Middle school and upper school art students have their artwork on display in the main hallway and stairwell. The work, including still life and perspective drawing with graphite pencils, uses shading, the horizon line, and color gradients. The work, created by art students in Ms. Stephens’ 7th grade and Art I classes, includes figures ranging from computer screens to plants, and even images as viewed from a rear-view mirror. By studying and mastering shading and perspective, students are able to recreate a wide variety of images and give their pictures a sense of texture and context. The following 7th grade students earned the Most Creative Artist award for their drawings:  Ruby Fanning, Elliot D’Alessandro, Young Pal Stallings, Kofi McFadgion, Aoife Butler, Nalla Diallo, Benjamin Southworth, Miles Pulford, Dasiy Hand, Wyatt Grimm, Juliette Warga, and Caroline Watterson. The following Art I students earned the Most Creative Artist award for their value drawings: Nathan Cobbs, Kevin Macario, Assata Reese, Makayla Gray, Ciara Hovell, Chloe Cattaneo, Maggie Dalzell, Reggie Dickens, Mitchell Shapiro, Jameelah Jenkins-Duvall, Jay Antoine, and Elayna Birch-Smith. Come see their art while it is displayed!

Students in the upper school broke loose Tuesday afternoon for the first pep rally of the season. The event, hosted in our gym, honored student athletes, and introduced the student captains on the soccer, volleyball, and cross country teams. Meanwhile, spectators were treated to a performance by the student rock band and a dance routine from the cheerleaders. The pep rally is timed to coincide with Spirit Week, and throughout the week students in the upper school were granted the chance to show their spirit for the school with creative outfits, music, or sports. This week also featured home games for the girls’ and boys’ soccer teams and the volleyball team.

Fifth graders got a taste of experiential literature last week. Students began reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George in English class. As they imagined Sam Gribley stuck in his house made inside a hemlock tree for two days because of a snowstorm, they pretended to be in the same situation by crawling underneath a fabric roof suspended from our desktops while listening to the sounds of a snowstorm. Inside this mock fort, students read aloud the first chapter of Sam’s adventure of living off the land in the Catskills Mountains.  Students will continue to experience aspects of Sam’s life through a variety of activities, including a workshop with a falconer and a feast made of the natural foods Sam would have used to survive.

Students in the upper and middle school meet regularly for assemblies with a specific theme.  This month, the upper school assembly focused on Immigration & Citizenship. Various students and teachers discussed family experiences with immigration and thoughts about what it meant to be an American citizen.  Junior Jay Antoine spoke candidly about her family’s experiences with international adoption, and seniors Louis McDonough and Brian Benitez did a joint presentation in Spanish and English called, America, I Do Not Call Your Name In Vain. Throughout the year, these assemblies serve as a chance to unite our school around shared values and foster public speaking skills and respect for peers by asking students and teachers to honor each other’s achievements.

Tenth graders visited an educational exhibit on the lives of refugees at the Washington Monument on Tuesday. The interactive, free exhibition presented by Doctors Without Borders was called “Forced From Home.” This exhibit portrays different aspects of the experience of the world’s more than 65 million refugees and internally displaced people. With an experienced aid worker as students’ guides, they walked through the various challenges faced by displaced people and learned about how Doctors Without Borders handles their basic medical needs.  Tenth graders have previously studied genocide and the experiences of refugees in Europe after World War II.