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The
Sundial
Newsletter
Term
2, Week 2
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La
Clase Espanola
Maggie Montanaro
Hola! Everyone smiles as they
enter the Spanish classroom. Dana McLaughlin’s
class of 4-7th graders was a lively bunch of girls
who were excited to learn and ready to participate.
McLaughlin, a graduate of the College of Wooster
with a degree in Spanish and French, lived in
Madrid, Spain for four months to do her student
teaching. She has taught Spanish at CSG summer
camp in the past and during the school year she
is a high school French teacher. She taught at
Bloom Caroll last year and will be starting at
Pickerington in the fall.
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She taught at Bloom Caroll last year and
will be starting at Pickerington in the fall.
She enjoys her summer students because they
are so enthusiastic. “I like sharing
the language with them because they get really
into it and excited about everything,”
McLaughlin said.
The eight (ocho) students Dana (Selena),
Nia (Marcia), Caroline (Sophia), Alex (Isabel),
Ayanna (Patricia), Adriana (Carmen), Sally
(Sara), and Bridget (Nereida) said that “la
classe es muy bien!” They especially
enjoy the games, like UNO and Bingo in Spanish.
However, they seemed equally excited while
responding to vocabulary questions during
class time as well.
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Chacha now!
The girls have been learning how to introduce
themselves, counting, colors, time and weather,
and various other practical skills in Spanish.
They have also learned some things about cultures
in Spanish speaking countries. On Friday, for
example, they learned to Salsa dance and when
they talked about classroom vocabulary they
discovered how classrooms in Hispanic cultures
might be different.
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Tackling
the SAT
Land Cullen
The may be uncertain, but sometimes we can
prepare for the tough situations that we see
approaching. Standardized testing is one of
the dreaded inevitabilities college-bound high
school students must face, however, with some
practice, these tests may seem less intimidating.
The SAT preparation classes this summer, which
cover both the math and verbal portions of the
test are a great way to prepare oneself for
the SAT.
Students studying to ace the big test.
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Regarding the verbal portion
of the test, it is impossible to learn every
word that the college board lists as a possibility,
so practicing and learning test-taking strategies
is really a student’s best option. They
get ready for this section by reviewing the
vocabulary, defining the words that they are
unfamiliar with, and learning the prefixes,
suffixes, and roots of the words. In the end,
this helps students narrow down possible answer
choices in difficult questions, resulting in
a more confident answer or a better educated
guess.
The math portion of the test, however, does
not have as much strategy involved. These questions
are answered more through a process of elimination
and the recollection of previously learned theory
and problem-solving. Thus, the best way to prepare
is through repetition.
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Both SAT classes use the same practice test book, which contains
ten actual tests. In each two-hour class, students
take practice sections of the test each day, and
as the term progresses, they complete more sections
during a specified time until the last week where
they will complete and entire test at once. With
each practice section and test, the students review
their answers and learn why they missed certain
questions.
While the SAT may seem daunting and frustrating,
it is ultimately the student who decides how they
would like to prepare. These classes, though,
are a great way to get ready for these challenging
tests.
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An
Artistic Voyage
Maggie Montanaro
Traveling the world…at CSG? Rodney Reese’s
Art Voyages class is doing just that. The fourth
through ninth graders have gone to France, China,
and they will venture into our country’s
past next week when they make Hopi Kachina dolls.
In France the students studied monstrous cathedrals
while they made gargoyles and learned of their
original purpose; to scare evil spirits away
from the church (and of course to drain water
from the building).
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In China the artists made dragons out of
super sculpey and paint as they discovered
some differences between European and Chinese
cultures by comparing their conceptions of
the mythical creature. Next week they will
stay in the States and explore Native American
culture when they make Hopi Kachina dolls,
used by the Hopi Indians to represent different
spirits in their religious and daily lives.
Not only will the students be taking beautiful
projects home at the end of the term, they
will have seen the world!
Great art takes great concentration!
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A
Roaring Visit to the Zoo
Land Cullen
The third and fourth grades traveled
to the Columbus Zoo this past Thursday. Home to
over 660 species and more than 7,800 specimens,
the zoo also had a number of new exhibits open,
the most impressive of those being the latest,
Voyage to Australia. It was here that students
visited an outdoor Lorikeet garden, took a boat
ride to the Islands of Southeast Asia, and stopped
by the nocturnal exhibit where leopards and fruit
bats were on display as well as other animals
indigenous to Australia continent. |
Other areas that the students enjoyed include
both the Shores and Reptile buildings. In
the Shores aquarium students were able to
observe the rare bonnet-head shark, electric
eels, green sea turtles, which the zoo breeds,
and the endangered West Indian manatee.
So much to see at the zoo!
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The Reptile exhibit, one of the largest collections
in the world, is home notable scaled creatures
such as the gila monster, the spitting cobra,
and the crocodile lizard. Students even had
the opportunity to see a number of these different
creatures after they had been removed from their
cages.
Another popular stop on the trip was to the
African Forest where the zebras, giraffes, and
lions reside. This exhibit, in particular, were
some of the students’ favorite for many
of them were seeing these animals in person
for the first time.
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Thanks for reading the CSG Summer Programs Newsletter, The
Sundial.
Check Back on Friday for the next issue!
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(C) 2002-2006, Columbus School for Girls
March 1, 200 |
