MATH AND SCIENCE:

It’s hard to believe we have come to the end our first year of having a seventh grade class at St. James Day School. Three young men and their families took a leap of faith committing to this new program, and together we have enjoyed countless learning adventures. We established new traditions and experiences for future seventh grade students, and we look forward to forging a trail for the eighth grade program next year! Here are some of the students’ favorite memories as the inaugural seventh grade class…

I loved 7th grade because we got to go to Houston and Little Rock, Fort Worth and Louisiana. I liked Science Olympiad and Quiz Bowl and hope to do all the same stuff next year. Overall I have enjoyed 7th grade here.

This year has been great. Some of the things I have enjoyed are the Little Rock trip and the Huston trip. Also Science Olympiad has been fun going to Dallas, College Station, and Ruston. Getting to go tour Texas A&M was really cool. Next year I hope we get to go to University of Texas for an invitational, and I hope we can go to Washington, D.C.

This year we did a lot. We went to Houston for a drone presentation, and while we were there we went to NASA and the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. We also went to Fort Worth and College Station for Science Olympiad. This year we used Open Up Resources for math, and I think I learned a lot. Open Up is a good new curriculum. Also there were only 3 students in my class!



LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

A small, but mighty trio of students comprised the 7th grade this year, and I truly enjoyed teaching them. We continued the St. James tradition of whole-child learning and development, but on a middle-school appropriate level. The boys read seven diverse literary works this year, including both classic and contemporary novels, a drama, and an autobiography. We engaged in rich discussions about theme and literary elements, and the students produced thoughtful reading responses. They learned about world civilizations, studying both Eastern and Western cultures and religions, with an emphasis on the Renaissance and its most influential figures. Seventh graders also completed their second Latin book, and began their third, developing their story translation skills further. We rounded out our Latin studies with the annual Roman Feast and Carnival, which involved multi-faceted project-based learning. Students selected a deity or monster, researched him or her (or shall I say “it”), and then chose a mini-project to apply their research. Students produced colorful comic book style drawings, fancy dinner party invitations, and versatile diary entries and group newsletters showcasing their deities’ personalities. Next, split into correlating teams with fifth and sixth graders, students designed a carnival activity that complemented their deities’ skills and behaviors. With the assistance of the 4th graders, the deities hosted the Carnival for all of the younger students. Overall, teaching these three students has been a pleasure, and I look forward to another year of interesting discussions in 8th grade!

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

Seventh grade completed its poetry unit with a study of Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem, “The Raven.” After reading it aloud, students practiced identifying the figurative language techniques used in the poem and then chose a task to complete. One student chose to rewrite the opening stanza as the first paragraph of a spooky story, and two students chose to deconstruct the poem and storyboard each stanza with illustrations. This task required the students to sum up each stanza in one sentence, which is a great way to show understanding of the plot of this 18 stanza-long poem. Then, they divided paper into 18 boxes and drew illustrations to coordinate with the sentences. This assignment challenged the students to pay attention to detail; now they will know “The Raven” “evermore”.

MATH AND SCIENCE:

Snap!

When games like Fortnite and movies such as Endgame have captured kids’ attention, why not use their interests for academic purposes? Our students have been creating and sharing games to review key vocabulary terms in science, and we’ve stumbled upon a relatively new online game platform called Gimkit. This game was itself designed by a high school student to make classroom review more engaging, and he did just that by making “Thanos Mode” available for a limited time. Students answer questions and earn [imaginary] money for correct responses. They can then use the money to purchase upgrades to increase their earning power. In Thanos Mode, students purchase a series of six Infinity Stones of increasing value--the first stone is $5 and the last is $150,000. The first student to acquire all six stones is the winner and gets to “snap” half of the class (apparently this is a trademark move for the legendary Thanos)...we were all on the edge of our seats waiting to see who survived the snap!

MATH AND SCIENCE:

Yahtzee!

Do you know the probability of rolling a Yahtzee in one throw? Our seventh graders do, and they were not allowed to simply search online for the answer. We are studying probability and chance events, and this was a challenge problem they eagerly embraced. This came after analyzing more simple dice games, spinner games, and coin toss scenarios. They also investigated the difference between theoretical probability and experimental data. Given how often these students won the chance games they played, compared to their predicted probabilities, they sure are “lucky” kids!

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

Seventh grade has been engaged in its Renaissance Academy Awards project for the last 3 weeks, and the awards day is finally here! Each student was tasked with researching two individuals in a category, creating a biographical outline of each individual, and then evaluating their research to determine a winner. Each student designed and constructed an award representing the winner and presented it, together with a slideshow of the nominees. What a terrific job the students did in presenting their nominees and explaining their reasons for choosing the winners. Again, this project involved a myriad of skills, from analysis to creativity to public speaking, underscoring the value of project-based learning.   

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

Our current class novel is the young adult classic, The Outsiders. This story about teenagers struggling with their social identities in 1960s Oklahoma is perfect for a study of theme and characterization. The students discussed the role that social class plays in the characters’ lives, how it defines their identities, and how it gives them perspective. This week, students are creating trading cards that feature the main characters and their personality traits. We will make connections between characters’ personality traits and their motives (and actions) in the plot. As we read further, we will also question whether characters can change their perceptions of themselves and others.

MATH AND SCIENCE:

Science & Engineering Festival

Our fifth through seventh grade students put a new twist on the concept of a science fair and hosted an interactive Science & Engineering Festival. Teams of students studied topics of interest and used their findings to create a hands-on exhibit to share with younger students. We invited younger grades to join us for our festival, and the cooperative learning experience was a great success. The students enjoyed pushing their limits to learn in new ways and share their findings with others.

Cardboard Planetarium:



Augmented Reality Sandbox:

Marble Run:

Mystery Architecture:

Crime Busters:

Write-It-Do-It:

Circuit Lab:

Herpetology:

Fossils:

Anatomy & Physiology:




Rainbow Paper:

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

Delving Into Deep Thinking…

The seventh grade class has been studying the Renaissance for the last 4 weeks. Not only have the students learned about how and why the Renaissance began in Italy, but they have also studied the most notable artistic figures of this period-- Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, and Titian. This week, our focus is on the Italian writers Castiglione and Machiavelli, and their influence on the Renaissance. After reading about these writers’ work, the boys had the opportunity to read excerpts from adaptations of their works,  and to compare and contrast the two writers. Both writers were advisers in the courts of Italian dukes, but they took different approaches to life. In The Courtier, Castiglione advises the newly rich to be courteous at all times and display good manners, whereas Machiavelli, in The Prince, advises rulers that is often better to be feared than loved. We just did not read the texts; we broke them down and annotated each one to gain the fullest understanding. The Prince excerpt even contained some Latin, which we discussed. What an unique opportunity for 7th graders to sit and read 500 year old political doctrine that is still influential today, and to recognize that Machiavellian principles are still followed by some powerful leaders. This is one of the values of teaching history-- to see how it is repeated-- and one of the values of teaching at St. James-- we can devote the time to analyzing these historical pieces in depth.