Off To The Market
Posted by Ms. DeAngelis
Seventh grade Spanish is learning about open-air markets in Guatemala, the most famous of which is Chichicastenango (say that five times fast!). The market of Chichicastenango is so large and labyrinthine that the tourism board of Guatemala recommends hiring a guide – recognizable by their khaki vests – so that visitors don’t get lost in the market and accidentally miss the once daily bus out of town.
To combine the students’ love of saying Chichicastenango with our new clothing vocabulary, we decided to work in groups to put on a skit about Guatemala’s largest artisan market. Our seventh graders spent a week writing and rehearsing their skits, incorporating every single new vocabulary word as well as some of our new irregular verbs.
The skits were a success! With elaborate costumes and unexpected set pieces, the students performed inventive and comical skits about the perils of the marketplace. If you ever go to the market of Chichicastenango, Unquowa’s seventh grade students definitely recommend that you get a guide – lest you get eaten by a giant man-eating banana!
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
Posted by Vincent O'Hara
A week before Halloween, the seventh and eighth grade humanities classes ventured into New York City for a field trip to explore how the freedom of speech is exercised through protest and art.
Our first stop was The Museum of the City of New York. The students took guided tours of the “Activist New York” exhibit highlighting the history of social activism in the city. Then, the kids were given the liberty to explore the issues or displays that inspired them. Conversations about nuclear disarmament, environmental rights, civil rights, and women’s suffrage filled the halls, impressing our docents with our students’ level of inquiry and maturity. Having worked up an appetite walking through the history of New York, we hopped on the bus and traveled downtown to eat lunch together atop a boulder in Central Park. With full bellies and renewed energy, we began the second part of our journey: to view Ai Weiwei’s city-wide multimedia installation titled Good Fences Make Good Neighbors.
A short walk from where we ate, standing at the southwest corner of the Park, was Ai’s Gilded Cage, a circular golden structure standing twenty feet tall. The students entered its doorway, interacting with the art by moving the turnstiles within and immediately grappled with its meaning. Questions regarding its shape, color, location, and features rang out as we once again returned to our bus for one last stop: Greenwich Village.
Ai Weiwei’s most talked about installation sits below Washington Square Park’s iconic archway at the southernmost point of 5th Avenue. Our students reveled in the culture that defines the Village. Street performers, eclectics, and passersby pulled their attention, but in the end it was Ai Weiwei’s Arch that stole the show. Arch, a massive chrome birdcage-esque edifice, all but obstructs the entrance to the park save for a larger than life cookie-cutter passageway. Our students took pictures, played with their reflections in the mirrored interior, and a few even interviewed other visitors appreciating the Chinese dissident’s most anticipated installation.
We arrived back at school well after the sun had set, but it was only the beginning of our scholastic discourse. Prior to our excursion, the students close-read and analyzed Langston Hughes’s “Let America Be America Again” and “The Mending Wall” by Robert Frost, researched Ai Weiwei’s biography and art, and reviewed the function and purpose of installation art. Armed with that knowledge and the experiences gained at the museum and parks, both seventh and eighth grade classes discussed the purpose of our trip, the historical impacts of the protests that define New York’s progressive past, and interpreted Ai Weiwei’s Good Fences Make Good Neighbors. The discussions, downright scholarly, demonstrated precisely our mission in the Humanities Department: to develop critical, creative, and unafraid minds to examine and contribute to the multiple perspectives and historical conditions that shape society and culture in an ever-changing world. Our mission is to foster global citizenship through cultural awareness, understanding, and empathy. We could not be more proud.
Quotes of Kindness
Posted by Megan Kirk
The seventh graders have been busy in their last few advisory periods creating kind or motivational quotes they will secretly deliver to the sixth and eighth graders. This is an extension of our quote wall that was created earlier this year. Students in sixth through eighth grade were full of smiles when they found their quotes, and students in seventh grade discussed how good it felt to do something kind for others!
Address To The Moon
Posted by Megan KirkAddress To The Moon is a poem written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that was put to music by John Purifoy. Students began learning this song by first reading and researching the poem. We analyzed and gave meaning to the wonderful text. After having a deeper understanding of the picture Nathaniel Hawthorne was painting with his words, we began learning this difficult piece. While learning the music, students discussed why the composer chose to have certain melodic lines, and interesting harmonies. We also learned a lot about choral singing while learning this piece. Students had to answer many difficult questions in rehearsal. How do we blend as a chorus? Why is blending so important? How do we use our techniques such as proper diction and breath support during this song? How do we paint this picture with just our voices? How do we remain on our own part while someone next to us is singing something different? Students tackled each one of these questions and more during rehearsals, and with a lot of hard work were able to share this beautiful piece with the Unquowa Community.
Just Hanging in the Trees!
Posted by Unquowa Parents Association
The Unquowa Upper School Social for grades 6-8 was held on Friday, October 20th at the Adventure Park at the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport. All the kids had a great time exploring the park’s aerial trails with its challenging ropes course and zip lines from some truly dizzying heights. This is a great place for students to challenge themselves on difficult high wire ropes course where getting from one side to the other isn’t the easiest of tasks. At dusk, the kids ventured down from the trees and relaxed by the bonfire toasting s’mores. Thanks to the UPA committee, chaperones, teachers and Mr. Mitchell for helping make this event possible.
Faerie Village at the Florence Griswold Museum
Posted by Alice DesGranges
On a beautiful, sunny, fall day the students from second and seventh took their art class on the road to the Florence Griswold Museum to visit the Fairie Village created by artists. Miniature art galleries, movie theatres, libraries, and wind farms all designed to be used by faeries are found throughout the breathtaking grounds of the Florence Griswold Museum. The students also had the opportunity to paint “plein air” outside on the magical museum grounds. What a wonderful way to spend the day!
