September 25, 2008

Building more than buildings

Dear Families,

It was a pleasure to see so many of you at yesterday’s Building for Action event. I hope that you are as excited as I am about the future of LREI. While our building plans are bold and innovative, the Building for Action campaign is really an affirmation of the mission and purpose of Elisabeth Irwin’s experimental school. In this way, the bricks and mortar of the project are invested with a special significance; they support our continued efforts to engage your children in authentic and engaging inquiry that draws on the most current ideas about teaching and learning.

The Middle School has been fortunate to already be reaping the benefits of the Building for Action plan. Our new classrooms stand as an affirmation of the vibrant exchange between students and teachers that takes place every day. The new spaces have also helped to invigorate our on-going dialog aimed at understanding “what is best for learners.” To that end, I thought it would be useful to share with you a sampling of some of the rich and rigorous work that is taking place in our Middle School classrooms.

Fifth graders are . . .

using tables, graphs, and rules to model solutions to problems like the Ice Cream Problem which asks, “With 31 possible flavors, how many different types of 2-scoop cones are there?” They are also beginning to use the same algebraic principals to act out and model trips – steady, accelerating and decelerating motion.
taking their first steps into the exciting world of French. They are getting comfortable with the pronunciation, picking French names, reciting the alphabet, counting, and talking about the weather.
continuing and expanding on their Lower School study of Spanish with the introduction of new vocabulary and verbs
creating collages of “things they like to do when they are not in school,” making sketch books that will be used in school and on trips and beginning a painting project that incorporates the art elements: line, shape, and color.
learning important organization skills as they organize their files into folders on the server and on their flash drives. They are also continuing to work on improving their keyboarding skills.
playing indoor soccer and doing fitness training.
exploring the question, “What is music?” through discussions of John Cage’s Water Walk and their own musical experiences in class.

Sixth graders are . . .

reading Beowulf and learning how to take notes as they read so that they can analyze the text in class discussions, working on current events and vocabulary and are beginning their study of feudalism. They have also found time to complete their first round of booktalks.
investigating situations in which they need to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. They are developing strategies to solve problems like, “Blaine plans to paint a highway stripe that is 9/10 of a mile long. He is 2/3 of the way done when he runs out of paint. How long is the stripe he painted?” and “There are 12 baby rabbits at the pet store. Gabriella has 5 1/4 ounces of parsley to feed the rabbits as treats. She wants to give each rabbit the same amount. How much parsley does each rabbit get?”
practicing in-class dialogues and working on their accents and pronunciation in both Spanish and French classes
creating collaged triptychs of a journey they have taken, binding and decorating their own sketch books and learning the basics of color theory by creating their own color wheel.
scaling the Thompson Street climbing wall.
gathering with the other fifth grade members of the Little Red Singers each Tuesday to sing, dance, listen to and share music! They recently performed a swing jazz piece, “Dancin’ on the Rooftop” at our Middle School Meeting to enthusiastic ovations.
using found objects to create full class planned improvisations to exhibit the expressive potential of timbre. In small groups, students are then creating pictoral representations for their sounds and then using these to create a musical score for a short composition.

Seventh graders are . . .

reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver and are exploring the viability of a utopia as well as the complex themes this novel presents: perfection, fairness, justice, and the role memory has on an individual and on a society, to name a few. Students are learning how to use textual evidence to support their understanding of these themes and this thought-provoking novel.
learning how historians use primary and secondary source materials to generate an understanding of early English settlement in North America, especially when those source materials present differing perspectives and viewpoints on important individuals and moments in American History.
helping our fictitious bike tour company get off the ground. By analyzing data in various forms, and with the help of graphing calculators, the class will decide on a bike tour price and look at variables that will affect profit.
looking at the significance of the Scientific Revolution and have been conducting experiments with pendulums. They are also measuring and calculating mass, volume and density of irregular objects using measurement tools, mathematical formulas and displacement as part of our study of the properties of materials matter
writing a composition using the new verb “etre” and some -“er” verbs from last year.
reviewing Spanish verb conjugations and classroom vocabulary so that they can begin a study of family and the home.
developing their mime skills and are about to embark on an exploration of theater in NYC over a century ago. Vaudeville acts, melodramas and silent movies will be the focus of the class for the next month.
creating their own PE games, which they will teach to the rest of the class.
reporting on the important historical music events from the week and are turning these into podcasts.
discussing how graphics can be used to communicate ideas as they create personal symbols for their silhouette project.

