Champurrado

Sixth graders learned how to make champurrado, a chocolate-based Mexican drink similar to hot chocolate. It is a popular drink served during Las Posadas and typically served alongside tamales or churros. They were in charge of finding their own recipes, dividing up the tasks and cooking the champurrado.

Becky's House Toy Drive

Keeping with the spirit of the season, we are collecting any new toys for Becky's House, a shelter for victims of domestic abuse. We know it is late notice, but if you have a toy you would like to donate you can drop the toy off in Justin's room between now and Friday. Rita Albert will pick them up after school on Friday and deliver them to Becky's House.

http://www.ywcasandiego.org/get-help/beckys-house.html

Mapping TCS Project

As some of you may know, our map of the TCS campus is a little outdated. The NMY buildings are superimposed onto the map and the basketball courts are still part of the parking lot. The 6th grade students had been studying maps and scale models in science as well as area and perimeter in math so what better way to wrap up our unit than updating our very own TCS map! We took a few days to measure each of the buildings on campus and then we got down to work. The students found the perimeter and area of each building and determined what the scale would be to have all the buildings fit on a blueprint paper. The electronic group used the measurements to come up with a to scale model of TCS using Scratch. Below are some pictures of them getting down to work!

Learning History Through Cuisine

Last Friday the students learned more about the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia, through an in-depth look at the area's cuisine. The students made an ancient Persian winter dessert known as Halva, and were exposed to ingredients indigenous to the area, like pomegranates and pistachios. They also used ingredients that people of the area would have traded for, like saffron, the world's most expensive spice. All-in-all the students had a great time with their first cooking lesson of the year. 

The day was not without a couple minor casualties. 

Alisar taught the class a new trick for de-seeding pomegranates. 

Malin blooming some saffron. 

Lucas demonstrating some impressive knife skills. 

Tyler didn't want there to be picture evidence of his dish washing prowess. 

Enjoying the final product. 

Puzzling Plates Project Presentations (try saying that twice!)

In science the past few weeks, the sixth graders have been diligently working on researching information about plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains and more! They made presentations with accompanying handouts and models to teach their fellow sixth grade friends about the information they gathered. The past few days we've been presenting and WOW did they do an incredible job! Below are some pictures of the models used for some of the presentations. More pictures to come soon!

More Learning Buddies

Over the past few weeks, we've spent some time with our learning buddies helping them finish their globe projects as well as have some Thanksgiving fun! Last Thursday, we read "The Plump and Perky Turkey" with them and then devised an alternate ending with our buddies. It was a ton of fun and some of the stories were very creative!