Our classes have been buzzing with excitement as we put the finishing touches on our Cultural Day projects for today.  The garden was transformed into a journey through Ancient Rome, Egypt, Greece, India and China.

The children created amazing art work.  We hope you enjoyed seeing their work on display today.Special thanks to our parent volunteers for all your help in making our Cultural Day a success. 

A special treat this week was a visit from Saathvik's sister, Jenani, who plays violin. She played for the children and talked about the parts of the violin. (See photo above.)

As Halloween approaches, we are also learning about the life cycle and parts of the pumpkin.  It is nice to have the beautiful weather cooperating with our activities. 

And, thanks go to Ms. Laura Curts, Mallory's mom, for reading "The Gruffalo" to Ms. Denise's class.

 (Left: Ms. Katrina's class's Indian elephant)

Bryce in front of his Roman mosaic

This has been a colossal week!  As in, the Lower Elementary finished building a miniature Colosseum, with the help of Mr. Dick.  We discussed Roman arches and all of the parts of the Colosseum.  We even made miniature gladiators to put in our Roman folders.  The children have been working so hard learning all about Ancient Rome.

We also worked on "freshening up" our replica of Mount Vesuvius.  The children loved learning all about the tremendous eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D.  The violent eruption killed thousands of people.  It even buried the seaside resort of Herculaneum under more than 65 feet of mud and lava.

The children also learned to write like Roman children on wax tablets.  The tablets were wooden boards covered with a thin layer of beeswax.  The letters were scratched onto the waxy surface with a stylus.  The letters were rubbed out by smoothing them over with the round end of the stylus.  We made our own "wax tablet". 

We wish to thank Karyn, Ryan and Maya Tahiri for coming in and making awesome fall crafts with us.  The children each created a sweet owl and a dashing pumpkin.  These crafts combined with the cooler weather really put us in a "Fall" frame of mind!

Thank you to all the parents who came for Ancient Cultures Day and toured the work about Ancient Rome by your student and the other students in Lower Elementary.  A special thanks to Ms. Chris Dunn, Parker's mom, for coming early to help.  We enjoyed the lunch with you all!

Upper Elementary students have been studying acid and bases in science.  After soaking raw eggs in vinegar (an acid), the students examined the results yesterday.  The shell of the egg (a base) had been permeated by the vinegar through chemical reaction.  The egg was measured and found to be much larger than the the original raw egg due to the membrane becoming porous.  Next, the eggs are being soaked in corn syrup.  Watch this space for the results!

The children were pleased to put their work on display today for the Ancient Cultures day.  From magnificent mummy cases to written reports to a beautiful glass scarab, the breadth of their work was evident as was their pride in showing it to family.

Thank you to all who attended and brought the tasty food shared at our luncheon.

This week was a fantastic week in Middle School. 

On Monday, we had our weekly art classes where we finished our fish plates and started making a clay Halloween scene. 

We also had our dynasty presentations on Monday and Tuesday. The presentations explained a great deal about the Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang and Song dynasties of Ancient China. 

On Wednesday, we srt up our Chinese garden and had our yearbook meeting. 

Today, we had Ancient Culture Day, where we presented our dynasty presentations and Chinese art to our parents. We are looking forward to another stupendous week after the weekend!

                                                              by Andrew Falkowitz

(Left:  Allison and her dad, Greg, view the Chinese garden.)

LOWER ELEMENTARY:  We had a very active, fun, and productive week. We danced to the tune and lyrics of the Brazilian Birds and The Kookaburra Birds. Flap your wings!  We also recited the poems of "Mrs. Pumpkin", "Mr. Little Ghost", and "Here Comes the Witch" in Spanish. We then practiced and sang the Spanish alphabet and reviewed accessories and parts of the body.

 
UPPER ELEMENTARY: We had a 20-word vocabulary list to work with.  First, the words were dictated and written in Spanish, read and translated, then used as pictograms to "illustrate' sentences. It was a fun and at times funny activity. We also reviewed 20 verbs related to our daily  life and chores, e. g . to eat, sleep, walk, drink, cook, and sweep to name a few.   

MIDDLE SCHOOL: "Misterio, Misterio," was our main lesson this week. Using some "eerie words"; shadows, cemetery, tombs, were-wolf, vampires, spider webs, and the like, students wrote sentences and paragraphs that we shared for our "sheer delight". I am impressed with the quality of the students' writing, their creativity, and their proper usage of grammar.
 
TRIVIA FACT: The Parinacota, located in Chile and Argentina is not only a volcano, but also an unusual lake that supplies water to numerous smaller lakes.