Eighth graders are . . .

reflecting on their summer reading memoir about the struggles of school integration at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1950s. After learning about the intense conflict of racial politics and federal versus states rights during the civil rights movement, students are discussing current civil rights struggles and choosing one about which they feel particularly concerned. Their final project is to create an art piece and reflective explanation about their cause in order to bring visibility to it for their peers and the school community at large.
studying linear functions. They will use what they learn to predict the consequences of leaky faucets. Stay tuned….
conducting experiments to gain an understanding of Newton’s Laws of motion. These understandings will be used to design and construct Mousetrap powered vehicles that demonstrate these laws.
reviewing fundamentals of Spanish grammar and vocabulary so that they can begin to study the imperfect, the new past tense as a prelude to their readings in Cuentos Simpáticos.
completing a composition using adjectives and verbs, both regular and irregular, to describe themselves physically and to describe an activity that they were involved in during the summer.
are working on the climbing wall for fitness. Students are challenging themselves on the wall with different challenges, like using only certain colored pieces or having two people cross paths as they work across the wall. On sports days, they are working on volleyball skills and strategy.
learning Breachtian conventions in preparation for creating their own piece of political theater. This week students learned about “Geste” and the impact of ensemble tableaux.
sketching out their ideas and exploring painting techniques as they prepare to paint the art room stools around this year’s theme of literary characters.
Eighth graders are incorporating Literary Characters for this years theme.
beginning an exploration of digital photography by going on a “Photo Scavenger Hunt” in which they were asked to look for a variety of things to photograph that included interesting textures, reflections and other artistic elements
are creating original podcasts that examine music that interests them and answer the following questions: “why is this music important to you?” “what do you like about the sound of it?” “when do you usually listen to it?”

This Week’s Attachments
General:
Eighth Grade:
Permission form to leave and reenter the building
DC Trip Registration Form
Seventh Grade:
Permission form to leave and reenter the building
Williamsburg Trip Registration Form
Fifth and Sixth Grade:
Ashokan Trip Registration Form

Of General Interest . . .
1) From Phil: LREI participates in a voluntary program under which we have agreed to reduce our energy consumption when peak energy requirements may place extreme demands on the system. In preparation for an actual event of this kind, we are required to reduce energy consumption in exercises (not real events) that take place twice a year, once in the winter and once in the summer. As you may have heard from your children, today we participated in such an exercise. From 11:00AM-12:00PM we turned off as many lights, computers and other electronic devices/appliances as possible. All seems to have gone smoothly.

2) Click here for important information for current families applying another child to LREI.

3) Pete Seeger will be performing this Saturday, September 27th in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden Be a part of music history at this rare public performance
with Pete Seeger, Tao Rodríguez-Seeger, Guy Davis together in a Special Family Concert. For additional information, click here.

4) This week, Creative Time is presenting a group exhibit/idea space called Democracy in America: The National Campaign at the Park Avenue Armory. Work from over 40 artists responding to the idea of what American democracy means is currently being exhibited across 4 floors at the Armory. Creative Time thinks of it as the “anti-convention.” What this show means for you–politically engaging art. See this article from the NY Times. What this means for children–long wooden hallways to run down, big wooden sculptures that can be touched, free ice cream from the Center for Tactical Magic’s anarchist ice cream truck, and the opportunity to do karaoke with protest songs. The show is hurting for people during the day, so it’s quiet too. For a complete list of events, click here. And it’s all FREE! The show runs daily from noon to 10PM at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, between 66th and 67th Streets. The show runs through September 27.

5) For updates on faculty performances, openings, presentations, and publications visit the Faculty in the News page on the school web site.

6) LREI is a member of NYC-Parents in Action (NYC-PIA). NYC-PIA provides parenting education, information and a communications network to help parents prepare their children and teenagers to cope with social pressures and to make sound choices towards a future free of alcohol and drug abuse. Please read the attached flyer to view their 2008-2009 calendar. You can also access their website at http://www.parentsinaction.org/.

November 11, 2008
An Expert’s Guide to Negotiating the Prickly Points of the ‘Tween Years
Temple Israel, 112 East 75th Street, 12:00-2:00 pm
Speaker: Julie Ross, M.A., Executive Director and Founder of Parenting Horizons; Author of “Practical Parenting for the 21st Century: The Manual You Wish Had Come With Your Child” and “How to Hug a Porcupine: Negotiating the Prickly Points of ‘Tween Years”

For all grades . . .
1) Medieval fantasy author T.A. Barron (The Lost Years of Merlin, The Great Tree of Avalon) will be appearing at LREI courtesy of the independent bookstore Books of Wonder, to introduce the first book in his new series, Merlin’s Dragon, on Monday, September 29th from 3:15-4:15. He’ll also be meeting with the Sixth Grade beforehand to discuss his body of work, which is richly steeped in medieval European history and myth. After speaking with the sixth grade, Mr. Barron will be available to meet, speak with, and sign books for all students and parents from 3:15-4:15PM in the Sixth Avenue library. There will be some copies for purchase on hand, but you also can pre-order books for your child. Orders for books can be placed in advance through the attached payment form and informational flyer.

