Our annual Halloween Carnival isn’t just about candy and costumes, it’s a perfect example of what real learning looks like at Cooper. Every part of the event is completely planned and run by middle school students. It starts with the eighth graders deciding on a theme for the day. Then our fifth graders take that theme and run with it – creating spooky decorations to cover the backyard. From brainstorming booth ideas to creating materials lists, deciding who brings what, designing posters, and setting up for the big day, it’s all on them! Teachers are there to cheer them on and help only when truly needed – no hand-holding here.
What makes this project so powerful is how it brings social-emotional learning (SEL) to life. Students practice empathy as they design fun experiences for younger kids, compromise as they make group decisions, and collaboration as they problem-solve together to make sure everything runs smoothly. It’s messy, meaningful, and full of moments where students learn what it really means to take ownership and work as a team.
This is progressive education in action. We know that students learn by doing, taking risks, reflecting, and growing through authentic experiences. And in the end, our middle schoolers don’t just pull off an amazing carnival…they walk away with the kind of confidence, connection, and skills that can’t be found in a textbook or worksheet.
-RC
ELA- 6th grade continued Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, digging deep to both find and unpack the novel’s message on and symbols of perception. Their text evidence charts will be due next Thursday, 11/7 – this project will set them up for success in their upcoming essay unit! Students also studied the types of conjunctions, compound, and complex sentences this week in grammar.
Next week, 6th graders will finish When You Reach Me and begin formulating ideas for their future thesis on what the novel has to say about perception. They will have a grammar test on 11/6, so be sure to look out for a study guide!
Science- This week 6th graders put together everything we have learned about the atmosphere to discuss the difference between weather and climate. Students used their knowledge to draw diagrams of wind movement and types of heat transfer Next week students will wrap up the unit and take their test on Thursday, November 6th.
Social Studies- We are continuing to learn about ancient Egypt and with that we took an amazing field trip to the Charleston Museum this week to see their exhibit on Egypt! It may be a small part of the museum but the artifacts they have are amazing! Next week we will start to look at famous inventions and Pharaohs of the time and see how much influence they truly have on the world still!
Math- This week in math, sixth graders continued applying fractions to more complex problems, and we also dove back into decimals – reviewing what we learned from last year and applying them to things like rates, ratios, and percentages.
Next week, we’ll continue our decimal review with multiplication and subtraction – applying these skills also to rates, ratios, and percentages to help us solidify our mastery and understanding of how decimals work in the real world. We’ll also begin gearing up for our end of unit assessment for this unit!
