By Kandice Kimmel, Latin & History, 5th-8th

The sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students have been working hard in preparation for the National Latin Exam. We kicked off our seventh grade Latin class with a friendly Roman numeral challenge. Roman numerals are important in Latin and history, and we still see this ancient numerical system that uses Latin letters to represent numbers today! Roman numerals often denote book chapters, are seen on clock faces, movie credits for copywrite dates, names, and in major sporting events such as the Super Bowl and Olympics.

By Susie Rogers,

5th-8th, ELA

Chocolate cake and Pepsi for breakfast? Why not? It is the perfect combination to celebrate the completion of our novel study of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. In this classic tale of growing up and trying to find your place in the world, brothers live without parents, so cake for breakfast it is! After they read the novel, students were required to create a Bloom Ball, which is based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Each side represented knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation, and creation levels. This provided a powerful framework for engaging with The Outsiders on multiple cognitive levels. We concluded our novel study by watching the movie and enjoying cake and Pepsi! This immersive approach makes The Outsiders more than just a story; it becomes a shared moment of reflection and celebration.

By Susie Rogers, ELA, 5th-8th

Every year St. James holds its fundraising Gala where we come together with our families, staff, and friends for a night of wonderful food, upbeat music, and one-of-a-kind auction items. Each class contributes an auction item to help raise money for daily operations for the school and teacher salaries. This year my 7th grade class voted to make a spectacular hand-painted wind chime for a lucky someone who has the highest bid! Today we began the process by using sharpies, rubbing alcohol, Q-tips, and droppers. Students chose their favorite colors and blended them to make the perfect colorful disk. There are a couple more steps to complete before the final reveal, so stay tuned!

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. Michelangelo

This inspirational quote is a driving force of many of the projects for our students, and the Renaissance Research project In Mrs. Kandice’s history class was no exception. Each student had to choose a pivotal figure during the Renaissance time period, research the history, the life, and the accomplishments of each person. They then had to create a collage and present their project to the class. They learned about famous playwrights, artists, inventors, and rulers such as Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, William Shakespeare, Gutenberg, Copernicus, and Queen Elizabeth I.

By Susie Rogers, 5th-8th, ELA

As we begin our novel study of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, students were assigned different areas to explore such as tv, movies, music, fashion, cars, slang, important events, and Greaser subculture. With a partner, they had to research, create, and present their information to the class. Building background is a critical step before analyzing a story set in a different time period.

Interesting facts from the 1960s from the students perspectives:

“Gas prices in the 1960s used to be $0.31 a gallon.” Hattie

“I did not know that Martin Luther King was killed at a hotel.” Lennox

“Richard Harris was from Ireland. Sean Connery was the first James Bond. Adam West was the original Batman.” Boogie

“Transistor radios were popular…, but not today because of technology is so advanced.” Poca

“One thing I learned from the 1960s project is that a lot of the singers that I like sang in the time period. Larnelle Harris, Bill Gaither, and Mark Lowery to only name a few.” Reece

“Woodstock was the biggest concert in the 60s. An estimated 400,00 to 500,000 people attended the festival.” Archer

“I learned that the average cost of a car in the 1960s was $2,500.” Shepherd

“After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the United States made up a second incident inearly August because they couldn’t make a sufficient war justification.” Chris

“Elvis Presley’s reported caloric intake at the end of his life was 10,000 to 12,000 calories a day.” JoJo

“I learned that Greasers, a popular subculture in the 60s, is still popular today in the main culture due to movies like Grease, and leather jackets, jeans, andmotocycle boots still being in style.” Elliot

“I learned how popular Go-Go boots are. These boots even had a show called “Hollywood a Go-Go” that teens watched.” Rivers