefit until they got cards that were marked with an “o”, meaning they were exposed to diseases of which they had no immunity. This simulated the devastating exchange of disease from Europe to the “new world”. Next week we will continue to explore the effects of the Columbian Exchange through more activities, slideshows, and an advertisement project.
Exploring and Discovering
Spanish and French We had a lot of fun with appearance descriptions this week. We played ¿Quén es quién? (“Who’s who?”)—I displayed drawings of different people on the monitor, and each student wrote a description of one of these characters. They then took turns reading their descriptions to each other, and figuring out which person their partner was describing. We continued to work on clothing vocabulary, too, and added colors to our descriptions of clothing. We ended with a quiz on these topics on Thursday on which everyone did well. In French, students learned colors before Thanksgiving, and played a number of different games to memorize them. This week they learned about food and added drinks. We've been practicing the vocabulary by playing games, performing mini dialogues, and watching videos.
History This week in History class, we discussed the Aztec Civilization and its impact on the world, noting accomplishments and traditions. We discussed Old World vs. New World and what happened when the two worlds collided. We also spent some time discussing the terms “new world” and “old world” and why they are problematic but continue to be used.
Athletics Coach Rob organized a game of street hockey on Tuesday, and the students played with gusto—and teamwork. Coach Diane led the group in a game of basketball on Thursday. They have been practicing zone defense and, on offense, how to pass around the defense. The kids are really loving both of these sports, and Coach Rob has left some basketballs that the kids use during recess periods.
Enrichments This week was the first class of our six-week Enrichment program. Bob worked with students in the kitchen making tortillas. They started with corn flour and compared their handmade tortillas to store-bought corn tortillas. The other the half of our group worked with Diane on Stop Motion videos. Students used a Stop Motion app and toy characters to create short videos. It was fascinating to see how quickly students learned the process and enjoyable to watch the results.
From our Credo: Sparhawk students are willing to learn. Courageous in the face of unknowns, they are wiling to ask questions and persevere until understanding comes. Sparhawk students respect themselves enough to do their best, or hold that as a goal.
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