Students achieved the ultimate in Frisbee success, besting the teachers in the annual game last week, 15-14. The teachers who participated included Ms. McDaniel, Ms. Olney, Ms. Sutter, Mr. Hultgren, Mr. Yonker, Mr. Clausen, Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Hotchkiss, Mr. Porcelli, Mr. Green, and Mr. Dumas. Students were leading 10-7, and tied at 10-10, forcing an extension of the game from the original 12 point goal. The closely matched teams traded points to 14, playing to 15 for a student victory.
The seventh and eighth graders hosted their final art show of the year, featuring the theme of “True Colors.” The exhibits included a spider’s web made out of multi-colored yarn, students’ still lives, paintings, and activities. The student-constructed activities involved identifying an object from a small image and creating logo stickers that identify students’ personalities. Ms. Stephens works with students in the middle and high school to produce student-lead art shows in which students create the art, decorate the school, publicize the event, and create interactive activities to keep guests engaged and involved in the artistic process.
Eighth graders culminate their yearlong advisory competitions with Spirit Week. The competition began on Monday, as students played Advisory Feud, guessing what each other’s answers were based on a survey conducted in advisory last week. On Tuesday, students wore matching ensembles that showcased either monochromatic fashion choices, or matched outfits with their peers. The winning trio were Lisa Trejo, Gabby Rodriguez and Amaya Tatum. Afterschool Tuesday, students vied for the role of valediction speaker, with complex well-crafted speaches that they had written. Max Regardie, Robbie Mirabello, Zoe Edelman, Charles Brown, Fiona Campbell, Celia Doherty, Lucien Anderson, Lydia Moore, and Amaya Tatum all gave strong performances, and after much debate, the teachers selected Campbell’s speech as the winner to be given at valediction. On Wednesday, students dressed for success donning polos, button-downs, vests, suits, ties, skirts, and fancy dresses. Thursday students competed in an Olympic challenge, with assorted games and competitions throughout the day. Finally, Friday concluded the amazing week with the Black and White dance, the final dance of the year for the middle school. The advisory competitions bring together students with their peers and help them finish eighth grade with humor, playful competition, and style.
The students in the upper school public speaking course entitled, Finding Your Hidden Voice previewed their upcoming performance for teachers Tuesday. The students included seniors Alexander Sanchez-Arias and Sabrina Payano, and sophomores Rodney Goldring and Lily Stettler-Eno. All four will produce a final production next Tuesday. The performance included monologues from various plays and two dialogues. The class is taught by college counselor Ms. Richardson and theatre teacher Mr. Birkenhead.
Middle schoolers took part in the Letters About Literature Contest. The event is run by the Library of Congress. Students are asked to write a letter to an author (living or dead) about how a book changed the student’s view of themselves or of something in the world. Our fifth graders fall in Level 1 which encompasses fourth through sixth graders. For each level, finalists are chosen and then first, second, and third place winners are selected from the finalists. This year we had four finalists: Mackie Boone, Lauren Boyer, Celia Servaites, and Peyton Sullivan. Boone wrote to Dan Gemienhart about his book The Honest Truth, in which the main character is a boy dealing with cancer and she connected that to how her aunt struggled with cancer five years ago. Boyer wrote to Erin Hunter, the author of The Warriors series and explained that she talks to her mom, her sister, and even her eye doctor about the characters in the books. She wrote that reading about the different perspectives of the characters in the books has helped her be aware of the different perspectives of the people around her. Meanwhile, Latin also had a winner in Level 3. Ninth grader John Parker won third place with a letter to Mo Willems about his Elephant and Piggie books.
