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Middle School Eagle Ambassadors Encourage Love Of Reading

Reading rocks! And it rocks even more when upper school students can share the love of books with lower school classes.

This past Wednesday, Middle School Eagle Ambassadors, a group of students whose goal is to spread joy to the school by doing small acts of kindness, borrowed some books from the library (shout out to Miss Tuck for helping find the perfect ones!) and headed off to lower school classrooms.  

Pairs of students went to Mrs. Olson’s and Mrs. Light’s third grade classrooms, Mrs. Watson’s kindergarten classroom, and Señor Whitehead's first grade Spanish class to read them fall themed books. Younger students sat with eyes wide and attention captured by their older school mates. 

“My first grade class loved having the middle schoolers come and read to them,” said Whitehead. “Put us on the list for next time!”

The Middle Schoolers felt the same, having enjoyed the opportunity to connect with younger students and to serve them as guest readers.

Welcome To Odyssey Land!

The ninth grade ELA classes spent the majority of first quarter reading and learning about Homer's The Odyssey, the story of the great Odysseus’ ten year journey back home to Ithaca after ending the Trojan War. Through monsters, sea beasts, sirens, and battles with Greek Gods, Odysseus (spoiler alert!) made it home to his wife and son. 

After reading their way through this adventure, students in Mrs. Sheila Sledden's World Literature classes created an Odyssey Theme Park. The students worked within groups to create models of rides, restaurants, a gateway, and water park. Their efforts resulted in a fun and well thought out amusement park that reflected the classic epic adventure.

“The students have been studying and researching the Iliad, The Odyssey, the Trojan War, Greek Mythology and ancient Greece, which can be heavy material. This project gave them an opportunity to show their creative sides while showcasing the information they had gathered during their research,” said Mrs. Sledden. 

Sophia Ralph, Josie Hurley, and Bennett Vesper grouped together to create, “Hector’s Spinning Spear,” a ride where individuals sit in seats within the spear and get spun around in a full circle in the ultimate thrill ride!

“We wanted to represent the beginning of the story during the Trojan War,” explained Ralph. “We were given a lot of freedom for creativity.” 

“It was fun to work together and turn what we learned into something creative!” agreed Vesper. 

A project where students not only learned academic material but were also able showcase all their knowledge in a fun and creative way!