7th grade students visited the Birdcraft Museum in May where they had the opportunity to observe live bird banding demonstrations. Licensed volunteers have operated a bird banding station there since 1979. More than 18,000 birds, including 120 species, have been mist-netted, banded, and released unharmed. Data provides valuable information to scientists about the movement, survival, and behavior of birds.

Volunteer, Judy Richardson, demonstrated how to safely hold a bird to prevent its injury. She showed students how to identify the species, sex, amount of fat, wing length, and weight before attaching a small metal band with a serial number to the bird’s leg. Students watched excitedly as Ms. Richardson released a Catbird back into the sanctuary.

Students also hiked along the trails to see how nets are strategically placed to capture birds. 7th graders sighted a male Canada Goose keeping a careful watch over the female who was nesting near the pond. Other sightings included Red-winged Blackbirds, American Robins, turtles, and deer tracks. As a culminating activity, students toured the museum and participated in a scavenger hunt for mystery migratory birds.

Mrs.Gonzalez seventh grade class learned about clothing items. They used several clothing catalogues and read the descriptions to find out the fabric, color and the style of the clothing. The students wrote a script about clothes and presented a fashion show in the Spanish classroom. Students revised, exchanged and edited the scripts with their partners in class. Students rehearsed and modeled their outfit in class. Students chose to showcase three different outfits, casual, evening and formal. For the final show students modeled each outfit and described the outfit to the audience. Positive feedback was given by two student judges. At the end we all voted for the best modeling. Jennee was first, Abbie second and Jenna and Gemma tied for third. The students really enjoyed preparing the fashion show and modeling in class. They did great at The Unquowa Fashion Show!

There is a tiny world that exists if you close your eyes and believe. Fairies of all shapes and sizes, talents and dispositions dance and play in the forest and live in little houses. The seventh graders delved into this world of imagination and envisioned what the dwellings of these magical beings would look like. They created all different kinds of houses out of clay, from simple caves to elaborate stone buildings, all with a common element of nature included in the design. They painted and glazed, and the houses were fired in the kiln. On a beautiful day, we went out into the woods behind the school and placed the houses among the leaves and trees, wherever we thought a fairy would like to live. The beautiful photographs will turn even the most jaded individual into a beliver. The next time you’re exploring the woods, watch out for the fairies!

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Second grade students learned about this year’s winner The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Mr. Pinkney’s wordless retelling of Aesop’s Fable is told through the screech of an owl, the squeak of a mouse and the roar of a lion set in the Serengeti plains. After reading this year’s winner, we had a discussion about some of the other titles that have won. We then created a file folder book review for each winner.

After completing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the seventh grade continued their analyzing skills by identifying change in the novel’s protagonist, Tom Sawyer. As a character who begins the novel a mischievous and sneaky boy, he manages to change into a more thoughtful and responsible young man. In groups, students located quotations supporting Tom’s character at the beginning and end of the novel and then created a visual representation of them. They also wrote and illustrated what they felt was the defining experience that changed Tom’s character so much. With peer collaboration and careful studying of the novel, students created wonderful posters.

Seventh graders learned about the mathematics term “tessellation” and how to create one from a known tessellating shape. For those of you not versed in geometry, a tessellation is a repeating pattern that fits together with no gaps or overlaps. Modifying a square without reducing its surface area creates a fancy tessellating pattern whose orientation depends on the alignment of the modified sides. Translations, reflections, and rotations were all examined, and then the students chose the shape they felt was the most promising. The task then fell to them to figure out exactly what their shape was…as there was no pre-planning involved, creativity was paramount to finding a solution to the puzzle. After a design was determined, the students traced their shape onto a piece of paper and then drew and painted in the design in each.

Reduction printing, a favorite technique of Picasso, utilizes a single block to create a print of several layered colors. The block is carved out systematically, starting with the largest areas and lightest colors, and printed each time until the block is “destroyed” and there is only a small area remaining to print. The seventh graders did a fabulous job with this process, starting with designing a multi-colored image that they would print. They then determined what order they would print the colors and started carving accordingly. Each student made at least two prints, because once the block is reduced, there is no going back. The subsequent colors are printed directly on top of the previous colors. The students did a remarkable job with this advanced technique and created some truly amazing images!

While many of you were sleeping in on a snowy Saturday morning, eight of our very talented students were with Mrs. Haseltine at Fairfield University to participate in the Mathcounts Chapter competition.

The nationwide Mathcounts program is now in its 27^th year. Here at Unquowa, Mathcounts has been a part of the mathematics curriculum since 1991. On February 27, after months of preparation, our only academic team assembled at Fairfield University for its one opportunity to compete against other local teams.

And compete they did! We beat seven other teams, including five large public middle schools, to finish 13^th. Charlie J. placed 23^rd out of 140 students and qualified to compete at the state competition.

It is a joy to work with these talented and enthusiastic students and they have done an outstanding job of representing Unquowa. Congratulations!

Dr. Paula Kavathas, a researcher at Yale school of medicine, and four of her grad students visited seventh grade and worked with students on several mini-labs on DNA.  The team from Yale brought some of their live microscopic friends along with some of their research equipment.  Electrophoresis, micro-pipetting, and direct observation of the traits of live fruit flies and the stages of their metamorphosis were two of the activities students participated in.  Live Nematode observation through stereomicroscopes was another activity students enjoyed, but the favorite seemed to be extracting and saving their own DNA in a vial.       

In cooperation with the Fairfield Museum and History Center the seventh graders have been training to become docents at the Ogden House. Prior to visiting the house, students learned about David and Jane Ogden and the items found in their house. Students then visited the Ogden’s house and began working on scripts for each room in the house. The spent time researching colonial life and added details to their scripts that would depict what life was like for New England colonists. The seventh grade will be giving tours to the fifth grade in the coming weeks to further their understanding of Colonial America and will be producing podcasts of their tour to put on our website and to share with the Fairfield Museum and History Center.