Dear Families,

To help you cut through the “It was fine,” “Nothing much,” and “I don’t remember” type of responses that are often hallmarks of adolescent reports on the goings-on in classes, I hope that the accounts given below shed a little more light on the many exciting things taking place in the middle school and provide you with some new entree points into dialog with your child about her/his school life.

Fifth graders are . . .

• getting to know their areas, hunting and gathering and creating shelters as part of our civilization simulation where it’s 10,000 years ago and bands of humans are settling in a variety of locations around the world.
• writing about people and places that matter to them and building stamina for independent reading books.
• testing, recording and graphing their own walking and running paces as part of their of their study of patterns and change
• learning body parts as well as learning subject pronouns along with the conjugation of the verb “to be”and regular -ar verbs in Spanish.
• completing their introduction to French by learning the alphabet, numbers 1-50, and basic greetings. They are also sharing math problems with each other, getting ready to play Bingo in French, reciting out loud and making a wearable item with their new French names.
• currently working on collages of landscapes. Their challenge is to create the illusion of space by utilizing fore ground, middle ground and back ground. To prepare for this project they painted papers, creating color gradations, which they are now using to create their collages.
• discussing the importance of and learning how to organize information on a computer by placing ‘like topic’ files into folders and using embedded folders.  They are also practicing keyboarding skills and had a session with Jennifer pertaining to doing library research and how and when to do research on the internet.
• are working on the climbing wall and playing indoor soccer

Sixth graders are . . .

• deep into their current events projects and are in the middle of reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
• talking about feudalism and have begun examining the rise of Christianity in Europe and the hierarchy of the church.
• working through a series of activities to better understand fraction operations.  They began by adding and subtracting fractions and  are now using brownie pans to help us understand how to multiply fractions.  They are doing all this as well as making sure we are all using efficient strategies to operate with whole numbers.
• studying the properties of fractals by creating Cantor Dust in math seminar.
• learning in French how to order food and drinks in a restaurant,
  reviewing formal and informal expressions (concept of tu and vous) and practicing pronunciation by reading short dialogs.
• talking in Spanish about what they like to do as a way to focus on present tense conjugation.
• exploring color using tempera paints. In order to understand how colors relate to each other, they created their own color wheels. They then painted color studies using complimentary colors. They are now exploring ‘color temperature’, using warm and cool colors in their paintings.
• participating in a series of “Olympic” PE challenges.

Seventh graders are . . .

• gearing up for the Williamsburg Trip and learning how to create note cards and have begun research on their individual colonial topics. This work will culminate in a formal research paper and Colonial Museum exhibit.
• finishing up our grammar unit and reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver and thinking about the viability of a perfect community and the relationship between community and identity.
• learning about settlement in America in the early 1600’s and presently are looking at the establishment of community from the perspective of English settlers and Native Americans.
• engaging in literature circle work: one half of the class is reading The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and the other half is reading Animal Farm by George Orwell.
• organizing and analyzing data needed to establish a simulated bike tour company.  They’ve examined travel time, expenses, pricing and are now ready to synthesize information in the most concise form of equations.  The next question to examine is, “How do we maximize profit?’ With the help of graphing calculators, it will be interesting to test the various variables involved in calculating profit.
• are also spending some time sharing the many math moments that are experienced by any one of us on any given day (you may want to share with your child one of your math moments from today).
• designing and conducting investigations with pendulums and investigating the absorbency of paper towels as they refine their scientific method skills.
• writing comprehensive lab reports and a paper on the Scientific Revolution.
• well into  a study of the properties of matter and the concepts of  mass and volume their relationship in terms of density.
• reviewing in French  irregular verbs such as  avoir, etre, and faire,
  and interrogative expressions and applying them to everyday conversation; studying adjectives, describing famous individuals for a guessing game using descriptions, getting ready to start a project in which they will use adjectives and design an “ideal” model bedroom that they’ll build and use to write complex sentence structures.
• fully immersed in a food unit with new vocabulary related to food, condiments and utensils as well as continued practice with all regular and stem-change (“shoe”) present tense verb conjugations.
• making their own sketchbooks, which will serve as their artist journals for the year and are finishing up an observation drawing project. Inspired by the flowers of Georgia O’Keefe, Seventh Graders looked at flowers and thought about how to draw them focusing on organic shapes, lines, composition and abstraction.
• starting our much-loved student created games program in PE.

