At the end of May, the 5th grade students traveled to Astrocamp in Idyllwild, CA as part of their science curriculum. They spent three days doing science activities such as building and launching rockets, designing windmills, swinging through the forest on pulleys, and stargazing. On the first night, they had a beautiful view through the telescope of Jupiter and the surface of the moon. The class especially enjoyed the sky coaster, where they had to hoist each other up into the forest canopy with pulleys and let each other swing through the trees. It was an exciting, educational, and fun end to their 5th grade year.
Emmanuel Parello & Julien Moncelet
Elementary students presented their last Show of the Year on Friday, June 8th. 1st to 5th graders worked for a whole quarter to make this event a success. The “Cup song”, dance, opera, rehearsal hours, placement work on the stage and lyrics to learn in French and English … a pleasure for both students and parents.
Thanks to the entire team of teachers and to the parents for their continual support.
On June 7th, the 5th graders re-created a 1776 town council meeting somewhere in the American colonies as the colonists debated whether or not to separate from Great Britain. The students had spent the last several weeks working on persuasive writing pieces, following a reading of excerpts from Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” which argued forcefully for independence in 1776. Some took the position of patriots seeking independence, and other took the role of loyalists faithful to the British crown. After giving opening statements, the students went back and forth, presenting their best arguments in favor or against independence. In the fashion of a British parliamentary gathering, their arguments were often met with spirited cheers or jeers from other colonists attending the meeting. Our 5th grade “colonists” argued over the relative merits of new taxes imposed by the king and parliament, representation in the British parliament, and of the risk of getting involved in a long war with the mother country. Although the town council was divisive, without a clear victor in the debate, all of them presented powerful arguments for their positions.
