Weekly Update 2/22/13

Weekly Update 2/22/13

Rocco, Paul, Jack, Nathan W, Trey, Devin

Language Arts:  
Analyzing and Comparing Complex Texts
In LA we read an excerpt from It Was More Than Just a Game by Ron Fimrite.  It was originally published in Sports Illustrated in 1987.  It is about the 1963 Loyola of Chicago basketball team and the national championship.  It was really important because it was the first time black and white kids played against each other in the NCAA championship.  The Mississippi State coach had to sneak his team out of town to go to the game because Mississippi was such a segregated state.  
We were analyzing the text, answering questions, and comparing it to Martin Luther King, Jr's I Have a Dream Speech and Maniac Magee.  We compared how each author wrote about the problems of segregation.

 

This is what the original article looked like in Sports Illustrated.  Click on the link below to read the entire article from the Sports Illustrated archives.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066743/index.htm

Isabel and Michael working on answering questions together about It was More than Just a Game.

Jack B., Matt B., and Michael P. discussing their responses.

Lorie and Patrycja thinking about their answers.

Science:  

We did skits to act out weather fronts.  Everyone got a part. The papers in people's hands were the clouds and sun. It was super fun. We learned about how when warm and cold fronts hit each other, then big storms break out and tornadoes can happen.

Water Cycle

In science we made posters of the water cycle. We cut out pictures from Time for Kids and other magazines. We had to find pictures that we could glue on our poster to show precipitation, condensation run-offs, and evaporation.

Veronica's  poster

Morgan's poster

Advisory:  

Students leading Second Step

In Second Step we had the students be the the teachers instead of the teachers.  Our lesson was about bystanders.  We learned about what to do if you see someone being bullied.  The best suggestion we learned is to tell the bully to stop and to reassure the victim.  We would tell the victim to tell the teacher, and if the person didn't want to then we would tell the teacher ourselves.  

Here is Jackie teaching 6-11.

And here is Tyler teaching.

 ∑igma Celebrations!

In Family and Consumer Science we made pillows.
(from left to right Ben, Alex S, Om, Owen and Jack S.)

Jack S. finished the wooden puzzle.

During lunch today we played Simon Says, and Emilia won for 6-12 and Patrycyja won for 6-11.  Good luck to them in the championships on Monday!!

Weekly Update 2/15/13

Weekly Update 2/15/13

Happy Valentine's Day from this week's bloggers!!

Emma, Jackie, Trey, Matt, Sean, Alex Y, William, Michael K, (& Michael P) Valentine's Day hearts!

Author Visit:  Adam Gidwitz

Author of A Tale Dark and Grimm and In a Glass Grimmly

On Friday afternoon, Mr. Gidwitz came to Thomas to tell us the gruesome original Cinderella story and to answer our questions.  Some of us had to cover our ears during the really disgusting parts! He is a really funny, awesome storyteller.  Everyone had a great time, and all of us who haven't already read them want to check out his books.  He has a new book coming out this fall that we can't wait to read!

Mr. Spicer from the AHML(right)  introducing Mr. Gidwitz (left)

Mr. Gidwitz acting out Cinderella

Social Studies:  China Earth Quest

In social studies this week we learned about China's geography and natural land features. We also learned about the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and other famous places in China when we went on our China Earth Quest on GoogleEarth.

Emilia and Cassy exploring China

Rocco and Paul

Health 
In health with Mr. Craig we learned about human lungs.  Mr. Craig brought in a pig's lung and we got to touch it.  We got to feel what it felt like when it breathed in, and we got to feel the two different lungs and the arteries.  We learned all of the different parts of the lungs and we all had a lot of fun!

Ben with the pig's lungs

This was a game that we played in health.  The goal is to infect everyone with one sneeze.  After you sneeze and infect everyone, you move on to the next level.  Once you sneeze on someone, they sneeze on other people, and it keeps going on until the sneezing stops and no one else gets infected.  We learned about how quickly germs are spread!

Valentine's Day

Thomas was trying to see how BIG an impact we can make in one day, so Thomas students were asked to bring in canned foods on one day only-Valentines Day-to donate to the food pantry.  Thomas ended up bringing LOTS of cans to help the needy! 

Claire, Veronica, Carol, Alex Y, and Charlie with the cans 6-12 donated

For Valentines Day we made cards!  Mr Aho  took pictures of us with our fists out, cut a slit in our fist, and during advisory on Thursday/Valentine's Day we put a sucker in our fist. We made cards for a friend or family member. Our pops were provided by our teachers, Mr.Aho and Mrs. Ziegenfuss.  The cards made our inner artist and Valentine's Day spirit explode all over the Sigma rooms.  