Eighth graders are . . .

• completing their Action Art Projects. Inspired by the memoir Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine, students created Action Art Projects about a current human or civil rights issue accompanied by an Action Art Statement. The artwork and writing ask the viewer to stop, think and ultimately, take action.
• examining the roots of the bias, discrimination and inequality that the Civil Rights Movement addressed by reading Julius Lester’s To Be a Slave, a collection of slaves in their own words, connected and commented upon by the author.
• examining linear functions and algebraic notation.  They are writing equations, making tables and creating graphs that tell stories of things that grow at a constant rate.  Taxi rides, t-shirt sales, bank accounts, walking rates and road races are just a few of the real life situations we have used in our investigations.The following are examples of questions they have answered through observing these patterns:
  -How do you identify a linear function in a table, graph or equation?
  -Can you give an example of an “everyday” linear function?
  -What is true about the equations of parallel lines? perpendicular lines?
  -What helps you to write the equation of a linear function?
  -How do the characteristics of line show up in a table, graph or equation?
• using  graphing calculators to enables them to explore answers to the above questions.  They are unafraid to ask the “What if?” question because it’s so easy to readjust their thinking with these useful tools.
• investigating mixtures, solutions, chromatography and viscosity as part of a chemistry unit. They are also learning how Forensic scientists conduct controlled investigations.
• learning in French regular adjectives, clothing vocabulary and the new verbs porter, mettre, acheter. They are beginning a project using the future proche tense to describe an imaginary event that will be attended, doing some virtual shopping online in France to “buy” a new outfit for the event, and documenting their work.
• reading  stories in their reader “Cuentos Simpaticos” and finishing a quick review of articles and adjective agreement in “Spanish Grammar.”  They  have also been reviewing present and past tense verbs so that they can begin a new past tense.
• starting a painting project around the theme of favorite artists. The class has been looking at various artists and discussing different painting styles and art movements as a means to help students identify an artist on which they will focus. Students have selected their artists of inspiration and are in the process of  creating an acrylic painting based on a particular piece of art or art movement.
• exploring  digital photography. The class looked at and discussed a variety of photographs before going outside to take their own. While walking around the neighborhood students were asked to think about photographing subjects from different vantage points. There were also asked to  look for and photograph things such as lines, textures, colors, and shapes.
• well into units on volleyball and soccer.  We have worked on individual skills, partner skills and teamwork skills.  With the favorable weather, we’ve been taking advantage of the turf field at JJ Walker for soccer.  We have also started training for the first leg of our fitness test, where we work on long and short distance running, stretching, arm and core exercises.

Goings on in the Seventh And Eighth Grade Performing Arts Electives:

• The Vocal Majors and Minors are working on expressing themselves vocally through poems.  The Majors have created their own poems and we had a Poetry Slam where performances were terrific!  The Minors explored archetypes to inspire characters as they recited sonnets.  Next vocal exploration is rap!  Expect to hear some beat boxing in the halls!
• In the dance majors classes, students have been spending one day a week learning modern dance technique, warm up exercises, and beginning to develop a dance sequence that incorporates modern dance, salsa, and capoeira. On the second day in the week students have been exploring choreography and composition and beginning to design short dance works.
• Students taking the major in drama have been exploring spontaneous improvisation using colors to represent emotions. Students are acting in scenes, and using a color chart to determine their character’s emotion. In the minor class, we are working on games and activities to develop confidence in the group before moving on to scene study.
• The Instrumental Elective Class is progressing wonderfully! Students who are playing their instrument for the first time -trumpets, trombones and saxophones- have learned their first three notes and will begin learning their first song next class! Experienced musicians, pianists, guitarists, bassists and percussionists have been learning several short, CHALLENGING, selections that they will play as an accompaniment for the new musicians. In the digital music elective, students are becoming familiar with the keyboard and Garageband, which are the two main tools that we’ll use for composition.

