MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2025

This week, we kicked off a new unit in our Multicultural Monday curriculum! Students were introduced to Motown. Motown is an extremely important study for us as the label was instrumental in breaking down racial barriers in the music industry, bringing artists of color into the mainstream during a time of heightened racism and segregation. After our introduction discussion, it was time for the best part of the lesson: listening to the awesome music created by Motown artists! However, we didn’t want them to be told which songs to listen to, we wanted them to explore Motown’s discography, research an old era Motown song, and analyze/compare how the artist’s music evolved overtime in complexity to a later era Motown song. Next week, students will finish up their research and present their songs to the class, as well as, their findings. We’re really excited to see what they highlight in their analysis!

In our afternoon class, we spent some time engaging in some silent reading.

Then, we played a few rounds of Quizlet Live and Quizlet Blast rounds to introduce students to their newest set of vocabulary for their tests on Friday!

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2025

We started today by listening to a wonderful presentation from Ms. Lisa’s class, where we learned about their service project: Bernies Book Bank!

Then, it was time for us to return to our graphic novel terminology by going on a scavenger hunt to help students identify the different elements of a graphic novel! This was in preparation for their quiz tomorrow. After the scavenger hunt, students then completed an annotation competition to find and label the most graphic novel elements in a print out copy of a spread.

Once students finished their scavenger hunt and annotation sheets, it was time to get back to work on our Fright Club stories based on feedback from me left in their documents. Students went through my feedback, then, took the initiative to ask each other for additional peer feedback to further improve their writing. This was awesome to see as it highlighted student understanding of how important and beneficial collaboration was for the revise and edit portions of the writing process. This also showed me that students understood the writing process was a repetitive cycle, meaning, you don’t revise and edit once and call it done – you keep going until you, and those around you, feel it has become as strong as it can be!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025

We started today by completing a group review of our graphic novel terminology using Blooket before their quizzes to make sure there were no lingering questions.

Then, students took their quiz. Once they finished their quizzes, they were able to work on creating bookmarks for Ms. Lisa’s class to donate to Bernie’s Book Bank!

During Lunch, it was time for students to say goodbye to Pepper Einstein. Towards the beginning of the year, a bell pepper was named Pepper Einstein and placed in a fridge. However, he was getting old in age and starting to wrinkle (rot), and it was time to say goodbye to our beloved class mascot. So, students decided it would only be fair to host a small funeral for him before he was buried (thrown away). Here are a couple of photos taken from our memorial:

In our afternoon class, we held a Ketchup, Mustard, Pickle period.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025

Today, students focused on finishing their Fright Club submissions as we needed to have everyone’s draft finalized to be able to present them to our class on Halloween! Once students had their typed draft for competition submission, they created an artistic version of their 100-word spooky stories as their official end to our writing project.

I wanted to share their stories with you as they worked incredibly hard on them. Students learned the importance of imagery, how to use figurative language to create atmosphere in their writing, how to make their language more sophisticated, how to use new punctuation to create cool effects, and more! After many drafts, many revisions, and tons of thesaurus searches later… here are their final drafts!

The 99th Night (By: Jason)

Night fell for the ninety-ninth time. I hadn’t seen a soul since I entered the forest, only heard the whispers. The other children disappeared not too long ago, one by one. Their screams are stored within the rustling leaves tonight, the whispers were near. They echo my name, in a voice I don’t recognize. The voice was sharp, like the snapped twigs left behind. I huddle by the campfire, its glow growing weaker. My flashlight flickered uselessly. A pair of red eyes watched me behind the tree line. As it approached I knew that it was the end for me.

The Elevator (By: Gia)

*Boom* The elevator came to a halt. Panic filled the air. With each breath I took, the walls came closer and closer together. I pressed the emergency call button – no answer. It was disconnected.Trembling in fear, the doors opened. I thought I was finally safe, until I saw a tall figure running towards me; its eyes were glowing with hunger. I ran, but it pinned me down. It was too strong. I could feel my heart racing. I looked behind me, there was nothing but a cloak of black. I was alone… or so I thought.

The Third Knock (By: Adrian)

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* No answer. I turned to leave, but the door creaked open behind me. The smell of rotting flesh filled the air. As I entered, the smell got stronger the deeper I explored. Moonlight spilled through broken windows, casting jagged patterns on dust-choked floors. The wind hissed through cracks in the walls, carrying whispers of unseen footsteps. A feeling of dread hung thick in the air. I saw warm blood ooze out from under the door. Frozen in fear, I felt the souls of the dead say over my shoulder, “You’re next…”

“You’re Next.” (By: Kosta)

A low growl rumbled through the vents, then he froze. The werewolf stepped into the flickering light, its glowing eyes locking on him, teeth glinting. Every exit slammed shut. I sprinted, turning corner after corner, panic rising fast. The growls grew louder, closer, hungrier. In the last room, I stumbled into him crouched, ready to leap. I backed against the cold-cracked, blood drenched walls. The beast leaped. The last thing I saw were those terrifying teeth, inches from her face, gleaming with insatiable hunger. A final, blood-curdling scream echoed through the dark, deserted hospital halls.

