Tuesday at St.James is set aside for weekly chapel services. Students, staff, parents, and family members are in attendance. A church service, special announcements, and awards take place during this special time.
Kandice Kimmel
What is the importance of learning Latin roots?
Since about two thirds of English words are derived from Latin, studying Latin provides invaluable insights into English vocabulary, the structure and meaning of English words, especially the longer and more complicated ones.
Many times, words are not so simply figured out. By studying Latin roots that dominate the English language, it is likely a student could identify at least one part of a word to make an educated guess at its meaning.
Not only will this help our Latin students in school across the board (science and legal fields are known for their use of Latin terminology), but knowing Latin roots will also help our students on major standardized tests like the PSAT, ACT, SAT, and even the LSAT and GRE.
This past week all middle school Latin students were assigned a Latin root, and researched multiple derivatives and their definitions and created a derivative tree! The posters will be displayed in the commons and judged this week. Fifth graders took this challenge on with tenacity and I am extremely proud of their results! Winners will be announced on Friday.
Fifth grade is studying the five major types of energy (Mechanical, Electrical, Light, Thermal, and Sound).
Our pictures below show an investigation into LIGHT ENERGY. On this this day, students were given a sheet of cyanotype paper (Sun Print Paper). Students did a quick search outside for items to be “printed” on the paper. In order for this type of printing to happen, objects are placed on the cyanotype paper and left in the sun for 5-10 minutes. As luck would have it, the day we do this is CLOUDY!
Our prints did not turn out as well as we hoped for, but light energy was investigated and we will give this experiment another try on a sunny day!
“Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.”
Every art should become science, and every science should become art.~Heinrich von Schlegel
Fifth grade concluded their unit of study over physical properties of matter this week. To show their knowledge of different physical properties of matter, students were instructed to create an alien with different physical properties of matter. In order to create the alien, students rolled a die and were given different physical properties depeding upon what was rolled. Students had to create an alien with a solid,liquid,or gas body; either a conductor or insulator for the face; long or short legs; and magnetic or non-magnetic arms and hands.
Combining science with art is a wonderful way to give students more freedom and choice but also allows interepretation of subject matter.
Physical properties can be observed or measured without changing the composition of the substance. Properties include density, color, taste, melting point, boiling point, brittleness, malleability, magnetism, mass, length, and volume.
Fifth grade completed a lab investigation into the physical properties of five different crackers. Students documented the data in a data table based upon type of cracker, size, color, texture, and shape of each cracker.