In and outside of the library . . .

• booktalks have started in all classrooms, fifth graders has begun their introduction to MS research in anticipation of their civilizations project and seventh graders are  deep into their colonial research process. The fifth grade Friday Nonfiction Book Nook has begun, as have read alouds in the sixth and seventh grade core classrooms.

All that in a day!

Of General Interest . . .

1) We begin our 9th season of Coffee Houses next Saturday October 17th!
The Coffee House will run from 7:00-9:00PM in the High School’s Performing Arts Center at 40 Charlton Street and will feature performances by students, faculty and alumni.

2) Red is Green Committee: October kicks off our monthly recycling drives. Starting today, October 1st and continuing through the end of the month, you can bring in your plastic bags to be recycled at LREI. Please look for the box at the reception desk at 6^th Ave. This past Wednesday was our first Go Green To School Day. We will continue to Go Green to School on the first Wednesday of every month. For more details about our monthly recycling drives and Go Green to School dates, please click Red is Green PA Page.

3) Save the Date! The LREI Halloween Fair will be held, Sunday, October 25, 2009 from 1pm – 4pm at the Thompson Street Athletic Center 145 Thompson Street (just below Houston St). There will be fun games, spooky crafts, great food,
and many more Surprises! Volunteer sign-up sheets are located in the lobby.
We encourage parents to get involved, Also in the lobby, is a toy donation cauldron,
where we turn old toys into prizes for the Fair. This is a great opportunity to clean out the toy bin and recycle at the same time! So please join in on the spooktacular good time for all! If you have any further questions, please contact Pam at PamDalton@aol.com

4) Ann Schaumburger, Lower School Art Teacher, invites you to the opening of her latest show. The show will run from October 7th – November 1st. The opening reception is on Thursday, October 8th, from 6:00-8:00PM at the AIR Gallery, 111 Front Street, #228, Brooklyn. (www.airgallery.org) Congratulations, Ann!

5) Changing Families, Changing Classrooms: Come hear a leading expert on adoption and family issues, Adam Pertman, author of Adoption Nation, talk about adoption, the school community, and how to enrich the school experience for every child, on Wednesday morning, October 14, in the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria. ALL PARENTS WELCOME! Please click here for a flyer with details. For a copy of the report Adoption in the Schools: A Lot to Learn, click here.

6) Virgilio Romero, our Superintendent of Buildings, will be retiring at the end of the month. Virgilio has kept LREI functioning for 30 years. While Virgilio is looking forward to the next stage in his life, we asked him to stay on through the summer for two reasons. The first was that we could not imagine accomplishing all that we needed to accomplish this summer without Virgilio leading the way. The second is that we wanted to be able to plan a terrific party. The students will be saying goodbye and thank you by division and all LREI community members are invited to join our thank you party for Virgilio on Thursday, October 15th from 6:00PM-7:30PM in the Performing Arts Center, 40 Charlton Street (please click here for a flyer with details).

7) By now, you should have received a letter from the school regarding Grandparents and Special Friends Day on May 7th, 2010. We are thrilled that so many of you have responded so quickly. Due to space constraints, we remind you that you can either invite Grandparents or Specials Friends in lieu of Grandparents, but not both.

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

9) LREI is a member of NYC-Parents in Action (NYC-PIA – http://www.parentsinaction.org/). 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. Click here to view upcoming events and/or to download their calendar.

For All Grades . . .
1) A reminder that you can access teachers’ blogs by following the “Digital Classroom” link on the sidebar.

