This week in STEAM we covered the days of creation, experimenting with light and darkness by outlining shadow buddies and putting on shadow puppet shows. We also explored animal habitats of the sea and land and made our own constellations.

This week upper school students have started our October campaign of “positive friends” through our youth-led program called Sources of Strength. Sources of Strength is a positive, strength based prevention program for mental health across the country. The group is comprised of students and adults from many different corners and cultures of our school and community. We believe that life has ups and downs, that all of us will go through good times and tough times. Our mission is to ensure that during the rough times no one gets so overwhelmed or hopeless that they want to give up. RMBA's SOS team will host monthly fun and educational events promoting the SOS wheel of values. We handed out friendship bracelets to celebrate the positive friendships in our lives. The colors remind us of the SOS wheel and all it does to support us. Included with the bracelets are SOS journals, crisis cards, stickers, and some Hershey kisses. What a great way to celebrate our friends and seeing them back in school together!

This week a new program launches from the art studio. We are excited to introduce our Meet the Masters program. Meet the Masters will be a bi-monthly program in which families will be given the opportunity to learn about artists together and create artwork in their style. Please see the information below about our very first artist, Georgia O'Keeffe. Many people are not aware of this, but Georgia O'Keeffe found her unique style here in Texas. Click here to learn how to create beautiful artwork like Georgia O'Keeffe. Artwork completed at home will be displayed on our Meet the Masters bulletin board. 

Eighth-graders in Mr. Duke's U.S. History class are reading and analyzing Henry David Thoreau's essay, "Civil Disobedience." As part of the assignment, the students will build replica desks, based on the desk upon which Thoreau penned the famous work from his cabin at Walden Pond. This past week, the students practiced traditional woodworking skills, including learning how to hand-cut dovetails. At the end of the school year, the eighth-graders will take home their desks and use them throughout their academic careers and beyond.

Seventh-graders are studying the current presidential election season and will be hosting a mock election at RMBA on Election Day, 2020. The project involved challenging students to create original campaign materials— ads and videos — to encourage their classmates to participate in the democratic process.

Students in Morah Aviva's ECE4 class culminated their unit on creation with beautiful Bereshit books. They learned that Hashem made the world in just six days and that Shabbat was the seventh day, a day of rest.