Dragon Dispatch: from the Booo-levard to Buddies, our Dragons’ explorations in October!

Spotted on the Boulevard: the Cartographer’s Dilemma!

Our fourth graders explored just that! Given a clementine, they were tasked with drawing the globe on it and then peeling it into 8 equal sections. What did they find? Distortion of their drawings!

Experiencing the dilemma cartographers faced when drawing a map of the world, how to represent a round shape on a flat surface, is one of the many innovative ways our students deepen their understanding in their units of study!

Animal Farm Symbolism Collage:

Our Sixth Grade Humanities students are creating symbolism collages! As an intro to their “Animal Farm” unit, they are exploring how animals and objects can have a deeper meaning. Students used “New Yorker” covers, magazine clippings, and other materials to create their symbolic collages – helping each other along the way. Mr. Coen stated that “it was gratifying to watch the students call out to one another with comments like, ‘I just found something that would be perfect for your collage!’”

Here at Speyer, working in a collaborative community helps students learn to their fullest potential!

One Strand at a Time: Fourth Grade’s Hands-On Exploration of Silk

Have you ever held a silk cocoon? Or stretched one over a loom? Earlier this week, our fourth graders got to do just that!

In Fourth Grade's current Humanities unit, they are exploring one of the most famous and influential goods ever: silk! In this activity, students examined silk cocoons, noticing how hard they were, their texture, and the surprising sound they made when shaken. Then, they got to work with boiled cocoons – first stretching one out to create long threads they wound around a ‘spool’ and dying another a vibrant color, carefully stretching it over a small loom.

Activities like this give students a unique lens to deepen their understanding in their units of study – contributing to the limitless learning environment here at Speyer!

What is Leadership? What does it Mean to be a Leader?

According to our very own Mr Deards, “Take me to your leader” is what aliens will say when YOU are the first person to have the first-ever alien/human encounter. Which raises the questions: What is leadership? What does it mean to be a leader? All of these questions and more got answered at the Middle School Leadership Assembly yesterday!

From Best Buddies to Student Ambassadors to Student Council, our Middle School students got to hear from their very own peers about different clubs and organizations they can join. Student leaders shared information about what the organization is and gave a short speech, or in one case a magic trick, on why others should join.

Leadership and taking charge of student life are integral to our students' learning experience here at Speyer. We believe in the power of faculty-supported peer teaching and mentoring, giving our students not only leadership opportunities but the ability to build cross-community connections.

Spotted on the Boulevard: First and Fifth Grade Buddies!

As a continuation of the Kindergarten and Fourth Grade Reading Buddies Program, our first and fifth graders were excited to read with their buddies again this year! The Reading Buddies Program is a program where students choose a book from the classroom, taking turns reading to one another. This is the first year the program has been brought to the middle school, to not only provide leadership opportunities to our Fifth Grade students but also build community between our Lower and Middle School students.

Students love taking the opportunity to take a break, read with others and bond with their buddy!

Spotted on the Boooooo-levard: KPop Demon Hunters, Pokemon, students from Hogwarts, and so much more!

October 31 is when we celebrated Historical and Literary Figures Day, aka Speyer’s unique spin on Halloween...and our students, faculty, and staff really brought their creativity and flair this year! What did we see? Astronauts, “The Man in the Yellow Hat” from Curious George, Jane Goodall, superheroes, princesses, Grumpy Monkey, Oscar the Grouch, and many more!

The fun continued all day long – our Third Grade teaching team dressed up as characters from “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” and the Kindergarten teaching team dressed as characters from “Winnie the Pooh” and our sixth graders read spooky stories! No one does October 31 like Speyer!