3:00a.m. (By: Leo)

The baby monitor hummed with a faint static, then, a soft giggle slipped through. She froze. Her daughter slept soundly beside her, her tiny chest rising and falling in the moonlight. The giggle came again, gentle and unfamiliar. “Mommy, I’m cold.” Her pulse quickened. She rose, moving carefully toward the nursery. The crib was empty, the blanket undisturbed. The monitor’s light flickered once more, then steadied. Small footsteps whispered down the hallway. “Coming to Mommy,” the monitor murmured. Suddenly, the footsteps halted. Something cold grazed her hand. A tiny voice whispered, too close for comfort: “Mommy?”

Bitten by the Night (By: Lily)

The night glittered with frost, each breath hanging like ghosts in the air. Then I heard it… screaming, coming from the forest. I headed towards it, two neighbors right behind me. The wind rattled the windows, and my blood ran cold as our boots compressed leaves underfoot. I noticed that my neighbors’ faces were twisted in horror— at me. Before I could react, a sharp pain bloomed in my neck, then the darkness overtook me. I awoke with blood on my hands and a gnawing hunger in my chest. The reflection in a puddle confirmed the truth: I was the monster.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* (By: Maggie)

My hand reached for the door. Curiosity took over my body. I touched it… It was freezing like ice, until the knocks came again. It was burning hot like a branding iron. Grasping my horribly red wrist, I screamed helplessly in agony. *Knock* *Knock* Silence. The door flew open on its own initiative – the dark blue sky of the misty black forest had turned to a deep crimson. I tried to scream but something covered my mouth… a wispy shadow hand. A sharp pain dragged through my spine; a chuckle echoed through the trees behind me. Then, everything went black…

The Late Discharge (By: Marina)

It’s been an eternity since I first came to the hospital. Everyday, I watch mothers cradling newborns. Healed patients beam with life, as I experienced never-ending pain. My Mom’s words clung to me as my hope disappeared, “You’re still sick.” Nurse Julie entered, pale and trembling. I told her I was better, ready to leave; but she didn’t even look at me. She just whispered, “I’m so sorry,” and left. I walked to the front desk to check out. The doctor froze when she saw me and whispered, “But… you died yesterday.”

Trapped (By: Nefeli)

I was walking back from school when I came across an abandoned park. I entered, hands shaking. The slide filled with mist, the ground covered in dried blood. I heard a scream coming from the swing, and saw a little girl all alone. I asked if she was ok, she replied with a laugh “Do you want to play?” Another little girl appeared — eyes black. She smiled at me. I tried to run, but the ground held onto me. My scream became caught in my throat as her cold hand covered my mouth. Then, it became clear: I was trapped.

The Lost Soul (By: Rebecca)

Silence screamed into my dark dreams. I woke up in panic as my taste buds grew numb and the sound of my heart pulsed through every limb. I rushed to the stairs, heart hammering, hands shaking – I tried to grab the railing but my hand slipped right through. I looked around, what once was familiar appeared abandoned and lifeless. A rotten smell filled the air; then, the world went scentless. Ahead, a red shadow stared into my soul. I became paralyzed as it crept toward me. Darkness swallowed me, and at that moment, I knew all hope was lost.

Between Heartbeats (By: Vasia)

Beeeeeep… Beeeeeep… Beeeeeep… I woke up in a hospital bed. Confused, I tried to get up – I couldn’t. I felt paralyzed. I called for help; no answer. Beeeep… Beeeep… Beeeep… Suddenly, I rose. As I looked over my shoulder, I saw myself still lying in the bed. My body appeared lifeless. Then someone came into the room. Beep… Beep… Beep… His face, white as snow; eyes, black as night; and blood dripped down like tears. Beep. Beep. Beep. As he was coming closer, I tried to save myself, but I couldn’t. It was too late.

The Grin (By: Teddy)

I thought the house was safe, but the cold wind inside whispered otherwise. It had old worn out wooden floors that groaned with every step, I realized every door was locked… but one. I anxiously strolled in, but I didn’t see anything. I walked closer, until I heard a creak from behind. Towering above me was some sort of creature with his shirt drenched in blood, and a hungry gaze fixed in on me. I tried to flee, but I couldn’t move! His iron grip was tight on my shirt. As he leaned in, I realized his grin wasn’t human.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2025

It’s Halloween at Plato Academy and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate together! Students entered to a surprise room decoration update to fit the holiday’s spooky vibe. A video of our special room decorations can be found in the Plato Academy Halloween Photo Drive! While we had a lot of fun today, we couldn’t stray completely away from our routine today. So, we started our day with our quick write where students were given an additional challenge: make your quick write stories a spooky/Halloween themed story! Our special-edition of our quick write lit up our creativity, and today’s champion was Marina!

Then, it was time for the scariest part of our day: the vocabulary test… or so they thought. TRICK OR TREAT! Students were surprised with a trick of there being no vocabulary test (despite being told there was all week), and rewarded with the treat of some extra study time. Their tests have been postponed for Monday – I couldn’t give a test on Halloween! It felt wrong!

After we got through our routine elements, it was time to enjoy some Halloween fun and guess the weight of the Mega Pumpkin! We submitted our guess of 97lbs and took a group photo by the pumpkin patch.

In our afternoon class, it was time to get spooky! Students read their Fright Club stories to the class to show off all their hard work and get into the Halloween spirit before the costume parade later in the day. I unfortunately do not have photos as I had a family emergency that required my attention. I’m sure they did great! (:

Math with Mr. Zafeiris!

