6th Grade Feudalism Role Play, 2015

For social studies, the sixth graders recently did a role play on feudalism in Medieval Europe.  Their roles depicted the rigid social structure and exchange of favors/loyalties that existed within feudal Europe.  If you see children on the ground looking miserable, they were doing so on purpose -- trying their hardest to look like suffering peasants!

Roman Architecture 2015

For social studies, the sixth graders recently studied ancient Roman engineering and architectural techniques.  They then created models of some of ancient Rome's most noteworthy structures.  I love this unit.  I think my favorite comment came from a student who said, "Now that I made the Pantheon, I want to go see the real one in Rome."  Enjoy the photos below from this year's class.

Students' Writing

What have the 7th and 8th graders been doing a lot of this year?  Writing!   If you'd like to see some samples of their work, click on the links below.  They've such wonderful minds at this age!

7th Grade Paper:  Perks of Owning a Sasquatch

https://drive.google.com/a/highlandcatholic.org/file/d/0BwacH4nGemC8STJ6N3hWeEFYWGM5MzNRYmxwWEtfLV93WDFR/view?usp=sharing

8th Grade Paper:  A Favorite Childhood Toy

https://drive.google.com/a/highlandcatholic.org/file/d/0BwacH4nGemC8WnRNd2QzUWZQczd1X1NPRUcwU0g0R1lpVXVj/view?usp=sharing

8th Grade Paper:  Time Travel

https://drive.google.com/a/highlandcatholic.org/file/d/0BwacH4nGemC8aEJteTBCVUVkbVNDZGh2b2Z0QVRyRWNfUmNJ/view?usp=sharing

What We've Been Learning 10/07/14

6th Grade Social Studies
The sixth graders just finished a unit on ancient Egypt (see them posing with their Egyptian tomb dioramas in the photo below) and have started a unit on ancient Greece.  They'll soon be debating over the ancient Greek philosophers, performing a Greek play, and learning the nitty-gritty details of the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars.

7th Grade English
The 7th graders have already completed units on making nouns possessive and plural and constructing proper sentences, and are currently learning how to construct a variety of paragraph types.   Most recently, they've been writing a spatial paragraph describing their dream bathrooms.  These have been delightful creative!

8th Grade English
The 8th graders recently wrote advertisements for fake restaurants (very comical -- they have a great sense of humor!) and are now writing a paper in which they reflect upon their favorite childhood toy.

Writing samples will be posted soon, but in the meantime, enjoy the visuals of their learning below.

6th Grade Renaissance Ball

The sixth graders held a "Renaissance Ball" this week.  Each student was assigned a famous person from Renaissance times, studied that person, and then portrayed them at a ball.  They did a fantastic job of bringing their characters to life.  Photos of the ball are below.

Long Lake Newsletter

The sixth grade recently spent three day at Long Lake Conservation Center.  The Center kindly sent us a newsletter, listing all the classes that the sixth graders had, along with a couple photos.  It's a great summary, so I'm posting it below.

What We've Been Learning Lately

6th Grade Social Studies

The sixth grade is nearing the end of the Medieval Europe unit.  Early on in the unit, the students researched Medieval castles and designed their own blueprints for a castle.  More recently, we did a role play on feudalism in which the students played lords, knights, and serfs.  We're currently discussing the importance of the Church in Medieval Europe, and after our discussion, we'll do another role play in which the students will mimic the lives of Medieval monks.  

7th Grade English

The seventh graders recently finished a large unit on verbs and are now doing a writing unit.  For this unit, they have to write a paper which pitches an idea for a "B movie."  They have to create a plot and then argue why their movie should be made.  So far we have plots about superhero dogs, elephants from outer space, giant mutant squids, Russian spies who can teleport themselves, and alternate worlds.

8th Grade English

The eighth graders have just finished writing papers about a person whom they admire.  They were required to research someone who isn't well-known, explain the highlights of that person's accomplishments, and then describe why they find the person inspiring.   Now that that paper is finished, we have started a grammar unit and are learning to distinguish between direct and indirect objects of verbs, and objects of prepositions.  I explained to the students that this will help them when finessing their English (when to use "I" as opposed to "me," for example), and it will also help them to acquire foreign languages since objective cases can be so variable.