Roycemore Middle School Art Goes Global!
Nagasaki Peace Mural Completed by Students in Japan
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The Middle School Kids Guernica mural that Roycemore students conceived and painted in September received final touches by children in Nagasaki this past week. Approximately fifty children participated in a workshop over a period of two hours at Nagasaki Station and “completed” the Roycemore Middle School Kids Guernica mural, “We Rise Above the Hate.” Children in Nagasaki added images to the mural. Most notably they added lighted windows to the buildings and their reflections on the lake.
Members of the Nagasaki Friendship Doll Association and the Nagasaki Kiwanis Club who organized the event were pleased to see the results. Ms. Yamashita, Mr. Takeshi Fukushima and all other members of the Nagasaki delegation to Evanston were in attendance, and sent their very best regards to our student and school.
Many visitors to Nagasaki were arriving at the station during the time of the workshop to be present for Pope Francis’ historically significant visit to Nagasaki. They saw and took pictures of the mural, so the student's artwork should be spreading rapidly around the globe through Instagram!
"We Rise Above the Hate" along with the other mural created by younger Roycemore students in collaboration with Upper School students, "Peace Cuts Through Darkness" will be part of an installation in Nagasaki next August to commemorate the 75th anniversary of World War II.
Many thanks to Hirokazu Miyazaki and Annelise Riles for the photos and update on the project.
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The mural is titled “Rise Above the Hate.” It depicts the city of Chicago, IL rising out of Lake Michigan and towards a better tomorrow. In conceiving the idea, the students considered many of the negative connotations people have about America in general and Chicago specifically. They also reflected upon the things about their country and city that elicit pride. The students included symbols such as the colors of the Chicago Flag, distinct skyline, and the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel. “Rise Above Hate” demonstrates how we can rise above hate with love when we work as a community to achieve acceptance.
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Program
While many middle school students enjoy participating in the tumbling program, other prefer to get involved in other projects, either set building to support the tumbling shows or working on the yearbook.
Here are some of the non-tumblers working hard behind the scenes to prepare for Winter Program coming up on December 6th.
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What's up with P3?
As you may know, a core program in our Middle School is the
Personal Passion Project (P3)
. This program lets each middle schooler pick a problem they’re passionate about solving, and create a solution for it. They spend about an hour a week on P3, and have an entire week in January (Experience Week) dedicated to it.
Some students are still working on defining their Personal Passion Projects (P3), while others have begun to work on them. Madeleine and Jahnavi want to have a bracelet store. Here they are working on their projects!
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Seeking Mentors!
A key aspect of P3 is that we pair each project up with an adult mentor from our community. The mentor offers advice, encouragement, and support. The mentor time commitment can be as little as a few emails back and forth with the student, or as much as a few in-person meetings and actual hands-on help.
We have a few projects for which we are still seeking mentors. If you have expertise in any of the following areas, or know someone who does, please email
Beth Shutters
or
fill out this form
to let us know. We’d love to get you connected to P3!
- Dog training
- Animation (particularly women in animation)
- Hockey
- Healthy eating
- Preventing smoking
- Game design (either board or video games)
- Helping the LGBTQ+ community
- Helping victims of domestic violence
PLEASE BEGIN TALKING WITH YOUR CHILD
ABOUT PLANS FOR EXPERIENCE WEEK
During Experience Week in January (21st-24th) all classes will be suspended and students will be solely focusing on their P3 projects. Parents are encouraged to begin talking with their children about how they might like to spend that time. Depending on the student's P3 project, they might want to sign up for a class, shadow an expert in the field of work related to their project, visit a place that has a connection to their project focus, or simply work on their project at school. School will be open that week with activities being planned for students that have not organized other activities in support of their project. This is not a week to simply stay home. In the coming weeks we will be working individually with students to talk with them about their plans for Experience Week. These will need to be signed off by each of their parents. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to
Beth Shutters
.
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Humanities Happenings!
Fifth Grade Humanities
In fifth grade humanities students got to pick their own independent reading book that was interesting and also a little bit challenging. At the end of the book students picked how they wanted to present their book to the class. Once they decided on the how, students had to create their own rubric before they started and then use this to evaluate themselves when they finished. Some students designed a book cover, some-- a trailer for a book.
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Sixth Grade Humanities
In the 1960s a popular Chinese saying was “...father and mother are dear, but dearer still is Chairman Mao.” Sixth Graders reflected on what that saying meant at that time and how it sits with them today.
