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contents Head of School’s Message 2 Around A-S
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At the beginning of the school year, Ms. Crowley’s fourth-grade class was introduced to Muffles and his delicious (fictitious) truffle business, Muffles Truffles—part of a grade-wide Context for Learning Math curriculum. There is a surprising amount of math needed to make truffles, and this unit was a chocolatey investigation into multiplication and division. Muffles’ friendly assistant, Patricio, gave the boys some important work to consider, diving into US Customary units and conversions—important for math and cooking! Math can be hands-on fun and downright delicious!
Seventh-grade science students are growing—so is their in-depth knowledge about hydroponics and plant growth! The boys planted lettuce seeds after Winter Break and, three weeks later, planted their seedlings. After measuring the biomass of their plants for six weeks, the boys evaluated the various hydroponic systems in our Greenhouse.
Which greenhouse hydroponics system created the most biomass—the Tower Garden, Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) with grow lights, or the NFT without grow lights? The Tower won!
Finally, students designed and created their own amazing hydroponics systems!
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Allen-Stevenson’s Winter Concerts are warming our hearts and lighting up the week with the beautiful sound of music!
Last night we enjoyed our 7th/8th Grade Orchestra and Chorus playing and singing their beautiful, passionate hearts out in our stunning Assembly Hall and Performing Arts Space under the inspired leadership of Director of Instrumental Music, Ms. Schlegel, and Ms. Demko, Music Department Head, respectively.
The performances were live-streamed so that family and friends were able to join from home and anywhere in the world. It was a spectacular moment to have the boys all together -- something we will never take for granted!
We can’t wait for the upcoming third, fourth, fifth, and sixthgrade performances this week – more delightful music and photos to come. Imaginations run bright and colorful in the Art Studio! Throughout the school year, Ms. Exposito’s sixth-grade art class has enjoyed learning about a variety of art movements, styles, and artists to inspire and inform their own work and creativity.
Having begun the semester exploring the surrealists, most recently, students examined the works of contemporary landscape artists including Wucius Wong, Richard Diebenkorn, David Hockney, and Ben Grasso.
After learning about Op-Artist (Optical Art) Bridget Riley, the boys discussed other artists such as Julie Mehretu, Fred Tomaselli, Beatriz Milhazes, Matthew Wong, and Billy Childish who use elaborate patterns and designs.
The results are striking!
#AllenStevensonMusic #AllenStevensonChorus #AllenStevensonOrchestra #AllenStevensonArt #AllenStevensonSixthGrade #AllenStevensonPassionate
Following the fourth meet of the season, our Track and Field team is set to enter the qualifiers for the annual Track and Field Championship Meet, The Gotham Games!
Our athletes have competed in 80 and 200-meter hurdles, distances from 100 to 800 meters, and the mile, long jump and shot put.
Coach D’Itri shared that Allen-Stevenson has an outstanding group of skilled athletes this season with a roster of both short and long-distance runners. A-S boys will enter the qualifying rounds in the coming weeks that decide the top 16 runners to enter the Gotham Games.
Wishing our boys all the very best!
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It’s still the Winter Olympics, and to cap off their Forces & Motion unit, the Eighth Grade hosted their own Olympic games today!
In science, the boys delved into their understanding of forces (gravity, friction, centripetal, etc.), Newton’s Laws of Motion, and momentum to design entries for 3 events: lab table-top mini curling, figure skating, and bobsled.
In addition, each group represented a Spanish-speaking country which they researched in Spanish class, learning about places to see, things to do, and—most importantly— things to eat!
The boys recorded, en español, a video about their country of choice, which was presented in the "closing ceremonies" before the winners ate their gold (chocolate) medals.
Enjoy the last weekend of the Winter Olympics!
We are so proud of Allen-Stevenson’s librarian, Ms. Alegre, for being elected to the Caldecott Award Committee! In addition to being A-S’s dedicated Lower Division Teaching Librarian, Ms. Alegre has been very much in demand at various conferences to share her fabulous work, including the Book-A-Day initiative.
She is committed to ensuring that our library includes books that engage and inspire our boys as well as titles that “reflect the diverse faces both in and outside of the classroom.” We congratulate Ms. Alegre on this prestigious honor!
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Allen-Stevenson holds public speaking in high regard, and all our students are given opportunities to present, debate, and speak with and before their peers.
Today the Third Grade held a compelling debate about whether uniforms are beneficial; one team for uniforms, with the other against. Each team was given the opportunity for rebuttal! The boys certainly looked sharp - one big boost for the pro-uniform team!
Allen-Stevenson’s tradition of performing the works of Gilbert & Sullivan lives on!
Just before Spring Break, our A-S community enjoyed a truly outstanding performance of H.M.S. Pinafore! For the final matinee, a full audience of Upper Division boys, faculty, and staff joyfully filled the Assembly Hall. A brilliant way to end the semester. Congratulations to all who made this a memorable performance -- Upper Division A-S students on and behind the scenes, the exceptionally talented Michelle Demko, Head of the Music Department, and our ebullient and gifted Julie Robles, Director of Theatre!
Watch H.M.S. Pinafore here
Kindergarten students began a multi-faceted writing unit called ’How-To’ writing, where the boys wrote about a topic/skill/activity that they could teach others. The boys couldn’t wait to share their writing and their savoir-faire—proving the exercise a huge success! This project engages students in their own learning, accessing ownership and agency over their writing process and work.
In a perfect example of student-led learning, Mr. Montero’s students became very intrigued by one boy’s "How-To" that discussed "making a globe."
Mr. Montero shared, "I wasn’t sure where to begin, so we did a little research together and found that we could create a globe using a balloon covered with papier mâché. First, we had to learn how to make papier mâché which we learned as a class (watching a video)." The whole class has been having a blast writing and sharing their many How-To topics and making globes together (the last bit will be painting the globes next week!).
Who knows what their creativity and fertile imaginations will inspire next!
