狗年大吉大利 Luck and prosperity in the Chinese New Year of the Dog!

Click here to watch the Chinese New Year Assembly.

With the drumbeat and chant from our kindergarteners, the excitement of performing to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Dog began from the first moment. Students performed songs and chants using their own traditional crafts as props and introductions and background were given by our older students in… Mandarin and English!

Making these crafts gave students the opportunity to learn the Chinese traditions involving food, decorations and the history of this holiday. Very quickly each student knew the character – 福（fú, luck and happiness)and the traditional gesture for wishing a good Chinese New Year with the expression – 恭喜恭喜 ( gōng xǐ gōng xǐ). Students in third and fourth grade were very proud of themselves when they made their 福（fú）character crafts. As students learned in class, when福(fú）is upside down, it means “luck and happiness have arrived.” There are several upside down 福（fú）characters in the first grade students’ crafts, so luck and happiness have just arrived around us at Unquowa. Upper school students also made their own 春联 ( (chūn lián), adding happiness and best wishes to the celebration.

As you are watching this video full of our students’ enthusiasm and talent, we wish you and your family 狗年大吉大利 (gǒu nián dàjí dà lì)…luck and prosperity in the Chinese New Year of the Dog!

Ubuntu Philosophy

When we concluded what was described by 5th graders as an “interesting, creative and wow” book, A Gift From Childhood, we invited parents to participate in a reflective conversation about some of the most profound themes in Baba Wagué Diakité’s book. Our communal conversation involved students, parents and Head of School, Sharon Lauer. During this discussion we explored concepts that we consider to be critical to our development. We spoke about gender roles and the impact of culture and tradition in our lives … including the perplexing question of the relevance of tradition in an age of digital grandeur.

We used the age old South African philosophy of Ubuntu to guide our conversation. Ubuntu emphasizes our shared humanity and means “a person is a person through other people”. By using Ubuntu as the foundation for our conversation, we acknowledged that we are a community and that success comes not through individual effort alone, but also through the collective. This notion was true when we shared and reflected on the fundamental themes in A Gift From Childhood with parents and with each other.

Ubuntu is a philosophy we embrace all year in our 5th grade community and it is a doctrine we hope to be guided by.

Climbing Up The Family Tree

As we wrap up our unit on members of the family, the fifth grade Spanish students have embarked on a family tree project. Examining their familial roots, each student created an interpretation of their family tree, complete with pictures of their family and a short paragraph describing each person’s personality. Never ones to “leaf” things until last minute, they spent a week in class writing and refining their projects. The crowning glory of these projects was a short oral presentation highlighting three members of the family in Spanish.

5th Grade and the Rubik’s Cube

Unquowa fifth grade math students are learning how to solve the Rubik’s Cube in a year-long curriculum that teaches algorithmic process and spatial reasoning. Some enter the process already knowing the solution patterns and are serving as instructors, while others are picking up The Cube for the very first time. The majority of our students are still mastering the first and second steps, but in doing so they have already learned much about order, precision, and even self-confidence. Students who never thought they would be able to solve a Rubik’s Cube are now approaching the solution with focus and determination. Stay tuned for more updates as we make progress!

What do you see when you look at me?

Our personal identities are composed of a multitude of attributes, some we choose and others we have no control over. Fifth graders have been considering how visual cues such as dress, posture, facial expression, and objects convey information about us to other people and also how we perceive others based on how they present themselves to the world.

Following a conversation with Mr. Kayumba about how poetry from the Harlem Renaissance used language to express themes of identity and how the work of contemporary painter Kehinde Wiley expressed these themes visually, the students came to school thoughtfully dressed in clothes that they felt best represented who they are and how they want to be seen. They were photographed in poses that conveyed strength, intelligence, athletic ability, confidence, or other attributes that were important to them. They are currently working on background paintings of chosen images that give more insight into their identities. To culminate the project, they will be writing “I am” poems with Ms. Warshaw that express in written language what they expressed visually in their portraits.

Girls Green Win Season Opener!

The Girls 5th & 6th Grade basketball team opened the season on January 3 with a 36-7 win over Bi-cultural Day School. The girls dominated all aspects of the game including scoring, defense and rebounding. Over half the team contributed to the score and Grade 5 point guard Ryley Tate-Padian scored double figures. Come cheer on this powerful team of girls…Go Gators!