This week, we worked on exponents, the degree of polynomials, and how to write a polynomial in standard form. We also began simplifying polynomials by combining like terms and evaluating polynomials for given variable values.

The students showed great interest and engagement in this area of mathematics, demonstrating curiosity and enthusiasm as they applied these new concepts in class.

Happy Halloween!!!

Science with Ms. Pam!

Students learned more about cells and DNA, and finished their class coded DNA structures!

I look forward to sharing more of our learning with you next week! (:

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2025

Today marked the return of Multicultural Monday, and the kids were so excited! Students finished up their posters and presented their findings to the group. Some of the themes highlighted by their Modern Day Dylan’s were Climate Change/Environmental Awareness, Racial Injustice/Racism, Metal Health, Anti-War, and more! We ended our class talking about how all these themes are relevant today, how it is important to stay informed and up-to-date on societal needs, and to always analyze the messages that those who are a voice for change are presenting to us in order to further understand them and see if we agree with them.

In our later morning class, students engaged in some silent reading time where they read their independent reading novels and met with me to discuss what they’ve been reading recently.

In our afternoon class, we spent some time getting familiar with our brand new vocabulary set! Once students reach vocabulary set 4, they enter a new test format to help develop their different studying strategies! In this set grouping, on their test, they will be given the definition. Rather than only writing the word, they will be required to use the word in a sentence with context. A sentence with context means “My teacher said the vocabulary word _______” would not get credit. Their sentences need to have some context provided that shows they understand how to properly use their vocabulary words in a sentence. We have been practicing this skill through our weekly quick writes, and through their incorporation of their vocabulary words in their conversations for Dojo points – now it’s time to show off their skills with our weekly vocabulary!

Then, it was finally time for Maggie, Lily and Kosta to read their Children’s Book Stories to Ms. Ela and Ms. Demetra’s class! Even though we were only presenting 3 of our 12 stories, we all went down together to encourage each other as they presented. Throughout the week, our other stories will be read in various lower grade classes.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2025

This morning, we joined Ms. Lisa and Ms. Melissa’s Classes for more of our children’s book presentations! Today’s presenters were Jason, Teddy, and Adrian! Students did an awesome job presenting their stories clearly and confidently for all to hear and enjoy. Our lower grade student audience loved their stories!

Once we returned back to class, our final 6 presenters practiced their presentation skills by reading us their final stories and receiving peer feedback for how they could improve it for their upcoming presentations later this week!

We then took a snack break, and students engaged in completing some WWI Test Corrections! Any student who was unable to completely finish their test corrections in class must complete it for homework. Test corrections are not optional for students as they are intended to help students better grasp the content tested, even if it is only test corrections for one question. That’s one question worth of knowledge they could be reviewing and learning from! Test corrections are due Friday.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2025

We started our morning with some more of our Children’s Book presentations! Our presenters today were, Marina, Rebecca, and Gia! Our presenters all did a great job of reading to our eager audience of Ms. Efi, Ms. Soraya, and Ms. Yana’s classes.

When we returned to our class, we did our word of the day, and reviewed our comma rules a bit in preparation to play Comma Review Battleship! Even though students should be using and practicing their comma rules in their writing consistently, sometimes, it helps to do some formal punctuation practice to reinforce our skills.

The way review battleship works is each student sets up their own grid (1 ship of 4 squares, 2 ships of 3 squares, and 2 ships of 2 squares). None of the ships can be touching each other, and they can only be placed vertically and/or horizontally. They are placed into pairs: Student A and Student B. Student A has practice sheet 1 and answer key 2, Student B has practice sheet 2 and answer key 1. Each practice sheet has completely different questions, so having your opponents key doesn’t take away from your own learning when attempting your own practice sheet! If Student A is attempting to strike coordinate B3 on Student B’s grid, they will look at practice sheet 1 and attempt to answer the review question listed as B3. Student A will provide their answer to Student B, and Student B will check answer key 1 to see if they got it correct. If they got it wrong, Student B tells Student A that their answer was incorrect. If they got it correct, Student B will tell Student A if their strike was a hit or a miss. If the strike was a hit, Student A will pick a new coordinate until they either get it wrong or they miss on Student B’s grid. Students go back and forth until somebody sinks their opponents entire battlefield – which would mean they won the game.

Today, we learned how to play the game using some comma practice! In the future, they will play review battleship with the same format, but new review questions. Nobody won by sinking anyone’s entire battlefield before the end of class, but they were all winners in the learning department by having a fun and successful comma usage review!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2025

This morning, students were introduced to our first Math project: GEOMETROCITY! There are three phases to the building portion of this project: Permits, Design & Build, and Construction.

Through our Mindset Mathematics curriculum, we have been building our Geometry knowledge through various experimental group assignments. Some of the terms and skills we have been practicing and/or reviewing include:

• Area of various shapes
• Perimeter of various shapes
• Irregular and Regular Polygons
• Irregular and Regular Quadrilaterals
• Types of Triangles: Isosceles, Right, Equilateral
• Types of Angles: Right, Obtuse, Acute, Straight
• Parallel lines
• Line segments
• Coordinate planes

Next week, we are going to learn about shape nets – which is what they will ultimately use to build their 3D cities for the end of their project! However, today was spent recapping all the different terms they have learned so far and recognizing them in real life architecture. Students then defined those various terms, and drew geometrically accurate example images. Some students moved onto and completed a practice mapping exercise where they draw a map of our school, others ended our class period still working and making sure their geometrical images are neat looking and super detailed!