Seventh and Eighth Grade Humanities
The students worked together to recreate the mechanical hound from Fahrenheit 451.
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French II students are learning the vocabulary on food, cooking verbs and food stores.
Since all the students are interested in cooking, they were assigned a project to cook a dish and make a presentation to the class. The delicious products were then quickly consumed! (macarons for Alex, apple pie for Youngnim, chocolate croissants for Jahnavi & crepes with berries jam for Macy).
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Seventh Grade is ROCK-in it!!
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7th grade is learning about rocks in relation to the structure of the earth. They have learned to classify rocks into 3 large groups. From there, they will try to figure out what type of rocks they have in a collection of unknown specimens.
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Homeroom this past week
TEAMWORK
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In Homeroom this week students discussed teamwork and what makes a good team-- what that looks, sounds and feels like.
Some students shared:
- you encourage each other
- people are nice to each other
- everyone supports each other
- having fun together
- communicating with other people
- not being a meanie
- people saying positive comments to each other
- people are working together
We discussed that teamwork can happen all the time, not just on a basketball court, but also in the science lab.
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Reviewing Vocabulary Can Be Fun!
Fifth Grade students love playing Quizlet Live, an interactive online group game, as a way of reviewing their vocabulary. Repeated exposure to new words is necessary for retention, and what better to review way than by playing a game.
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SAVE THE DATE!! Roycemore's Hour of Code Celebration!
Friday, Dec. 13, 3:15-4:30 p.m.
To celebrate Computer Science Education Week, December 9 to 13, we will be offering coding activities school-wide in classes all week, culminating in an Hour of Code Celebration for students, families, and faculty in the Multipurpose Room on Friday 12/13. The Hour of Code is a global effort to introduce computer programming to millions of people.
RSVP & read more here.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL RECESS:
We encourage Middle School students to get outside at recess. They have the choice to either go outside to Alexander Park or to the Zone area- but no technology-- good old fashioned ping pong, Jenga or other games are encouraged.
Please make sure your children have
jackets, hats, gloves, snow pants (if appropriate) and boots
so they are prepared. It's great for everyone to be active and we encourage it, but they need to have proper clothing to participate.
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Sports and Clubs this coming week!!*
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Mon:
- Homework Club 3:30pm-4:20pm
- Board and Video Game Club: 3:30-4:30pm
- 5th Grade Tumbling (plus: Lily, Keira, Alina, Jack, Otto, Macy & Youngnim)-3:30-3:45pm
- Gimme Some Lovin' 3:45-4:15pm
- Mixed Tumbling Group (Maya, Macy, Youngnim, Lily, Alina, Keira, Jahnavi, Ma) 4:15-4:45pm
- Friend Like Me Tumbling 4:30-5:15pm
Tues:
- Homework Club 3:30pm-4:20pm
- Middle School Social Outing! Frozen II
Wed: NO SCHOOL
Thurs: NO SCHOOL
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Fri: NO SCHOOL
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****Tuesday is Grandparents & Special Friends Day!****
We hope to see many Middle School Grandparents and Special Friends join us on Tuesday!
Admissions Morning- Invite Friends!
December 3rd- 8:30-10am
We will be holding our first Admissions Morning of the school year on December 3rd.
Please invite friends and neighbors who might be interested in finding out more about what makes Roycemore different and unique. This event will also feature a panel for High School students starting at 9:00am, but visitors will also get to tour and see the Middle School in action. Please help us spread the word!
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Wednesday Welcome!
Does your child have a special talent to share with our community?
Each Wednesday morning during drop-off time, we invite a Roycemore student to share their talent with our community. Thanks to
Xavier Miyazaki who played the cello
for us last week! Prior weeks have included pianists and even an Irish dancer! It's a great way to start a Wednesday and we have the opportunity to appreciate and honor the talents of our incredible students!
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Middle School Community Guidelines
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We will create a community in Roycemore’s middle school based on RESPECT. We will respect ourselves, our space, and our peers. In doing so, we will assume the best intentions of others and create a space where we are welcomed, feel we belong, and are known!
(created by representatives from each grade 2019-20)
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SHOW YOUR GRIFFIN SPIRIT!!
Please visit our online store at
www.roycemoreschool.org/schoolstore
to get
wonderful items to wear and use. I know you will all love what the RFA has chosen. There are COOL NEW items available that you will love!!
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