The eighth grade will celebrate the Advisory Olympics on Thursday, and the Upper School will hold Lion Day activities on Friday. Students will dress in class colors for for Lion Day and advisory colors for Advisory Olympics. The eighth grade Olympics is an all-day event of sport and spirit, complete with advisory cheers, races, and tests of strength and agility. Lion Day will happen in the afternoon and will include musical chairs, can jam, face painting, an obstacle course, three-legged race, and other playful events. Let the games begin!
Ninth graders Jalen Richardson, Alicia Campbell, and Helena Ikenberry were awarded prizes for their science fair research at a banquet at the Elephant and Castle downtown this week. The Federal Water Quality Association honored high school students for cutting edge science fair projects in water quality. Richardson earned an award for his project using a magnetic fluid to clean oil spills, and Campbell and Ikenberry won for their project on the effectiveness of oyster filtration compared to a Brita filter. Students attended an awards banquet with physics teacher Mr. Torrence. This was one of several awards these students earned from the work they presented at the citywide STEM fair.
Eighth graders took part in a week and a half of Spirit Week activities this year to end their year on an exciting note. Last week students celebrated at the Flower Power Themed Dance. Best dressed winners included eighth graders Wyatt Grimm and Juliette Warga and seventh graders Zaire Jackson , Elle Waters, and Amirah Taliaferro-Brunn. On Monday, students showed their Latin Pride in team and school spirit-related outfits. Tuesday was Matchy Match day for some serious twinning. Even the 8th grade teachers got into the action with Ms. Haywood, Ms. Berment, Ms. Breitman, Ms. Coppola-Klein, and Ms. Stephens making a team of quintuplets. On Wednesday students dressed to impress, sporting fancy ensembles like suits and sequins. On Thursday, the advisories competed in Advisory Feud, and on Tuesday of next week, students will finish strong with Advisory Olympics, complete with athletic events that test their advisory endurance, speed, hand-eye coordination, and cheering abilities.
This week upper school students in several different grades took fun and educational field trips to have a day to recharge and collaborate before the final exam study period begins. Ninth graders visited SkyZone, a trampoline park in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Tenth graders went to an Escape Room and the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., and eleventh graders attended The Frederick Douglass Project at AME Church. The play consists of two short plays, An Eloquent Fugitive Slave Flees to Ireland by African-American writer and local theatre star Psalmayene 24, and Wild Notes by award-winning Irish playwright Deirdre Kinahan, giving audiences a dual perspective on Douglass’ experience in Ireland. This production is proud to be supported by The Irish Embassy, The DC Commission for Arts & Humanities, and the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives.
Last week juniors in Mr. Hagerty’s history class visited the memorial for Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This is the location where the “fourth” hijacked plane went down because passengers took action to prevent an even greater tragedy on September 11, 2001. To prepare for the field trip, students spoke with various teachers about their experiences and memories of September 11 to have a better understanding of the way the day impacted communities and history. Students visited the Park Service outside Learning Center in Shanksville, along with the visitor center, and met with military members to talk about their service.
Students in eighth grade English acted out scenes from Dreams From My Father, a memoir about Barack Obama’s youth. The scenes depicted events from his childhood that appear in the book, but students were challenged to write his internal monologue during these scenes, to get a better understanding of his ideas and feelings. Students have focused on narrative writing for the fourth quarter of eighth grade English, including poetry about the search for identity, and dramatic and comedic skits.
