Ms. Griffiths’ YES class at Second Street will be raising money for the Humane Rescue Alliance by selling raffle tickets and snacks on Friday. The Youth Empowerment Seminar, which students in grades six and seven attend, allows students to design community service projects and support causes that are near and dear to their hearts. The class focuses on activism, engagement, and civic duty, as well as building positive peer and group relationships.
Students in Ms. Lambert’s Honors French Two class will visit the Kennedy Center next Thursday to see “Les Misérables ,” a musical adapted from the Victor Hugo book by the same name. The story depicts the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris and deals with issues like social class, law and order, and reform movements in nineteenth century France.
Fifth graders at 2nd Street got a visit Friday from the Honorable Charles Bolden, a former astronaut and NASA administrator, who spoke about the United States space program. Students have been reading and watching movies about space travel in Mr. Bane’s English class and learning about space in Science with Ms. Dorsey. Mr. Bolden with the highly decorated fighter pilot in the US Marine Corp, rising to the rank of Major General. He was an astronaut on four space shuttle missions, two as a commander, and the 12th Head Administrator at NASA. He credits his parents for encouraging him to pursue his dreams and believing he could do anything he set his mind to.
2nd Street students in both Upper and Middle Schools took part in exciting activities for our Friday Wellness Day. Options included on-campus fun like sports, board games, playing with dogs, playing on the field, jogging, walking, writing letters, quiet reading, listening to music and doing calligraphy or other artistic expressions. Off-campus options included bouldering, visiting Rockville’s Chinatown restaurants, the Botanical Gardens, the Arboretum, and the Zoo. The quarterly Wellness Days are a holdover from quarantine, allowing students to spend half a day focused on physical and mental health, as well as fostering a sense of community at Latin.
Upper School Wellness Spring Classes started this week after school, though there is still time to register before Monday night!) Ms. Gott teaches Spring Yoga, Mr. Martin teaches Jiu-Jitsu, Jordan Taylor teaches Skateboarding, and Ms. Latham teaches Volleyball. The Wellness Classes are a way students can get P.E. credit without taking part in competitive team sports. They also offer students a relaxing after school activity to help handle stress. Middle School offerings are also still open. Sign up today!
The Middle School track team competed in a meet against a variety of local charter schools on Tuesday. Eighth grader Jocelyn Gill took first place in shotput by six feet and the long jump by nearly three feet! She also won the high jump, with Sienna Douglas taking second place. The girls 4x100M relay team, including eighth graders Joi Young, Ava Williams, Avis Weedan, and Zara Ferguson, took fourth overall out of nearly 30 groups. Sixth grader Lia Simone Valentine took seventh overall in the 400M race, and seventh grader Ben Hitt finished sixth overall in the 1600M for the boys, while eighth grader Madelyn Zeller finished tenth for the girls. In the 200M, sixth grader Cat McPherson finished first for the Latin girls and eighth grader Deandre Foxx finished first for the Latin boys. The boys’ 4x800M relay team, consisting of eight graders Ben Hitt and Zeke Schmidgall, sixth grader Liam Pittard, and seventh grader Charlie Batkin, finished second, losing the race by just 0.01 seconds. Charlie raced against a top runner for DCI and kept pace with him the whole way. A great day at the races!