In this short week following Martin Luther King Jr. day, there were many healthy classroom discussions around peace, protest, and standing up for what we believe in. Our community of middle schoolers was happy to practice some deep introspection and consider where they hoped to see “more peace” in their home, school, community, and world. I have to believe this body of students and teachers is one dream fulfilled for Dr. King and that we’ve more dreamers growing strong within these walls. My own words certainly fall short next to the legacy of Dr. King’s movement and words. That’s why I leave you with one of my favorite writings of his, MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Please soak up its wisdom and relevance if you have the time.
MLK closes his letter with the hope “that the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.” I can report with peace in my heart that TCS is just one place where the fog of misunderstanding is lifted each day for young minds, where love and brotherhood shine. May it be so wherever our students go next.
-Maggie
Upcoming Dates:
- February 13 – Valentine’s Day Bake Sale and Bingo (1:30pm)
- February 16-17 – February Break (No School)
- Please fill out this form for James Island County Parks. We will be doing PE there starting in February!
- February 27 – Middle School Dance
ELA: 5th graders wrapped up their nonfiction reading unit this week, pasting and prepping their final pocket guides based on their self-selected topics. Our final pocket guides were colorful, cleverly written, and brilliantly scrapbooked with many pictures to represent an array of interests from Catherine of Aragon to The Cold War to Alan Turing and beyond! We celebrated on Friday by having a read-a-thon of our peers finished work!
Next week, 5th graders will have a grammar test on Wednesday, 1/28. We started studying verbs this week and a study guide will be in their folders by Friday. We will also start our argument writing unit next week!
Science: This week in science, 5th graders explored how the circulatory and respiratory systems work together to deliver oxygen to every cell in the human body. Students brought their understanding to life by writing postcards from the perspective of an oxygen molecule traveling through the body. Their creativity and thoughtful details beautifully demonstrated how these two transport systems cooperate to keep us healthy.
Next week, students will prepare for their transport systems assessment on Friday, January 30th, and begin the final investigation of this unit by exploring the sensory system. They will start by investigating reaction time and how quickly the body responds to visual stimuli, continuing to connect science learning to their own experiences.
Social Studies: Fifth grade has finished Europe and our study of the people and places of the continent. We are having our test next Friday with all information being found on their google classroom. We are also going to next week do a project in which we will be pretending to be inside the European Union and work together as our separate countries we researched to solve problems together!
Math: This week in math, the 5th graders took their unit 5 assessment over decimal operations, and next week we will dive into unit 6 which combines fraction and decimal operations into multistep problems – relating them to metric conversions, powers of ten, exponential functions, etc.