I’m super excited to see the creative city themes and designs our class creates!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2025

This morning, we started our day by finishing up our Children’s Book presentations in Ms. Anna’s class! Our presenters were: Vasia, Nefeli and Leo! They did a great job, and our audience enjoyed their stories.

When we returned to class, we jumped into taking our vocabulary test to ensure all students had enough time to complete them. After that, we had enough time to learn our new word of the day, but had to postpone our quick write until our afternoon class – which was no big deal, it gave us something to look forward to!

During our afternoon class, we started with our promised quick write where Teddy was today’s champion!

Students also had their tests passed back from this morning, where some will do retakes on Monday as they were so close to getting 100% today, and probably don’t need a whole week to study the same set of words to get them learned.

After we had our creative juices flowing, it was time for students to work a bit more on their Fright Club stories! Students either worked on the feedback they had from last week, or privately met with me for some new ideas and suggestions to continue strengthening their writing. Our goal is to get our stories as strong as possible before Halloween so we can enjoy a spooky story class reading!

Science with Ms. Pam!

Last week we looked at some of the processes inside a cell – photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and fermentation. We spent this week preparing for the unit 3 test and completing the recycled cell models.

The students spent a lot of time and care preparing their cell models, which were turned in on Thursday. I can see the thought that went into finding recycled objects that reflected the function or shape of the organelle the object was representing –  folding two colors of ribbon for DNA, using old batteries for mitochondria. I have been asked to have the students share their models with the rest of the school and will set something up in a couple of weeks.

This coming week we start studying DNA; its discovery, shape, and function. We will look at how DNA combines to form diversity and thus increase survivability in a species.

Math with Mr. Zafeiris!

Students continued strengthening their Algebra and Geometry skills this week by learning and practicing exponential equations, and learning about angle relationships!

I look forward to sharing more of our learning with you next week! (:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2025

This morning, we started with our word of the day, and moved into a conversation of their WWI tests they took with the sub last week. When I went to grade the tests, I noticed many students did not answer the written response in complete sentences, and some questions were accidentally skipped. This didn’t feel like a fair representation of their WWI knowledge to grade. Students were advised to review their study guides one more time tonight, as I would be passing back their tests for a second chance to show me everything they know about WWI. The students totally rocked the questions our tour guide asked them on our museum tour last Friday, and many of the questions they were asked are the same as the questions on the test – soI know in my heart of hearts they have WWI down, which is great, but they still need to showcase how well they know it on the test! This is both to formally show their comprehension, as well as, ensure they are practicing good test taking skills.

We then continued working on our Fright Club Creative Writing Contest pieces. We did a group discussion of different techniques we could use in our writing to make them as creepy as possible, and students were given some time to finish up their first drafts of their 100 word spooky stories. Then, students read their first drafts to a partner to receive feedback on how they can improve their stories. After they got feedback from one partner, we did the same exercise with new partner pairings to get new perspectives and fresh feedback for their second draft of their stories. Their next draft was to be typed and completed so that I could give them feedback to continue strengthening their writing using the writing process.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2025

We started with our word of the day, and then students began their notes on graphic novel terminology. That’s right, it’s time to start our first class novel, and it’s a graphic novel! One of the ELA skills they need to practice this year is using domain specific vocabulary, and a great way to introduce that is through graphic novels. As we read the novel, we will be holding Socratic discussions where they need to incorporate the domain specific vocabulary within their analysis of the text. So, before we could get into the super fun activities and begin reading – students needed to learn all about the terminology!

In our afternoon class, students were given an opportunity to correct their WWI tests to reflect their best effort and completed answers before they would be graded. When they finished revising their tests, students engaged in some silent reading time where we had novel check-in meetings. Due to the field trip last week, me being out sick, and having Monday off this week – it had been a while since we got the chance to do novel check-ins! So, it was really nice to talk with them about all their fun reading discoveries they have had lately during their home reading times.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2025

It was time for us to return to our Mindset Mathematics and show off how well we can learn from our mistakes! We started with a class discussion of strategies we tried last time we attempted to calculate the area of the following shape:

We then brainstormed some ways we could combat some common errors we were encountering when attempting to find the area.

While these error corrections made students more confident, and we got a lot closer to the answer – nobody was able to get the same answer using more than one method, or the same answer as each other. Over the weekend, I took on the challenge to attempt to solve this problem myself, and after a few attempts, I was able to get the same answer with two different methods! We talked about how even if we made a couple small mistakes in our full execution of solving the problem, as a class, we still learned a lot of incredibly important Math techniques.

