Parents, teachers, and students came together on the last Friday of the holiday break to apply some elbow grease to our upcoming Design Lab. These volunteers painted, sawed, hung, and assembled throughout the morning, making strides in creating our dream lab. Check out the hard work of these volunteers. Other work days are needed–stay tuned for your opportunity to help our magnet build this amazing makers’ space.
Right before 6th-graders went on Winter Break, we had an opportunity to visit the Pacific Standard Time exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center. We studied murals that can be seen throughout L.A. and even noticed that there was a lot of fabulous street art right in our school community! The students engaged in an art project that replicated the process of mural making by collaborating together to create one art piece.
One activity 6th-graders do as we study ancient religions is mummify a chicken! We replicate most steps of the mummification process that Egyptian priests did, with the exception of removing the brains through the nose! Over the course of two months, each student has an opportunity to play the role of Egyptian priest, as they change the salt and baking soda that preserve our chicken. Once our chicken mummy is completely preserved, we will wrap it in bandages and bury it in a temple fit for a pharaoh!
After a 2+ hr. bus ride worthy of Odysseus himself, the 6th-grade Gifted Arts/Tech classes of Mr. Purdy, Mr. Piumarta, Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Garnett enjoyed their annual trip to the galleries of the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, CA. They viewed Greco-Roman statues of Zeus and Athena, Roman mummies, ancient coins, pottery, jewelry, and experienced the Family forum where they could act out Greek myths and decorate vases. They look forward to returning next year!
7th-graders were math detectives at work solving a system of equations clue to find who was the thief that stole the ice block needed for a gala. After solving that crime, they headed to the Los Angeles Zoo to collect evidence for their annual Zoopalooza project, a cross-curricular study of animals, their habitats, and the dangers threatening their existence. Students will work in all areas of this research project, from science and history to math and English. See pictures of their zoo adventure here.
Blast to the past as the 8th-graders researched technology they believed to be obsolete, dead, or dying for our annual Day of the Dead Technology Project. To see their memorials to these dearly departed devices, take a look at this slideshow of the altars. As a celebration of their work and the machines, the 8th-graders invited classes, teachers, and parents to join in on the celebration with a gallery of the altars in the library. See pictures of the event here.
To make a curricular connection to the topics discussed following the Sandy Hook Promise: Say Something Assembly, Mr. Gabriel’s classes wrote poems and made flyers, bumper stickers, and short films. We are currently in the Second Step Unit of Health, focusing on topics of empathy and communication, bullying prevention, and emotion management.
After reading Hemingway’s famous six-word story and learning about writer’s voice, the 8th-graders wrote their own six-word stories, highlighting a defining moment, memory, or mantra…in only six words. They also studied the Dada Movement and the history of collage and created art to accompany the tone of their stories. To see more of these, head over to the shared class slideshow HERE.
In Ms. Popa’s history class, students analyzed the main factors that contributed to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: Political Corruption, Economic Collapse, Barbarian Invasions, etc. One option to show mastery was to use the primary sources, write and perform a ‘persuasive speech’ pertaining to the above factors; and use “rhetoric” to deliver it. Students had to take on a Roman historical figure/character, use period attire, and elaborate on potential solutions to fix those problems, set the record straight and save Rome from destruction … a bold attempt to change history. To see one of these performances, head over to our 7th-grade page on our website: 7th-grade activities.
Recently, the Health classes of Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Page participated in a project where they had to focus on one of the six essential nutrients (protein, fats, carbohydrates, water, vitamins, and minerals) we all need in our diets. Students were allowed to work solo or in pairs and had a choice of end products, which included creating a billboard, drafting a comic book, or creating a rap song. No matter the chosen project, students were to make clear what their assigned nutrient happened to be, foods that the nutrient may be found in, mention the benefits of proper consumption or risks of limited consumption of their specific nutrient, and were asked to be creative and have fun. To listen to a couple of the raps, head over to our 6th-grade page on our website: 6th-grade activities.
