Weekly Update 2/3/12

This week in social studies we learned about the social pyramid in Ancient Egypt.  We jigsawed our reading and created skits to teach the rest of the class about the different social classes.  We also started researching for our independent Egypt projects.  We each got to choose our topic and our product.  Check back next week to learn more about Ancient Egypt!

Right under the pharoah at the top of the Egyptian social pyramid are Hannah, Mili, and Katherine, government officials welcoming their classmates to an elaborate banquet.

Next in the pyramid are our priests, David P., Kyle, Eddie, & Lucas.  
Warning: be prepared for gruesome details about mummification!

Lucas brought in an Egyptian plate to show the class.

Kate shared her Egyptian scarf decorated with Eye of Horus coins.

In language arts we shared and posted excerpts from our responses to literature.  Everyone worked really hard to find textual evidence for their claims through careful rereading of Maniac Magee. We are looking forward to practicing these writing skills on nonfiction when we start The Secret of the Yellow Death next week.  Here are a few "WEXcellent" examples:

In Chinese we each researched one of the Zodiac animals to find about out its personality traits and famous people born under each sign.  Here are some of the posters we created:

Sammi's Chinese Zodiac pig

Mili's rooster

Kyle's dragon

In science, we are continuing to look at different populations and why populations change.  Here are two presentations that students shared about endangered populations.












In math we are studying decimal and fraction conversions and have been working on some choice projects on this topic.  We also defined the difference between natural, whole and rational numbers and integers.  This was one of our favorite videos of the week.

Sigma students in music class using the Music Ace program.  Kevin gives it two thumbs way up!




Sigma celebrities!!  James and Kyle were featured on a local magazine cover for their work in Young Entrepreneur's Academy.  We are looking forward to finding out more about their business and product!

Kyle and James are first and second on left.

Weekly update 1/27/12 by Anna and Mili with help from Cici and Morgan

This week's Community Project update is from Anna and Mili's Giving Garden group.

Hello! I'm Anna(left), and I'm Mili(right). We are the creators of the Giving Garden! Our project is about  making a garden and giving all the food we will will grow to the Wheeling Township Food Pantry in the spring when we plant. We have a link to find out more information at www.sigmatms.com! When you get there, you can scroll down to the link labeled,"community garden."We are also applying for a grant! Don't forget to volunteer!

新年快乐

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's the Chinese Year of the Dragon!

In Chinese we celebrated the year of the dragon by making red envelopes called Hong Bao which older Chinese people give to younger kids during Chinese New Year.  They are usually filled with gifts of money, so we filled ours with fake Chinese one dollar (yuan) bills.  

Morgan

Mili, Morgan, Shane, Nicholas, and Elton

James, Kyle, Kate, Sammi, and David P.

Mrs. Hsu giving David P his Hong Bao

In social studies we are continuing our exploration of Ancient Egypt.  Below are some of our sticky note reading responses to a book called Secrets of the Mummies.  We chose sections of the book to read based on our interests.  Morgan was surprised and intrigued that pharoahs' brains were poured out during mummification, and Cici was surprised that Ramses II had a passport for when his remains traveled out of Egypt to experts in Paris in 1974.   His passport said "Occupation:  King (deceased)"!  Two things we want to learn more about are Egyptian gods and what mummies look like today when they are unwrapped.

Mrs. Lussem brought her "mummy" in to show everyone and talk about Ancient Egypt.  
Here Mick is holding it for her.

Sammi and Mrs. Lussem.

For one of our History Alive simulations, we sailed down the Nile River in an Egyptian boat or "felucca."  Here are the girls reading and listening to our guide as we learned about the Pharoahs and monuments of Ancient Egypt.


To kick off the PE dance unit, we had a Polynesian dance assembly for the whole school on Tuesday.  The singers and dancers taught us about different dances from different Polynesian islands.  We learned that there are 132 islands in Hawaii but people only travel to 7 of them.   Below are short clips of two different dances.  We also learned that the dancers tell stories with their hands.

In science we started our unit on populations. We will be looking at how a specific population was affected by yellow fever by reading the book The Secret of the Yellow Death in LA.

Finally, here are the Sigma girls celebrating the end of the week and the start to the second half of the school year!

And the REMIX!