Sixth and Seventh Grade: December 2-6, 2024
Hello, Middle School Families,
Last week, the class jumped into the next block, The Age of Exploration. During this fascinating and pivotal time, students learned about explorers, including Marco Polo, Ibn Batutta, and Zheng He’s Ming Fleet and Chinese exploration. The class listened to the stories of each explorer, as well as read first-hand accounts in Marco Polo’s journals and Ibn Batutta’s published travels from his home in Morocco. This led to a wonderful discussion on primary sources, as well as an analysis of whether or not some of what they reported was actually true. Although both accounts are wonderful primary sources of exploration during that time, Marco Polo was known for hyperbole, and in attempting to recreate one part of Ibn’s travels, historians believe that it was physically impossible for Ibn to travel the distance he did in the time noted in his book. Nevertheless, he is heralded as “the traveler of his age.” We finished the week with Zheng He, imagining the vast size of the Ming Fleet - a veritable fleet of cruise ships built 85 years before Columbus even thought about sea travel!
The class continued our work with poetry by reading and analyzing the structure of various poems. Students discovered that some poems have a clear structure, a rhyming scheme, a set number of lines, and a repeating word phrase pattern that weaves together the poem, while others are still completely freeform. Each student has selected a poem that encourages wonder (for example, wonder at nature, life, a moment, etc), provides a sense of wish (to travel, to be reading, for a feeling), or perhaps surprises them (mostly by being funny). It's lovely to see how each child has naturally gravitated towards a poem that really shows their personality. We will be analyzing the mechanics of the chosen poems to help students understand the various constructions and forms poetry can take.
Finally, we celebrated Olivia and Rory’s half birthdays last week - the class enjoyed sitting and chatting at the “birthday banquet table” where they sat and talked through all of recess!
Announcements and Reminders:
12/19: Pajama and Stuffie Day & Silly Sock Exchange: The class is welcome to come to school in pajamas! Please send a pair of wrapped silly socks for a gift exchange game. Children are also invited to bring a stuffed animal on this day. We will be playing our Explorer Board Games that day as well!
12/20: Grades Assembly - 11:15 a.m. (All families are welcome to attend)
12/20: Last Day of Fall Semester (Half Day dismissal)
12/23 - 01/06: Winter Break (No School)
01/07: Spring semester begins
Thank you for the honor of teaching your children,
Ki Lesley
