1st Annual 6th Grade Pizza Social!

By: Brandford

Days before Halloween rolled around on the calendar, I overheard 5 sixth graders discussing plans for a six grade party. To my surprise the students was planning a party that they didn't have permission for. So, I decided to talk with the Administration and see if their plans would be able to come true. Unfortunately, a party wasn't something that faculty deemed as appropriate for six graders. So we came to agreement to have a pizza social. Relaying this information to the 5 six graders made them quite excited and pleased. The following day at recess, the five students sat on a bench and planned the entire event. There plans included food, games, and entertainment that they felt would be appropriate for everyone. They provided me the information and I forwarded it to administration, who approved of everything. The following week, students made a flyer for the entire sixth grade, and once all the students received the notice, they were ecstatic for the pizza social. Hurricane Sandy postponed the initial pizza social, but the six graders were determined and decided to have it two days before Thanksgiving. During the event students played Dance Party 4 on the WII. They played need for speed, a car racing game on Playstation 3, chess, and speed stacking. Students won raffle prizes, and they all enjoyed the pizza. Before the raffle was conducted everyone spoke upon what they were thankful for. That was really a touching moment for me to hear how appreciated these students are of their life, family and school.

Segue Super 6

By: Angelica

Last week at Segue was the first Family/Teacher Conferences (FTC) of the 2012-2013 school year. This was three days of families coming into the school and discussing student success, progress, and concerns with the amazing staff at Segue. In preparation for the week, I had the privilege of creating a website and slideshow of all the awesome happenings in the sixth grade, better known as Super 6. Since the beginning of the school year, the sixth grade staff has been capturing great moments of students collaborating with each other and participating in exciting learning opportunities. Throughout the conferences, families were encouraged to come down to the sixth grade floor and check out the work their Segue scholars have been doing! It was quite the experience witnessing the smiles and laughs of parents and siblings as they watched the slideshow play. It is one thing to hear of great things happening with students, but to be able to see it is even better!

Media and You

By: Nellie

A highlight for me this month was being able to continue to establish more of a teacher role in the classroom. My teacher asked me if I would like to run a center or conduct a lesson for the 7th grade class. I was very excited and thought I would challenge myself and try to put together a lesson for the class. In language arts we have been learning how to make inferences so I needed to make sure that was included. We have been practicing looking at different magazines, and pieces of writing and making inferences. My lesson was about how the media affects teenagers. I put together a powerpoint that gave them background information on what the media is and how we interact with it. We also looked at different logos and what comes to their mind. One of the favorites from my lesson was showing a video about Barbie and how unrealistic her features are and how that impacts young teenage girls. We finished out the lesson with a game of Jeopardy that I made which discussed facts I went over in my powerpoint and some trivia about the media and teenagers that was very shocking!

Student Improvements

By: Kimberly

This month I have seen the students grow. They have all worked so hard to reach their potential. One student in particular during my after school program created a sentence with magnetic letters. Rah! Rah!

GeoParty!

By: Deyan

After a session of learning how the Earth works in GeoParty, a group of Highlander 2nd-4th graders ended their after school session with an epic game of Jeopardy. The week before the big game, the group got together to create a giant concept web of what they had learned about geology. Mr. D then used the group's input to create the Jeopardy questions they would be answering the next week. Check out some of the highlights of their fabulous concept web in this abridged version:

Their review session set the stage for an awesome battle of the brains the following week. Emily, Quinn, and Roseleny faced off against Marrell, Abdul, and Julius in a contest to prove that they know how fossils are created, what quartz is made of, and what Roman city was buried in volcanic ash almost 2,000 years ago. Both teams played well, with spot-on answers and fantastic teamwork, but in the end, Marrell, Abdul, and Julius emerged victorious! In honor of their fossil studies, everyone who played got to choose a prehistoric sea creature toy as a prize.

Nothing wrong with a butterfly in fall!

A Friday in the after school program at ICS means one thing...CRAFT TIME! All of our students look forward to Fridays and the projects that come with them. Then what could be better than a Friday afternoon during one of the best times of the year, fall? Fridays are full of fun crafts to do, and fall is: scented with rich spices, the sound of crunching leaves as you step, and with the vivivid colors all around. This particular Friday we (teachers and students) took time to actually notice and appreciate the wonderful happenings of nature while being creative and expressing ourselves. We made leaf animals! It was a simple project that everyone enjoyed doing and that allowed us to combined natural and man made resources in an artistic piece. The leaves ranged in size from small to large, they were of different shapes, and in a magnificent color spectrum: yellow, green, orange, red, brown, mixed colors, etc.

The project was open for students to do any animal they chose and for them to use the leaves and other supplies however they wished to do so. For those who needed a little extra help getting started, there were printouts of leaf animals for them to use. As you could imagine the array of of work created was very vast...even if there was the same animal no two projects were alike. Here you could truly say that these pieces were as unique as fingerprints! Not only that, but the different kinds of animals we had were incredible; we had mammals, insects, birds, and we even had fictitious ones. Hey, who said that butterflies aren't around during the fall? Here at ICS we had plenty to share.


- Dianny

School Meetings talk about Mission Statement

Every Friday the entire school meets in the community room for a quick presentation by one of the classes. This past Friday the fifth grade Spanish/English class reminded their younger peers of the school's mission statement: Respect, Responsibility and Dedication. It is common practice for each individual class to go over how they can follow to mission statement within the context of the school. Not too long ago, my second grade class listed behaviors that followed this mission as a quick reminder. When the class is getting out of hand, it's never a bad idea to have a group activity that reinforces correct behaviors.

The fifth grade presentation showed that this mission can and should go beyond the context of school. Community is a large part of the International Charter School mentality and it was a joy to see this reflected by the fifth graders, who did so without prompting. They advised their peers on how to follow this mission at home and in their neighborhoods, giving wonderful advice such as being helpful at home and not bothering the neighbors.

At the end of every presentation, in the spirit of community, the school song is sung, led by the presenters jamming on instruments. The song itself is about being dedicated in school. What a fun and educational presentation!

I don't have the exact lyrics of the school song yet so come back soon!!

-Itza