MS Social Studies
Over the past 2 months the 6th and 7th Grade Social Studies classes at SIS have engaged in a lot of interactive, cooperative, and collaborative learning activities. At this point in the year the students have in large part, adjusted to the routines and are becoming more in tune with the classroom and learning expectations.
There are two activities that we have been working on that I would like to share with you. The first is the Nonfiction Text Reading Response Note-taking Strategy. In this lesson, students do the following a) practice scanning or reading nonfiction text b) identify and evaluate the main ideas of the text in their writing or note-taking C) orally evaluate the main ideas by teaching their assigned reading to their classmates. The students have done well with this and I look forward to their growth in this area of their learning throughout the year.
Recently in 6th Grade the students worked on an informal presentation on an assigned Chinese Dynasty. The students researched and presented on the Political structure of their dynasty, innovations of their dynasty, and the architecture of people’s homes during the dynasty. The 7th Grade researched and delivered oral presentations on an assigned Native American tribe in the Eastern United States. On the whole, the students presented with confidence and covered a lot of significant content in a two minute presentation.
In the not so distant future, students will be working on “Choice Boards” as summatives for the units we are currently working on. In this activity, students will choose three “mini-projects” from a table of 9 projects. Options include a photo essay, song lyrics about a specific historical, geographical, or social topic, and a diary told through the perspective of a selected historical figure. Once again much progress has been made and I look forward to the continued improvement of both classes.
HS Physical Education
High School Physical Education and Swimming classes are running smoothly. Classes meet twice a week. One meeting is devoted to swimming, where they are now learning the style of backstroke. The other meeting time is in the gymnasium and is allocated for sports and other activities.
After studying soccer and volleyball students are refining their skills during the second quarter. Before learning about the basics and rules of the game, students participate in warm-up games. Each game is different, but involves warming up the muscles before playing sports. Students learn the basics techniques, tactics, and rules of the game, while improving their gross motor skills.
Many of our high school students are also active in the Athletics Program. Practices for the Varsity basketball have started last week. The Boys Basketball Varsity team meets every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 4:15 until 5:30pm. Girls Basketball Varsity meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:15 to 5:30pm. The gym is also open to students during breaks and during the final part of their lunch time. They are allowed to play Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Ping-Pong, or Badminton. This gives them the opportunity to be active and enthusiastic for the rest of their school day.