2) School Picture Day is coming up!

Coffee Pond Photography will be taking individual portraits of each student and each class. Students in grades 7-8 will have pictures their taken on 10/6/08 (in case of inclement weather, pictures will be taken on 10/27). Students in grades 5-6 will have their pictures taken either on 10/27 if the 10/6 session is canceled or during the first week of November when Coffee Pond returns for makeups.
Coffee Pond Photography is able to offer a limited number of photo scholarships. Please reply to Kim Cherubin via email kcherubin@lrei.org (or call at extension 215) by the end of the day Thursday, 10/2, if you receive tuition assistance and are unable to pay for photographs. Because of the small number of scholarships available, they will be first come-first served. Please list the name(s) and grade(s) of the children for whom you are requesting the package.
You will receive proofs in the mail directly from Coffee Pond and can choose which photograph you like best. All orders will be placed online using the Coffee Pond website. To get the best photo of your child, please make sure they are dressed appropriately that day. If you have any questions about ordering, you can email Coffee Pond at lifeguards@coffeepond.com or call 800.635.2323 between 9AM and 5PM on weekdays.

3) Judo Team: A reminder that practices are on Fridays at the Thompson Street Athletic Center and will run from 3:30-5:30PM. There are no try-outs and all MS and HS students are welcome to join. Talk to head coach Larry Kaplan or assistant coaches Frank Portella and Victor Diggs if you need more information.

4) Middle School Chorus and Band—The Little Red Singers (grades 5-8) meets once a week on Tuesdays, 11:30AM-12:30PM. Lower School music teacher Ledell Mulvaney directs the chorus. The Middle school band (sixth-eighth grades) meets on Fridays from 2:15-3:15PM. The fifth grade band will begin practices at the start of the second quarter. Practices will take place during the school day. Additional information will be forthcoming. Middle School music teacher Matt McLean directs the band.

For Seventh and Eighth Grade Families . . .
1) As outlined in the handbook, seventh and eighth graders who want to leave the building after dismissal and then return to use the library or lab must have a signed permission form. Click here to download the form.

For Eighth Grade Families . . .
1) While the trip to DC is not until the spring, please use the attached form to register your child for the trip. If you have questions about payment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

For Seventh Grade Families . . .
1) If you have not done so already, please use the attached form to register your child for the upcoming Williamsburg trip. If you have questions about payment, please do not hesitate to contact me.

For Fifth and Sixth Grade Families . . .
1) Please note that the upcoming trip to Ashokan is scheduled for October 6-8 (not the September dates that appear in the Art Calendar). If you have not done so already, please complete and submit the trip registration and payment form. If you have questions about payment, please do not hesitate to contact me. Given that on the evening of the 8th some of you will be celebrating Yom Kippur, the trip is structured so that students will be back by 3:30PM.

For Sixth Grade Families . . .
1) On Thursday, October 2nd, sixth graders will participate in our annual Downtown Independent Schools Committee (DISC) Field Day at Pier 40. Sixth graders from LREI will participate in a variety of games and athletic events with students from Village Community School, Grace Church School, Friends, City and Country, and St. Luke’s School. The students will leave at 10:30AM and have a picnic lunch at Pier 40 at 11:00AM. The field day activities will begin at 11:30PM and will finish around 1:30PM. We should return to the Sixth Avenue building by about 2:00PM. We expect all sixth graders to participate in this event. In preparation for this event, students should dress appropriately for the weather. A jacket or sweatshirt will be important. Sneakers, hats, water bottles, sunglasses, etc. are recommended. Students will need to bring a lunch on this day (no nuts, seeds, and glass bottles). This is an exciting day for sixth graders. Please do not hesitate to call me if you have any questions.

2) On Tuesday, October 14th, the sixth grade will visit the Cloisters to view their Medieval collection. Students will need to bring a lunch on this day (no nuts, seeds, and glass bottles).

For Fifth Grade Families . . .
1) On Thursday, November 13th, the fifth grade will visit the Met to view their Ancient Near East collection. Students will need to bring a lunch on this day (no nuts, seeds, and glass bottles).

===============For additional information, follow these links: ===============

View important middle school dates here.
View all events with the LREI On-line Calendar
LREI Athletics. For general LREI Athletics news go to this link . This page will provide general announcements, game summaries, league standings and season recaps.
Click here to view the Middle School Photo Gallery.

A reminder that the individual homework blog and the “feeds” for every class can be accessed from the Digital Classroom link on the sidebar (you may want to bookmark this page for easy access). These feeds provide an easy “one-click” solution to find out what has been assigned for homework. Keep in mind that a feed will only show what has been posted as of the time you check it.

Don’t forget to check the LREI website for updates and other interesting school-related information.

Be well,
Mark