Sra. Brenna’s sixth graders have taken over the classroom! Students take turns being the teacher and giving basic instructions for their peers to follow. Sit down! Take out your books! Open to page 87! They are quick to learn that being the Spanish teacher is not as easy as it looks.  Students are eager to be in charge, exhibit their teaching persona and to use their Spanish.

For our first graphic design project and introduction into the digital world of Photoshop, students in sixth grade transformed their portraits into silhouettes reminiscent of the famous iPod ads. Starting with a digital picture, the students learned how to create a path around their bodies, cut and paste into a new layer, change the background color, desaturate and silhouette, and finally add a realistic shadow and even an ipod or two. Some students this year got really creative with adding elements to create a wonderfully wacky world. Finally, they had to come up with a “title” that was representative of their image.

meet the bears

Have you ever had a family of bears in your room? Sixth grade Spanish has! As we practice subject pronouns (yo, tú, ella … I, you, she…) and “ser” (to be), sixth grade wrote skits using all the different forms. We had weather announcers cancelling school due to snow, a family of bears introducing themselves, and good friends chatting as the sixth graders demonstrated their creativity and ability to manipulate the vocabulary and grammar we have been studying. Be sure to stay warm in all that snow over vacation, bears! See you next year!

The sixth grade just finished the first drafts of their Greek mythology short stories. With the Percy Jackson series and other myths as inspiration, students used gods, goddesses, monsters, and other mythical creatures to create their own adventures. Poseidon, Zeus, Hades and Aphrodite are popular characters, but do not be surprised to read about a Minotaur, Centaur, Cyclops, and Pegasus. Look for finished stories after winter break!

Did you know that the Great Pyramid is the largest limestone building in the world? When first built, the structure stood 481 feet tall, as tall as a 40 story building. Did you know historians believe it took 20,000 workers between 10 and 20 years to build the Great Pyramid? The sixth graders are currently writing stories using these and other facts. They are writing as if they are an official, advising the Pharaoh on the building of their pyramid. Not only will students use the facts they have learned, they will use their research skills and incorporate the skills they have learned in English regarding story planning and using dialogue. The students are enthusiastically gathering facts and writing. I can’t wait to read them!

Each year in art, the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades have a special assignment designed especially for the Winter Festival. The projects rotate and have previously included heraldic coats of arms and illuminated letters. This year we have been studying portraits, specifically those done by Medieval artists of royal families. The students looked at many famous paintings and examples of Medieval and Renaissance art. We discussed ways to make a face look proportional, as well as techniques for drawing eyes, noses, and lips. The students then imagined they had an ancestor (royal or not) and designed a portrait featuring their character. They added many details to describe their subject’s attributes and tell their story from the clothing to jewelry, crowns and riches. We first outlined everything with a chosen color to help give definition and structure to our portraits. This also helped take the emphasis off of realism and created an older look to the pictures. Then we used tempera paint to carefully color in our ancestors. The richly ornamented finished projects will be displayed in the “Medieval dining hall” during the Winter Festival’s feast, and they will remain on display there through the end of the year. Check back soon to see examples online as well!

The sixth grade just wrapped up lessons on earth models and minerals. Mr. Knebel brought in his collection of geodes and quartz crystal formations. Just like the chicken or the egg question, students tried to decide how the crystal minerals got inside the rocks known as geodes and which one came first.

Pictured are Elysse and Elizabeth examining a geode.

Students have been working on music vocabulary for the last few weeks.  To check for their understanding of these terms students were asked to create a music game that would help test one another on their knowledge.  Students presented these projects this week and they were a big success!

Half of the students in eighth grade led the sixth, seventh, and remaining eighth graders on tours of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum after completing their four weeks of docent training in October. The Student Docents asked questions of their peers while viewing the museum’s current exhibitions including Chelpa Ferro, Kate Eric, Jessica Stockholder, Type A, and Judi Werthein. Additionally, the students worked on a group hands-on activity in the education center. As the current theme of the museum is related to collaboration, the students were asked to work on a group piece by each contributing to each other’s drawings. The tours were once again a great success, and it is always a pleasure to be involved in one of the Student Docent’s conversations about the art. We are looking forward to the Spring, when the other eighth graders will train to be docents and give tours of the museum to the fourth and fifth graders.

This past Friday, the sixth grade had the opportunity to go on a field experience to Storm King Art Center in New York. The outdoor museum boasts 500 acres of property filled with large-scale sculptures by some of the art world’s heavy hitters. The students were given a guided tour of Museum Hill, the main sculpture area, where they viewed and discussed works by Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, and Kenneth Snelson among others. Following that, we walked to the south end of the property where Andy Goldsworthy’s wall is situated. The students had watched the making of the wall in the documentary, Rivers and Tides, when we studied environmental art, so they were especially excited to see it in person. After walking around the serpentine wall that snakes through the trees, each student saddled up next to it for some sketching en plein air. The students also had the opportunity to work on a creative writing assignment about the wall, imagining a situation where the wall had just appeared one day with no one knowing how or why. It was an extraordinary experience to see large-scale sculpture up close and pieces specifically commissioned for particular sites. Walking around the “giants” in the park was truly an adventure into another world.