The 6th Graders dressed as pyramids, King Tut, and mummies for the Sed Festival this week. The event, which caps the study of Ancient Egypt in Civics Class, is based on a traditional ceremony that celebrated the rule of a pharaoh. It derives its name from the Egyptian wolf god.

Sixth graders took a field trip to Calleva in MD this week, and the fifth graders will go the Calleva campus in VA next week to take part in team building outdoor activities. This allows students to get to know each other outside the classroom and build esprit de corps. Students in every grade take part in outdoor field trips throughout the year to build their appreciation of the world around them and learn to socialize outside the bounds of a typical school day.

In the middle and upper school, clubs are filling up fast. Clubs meet regularly after school and during lunch, and are advised by teachers, but often started and lead by students. Some popular middle school clubs including Latin American Heritage and Culture Club, Magic the Gathering Club D&D Club, Debate, Model UN, Theater Club, STEM Club, Comic Club, Literary Magazine, and Newspaper. Weekly announcements about the day’s club meetings can be found in the Daily Bulletin.

In tenth grade English students are selecting passages from The Odyssey to do a close reading and analyze figurative language. Students have a menu of scenes to choose from. They are evaluating the authors’ word choices and how it impacts the experiences of the reader.  In ninth grade English, students are doing a similar task involving the book Beowulf. This skill at close reading allows students to take a closer look at an ancient and classic test and go beyond the story to examine the author’s words and choice of metaphor, simile, personification, and other examples of figurative language.

Students in the middle school will have a dress down day next Friday IF they are following expectations for daily uniform, which includes not wearing hoods, not wearing headphones in class, wearing uniform shirts and monochromatic sweatshirts in the school colors, along with khaki pants.