The big challenge with this activity isn’t the Math itself, it’s the stamina and focus needed to do those techniques a ton of times and avoid making a single mistake. It’s like being assigned 70 practice questions and getting 2 wrong due to a tiny mistake/oversight. Those 2 questions you made a mistake one does not mean you can’t do the skill correctly, because you most definitely showed that you have mastered the skill on the 68 other problems you got correct! So, we didn’t focus on getting the “correct” answer/area of the shape, but rather the skills we practiced and reviewed along the way. These skills were:

1. How to calculate the area of a right triangle.
2. How to calculate the area of an isosceles triangle.
3. How to calculate the area of a scalene triangle.
4. How to calculate the area of a square/rectangle.
5. Triangle terminology: base, height, and hypotenuse.
6. Pythagorean Theorem: a² + b² = c²
7. How important it is to write our problem solving work clearly, to make it easy for others to follow and track.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2025

Today, we started with our word of the day quick write, where Jason and Becky tied for the win! However, due to having a stronger/clearer plot structure, and using all the words correctly within their story, our winner was: Becky!

We then moved onto our vocabulary tests. When students finished their test, they were able to work on revising their 100 word spooky stories based on the feedback they were given from me.

In our afternoon class, students practiced their Children’s Book Presentation Skills in preparation of reading to their lower grade audiences next week! Not only were students excited to hear each other’s stories, but presentation skills are difficult to master and need to be practiced. We gave each other feedback for ways they could improve their presentations for their audiences next week, some of that feedback included:

1. Doing different voices for different characters to help your audience imagine your story clearly.
2. Reading slowly and making sure to clearly articulate each word.
3. Taking a pause to really show your audience the book pictures.
4. Speaking loud enough for all to clearly hear you.

Feedback is a lengthy process, so we prioritized providing feedback to some of our earlier presenters on our presentation schedule today, and will continue to allow later presenters to practice before their big presentation day! Students can, and should, always be practicing a bit at home. They can either practice presenting their literal books if they completed them digitally, or they can just practice reading any other children’s book they have around. The skill remains the same, regardless of how they practice!

Science with Ms. Pam!

Students continued working on their projects to finish up their cell unit!

FRIENDLY REMINDER: UNIT TEST NEXT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23RD!

Math with Mr. Zafeiris!

This week in Mathematics, students worked on percentages, learning how to find the original value and calculate discounts. In Geometry, we discussed congruent angles and how to identify them in different figures. Students participated actively and are building a strong understanding of how these concepts connect to real-life situations.

As students continued to develop their understanding of both Algebra and Geometry concepts, students were informed they will begin receiving some Khan Academy assignments to practice them at home. While this homework should not be overly stressful for students, they are encouraged to take their relevant Math notebooks home to study from and use to complete their Khan Academy assignments. These assignments will be posted for them in Google Classroom!

I look forward to sharing more of our learning with you next week! (:

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2025

This morning, we returned to our Multicultural Monday lessons with Mr. Joe’s class. Today, students researched their very own “Modern Day Dylan.” We’ve been learning all about Bob Dylan, and how his music was created to challenge cultural norms and/or raise awareness to social issues. It was time for students to research artists they love today and see how they use their own music to do the same. Students were split into duos and trios to work on this project. Once their posters are created, groups will present what they learned about their “Modern Day Dylan” to the class. Some groups happened to choose the same artist, but these artists have such large discographies and diverse platforms that I’m sure each presentation will give us some new and exciting insight! The artists our groups thought of and chose were: Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Michael Jackson, Green Day, and Eminem.

In our afternoon class, we postponed our silent reading period from today for Wednesday to ensure students had as much time as possible to finish their WWI Review Games! Tomorrow, students will have a chance to play each other’s games as final test-prep for their WWI test on Wednesday.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2025

This morning started with our word of the day and our first organization race! To help encourage students to keep up on their binder portfolio organization, we will occasionally hold organization races, where students race to various locations to find various assignments first for 2 dojo points. This is a great opportunity for students to notice if some of their pages are filed in the wrong places, and give them an opportunity to take their binders home to reorganize them without it being an overwhelming task by having tons of papers adding up for the whole quarter/school year.

After that, it was time for the main event: playing each other’s WWI review games! Students did a phenomenal job creating their games, and had a lot of fun playing them as a review for tomorrow’s test. Each group had a member who created each game, which was the game leader for that station. We rotated every 25 minutes to ensure students had enough time to play every group’s game, tally up their scores to determine a winner, and set up their station for the next group to enjoy! (:

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2025

This morning, students started with their word of the day and got right into taking their WWI test. Then, in the afternoon, students enjoyed practicing their critical thinking skills by playing a game of CAP and learning about Fright Club! Fright Club is a creative writing competition where middle school and high school students compete to get their 100 word spooky stories published by Young Writers. Today, students discussed what all went into creating a good spooky story and worked on a couple introduction activities to practice recognizing techniques they could use, like building suspense, and developing atmosphere in their writing.

Unfortunately, I was out sick and unable to take photos of today’s activities.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2025

This morning, students completed their Quick Write early as we have an awesome field trip tomorrow! This week’s words really challenged the students’ writing: Leo started us off with the most words used (19), but a couple of words were used incorrectly! His plot was awesome, and he did a great job of incorporating some of our more complicated words; but in order to be crowned this week’s Quick Write Champion, all words needed to be used correctly. So, we talked as a class about how he could have fixed his sentences to use these words correctly, which served as a great reminder of the importance of grammatical structure. Next up, Vasia read her story of 18 words – but she ran into the same problem! She got so close to victory, but one of her words was used incorrectly. We talked as a class of how she could have used it correctly in her story, which further emphasized the importance of writing clearly with lots of details. Finally, Teddy read his story using 17 words… and he became this week’s champion! All of his words were used correctly and intentionally while writing with a clear plot structure. Congratulations Teddy!

