Speyer News Round-Up: November 2021
DRAGON FALL ATHLETICS FINISH THE SEASON STRONG!
And it’s a wrap on our Fall Athletics Season — our Dragons had an amazing few months of Soccer and Cross-Country fun! Our inaugural Cross-Country season ended with the first-ever Speyer XC Race in Central Park, where all of our runners saw improved times from the beginning of the year. Speyer’s Soccer team truly enjoyed getting back into the spirit of competition and ended their season with a solid 2-2 record. Congrats to all of our student-althetes and our amazing coaching staff!
MIDDLE SCHOOL SPANISH CELEBRATES THE DAY OF THE DEAD
“Nuestro muertos solo mueren cuando los hemos olvidado” Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.
Cultural awareness is key when teaching a second language. Since we use language to communicate, our knowledge of foreign languages gives us "access" to different societies and cultures and students become mediators between cultures. Día de Los Muertos is a celebration of life and the beauty of remembering those who have come before us. Especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, it was essential to include the study of this important holiday celebrated in Mexico and in many other countries in Latin America in our 7th and 8th grade Spanish curriculum.
On November 1 and 2, the students put together a colorful altar with photos of celebrities, victims of COVID, and family members who have passed during the last two years. The Ofrenda is the main focus of the celebration — a collection of offerings dedicated to the person being honored.
This celebration was researched and studied by the students and they then presented what they learned to visiting faculty, administrators, and students throughout both days. As the students presented details of the altar, they explained how this celebration emphasizes how death and mourning are significant and both are an inevitable part of life. You can see the various items on and around the altar, including marigolds, fruits, alebrijes, Calaveras, and sugar skulls that are often drawn with a smile as to laugh at death itself.
Huge shout-out to all of the students and Profesora Maria-Jose for sharing this unit with us. This is a wonderful example of immersive learning within Speyer's curriculum.
SECOND AND FOURTH GRADE ART TACKLES HARING, BASQUIAT, AND PEREIRA
In Art, our second graders are learning about female abstract artist Irene Rice Pereira, who played an important role in the development of abstract expressionism in NYC and the United States. Her work is currently on display at the Whitney Museum in an exhibition called: “Labyrinth of Forms: Women and Abstraction, 1930–1950" (it's on display through March 2022)! As they studied her work, they analyzed how artists use shapes and forms to create meaning. To create their own art inspired by their study, they used 2D and 3D geometric shapes to create original compositions.
In their latest Art unit, our fourth graders are taking inspiration from artists like Keith Haring and Basquiat as well as the streets of New York City to examine the intersection between “street” and “art.” They used oil, pastel, paint, and chalk markers to complete street-art “tags” that combine typography with elements of color and form.
FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADE: FIELD TRIPS GALORE!
Recently, our fifth graders visited the Lower East Side Ecology Center to learn about the waterways and the water quality of New York City. As part of their Earth Science studies, students looked closely at a model of water distribution and asked questions like, "How can we help reduce the amount of materials added to water by runoff during storm surges?". It was a wonderful trip on the East River -- one of the students even described it as the "best day of my LIFE"!
Meanwhile, the sixth grade trekked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view the Byzantine galleries. As part of the annual sixth grade unit on Byzantium, the students have been studying the trade routes of the empire in class. This visit provided a unique opportunity to see the objects and materials that travelled these routes. A small group of students were able to meet the curator of these galleries, Ms. Helen Evans (big thank you to Speyer parent Peggy Sotirhos Nicholson for graciously arranging this meeting)! It was a fantastic return to one of our favorite NYC cultural institutions!