February 22, 2016

We are looking forward to seeing the kids at this Friday Night's Social from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Please drop off and pick up your child in the LS Carpool lane. The cost is $5 or a donation of a bicycle. Student Council will be supplying light refreshments, and DJ Jam Jordan will provide the music. Students may bring friends from other schools, but will need to let Mrs. Smith know in advance.  

Your child has also been given order forms for spirit wear. The deadline for ordering SPIRIT WEAR is Friday, February 26th. Please download the order form, and contact Chris Tate if you have any questions.  

Tickets are ON SALE NOW for the US musical, Footloose. This high-energy, dance musical runs March 17-19, 2016. Order your tickets TODAY. Footloose is produced and directed by Nick LaCasse, choreography by Heather Bybee, and music by Jane Best! 

Pi Day 

Open Casting Call!  

Congratulations to 8th grader Grace Guarino, who won Honorable Mention for her collage self portrait in the 2015 Scholastic Art & Writing Contest. The process for the Collage Self-Portrait began with taking a photo of each student that had half of their faces covered in shadow. To enlarge their 8"x10" photo, students were taught how to draw a graph on 18" x 24" paper using a yard stick.  For the next step in enlarging the portrait,  an acetate graph was attached over the photo, which enabled students to draw what they saw in the corresponding squares. This took a lot of concentration, and once the students understood how to proceed, they learned that this was an easy way to enlarge a picture without using technology or a projector. After the portrait was drawn, india ink was applied to the areas in shadow and all pencil lines. The areas left were collaged with papers of the student's choice. Some of the students painted the papers they used, while others used recycled papers from other art projects, newspapers, and scrap book papers. Each portrait was unique in how the papers were torn, cut and applied to their work. 

On Friday of last week,  the 7th grade class hopped on buses and went out to the Charleston Air Force Base. Ryan Miles, father of 7th grader John Miles, flew a P-51 Mustang to Charleston so the students had the chance to see the aircraft firsthand.  Coordinated with the study of WWII in Mrs. Copenhaver's class, students learned about the impact this plane had on the outcome of the war.  Students were able to climb on the wings and inspect the cockpit.  We appreciate all Mrs. Copenhaver did to organize the trip, and we are grateful to Mr. Miles for providing this amazing experience for our students!  

The Latin 7 students spent the last three weeks learning the basic format of a Public Forum Debate. Students learned about key Greek and Roman influences on the origins of oration and debate, analyzing the structure and style of Rome's greatest orator, Marcus Cicero. They participated in several activities involving extemporaneous speaking and debating in order to work on their presentation skills. Finally, the students conducted research regarding the potential benefits and disadvantages of learning multiple languages simultaneously and presented their work in a final debate to external judges from the PG community.