The Cooper School Daily
March 7, 2024
Self-Assessment Celebrations
The end of a trimester, or the end of any period of time, can be hard and stressful work, but I knew going into self-assessment that the TCS middle schoolers would deliver and, boy, did they deliver! As I’m sure you saw while watching your child’s presentation, our students put so much effort, thought, and intentional reflection into their self-assessment presentations. We should be nothing short of extremely proud of them. Taking time to look back and reflect on growth can be a challenging and sometimes uncomfortable process, however reflection is vital if we want to set realistic and attainable goals for ourselves. The Cooper Kids are always striving high, and I hope this period of reflection encourages them to continue doing so!
-AG
Here’s a look at what is happening in each of the classes:
What’s happening in Science?
Sixth graders presented their biomimicry projects this week! They all did an amazing job, presenting creatively and professionally. Their models all looked great! They also began their next unit on human systems and diseases this week. They performed a covid lab simulation, where they mimicked the spread of covid using vials and chemicals that were spread around the classroom to learn about disease spread…in a sanitary way, of course. They will continue to learn more about the human system next week!
What’s up in ELA?
After a strong round of self-assessment conferences, 6th grade poets continued to build their sonnets, incorporating figurative language into their second quatrain stanza and developing a ‘twist’ or ‘shift’ in the tone or subject matter of the third stanza. We also considered some of the themes behind Romeo and Juliet as we traced the plot to its tragic end.
Next week, 6th graders will finish their sonnets and Shakespeare study. In tandem with studying some stage and film performances of Romeo and Juliet, we will work on performing our completed sonnets as we look forward to presenting them to parents next month.
What’s going on in Math?
This week, 6th graders studied absolute value and evaluated problems with positive and negative numbers. Next week, 6th graders will continue solving problems with a variety of integers, before we extend the coordinate plane to all four quadrants, so that we can understand how to plot negative points. Additionally, we’ll explore finding the distance between two points on a plane.
What’s happening in Social Studies?
Sixth graders began their studies of Ancient Asia. Students started by comparing early Chinese Dynasties like the Tang and the Song. Students progressed through the Mongol and Ming rulings for the rest of the week.
Next week, students will finish discussing Ancient China with a small quiz, before diving into the formation of Japan and the Japanese society. Students will end the week with a “Deep Dive Interest Project” about one specific part of their society they wanted to dive more into and practice some researching skills!
Important Dates:
March 23-April 1: Spring Break
-AG
Here’s a look at what is happening in each of the classes:
What’s happening in Science?
Sixth graders presented their biomimicry projects this week! They all did an amazing job, presenting creatively and professionally. Their models all looked great! They also began their next unit on human systems and diseases this week. They performed a covid lab simulation, where they mimicked the spread of covid using vials and chemicals that were spread around the classroom to learn about disease spread…in a sanitary way, of course. They will continue to learn more about the human system next week!
What’s up in ELA?
After a strong round of self-assessment conferences, 6th grade poets continued to build their sonnets, incorporating figurative language into their second quatrain stanza and developing a ‘twist’ or ‘shift’ in the tone or subject matter of the third stanza. We also considered some of the themes behind Romeo and Juliet as we traced the plot to its tragic end.
Next week, 6th graders will finish their sonnets and Shakespeare study. In tandem with studying some stage and film performances of Romeo and Juliet, we will work on performing our completed sonnets as we look forward to presenting them to parents next month.
What’s going on in Math?
This week, 6th graders studied absolute value and evaluated problems with positive and negative numbers. Next week, 6th graders will continue solving problems with a variety of integers, before we extend the coordinate plane to all four quadrants, so that we can understand how to plot negative points. Additionally, we’ll explore finding the distance between two points on a plane.
What’s happening in Social Studies?
Sixth graders began their studies of Ancient Asia. Students started by comparing early Chinese Dynasties like the Tang and the Song. Students progressed through the Mongol and Ming rulings for the rest of the week.
Next week, students will finish discussing Ancient China with a small quiz, before diving into the formation of Japan and the Japanese society. Students will end the week with a “Deep Dive Interest Project” about one specific part of their society they wanted to dive more into and practice some researching skills!
Important Dates:
March 23-April 1: Spring Break