Then, we had a brief discussion of some of the writing techniques students learned about yesterday for Fright Club. We read a couple of examples from last year’s publication, and discussed elements that made their stories spooky and successful in only 100 words. Students then completed a Math Diagnostic Test. This was not a test they could pass or fail, but simply a test to tell us their general levels. Once they finished their diagnostic test, they were able to begin working on their first drafts of their spooky stories!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2025

Today is the most exciting day of the week because it was FIELD TRIP DAY! For today’s field trip, we went to Cantigny State Park in Wheaton, IL. On this field trip, students visited the US Army First Division Museum and looked at various artifacts, as well as, entered a recreation of a WWI trench. Students were also introduced to their next unit (WWII) by visiting the exhibit dedicated to the 1st Division in World War II. The Cantigny Museum also had a variety of military vehicles from WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and Iraq/Afghanistan students were able to explore and learn more about. 

We started our exploration by climbing some tanks! We took a small hike around the building and discovered a beautiful memorial to our fallen veterans. While many students blew me away on this trip with their maturity, knowlege, and respect – one moment really stood out to me as it was completely unprompted. When we were looking at the memorial, Nefeli pointed out the intentional and signifigant placement of the arching mirrors. There were two sides of this the arch way, and both were lined with mirrors. This created an infinity mirror effect below the roof of veteran identification tags. Her comment sparked a conversation where we pondered the following question: What does the infinity mirror represent? Students talked about it representing the never ending wars we face, the never ending mourning of families who lost their loved ones, the never ending respect we hold for veterans, the never ending generations who will benefit from their bravery of fighting in the war, and the never fading changes these wars created/caused.

Once students got their initial energy out, we were given a wonderful tour to learn more about the military vehicles from the various wars. We then went inside the museum, where our tour guide began our tour with a WWI quiz… Not to brag, but our class totally aced it! Needless to say, this field trip was a 10/10!

While these photos are great, there are plenty more that can be found in the Google Photo Album! Check it out! It’s linked here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/j8MbZTJwQbGBUCEv6

REMINDER: DUE TO THE FIELD TRIP AND LONG WEEKEND, STUDENTS WILL TAKE THIS WEEK’S VOCABULARY TEST ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK! PLEASE MAKE SURE THEY ARE STUDYING FOR IT!

Math with Mr. Zafeiris!

This week in Mathematics, students worked on percentages, focusing on how to find the original value and practicing the simple interest formula.

In addition, they reviewed key geometry concepts, including angles, types of angles, and an analysis of adjacent angles from last Friday’s lesson.

Students showed strong participation and growing understanding as they applied mathematical reasoning to solve practical problems and explain their thinking.

Science with Ms. Pam!

This week we have been looking at how things get inside of cells, important things like food and water.

The students did an experiment on osmosis and diffusion.They used vinegar to remove the shell from an egg, leaving an egg with a thin, semi-permeable membrane. They placed the egg in a solution and predicted what would happen to the egg. They then let the egg soak for two days. There were a few surprises. The egg membrane allowed the dye to enter the egg, leaving us with interesting colors. The egg soaking in corn oil had big drops of water surrounding it as the water would not mix with the oil. It was also the smallest and softest egg. A light touch showed very little pressure on the inside of the egg. The egg soaking in coffee took in the most water as coffee had the largest percentage of water and osmosis tried to balance the percent of water on both sides of the egg membrane.

Today, students were introduced to cell metabolism. They will continue looking at photosynthesis next week and then spend a small amount of time on cellular respiration.

Cell models are due on 10/23. The students will have about two more hours of class time to work on the project. They are free to work on the models at home, but that shouldn’t be necessary.

I look forward to sharing more of our learning with you next week! (:

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2025

Welcome back to Multicultural Mondays! Today, we mixed it up a bit and put students in small groups to have small group discussions of their lyrical analysis of The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan. Groups were given a side-by-side worksheet of the song lyrics to allow them to fully annotate and connect themes, symbolism, metaphors/similes, etc. between the two songs. Students did an awesome job making connections with each other, but the real magic came when it was time to share their small group findings in our large group discussion.

Students analyzed the idea of a stone starting at the top of a hill/mountain, and rolling down to the bottom, with no way to get back up there. They discussed different symbolic meanings of this top and bottom: the world before the Vietnam and/or Cold war versus after and being unable to undo the harm that was caused, having a great economy or lots of individual wealth and losing it all, the mental health aspect of a downward spiral due to feeling alone, etc. Students connected this imagery in Like a Rolling Stone to the image of becoming a sinking stone. They created this analogy of becoming a sinking stone in the bottom of the ocean, drowning in pain/sadness/bills, and in order to stop drowning while the rest of the world (fishes) rapidly change/swim around you… you need to do something about “it!” What is that “something?” Protest! We talked about rocks/stones and how they don’t do much. We discussed how these songs were a warning that if you don’t speak up/do something, you’ll become a stone that drowns in the despair of it all with no way of reversing the harm these wars/events could have on the future (no way of getting back to the top of the hill/mountain).

