MSEnews5-06

Dashing for the finish line – May is truly the fastest month of the school year. A quick glance at the calendar reveals that we have just over 4 weeks of school left together. As the teachers are beginning their final units of the year I can honestly report that there is no “spring slide” for our students as they are all working hard and doing their best in each of their classes.

6th GRADE: The 6th Grade will be heading outside to study the ecology of some interesting local species, trying to get a sense of the population density, the dynamics of the environment in which they live, and also the capacity of the land to support such creatures. In history, the students will be working on their Roman research papers. It's hard not to be excited about Cleopatra, Caesar, assassinations, gladiator competitions and the Coliseum. Having completed their playgrounds in mathematics, the students begin their study of circles, cylinders, and other geometric shapes and principles. The playgrounds are on display in the library. In English, the 6th graders are reading Detectives in Togas, and practicing for their “Parts-of-Speech Performances,” due to be presented to Mrs. Johnson and her 3rd grade class on May 11th . They are also putting the finishing touches on their digital portfolios. The students in drama will be giving oral presentations based on a heroes poetry project, while in art, they will begin to work on a charcoal still-life that will teach them form and value.

7th GRADE: The 7th Grade class may have a new respect for their parents after completing their recent math project. Each student chose a profession for themselves and tried to balance the finances of owning a home and a car at a particular income, as well as managing living expenses. They will now move on to exploring the Pythagorean Theorem, surface area, and volume. In geography, the class has traveled to the subcontinent of India . This study will include a journal write, where the students take on the character of either a Hindu or Muslim, an Indian luncheon, a joint Harkness discussion with their English class, and hopefully the viewing of a Bollywood film. The class is reading the novel Monsoon Summer , which is set in India . The year in English will end with the reading and discussion of the classic play Inherit the Wind. For science, the students will finish the year wherever the wind blows them as they look at our atmosphere, the structure of weather systems and its connection to the ocean. This is certainly a little more in depth and scientific than licking your finger and holding it in the air. While all this is going on, the students are also keeping up with their language studies, learning the vocabulary of various Latin American sports in Spanish, working on social interactions and creating projects on some of the major features of Paris in French class. The Latin group is wrapping up the script-writing process that they have been engaged in for the past month. They begin filming their interpretation of Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid, as they work through their Jenney test. Art class is studying Georgia O'Keefe and painting flowers in her style, while drama students develop their public speaking skills with their own hero poetry presentations.

8th GRADE: The 8th Grade class will be getting all Shakespearean on us as they read, act, and produce scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream. This study will culminate with the annual Shakespearean picnic on May 30th . When not speaking in iambic pentameter, they will be completing their investigation of Sludge in science, for which they had to separate and correctly identify the substances in a mystery mixture. Next they will study compounds, elements, and the size of a molecule. In government, the students will be exploring the United States Judicial System, focusing on juvenile rights (exactly what we want our 8th graders to be well-versed in). They will hear from a lawyer, a judge, and also visit the U.S. District Courthouse on May 17th as part of this unit. Mathematically speaking, the 8th graders were just introduced to the quadratic equation. Who could forget “negative B, plus or minus the square root of B squared, minus four A C all divided by two A?” I'm sure that brings back fond memories, doesn't it? From here, these mathematicians will look at inequalities, simplifying complex equations, and functions. The 8th grade Spanish scholars have been working on their restaurant lingo which they were able to use at the El Paisa Restaurant this past week. They continue to ready themselves for Spanish 2 next year. The Latin 8 class is in the middle of filming its interpretation of the Twelve Labors of Hercules. While the Reges, Reginae, Princeps, and Princepia groups are all in different places of study in the Jenney text, they each will proceed to learn new material over the course of May in order to prepare them for a final exam that will determine their placement in the US Latin program.

SPIRIT WEEK : During the week of April 22nd , the Middle School not only celebrated the arts along with the rest of the school community, but we also celebrated our own creative and inspired natures during a Spirit Week, organized by the student council. The week went as follows: Monday – blue/white day, Tuesday – twin day, Wednesday – retro day, Thursday – Krazi-eclectic day, Friday – celebrity day. Once again, the students and faculty proved that you are never too old to dress up and be silly.

Name these "students."

8th Grade Twins

EELGRASS: On Thursday, April 27, the 7th grade class traveled to Ft. Getty in Jamestown to meet with a team from Save the Bay who were working on an eelgrass transplantation project. Earlier in the morning, two of the Save the Bay crew donned their dry suits and harvested hundreds of eelgrass plants from the frigid waters off of the Ft. Getty beach. Our students were charged with counting and tying the plants in bundles of 50. Once done, we also found time to hone our stone skipping skills in near perfect conditions. Later in the day, the 7th grade once again joined the STB team, this time at Sandy Point Beach at the end of Ives Road. Here, the students separated each bundle and tied individual plants or small groups of plants to heavy metal screens, called turfs. These were then carried offshore and placed on the bottom, with the hope that many of these plants will root themselves to the substrate, helping to re-vegetate this part of the Bay with this once abundant species.

Students are attaching the plants to metal "turfs." Notice the students

out in the water.

Here the class counts out clusters of eelgrass for planting.

WRAP-A-FRIEND COAT DRIVE: Headmaster Jim Young and his wife Jama invite you to support The Kids Caring Program. The program is in its fifth year of helping to keep Rhode Islanders warm through the collective efforts of students and their schools. Each year, they ask students to donate gently-used coats for the less fortunate in our community. We hope you will join in the School's effort to support this initiative.

The Kids Caring Program will collect coats from each participating organization the week of May 8, 2006. The goal is to gather 6,000 – 10,000 winter coats for men, women and children of all ages and sizes. A special need that has been difficult to meet is XXXL coats for men and women, and infant outerwear. They will spend time over the spring and summer cleaning and repairing the coats to be ready for families by the fall.

100% of all of the winter coats are given to homeless families or individuals, and those living in shelters. The organization makes donations to Crossroads, Providence Center , Welcome Arnold Shelter and Child, Inc . They also host a distribution day on the first Saturday in November to serve Rhode Island residents in need.

Thank you for supporting this important initiative and helping to keep Rhode Islanders warm. Please clean out your closet and “Wrap-A-Friend.” Collection bins will be on campus the week of May 8th in Flynn, Hopelands, Perkins and Hale.

LANGUAGE SIGN-UPS : Later next week, the 6th Grade students will be choosing their foreign language for the next two years. The Middle School language offerings are French, Spanish and Latin and will complete the equivalent course material as a first year, Upper School course. Students will be indicating their first and second choice of a language, as we do need a minimum number of 6 students in order to run an effective program. Please talk with your child about the choices.