With the Little Big Things Gala coming up, I think our mind certainly travels to the “littles” of elementary and all the big things they are up to, but don’t forget the middle schoolers! I would argue they are a perfect embodiment of a “little big thing.” They are big and in the middle of the growing-up-too-fast that we made them promise not to do – emotionally stretching, mastering academic concepts, learning hard lessons, wearing adult shoe sizes. However, they are also “little” – they’re back foot is still in childhood, their mind can still get lost in a neverland of creativity, playfulness, and an open mind. What a wonderful tension to be both little and big for four fabulous years. These “little-bigs” are certainly celebrated in this newsletter every week and at TCS each day. I hope you will join me in applauding them BIG at the gala!
-MK
Upcoming Dates:
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March 14 – Little Big Things Gala
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April 1 – Art Night Celebration
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April 3 – 10 – Spring Break
ELA: This week in ELA, 6th grade studied The Tygre and The Poison Tree by William Blake, specifically analyzing his rhyme scheme, rhythm, and metaphor. We also discussed how to incorporate painting and calligraphy into a work like Blake, and attempted our own William Blake inspired painted poetry. We also studied the pairing of poetry and painting in Japanese works. 6th graders began a larger grammar unit this week, as well, with a test planned for March 19th.
Next week, 6th grade will choose their focus fine art piece to both write about and interpret through a new medium in a cross-curricular collaboration with Ms. Henslee. They’ll have another week of grammar study before testing on 3/19, and will receive their grammar study guide by next Friday.
Science: This week in Science, 6th graders began developing their design briefs for their biomimicry projects. Students wrote overviews of their designs, explained how their ideas address their chosen Sustainable Development Goal, and thoughtfully considered potential challenges their designs might face. This process encouraged students to think critically about how nature-inspired solutions can address real-world problems.
Next week, students will draw and model their designs before beginning to write scripts for videos that showcase their projects, giving them an opportunity to communicate both their scientific thinking and creative solutions.
Social Studies: Students will be starting their women’s history month projects next week!
Math: This week in math, 6th graders practiced operations with signed numbers (positives and negatives) before applying this knowledge to the other 3 quadrants of a coordinate plane, as we’ve really only explored quadrant 1 up until now. They practiced plotting ordered pairs with both positive and negative coordinates.
Next week, 6th graders will practice more signed operations, including multiplication and division, and notice patterns and rules for completing those operations. We’ll start to practice with more complex rational numbers (decimals and fractions), also. Finally, they’ll take their Winter/Spring ERB milestone on Tuesday – which will showcase their growth so far this year!
