Working Together on the River!

Our 7th and 8th graders kicked off the school year with the 5th annual opening rafting trip! Students ventured up to Charlemont, Massachusetts, geared up for rafting and rowed down 7 miles of Deerfield River with class 1,2 and 3 rapids. While many were nervous on the way up, it was all smiles on the way back. This opening trip sets the tone for the year and this year looks to be fantastic!

Stuck in a Knot!

7th graders started their first advisory with a quick activity where you are interlocked by holding hands and woven into a knot. Students had to work together to figure out how to undo the knot with two simple rules: you can’t let go of another person’s hand and you can’t speak. This seems like a difficult challenge, but this group was up to the task! Advisory is a 45 minute block that meets weekly to focus on tasks which help us connect and learn from each other. We look forward to many more fun activities this year!

Voices of Change

For the second year, the Voices of Change art show, featuring a selection of seventh and eighth-grade students’ artwork, was on display for the public, both as a one-night “pop-up” at Robert Valle Designs and for two weeks at Blends Gallery in Bridgeport. Their art was the result of a trimester-long collaboration between the humanities and art departments.

The students traveled to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield and to the Walsh Gallery at Fairfield University to learn about how to decipher meaning from works of art. Then, they were tasked with identifying a part of the world they want to change, thoroughly researched that topic, developed their own opinions and synthesized a meaningful way to display it. Unabashed and sophisticated, their pieces focused on a wide range of issues, from gun violence to income inequality, and took on a variety of forms, such as installation, performance, and embroidery.

Voices of Change was a celebration of our seventh and eighth-graders’ intellectual capacity, maturity, and global knowledge. It was a message of hope, for the world cannot solve these problems without awareness, humanity, and a desire for a change. Wise beyond their years, our students once again reminded us of why the future is so bright, and we could not be more proud of them, the leaders of tomorrow.

An Inca Opera

What’s more Incan than an opera? Well… terrace farming, for one, but it’s not nearly as fun! The seventh grade Spanish students have concluded their study of Peru by writing and performing their own opera songs. They were inspired by their love of the operatic group Il Volo, whose famous rendition of “El Mundo” never fails to bring a tear to the eye. After studying Inca religion, farming practices, technology, and writing, the students concluded our cultural unit with several songs dedicated to the empire. No opera is complete without costumes and dramatic scenes, and the seventh graders did not disappoint. All in all, it was a fun and engaging way to end our study of Peru!

7th Grade Diplomats Are Solving the World’s Problems

The 7th-grade humanities class has studied how the geography and history of a country influence the way it interacts with other nations. As a culmination of our unit covering the foreign policy spectrum, the class is playing “Nations: A Simulation Game in International Politics.”

Similar to Model U.N., students represented one of the seven countries on the fictional continent of Lostralia. Provided with a unique history, social structure, religious beliefs, intelligence secrets, and objectives, students had to improve the previously set factor totals reflecting the strengths or weaknesses of each country (e.g., food stability, infrastructure, military power, etc.). Each nation is represented by two or three students who fulfill the roles of a minister of the press, a diplomat, and head of state. Their goal is to use diplomacy to improve the lives of their citizens while avoiding catastrophe: unnecessary war.

The students have thrown themselves into this activity with tireless enthusiasm. They have created flags and maps and have written and performed national anthems. Each country has been creating news reports that employ persuasion techniques, including propaganda; diplomats schedule meetings to negotiate trade and military defense treaties.

How do teachers know when their lessons are a success? They know when their students jabber about the class in the halls, bounce into the classroom, and plead to start the lesson. The 7th graders are demonstrating their knowledge in the best way possible: by having fun- and all while solving the problems of the world!

Can You Hear Me Now?

Seventh graders have been creating clay speakers in visual arts designed to amplify their phones or devices. Starting with a cone shape, they added details and embellishments to transform these utilitarian objects into works of art. The glazed speakers will work to funnel the sound and project it, making it easier to annoy parents or siblings in another room with that ten hour long version of the flamingo song. Not to give anyone any ideas…