March
15
Category: 100 Word Challenge, Authors Spotlight, Book Reviews, Featured Writers, Mrs.Darden Thinking, Project Based Learning and Agile, Student Column, Uncategorized | Comments Off on
Recently, we read the captivating narrative of White Bird by R.J. Palacio as part of a unit study focusing on the following essential question, To what extent do tragedy, trauma, and adversity build resilience? After reading the graphic novel, my students embarked on a research project to connect with a Holocaust survivor. With the help of our amazing librarians, we learned how to use Noodle Tools and our school databases. Empowered by newfound knowledge, students designed a newspaper to showcase the Holocaust survivors using Canva. Last week, we showcased all the newspapers during an interactive Gallery Walk in our classroom where students gave each other feedback in the form of “Grows” and “Glows”. We hope you enjoy reading and learning about some of the survivors.
Kate friedman by Dalal
gisella pearl newspaper!! by FaithM
Copy of Sample designs of Newspaper templates by Parker H.
Holocaust Survivor Project by Sophie
Holocaust Newspaper English 7 by Leon
Copy of Sample designs of Newspaper templates by Lexi
Copy of Sample designs of Newspaper templates by Alex
During our novel-in-verse unit, students explored the use of figurative language, characterization, conflict, and other elements of literature. Our culminating mini-project consisted of creating an open-mind map using Canva for a character in the story. We hope you enjoy a glimpse of various characters’ minds.
Mind Map by Sophie
Nike is one of the biggest sports companies in the world and known for their super stylish shoes. My favorite is the Nike dunks. There are over 3,000 different Nike Dunks, so surely you can find one you like. These shoes come in high-top and low-top versions. They are also way more affordable. They range from around 100-400 dollars. If you are looking for something more
expensive they have that too. Those prices are anywhere from 500-2,000,000 dollars. Yeah, you heard me right, two million. My oh my, would you be surprised? These shoes are a collab with PlayStation, Nike, and Travis Scott. They are called the PlayStation dunks. Personally, I would recommend getting the Nike Dunk Pandas. They are great shoes and they go with any outfit.
They are black and white, and very comfortable. Clearly, sneakers have changed the fashion industry over the years.
Recently, our school hosted a book festival at our middle school campus. We had thirteen authors attend our event to talk with over one hundred students. It was a success and we can not wait to try this again next year! Read a special review by one of my 7th-grade students.
Have you ever played a 2K basketball video game? If you haven’t, you need to! Whenever I
play the game it makes me feel like I’m actually an NBA player. One feature in the game called
“My Player” is the chance to create your own player from scratch and make him good at
anything through attributes like shooting, finishing, and defensive skills. Once that’s done then
you can play against other NBA teams. It is so realistic and it looks just like the courts in the
NBA.
The most realistic part is when you walk into the stadium for the pre-game warm-up and the
fans are cheering and some of them are even booing just like you are at an NBA game. That is
my favorite part. If you get the new NBA 2K it has all the new players too, including all the
players from the Orlando Magic like Mac McClung who won the NBA dunk contest last year. I
love the new NBA 2K and wish I could dunk, shoot, and be as amazing as my virtual NBA
player.
When I play FIFA Mobile, it feels like I am watching the World Cup. I can hear the sounds of the crowd cheering. It is my favorite soccer game that is about building your star team and playing matches against different opponents. Once you have first opened the game, you won’t have much of a good team, but eventually, you will be able to upgrade the players. Every FIFA team has an OVR (Overall Rating). An OVR is a number of how good your team is. The highest it can go is 145. On the side of the OVR is your chemistry. It is how well your team plays together. The highest your chemistry score can be is 100. In FIFA mobile, you can also earn coins by doing quests and winning games. With this money, you are able to buy better players and add them to your own team. There are many amazing things in FIFA mobile that I look forward to, and I highly recommend that you download this game if you have not played it before.
After reading the article, “The Curse of the Hope Diamond,” in Scholastic Scope Magazine, one of our students practiced writing a CSA response to answer the question: Is the curse of the Hope Diamond real? Keep reading to see if her evidence supports her claim.
CSA for The Curse of the Hope Diamond
Stories, as well as theories, are not always factual. Take the story of The Curse of the Hope Diamond for an example. There is
no actual evidence of the coincidences that occurred while people had it in their grasps, and it might’ve not been because of the
diamond. “There have been, over the years, even decades, numerous stories about how the Hope Diamond carried an ancient curse,”(Kurin 1). Due to this one sentence saying there are several stories on The Hope Diamond, it’s possible that it’s a hoax. There are also theories on why all these terrible events happened, theories are also not reliable or factual as well. “The first few stories of The Hope Diamond came in the financial pages of The New York Times in 1908,” (Kurin 9). The quote therefore states that this whole commotion about the diamond is just a chronicle. Which could accordingly be just a hypothesis about why these people were witnessing such horrible things while having the diamond. In summary, stories and theories are not always true.