This time of year at The Cooper School is pure magic! The rooms are buzzing as elementary and middle school students put the finishing touches on projects that show off all the incredible learning they’ve been doing.
I love watching ideas take shape—groups working together, sketching, building, testing, and sometimes realizing they need to pivot and start again (even when it means more work!). Those moments are where the real learning happens.
Everyone jumps in to help—teachers supporting teachers, students lending a hand to classmates who need it. It’s teamwork and community at its best.
As a parent, I often find myself so happy that I get to be a fly on the wall – lucky to witness it all. Trust me—it’s even better than you can imagine!
-Rives
ELA- 6th grade finished Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me this week, diligently gathering the last of their text evidence on perception to use in their essays next unit. We reflected on the story’s twists and turns, as well as our views on time travel! Due to our crazy Halloween schedules, the long weekend, and our CofC basketball field trip, students can plan to now test for Grammar on Monday 11/10 (it will be open note!).
Next week, 6th graders will begin a literary essay writing unit, using their evidence to build arguable thesis statements. We will also begin vocabulary unit 4.
Science- This week 6th graders wrapped up their weather unit. Students reviewed everything they had learned with a fun game and drawing diagrams to bring concepts together. Next week we will jump into the diversity of life. We will start with exploring what an organism is and what characteristics they exhibit.
Social Studies- Sixth graders continue to work hard on our study of ancient Egypt. We have moved into learning about famous Pharaohs and technological advancements from the time. They are seeing how important this civilization is to humanity and how the effects are still felt today! They did a wonderful job on their Egyptian gods projects and I enjoyed seeing how they worked together! Next week we finish up Egypt and will start preparing for the end of the unit test.
Math- This week in math, sixth graders continued 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 also began gearing up for our end of unit assessment for this unit! Next week, we’ll review our study guide for our end of unit assessment – which will test our mastery of mutli-digit multiplication and division before we move on to applying those skills to decimals!
