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!

Fifth graders at the 2nd Street Campus launched model rockets in the field this week in Ms. Dorsey’s science class. Sam Alvord, father of fifth grader Caleb Alvord, helped the students create Estes model rockets with metal with plastic fins and a parachute inside. The experiment used solid rocket fuel made with black powder propellant to create a reaction like dynamite.  Students put metal starters into the end of the propellant.  The starters were connected with alligator clips to a wired launch stick. The launch stick sends an electrical current to the starter which heats up and ignites the propellant. Students created charts of the blast off, showing Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and describing the types of forces and energy the rocket used and produced.  

Students in the Stitch Club elective at Cooper Campus have been working to make loveable knitted stuffed animals. Student Olivia Stevens, finished her first knitted teddy bear with a meaningful name: Mimi Mercury Roosevelt. ELL teacher Ms. Cox advises the club.