Upper School Update from Dave Samson

Dear Upper School Parents and Guardians,

Winter break, here we come! Your children have worked really hard this fall and have earned a restful and relaxing break. We look forward to seeing them in 2022!

Ask your children about:

5th Grade:

• Please see the homeroom newsletters

6th Grade:

• French: How to talk about where people are what they do there.

• Math: How many new vocabulary words I learned that are related to angles and triangles.

• Spanish: Successfully playing “guess who” all in Spanish using our new vocabulary!

• Geo (Burns): How we are preparing to film our social justice public service announcements.

• Music: Learning jingle bells and researching influential roles in rock n roll history.

• Geo (Abramson): Finishingour unit to compare and contrastg monotheistic religions.

7th Grade:

• Science: Parts of plant and animal cells

• French: What I wear when I do various activities.

• Math ( Carbo): How I did on my recent percent quiz and how I can do percent in my head.

• Spanish: Talking about sports we play

• English: My metaphor project

• Math: Standard form of a linear equation

• History: Why it’s so difficult to answer Geo Bee questions in front of the whole class

8th Grade:

• Science: Balancing chemical equations

• French: The central topics of racism and classism that come up in La Nouvelle Fille and how the main characters (Akshara and Cooper) navigate this in their relationship.

• Spanish: Watching and discussing the commercial for the Spanish Christmas lottery

• Mandarin: We discussed Christmas in China and made a writing project regarding it.

• History: Wrapping up the research essays, World War , and getting ready for the mock trial.

• English: My word study word

Click here for a slide show of 5th and 8th graders in action this week plus a few extra fun photos.

Articles and Resources:

I liked this article from edutopia about the power of asking questions to help executive functioning.

Happy Holidays!

Dave