During our afternoon class, we had some silent reading time and independent novel check-in discussions. Later, students were offered an early retake of their Vocabulary Tests from last Friday. Many students were only a letter off from getting 100%, and rather than making them studying that same vocabulary set for a whole week, they had an opportunity to take the test again and correct their small errors to hopefully move onto a new set of words this week for their tests on Friday!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2025

This morning, we played Friend or Foe to review and complete their WWI study guides for their test on Wednesday next week. The way Friend or Foe works is students work in teams (their table groups) to complete each question of the study guide. If their group all have the correct answer, they get to put a team sticky note on the grid. By the end of the review period, all study guides should be completed with the correct answers (the true prize) and their sticky note locations revealed their teams mystery points to declare a winning team. Our winning team with 84 points was Lily, Maggie, Jason and Teddy!

After Friend or Foe, students ate their snack to fuel up for their final WWI project – making a WWI review game! Students worked in groups of 3 for this assignment. Their projects are due Tuesday of next week so we can play them together as a review before their test. Their checkpoint for today was to gather their necessary supplies, and finalize what their game will be (name of their game, general rules/elements, etc.). Students had some amazing ideas! Adrian, Teddy and Maggie are combining elements of a coin drop game with jeopardy to become a race. Gigi, Nefeli and Kosta are making a game titled Get out of the Trenches! where students will need to answer various comprehension questions to escape the trenches (game board) – they’ve even included realistic penalties… for example, gaining trench foot and moving half the number of spaces their question is worth, getting sick and skipping a turn due to the unhealthy living conditions, etc. Becky, Vasia and Leo’s game is titled Conquer where they combined elements of known games Trouble and Monopoly for players to battle and conquer various alliances by answering trivia questions. Mina, Lily and Jason were inspired by Monopoly as well playing with the jail being the trenches, properties being different countries that were involved in the war, etc. All groups were getting their creative juices flowing today and demonstrating mastery of their WWI knowledge in their game development!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2025

This morning, students learned about surface tension with a lab extension activity from last week’s reading. Even though some students said they had done this penny lab before – we did ours today with a bit of a twist! The traditional lab is to place droplets of water on each side of the penny until the bubble bursts in order to learn about surface tension, and after, analyze various factors that contribute to creating surface tension. Surface tension is a concept we will play with again in a future lab to extend their knowledge of a cell membrane, their current Science topic in Ms. Pam’s class.

Since we learned about the different materials pennies were made out of last week, students deepened the complexity of our lab by wondering if the different years the pennies were made would impact our group data. Since students were analyzing different charts and graphs in our reading, it was only fair if we made our own chart to display our findings after our experiment and had a discussion of how to represent our data clearly on the best fitting graph.

We determined the bar graph was the easiest to read because you could clearly see the comparison of how much water each side of the penny held for each individual penny, and as a collective group. Even though the line graph looked cool, it was harder to see a direct relationship between our heads and tails, both as a group and individually, as each individual penny wasn’t plotted… it was charted more like a timeline.

Unfortunately, we didn’t notice any direct correlations between the year a penny was made and how much water the pennies could hold because the surface tension factors remained consistent: The tails side held more water/had a higher surface tension allowance due to the small grooves in the image. The heads side held less water/had a lower surface tension allowance due to the head being a raised surface and the water molecules having less crevices to sink into/hold onto. Even though our graph didn’t show this correlation perfectly, when we calculated the class average of heads and tails, it supported our claim.

Class Average Droplets of Heads: 27.67

Class Average Droplets of Tails: 30.03

We talked about why some groups data was inconsistent with others, and discussed the importance of error analysis as scientists with experiments. We are all humans, we will make mistakes, that’s normal! However, scientific findings should be as close to error free as possible. We talked about how some groups may have been placing larger drops than others, which would provide us with inconsistent data as a whole. We talked about how some pennies were older than others and may have had less pronounced grooves than others, which is more about the wear and tear of materials rather than allowing us to investigate how the different elements of older/newer pennies impact surface tension. We also talked about the importance of calculating averages to reduce the errors in our findings as it is likely there was at least one trial that someone messed up on at some point, but by collecting a bigger pool of data, the impact of the error will get decrease with the more data we collect and input into our averages/findings.

In our afternoon class, students were given group work time on their WWI Review Game projects!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2025

Today, we highlighted the beauty in making mistakes by starting Lesson 3 of Mindset Mathematics. We started by reviewing the techniques we discovered last week of calculating the area of irregular quadrilaterals and polygons. We then looked at the following shape:

I asked students what they noticed about this shape, and many pointed out there were a lot of triangles. We worked together to find a few right triangles, isosceles triangles, and scalene triangles. We then reviewed how to calculate the area of a triangle, and what that formula was: base x height / 2. We returned to this idea of skeptics and discussed how we know that formula is correct for calculating the area of a triangle. Students demonstrated mastery in their understanding of these previously discussed topics and skills. I then showed them the following shape outline:

Students then discussed in their groups how they may go about splitting this image up to calculate the area of it. All groups came to the conclusive idea to take a big chunk of space out of the middle with a large rectangle, and split the crazy edges into small triangles and rectangles/squares. Then, it was time to try it out with their teammates. Before they started, we had a discussion as to why I was requiring them to work in groups rather than individually. Students were reminded that we are all human and are bound to make mistakes – especially on such a complicated task! Their group mates could help catch mistakes, teach a new technique to someone who is lost/struggling, encourage each other when the task starts to feel daunting, etc. We talked about how mistakes are a part of learning and how nobody should feel deflated by them, because we actually learn more when we make mistakes, and mistakes are really exciting to find and correct! With a growth mindset and determination set, students began working in their groups.

