Up next: Gratitude
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 spent a bit of time analyzing ratios and fractions, and extended our understanding of fraction multiplication to areas of rectangles with fractional side lengths. Next week, we will take our mid-unit assessment over fractions before diving into the second half of the unit, which reviews decimal operations and appl
ELA:
This week, 6th graders continued their reading of When You Reach Me, nearing the end of the novel and developing final theories of how it will all conclude. Students studied new vocabulary in preparation for their test next week!
Next week, 6th grade readers will finish the novel and discuss the depiction of individual and group dynamics within this thrilling mystery story. They will test on vocabulary unit 2a words 11/7!
Social Studies:
Sixth grade will be starting a new unit next week on ancient China. This will be a fun unit for them to see all the wonderful inventions and ideas that this culture gave to the world!
Science:
The sixth graders will be learning about thermal energy. They will figure out how to insulate a container home using different materials and understand how to best insulate homes from solar radiation.
A note from our Development Coordinator:
We are currently at 18% family participation for 6th 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!
THANK YOU :)
Renee Bratton
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