Sigma wishes you all a Happy Valentine's Day!!  

Here are some of our super-cute cards!

                                                                          Patrycja

                                                                            Trey

                                                                          Michael B.

                                                                            Isabel

                                                                                Ben

Keatyn

                                                                         Emma

Claire

Annie

Jack S.

                                                                               Alex Y.

∑igma Celebrations!

Mr. Aho created a video using some of us to make it. He created it to teach the other Thomas teachers about how to write good test questions and make them fair and equal for all the students.  Mr. Aho showed our video to the whole Thomas faculty at their after school meeting.  We hope they learned a lot from us!

 

 Michael B's Word of the Week video.  Nice job, Michael!


Illinois Grade School Music Association Competition Winners!!   

This was an event where you compete against yourself.  You got to choose the song you play.  You have to practice a lot.  You are supposed to be practicing for this everyday.

Matt got the gold medal for the violin contest.

Matt

Isabel got a perfect score on playing the cello in a competition to play your best polished piece. Isabel got a first place medal in the Music for Youth solo play.  Here is Isabel with her outstanding first place medal she won in the competition.

Isabel

Emilia did an outstanding job in the music for youth solo competition. Emilia got a perfect score! Here Emilia is with her perfect score and her first place medal! What you have to do is you have to pick a song and play it in front of a judge, and they score you on all the important things. 

Emilia

Here Emilia is holding a bass clarinet. She is in the wind ensemble, and they were recording a song to try and get into the Super State finals, which is really hard to get into.  Her group will find out in March if they made the finals.  Good luck to Emilia and her group!

Weekly Update 2/8/13

Weekly Update 2/8/13

Bloggers: Carol, Trey, Matt and Cecelia

Kraft Project Update:

This week we finished presenting our Kraft packaging ideas to the team.  We got lots of good feedback and suggestions from the rest of the class.  Next we are starting to make our prototypes.  We are trying to make them as realistic as we can using materials that we have.  Once we have our prototypes ready we will start writing scripts for our commercials.  Check back to see our prototypes and our progress!

StackerMallows

Matt, Carol, Morgan, Cassie, and Jackie

They are making a s'mores kit that people can take camping.

The Jell-O group is creating portable Jell-O tubes.

Rocco, Cecelia, Claire, and Lorie

Jell-O and Cool Whip in two neighboring tubes =).

Taco Bell Dinner Group

Ben, Owen, William, and Jack B. are planning to make their box in the shape of a taco, and they also want to add some taco toppings like cheese and sour cream to the dinners.

Capri- Sun's new idea is to make a barrel to serve at an event.

Michael B., Connor, and Emilia

Nathan H, Tyler, Sean, and Alex Y

They are making Cool Whip squeezables with tips to decorate desserts.  

They are also including different recipes.

The Lunchables group is trying to get rubber around the package so the food is protected.  They are also designing some other new ideas.  

Michael K, Rhea, and Henry

The Mac and Cheese group wants to have the noodle shape for their package.  They will also have markings for different serving sizes.

Annie, Patrycja, Trey, and OM

Kraft String Cheese 

Emma, Isabel, Colin and Paul

They are trying to redesign the packaging to be easier to open the string cheese using pockets. 

Jell-O Pudding 

Keatyn, Charlie, Michael P, Veronica and Kayce

They are going to make the package a bigger box for bigger portions, and they are going to add a ziploc and recipes.

Alex S. drew this picture of the new Kraft Singles design.

The Kraft Singles group (Alex S, Nathan W, Jack S, Devin) is making the plastic around each slice easier to see and open.  They are also adding a ziploc to keep the cheese fresh and are designing a pop-up box so that it's easier to get a new slice of cheese.

∑igma Celebrations!

February T-Wolves of the Month

Congratulations to Kayce!  She received the newly designed T-Wolf of the Month t-shirt.

Michael P. with his T-Wolf Pride shirt.  Way to go, Michael!

All the T-Wolves that won in Sigma earlier in the year all got the T-Wolf Pride shirt!!

Michael P. visited Mrs. Ziegenfuss, Mrs. Geisel, Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Schuh, and Mrs. Hallmark during lunch and taught them keyboard tips and tricks for their new MacBook Pros.  They were grateful for his help!  Here he is helping Mrs. Geisel adjust her trackpad.

The winning new banners from each grade to stop bullying, be responsible, and show Paw Pride are now hanging in the commons.  Each grade voted on their favorite design and they were made into huge banners.  The sixth grade design is in the middle.