After all our hard work – not a single group had the same answer. Was it a bit disappointing to not gain confidence in your group’s answer being the correct one by having the same answer as another group? Of course. Was this also an amazing opportunity for us to learn from each other’s possible mistakes and try to discover if any group had the correct answer? Absolutely! So, students put their skeptic hats back on, just like we practiced doing in our very first Mathematical Mindsets lesson, and started to look at each other’s work to catch any possible mistakes.

Ah-ha light bulb moments were firing rapidly! Some groups even realized mistakes they made on their own paper by looking at others before we talked about them as a class.Some mistakes found were:

1. Ignoring partial chunks/halves of grid squares in their shape sectioning.
2. Adding up their section/chunk areas incorrectly, or in a way that was hard to follow/double check their work.
3. Splitting the shape up sloppily, making it hard to be precise in their calculations.
4. Calculating their internal sections/chunk areas incorrectly, and therefore, making their ending calculation incorrect even if they were added together accurately since some internal values were incorrect going into the final calculation step. We think this was due to the graph paper being dotted rather than the traditional grid structure students are used to seeing.

We talked together about why it was easier for a different group to find our mistakes than it was for our own group to catch them while we were working, emphasizing how frustrating/disappointing it would be to find our own error and need to start over… and how it would be easier to not find any of our mistakes. We also discussed the power and beauty of how our brains think differently, making it easier for a pair of fresh eyes to find a mistake in our work due to it being something new to look at.

Students naturally asked if anyone got the correct answer, to which I replied, “We don’t know yet.” We talked about how me giving them the right answer and showing them exactly where their mistakes are wouldn’t help them learn as much from the activity, and how it will feel so much better to know your answer is correct through proving our work to skeptics, rather then being told if you are right or wrong when you’re not 100% confident in your work. We talked about the process in which we gain confidence in our math answers, and how we are 100% confident in our answers when we know we made no mistakes in calculating it. If a skeptic were to ask us how we know we have the right answer – we should be able to explain it! Each group had at least one mistake found by skeptics, and we talked about how even if a mistake led to a correct answer somehow, why would we care? If we don’t understand why or how it is correct because it was found through flawed methods… is it actually correct? No! So, during our next Mindset Mathematics lesson time, we will take what we learned from our mistakes this round, and try again with some improved techniques and methods!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2025

This morning, we started with our New York Times Word of the Day quick write – and it got a bit intense today! Not only was our quick write a bit quicker than usual to make sure we could make it to our bake sale time slot, but Jason and Becky tied with 15 words used… meaning it was time for our tie breaker: who used the words more creatively/intentionally?

Both students would read their stories to the class, and the class would work together to double check how each word was used to ensure they were used correctly. The class would also help make sure they used all 5 of this week’s words in their stories so that their previous words used could count for points. First, Jason read his story to the class, and even though he had an easy to follow plot structure and his words made sense… he forgot to use Thursday’s word: Extol! Now, it was time for Becky to read her story – but she forgot to use “extol” as well! Then, we discovered that Leo and Kosta also tied for using 12 words! Leo read his story first, and he included all 5 of this week’s words, his plot made sense, and all his vocabulary words were used correctly. It was time to see if Kosta could top the intentional and creative use of Leo’s vocabulary words, but as Leo read his story out loud, Kosta realized he had forgotten to use on of this weeks words! This meant that Leo was crowned this week’s quick write champion!

After our exhilarating quick write, it was time for us to head down to the annual Lee Denim Day Bake Sale! Before heading down, we talked a bit about the importance of raising breast cancer awareness and how it creates a sense of community and solidarity among survivors, caregivers, and advocates. We talked about how breast cancer awareness helps break down the stigma associated with the disease, encouraging open conversation and seeking help. Students were reminded that the money they spent at the bake sale would directly impact those affected by breast cancer, not just get them some yummy treats to enjoy (though that was a big plus).

When we returned back from the bake sale, students had to take their vocabulary test, but were promised they could eat their goodies as soon as they finished their tests. Once they were all done with their tests, we enjoyed an extended snack break together to continue building our classroom community as students ate their bake sale treats and chatted together.

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT!

While we always sit together during lunch, my heart was particularly warmed during today’s lunch block. Even though the bake sale supports a great cause, students also understood and recognized that not everyone may have been able to bring money and participate. Mina, Becky and Gigi lead the group in coordinating a (nut-free) candy salad for lunch today to ensure everyone got to enjoy a sweet treat together, and that nobody felt left out in the sweet festivities today. Our class even shared their goodies with Mr. Joe’s class! (:

I was really proud of them for their extended thoughtfulness and initiative they took in creating a warm, welcoming, and inclusive space for everyone to enjoy; and don’t worry, I still made sure everyone ate some real food for lunch along with their treats today!

During our afternoon class, students got back to work on their group projects!

I look forward to sharing more of our learning with you next week! (: