I am that person who will bah-humbug my well meaning school kids when they request a little Christmas and holiday music on the class speaker before Thanksgiving. I’m all about the sparkly, gift wrapped cheer, but I will fight a little too boldly for the Thanksgiving season. Once again, I will use the excuse of a newsletter to step onto my soap box. I am, ahem, grateful for those of you who humor me when it’s my turn. That being said, it’s the gratitude that I’m fighting for. I’m asking for a season of prolonged, quiet gratitude that asks for no gifts, and doesn’t rush to the unwrapping rituals.
In fact, Our days at The Cooper School are the best when the ‘thank you’s’ are abundant. Now, a middle school ‘thank you’ has several iterations – it could be a half smile, the tiniest nod, a laughing fit. A Cooper School middle schooler’s language of gratitude is even more varied: it’s applauding their peers a minute longer than anyone expects at the talent show, it’s squeezing a friend’s hand as you sing in front of the whole school at said talent show, it’s an elaborately illustrated whiteboard message left for a tired teacher when she’s not looking, it’s a head on the shoulder of someone who lets you be upset, it’s a walk on the beach to raise money for those who lost much of what they were grateful for. So yes, I’ll happily look like a deflated Macy’s Day balloon using all my breath to preach gratitude to my TCS kids, simply because they are already too good at it! They should celebrate it, find more ways to say it!
Of course, there are days where you lose a little steam. Even Mrs. Thanksgiving 2024 hits a wall sometimes. Thankfully, adult gratitude can be as simple as looking out on a field of kids in their Halloween best, letting the breeze hit you and your silly clown costume, and exhaling.
-MK
Math:
This week was a short week due to the Halloween Carnival and the Teacher Work Day, so we began evaluating equations with positive and negative numbers, and using those to solve word problems. Next week, we will review for and take our unit 7 test!
ELA:
7th grade published their literary essays this week, moving on to their glossary and visual chapters to complete their genre zines! This is all in an effort to see how efforts in creative writing about reading (and even sketching about reading) can inform our more ‘academic’ essay writing. We also studied new vocabulary words in unit 2a of our workbooks.
Next week, writers will publish their zines and share them with the class (due 11/7). We will test for vocabulary on 11/7, so be sure to encourage consistent studying!
Social Studies:
Seventh grade will be starting a new unit next week on colonization and the arrival of Europeans to the new world. This will give them a new understanding of the role of Europe and how they shaped North and South America.
Science:
Seventh graders will be exploring Mars and the Moon this week. They will pick an inquiry about the moon and learn more about the phenomenon.
A note from our Development Coordinator:
Annual Fund Campaign Update-
We are currently at 16% family participation for 7th grade in our annual fund campaign, and if you haven’t had a chance to give yet, there’s still time to contribute and make an impact!
Also, thank you to those of you who have given your donation directly to me or who have Venmoed the school! If you haven’t had the chance to yet, there is still time!
Important Dates:
November 1: Teacher Work Day (No Students)
November 8: Parent Coffee with Jason Patera and Merle Henkel (8:15)
November 11&12: Parent Teacher Conferences
November 13: Cooper Clusters Lunch
November 22: Harvest Feast
November 25-29: Thanksgiving Break
