What’s Happening
From September’s opening day to June’s closing ceremonies, we document and share events from all over our campus in an attempt to continuously communicate all the diverse goings-on at The Unquowa School. From school-wide events, assemblies, visiting presenters and other highlights from around campus, here’s a sample of what’s happening…
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Buddy reading…
Posted by Karen Engelke
Second graders take pride in buddy reading with our first grade neighbors. They eagerly shared with grade 1 this month’s edition of National Geographic’s Explorer magazine. The cover story happens to be about parrots, which Grade 2 recalled is a point of interest within the first grade rainforest unit. It’s a wonderful opportunity to practice non fiction literacy skills and connect over a subject area that both grades enjoy.
Discovering Density
Posted by Carlene Gordon
Fourth graders have learned that density is a property of matter that compares an object’s mass to its volume. Different objects may have different mass but the same volume, as we saw in class when we compared a baseball and a Wiffle ball. Students were asked if liquids could also have different mass and the same volume. To find the answer, students poured various liquids (maple syrup, corn syrup, oil, colored water) into a container and were amazed to see layers form. Students quickly concluded that these liquids must have different densities in order to form layers. The most dense liquids sank to the bottom and the least dense remained at the top.
An Uphill Battle
Posted by Faith Barbuto
No one likes running uphill but if you want to win at Wooster, that’s just what you need to practice! And that’s just what we did with two first place runners, two second place runners, a third and fifth place. Overall, we had some of our best times recorded. Fortunately for us we are hardworking team who runs daily and has access to neighborhood hills that make for great training grounds. Even more fortunately for us, Mrs. Young provided tasty popsicles as reward for our hard work. Life is sweeter when you have a friend at the top of the hill!
The Five Senses
Posted by George Seferidis
During our poetry unit, students not only write and analyze poems, they are also encouraged to seek out authentic opportunities to publish and share their work. While Pen & Paper, is our home-grown outlet, we also encourage students to submit their work to national contests. We are proud to announce that 8th-grader Andrew participated in the national Carl Sandburg Student Poetry Contest and has won 2nd place! This annual contest produced by the Carl Sandburg Home and the National Park Service celebrates student writing based on themes from the poetry of the celebrated poet. This year’s theme was “joy,” and Andrew’s poem captures moments of joy experienced through the five senses. The omniscient speaker of the poem captures a collection of seemingly unrelated points in time that when stitched together convey the universal power and presence of joy in the world. Congratulations, Andrew!
“Be the Change” Wax Museum
Posted by Ariel Warshaw
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
In our Informational Writing unit, fifth graders selected inspiring change-makers to research, report on, and embody. Their historical impact essays were not simply biographies. Instead, our writers explored the societal conditions of their figure’s life, and how those experiences influenced them to act and make a change. The students considered the long lasting legacies these inspirational people have left on our world. To cap off this unit, the fifth graders created a “wax museum” filled with these influential people from history and today. Our writers dressed up as their selected figures, and “came to life” as student and parent tour groups visited their exhibits. This simulation truly served to bring their historical impact essays to life – it was a really special and empowering morning!
Wax Museum Exhibits
Harriet Tubman (Lukas Keras)
Helen Keller (Erin Jacques)
Bronislaw Huberman (Nolan Howe)
Jackie Robinson (Bryan Wilson)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Ruthy Alfageme)
Mae Jemison (Sophia Vash)
Nelson Mandela (Michael Jones)
Magic Johnson (Henry Cooper)
Eliza Hamilton (Clementine Thomson)
Willie Eldon O’Ree (Robert Krueger)
Dolly Parton (Elliott Goodman)
Frida Kahlo (Madison Mitchell)
Major Taylor (Ezra Schwartz)
WEB Du Bois (Matthew Anto)
Mother Teresa (Amanda Giachino)
LeBron James (Max Oberhand)
Eleanor Roosevelt (Ivy Lewis)
Rosa Parks (Devin Kelly)
Jane Goodall (Julia Van Der Aue)
Pete Seeger (Eli Ames)
Princess Diana (Marianela Cardona)
George Weah (Michael Scotto)
Thank You 8th Graders for Sharing Your Love and Support
Posted by Krissy Ponden
The Memory Project is a charitable nonprofit organization that invites art teachers, art students, and solo artists to help cultivate global kindness by creating portraits for children around the world who have faced substantial challenges, such as violence, war, extreme poverty, neglect, and loss of parents. Participants create these portraits to help children feel valued and important, to know that many people care about their well-being, and to provide a special childhood memory in the future. Since 2004, more than 130,000 portraits have been created for children in 47 countries.
This year, Unquowa 8th graders painted portraits of Rohingya children. The Rohingya ethnic minority has been called the “most unwanted” group of people on Earth. Nearly a million fled genocide in Myanmar last year and are currently sheltering in a huge refugee settlement in Bangladesh. Most of these families have little more than a few cooking pans and a handful of clothes. For these children, who have rarely seen photos of themselves, the portraits are gifts they could never have previously imagined. Our students, along with almost 4,000 other artists worldwide, are helping to show these children they are not “unwanted” in our shared humanity. The video you are about to watch shows the joyful reactions of the children as they received their portraits.
