DECEMBER 9, 2021

Diwali Celebration with Cluster B

Cluster B students learned about one of the most celebrated festivals in India, Diwali. They viewed a powerpoint presentation to learn about the significance, culture and traditions behind the Indian holiday Diwali - The Festival of Lights! Our students then explained why Diwali is celebrated and the reason why people light ‘diyas’ (small clay lamps) that symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Cluster B students then engaged in a meaningful discussion and made connections with their own cultural celebrations and other U.S. and international holidays. They also collaborated to paint and decorate their own diyas while continuing to share their opinions about similarities between Diwali and other cultural traditions around the world.

Jungle Book & The Little Mermaid - Live On Stage!

This week was a busy week for the Elementary School Performing Arts Department! On Tuesday night Clusters A and B each performed in their own version of The Jungle Book, and on Thursday night Clusters C and D each performed their own version of The Little Mermaid. Each of the four performances was for a small audience of students' families in the auditorium. The students not only performed, but helped to create the amazing sets with guidance from Elementary School art teachers, Rich Seidman and Emily Silver. The students have been working incredibly hard all semester and we are so thrilled to have live performances back at Churchill!   

Jungle Book

The Little Mermaid

Muttigrees Ambassadors Update

The 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Muttigrees Ambassadors are hard at work to raise awareness about rescue animals. Dr. Goldhamer and Ms. Hellman collaborate with each grade’s club to develop their own initiatives.

The 6th grade is working on creating content to educate the community about rescue animals, planning an animal food drive, designing art for a fundraiser, and learning about the first and only animal rescue in Bosnia - Silver Dog - which just opened.

The 7th grade is planning a raffle of Churchill "rescue awareness" sweatshirts, and a sale of masks, sanitizer, etc. from last year's fundraiser. The raffle sales will take place the week of December 13th and the product sale will be held on 12/14 at lunch. Proceeds will be split between North Shore Animal League and Silver Dog.

The 8th grade is raising awareness by making beaded bracelets that will be sold to the 8th graders and possibly to the rest of the community. Each individually designed bracelet has a related message such as "rescue." Bracelets will cost $3 and proceeds will be donated. Keep an eye out for more information on how your student can support these initiatives!

6th Grade Empire Builders

To cap off their unit on early empires, Ms. Conger and Mr. Russell's 6th grade history classes worked on group projects to invent their own early empires! Students had to determine where their empire would be located, the natural resources available, a system of government, and invent new technologies. Groups had the opportunity to get creative, and designed maps, art and artifacts to represent their empires. The finished products were incredible!

7th Grade Art's Soft Sculptures

The 7th grade created large “soft sculptures” of everyday objects as part of a unit exploring the Pop Art Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. We focused on the work of artist Claes Oldenberg and his soft sculpture (and large scale) constructions of food and everyday objects. Additionally, we learned about contemporary artist, Lucy Sparrow, who creates large scale installations of “stores” which contain handmade, felt soft sculpture “products”. Students had the opportunity to work independently or with a partner, and created their sculptures using newspaper, masking tape, and acrylic paint.

Solidarity Week

The Middle School observed Solidarity Week from November 15th-19th, which was organized by the Middle School PRISM alliance. Throughout the week, students participated in activities that helped them learn about and stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. At the end of the week, many students wore light blue or light pink to honor Transgender Day of Remembrance, which occurred on Saturday, November 20th.

Girls Who Code With High School Mentors

Girls Who Code is up and running again! High school girls are working as mentors for the middle school club participants. The first meeting was about discussing the importance of creating a space for students who identify as female to get an opportunity to dive into the STEM field at an early age and the importance of sisterhood. The mentors demonstrated the importance of specificity when coding by pretended they needed to be coded to make a sunbutter and jelly sandwich! The second meeting gave everyone an opportunity to play around with Scratch, a programming language. The girls made characters and had them move around a coordinate plane to animate a brief loop. We can't wait to see what comes next!

Middle School Hanukkah Party

Dreidels were spinning, chocolate "gelt" coins were flipping, music set the atmosphere, and broad smiles characterized the Middle School Jewish Affinity Group's first-ever Hanukkah party on Wednesday, December 1, in a combination of the cafeteria and the garden. Students rolled their own beeswax candles to light later at home while munching specialty "sufganiot," or Hanukkah doughnuts.

6th Graders Celebrate "Giving Tuesday"

Students created holiday cards for the patients of Memorial Sloan Kettering to take part in our own version of "Giving Tuesday!"

8th Grade is Building Their Research Skills

The 8th grade students participated in a series of workshops throughout the first trimester with the Churchill librarian, Cherie. They focused on topics such as spotting fake news, information on elections, plagiarism, and our digital library app - Sora!

Full STEAM Ahead

The 8th grade students participated in two STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) projects where they imagined being a part of a tribe who is brainstorming innovative ideas to build better homes and boats. They focused on surviving through the winter and working in groups as members of a tribe would. The homes and boats were tested with weights to measure if they would survive snowfall followed by brainstorming what they would do differently in the future.

High Schoolers Serve as Mentors for Girls Who Code

Girls Who Code is up and running again! High school girls are working as mentors for the middle school club participants. The first meeting was about discussing the importance of creating a space for students who identify as female to get an opportunity to dive into the STEM field at an early age and the importance of sisterhood. The mentors demonstrated the importance of specificity when coding by pretended they needed to be coded to make a sunbutter and jelly sandwich! The second meeting gave everyone an opportunity to play around with Scratch, a programming language. The girls made characters and had them move around a coordinate plane to animate a brief loop. We can't wait to see what comes next!

Mock Job Interviews in Public Speaking

Over the last two weeks, students in the HS Public Speaking elective have been learning about how to give an effective job interview. Students practiced how to shape confident answers to the top 10 most commonly asked questions while applying the essential skills of good public speaking: authenticity, knowing your content, avoiding filler words, a relaxed physical body, and eye contact. The culminating event was an official interview with our Assistant Head of School Annita Bruna.  Many thanks to Ms Bruna and Ms. Cirignano for helping us put our skills to the test!

Community Advisement: "Everything Churchill" Competition - Our First Event!

To kick off the school year and our newly implemented Advisement Curriculum, we had an "Everything Churchill" Trivia Competition! Students participated in a Kahoot which were all Churchill-based questions submitted by teachers. This first group activity helped introduce students to each other (especially across grades), establish expectations for advisement & create a sense of community after a much more isolated year.

Community Advisement: Grateful Door Decorating

Before Thanksgiving Break, High School students spent Community Advisement reflecting on what and who they were grateful for. Each group received materials to decorate their door which included a “what I’m grateful for leaf”, a community advisement photo and other artistic materials to help express their gratitude creatively. Students and teachers were able to chat about their own traditions, things they were looking forward to, and reflect on positive aspects of the past year.

Community Advisement: Trivia Night!

Ms. Lehner and Ms. C hosted a trivia night event which consisted of 4 rounds of questions. Round 1 revolved around pop culture in quarantine, Round 2 involved reading, writing and arithmetic, Round 3 included sci-fi questions, and Round 4’s theme involved history, trends and sports. Each group had 4 minutes to complete each round of questions, without the help of teachers. This required students to come together and problem solve as a group, further creating community among everyone in a fun and interactive way!

Community Advisement: Happy Hanukkah!

For our most recent community advisement event, students learned about the story of Hanukkah. Through a short video clip, students learned how to play dreidel and why we play. We got to see students who celebrate Hanukkah talk about their own personal anecdotes and experiences while playing dreidel. We wanted to give a special thank you to the whole Advisement Committee for helping to make the Q1 and beginning of Q2 curriculum a success!