Creativity and cultural awareness studies are active in third grade. Teacher Kristin Webb said this week students learned they will have a chance, after all, to perform their cultural awareness play (even though the March 27 Cultural Awareness event was cancelled). Their play Wangari Maathai: World Changer, was written originally by former MMS third grade teacher Hamsa Heinrich (who currently teaches elementary art), and is and based on the book Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli. Webb did an adaptation of the play to fit her third grade class.
Third graders chose Wangari Maathai to learn about and honor as a “World Changer” for their cultural awareness focus.
“Before school went remote and we had to leave campus, third graders had already been assigned roles, started learning their lines and rehearsing their play,” said Webb. “Now, I am thinking it will be fun and engaging for my students to share the story in a new, creative fashion. The project is still evolving, but we will use Zoom to share and tape our scenes with students devising basic costumes from items they have at home. While there are still some editing aspects to be figured out, we are looking forward to sharing the story in an accessible form with third grade families.”
This week, in honor of both Earth Day and in acknowledgement of Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement in Kenya to promote reforestation, Webb guided her students in a tree-themed art and science project.
Second graders recently completed a cross-curricular project looking at dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, that involved research, language arts, geography, history, science, an arts component and public speaking skills.
“Most children love diving into the study of dinosaurs so we started by sharing facts we already knew about them and other prehistoric animals,” shared second grade teacher Prema Gammons. “We connected these ideas to our study of fossils and learned how scientists have made discoveries about ancient animal species.”
Each student chose a dinosaur or other prehistoric animal to research and report on, and some choices included the pterodactyl, brachiosaurus, and megalodon, among others.
“We looked at a timeline of prehistoric eras and each student put their animal on that timeline,” said 
Gammons. “The most common was the Jurassic time period. Each student created a visual aid to go with their facts, including where they lived on the globe which brought us back to our geography studies from earlier in the school year. For the project’s conclusion, students took turns during a class Zoom session presenting their reports and visual aids to their classmates. It was interesting to hear the facts they gathered!”
Middle School Wellness Classes
This week middle school wellness classes opened with a definition of wellness – “the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort.”
With that definition in mind, each student, and teachers Bob Caplan and Stevan Manzur, shared with the group what wellness means to them.
“We heard about walking, running and biking in the neighborhood or nearby woods,” shared Caplan. “We heard about playing with pets a lot, creating art with watercolors and any art supplies that are on hand, getting work and chores done, skateboarding in the driveway, eating (mostly) healthy foods, playing video games, taking some time to sit still and breathe deeply, sleeping well and long, talking with friends and family, dancing, listening to and making music. It was uplifting to hear the many ways our community is focused on wellness.”
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Nestled among the redwoods on 375 acres, Mount Madonna School (MMS) is a community of learners dedicated to creative, intellectual, and ethical growth. MMS supports its students in becoming caring, self-aware, discerning and articulate individuals; and believe a fulfilling life includes personal accomplishments, meaningful relationships and service to society. The CAIS and WASC accredited program emphasizes academic excellence, creative self-expression and positive character development. Located on Summit Road between Gilroy and Watsonville. Founded in 1979.