The End of the 2011-2012 School Year!

I am sad to see this year end as we had so many Champion students in room B9!

The end of the year included a Rome summary board game made by the students, a letter to their next years teacher, and a summary kite of what we learned on one side and students autographs on the other.

Students playing their Rome games

Making Memory Kites

Per. 1-2

Per. 3-4

Deep Thinking With a Very Special Guest!

Today we were very fortunate to have Mrs. Chancer in class. She lead a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) activity that has us all "spellbound". Here is a little information about VTS:
http://www.vtshome.org/

After a short introduction on the human brain and how it remembers better if learning is connected to something that "matters", Mrs. Chancer put up an amazing picture and lead students in a wonderful question and answer session which required higher order thinking. This incredible 30 minutes lesson felt like two minutes.

Amazing! The best news is that during summer, our staff will be trained in the VTS technique and will be able to have this sort of activity for all students.

The following article has more information about how we can "grow our brain"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/can-you-make-yourself-smarter.html?pagewanted=all

Julius Caesar

Today we did a readers theater titled Julius Caesar based on the Shakespeare classic play.
Students were divided up in teams, and each team acted out a scene for the rest of the class.
Students did an incredible job!

First, reading it and deciding who will get what part to act out

Acting

Well Done Champions! I am going to miss you now that you are almost 7th graders!

Roman Mosaics!

We are learning about the Ancient Romans and their many contributions to modern day. One of the things the Ancient Romans were known for is their Mosaics. Today we researched the history (http://www.aquilomosaics.com/a_brief_history_of_mosaic_a.html), watched a short video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSq5Xc29XPA&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active)of a famous excavation of one, then made our own.

First, sketching out a design

 Getting the right size for the "tiles"

 Making a "working mess"

 Coming together

 Success!

Ancient Rome!

We are studying our last ancient civilization of this year.
Unfortunately, we had to turn in the netbooks last week, so much of our work is "old school".
We read the classic story Baucis and Philemon (http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/myths/a/philemonbaucis.htm). Then students re created a scene "puppet show" style.
It was fun to watch the students make the story "come alive".

Sketching out their puppets

 Making the background

 Presenting

 Students enjoying the show...

Well done Champions!