2) We are thrilled to announce that the Middle School Play this year will be. . . Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, adapted for the stage by Stuart Paterson. Performances will take place on Friday, December 11th,  at 7PM and on Saturday, December 12th, at 2PM and 7PM. Auditions (for 6th-8th graders) took place yesterday and today. Interested fifth graders will have a chance to work on props with Melissa in their art classes and, in a limited capacity, can be involved with some aspects of crew work. Please do not hesitate to contact director Joanne Magee (jmagee@lrei.org) if you have any questions.

3) As a follow up to Photo Day, Coffee Pond’s new E/Proof program will notify you a few weeks after photo day via email when your child’s proofs are ready to be viewed online. 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.

4) From Middle School librarian Jennifer Hubert Swan: While it’s always a good time to write, the month of November is notable for a couple of great writing opportunities:

• “Pen Ultimate: November is National Novel Writing Month” by Lauren Barack — http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6685546.html
• Or maybe they just want to continue the story of some of their favorite characters: “When Harry Met Bella: fan fiction: by Carlie Webber and Liz Burns (two of my good colleagues and cracker jack librarians) — http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6673573.html
• Click here to read Jen’s most recent blog post on Banned Book Week.

For Eighth Grade Families . . .
1) From Director of Admissions Barbara Scott: Greetings from the Admissions Office! Due to scheduling at the High School it has become necessary to host the Eighth Grade family tours on October 26th only. We therefore ask families who were scheduled to tour the High School on October 16th to join us later in the month. Additionally, we encourage all families to RSVP with us for one of our evening Open Houses. The events are scheduled for October 29th and November 3rd at 6:30PM, and provide an opportunity to speak with faculty, administration and current students. You may contact me by telephone at 212.477.5316, ext. 210, or by email at bscott@lrei.org if you have questions, or plan to attend an evening Open House. Admissions will need your child’s name and homeroom class in order to reserve your place. We look forward to greeting you!

Also, during the week of October 19th, you will receive an application for the Irwin Scholars Program. The Irwin Scholars program recognizes selected eighth grade students moving on to the high school who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to their academic success, contributed to the co-curricular life of the school, and exhibited strong leadership skills. The program provides a scholarship in the amount of $3-5K each year for four years. If you have any questions about the high school program, please contact Acting Principal Julia Heaton (jheaton@lrei.org or at extension 314).

For Eighth and Seventh 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 Seventh Grade Families . . .
1) Please join us on Thursday, October 15, at 8:00AM for a parent meeting to discuss the upcoming Williamsburg trip. Please click here for additional trip information and the packing list.

2) Seventh Grade Parent Potluck: Tuesday, October 27th, 6:30-8:30PM, parents only, at the home of Lena Viddo. All seventh grade parents are welcome! Click here to access the online potluck sign-up sheet.

For Sixth Grade Families . . .
1) Sixth Grade Parent Potluck: Thursday, October 8th, 6:30-8:30PM, parents only, at the home of Maria Mileaf and Neil Patel, 775 Sixth Ave #3 (NW corner of 26th), 212.255.6958. All sixth grade parents are welcome! Click here to access the online potluck sign-up sheet.

2) On Wednesday, 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).

3) On Wednesday, October 21st, please join me at 8:00AM in the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria for a discussion on “Making Sense of MS Reports.” This will be an opportunity to discuss how to the inclusion of grades on the report will inform your conversations with your child. It will as be an opportunity to discuss how best to prepare for Middle School Family Conferences.

For Fifth Grade Families . . .
1) On Tuesday, October 13th, please join me at 8:00AM in the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria for a discussion on “Making Sense of MS Reports.” This will be an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the format of the Middle School progress report and to think about how best to prepare for Middle School Family Conferences.

2) From fifth grade math teacher Ana Chaney: Are you curious about your child’s experience learning math in the Middle School? Do you want to know how you child will be challenged and supported in fifth grade and beyond? Are you wondering how you can be involved at home? Join me for a hands-on investigation taken from the curriculum, short talk and Q&A. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend the Fifth Grade Math Breakfast, which will take place on Monday, October 19th, at 8:00AM in the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria.

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

• View all events with the LREI On-line Calendar
• Click here to see the 2009-2010 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