Play tonight! Tonight is the Tacoma premiere of the long-awaited, much-anticipated Seabury Middle School production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by none other than William Shakespeare (rumor has it the Bard himself may be making an appearance!).

We caught a preview this morning, and the show promises to be hilarious. Where else will you find William Shakespeare, a student dressed as a wall (yes, a wall) and a Hannah Montana wig together on the same stage?

Not to mention the production will be held in the gorgeous Castle Room of the Pythian Temple.

The play starts at 7 p.m., so don’t be miss out! Enter through Seabury Middle School at 925 Court C. Street parking is free after 6 p.m.

Going once … going twice … SOLD! We’re going on just ONE WEEK to the Seabury STAR Auction 2010. The catalogue is looking fabulous. From a stay on Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan, to a handcrafted RW Thornton fly fishing rod, these items are sure to stir up a bidding frenzy.

RSVPs are due Sunday, so get yours in ASAP! End the decadent evening with a stay at Tacoma’s famed Hotel Murano. Featured in the Condé Nast Traveler: 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards, this swank hotel is offering a special rate to friends of Seabury.

Science fair update: This Thursday is the annual Seabury Science Fair. The science fair will be held at the lower school campus, with the middle schoolers setting their projects up downstairs.

Students are going to be staying with their projects and explaining them to family and friends from 6pm to 7pm. Then there will be refreshments in the multi-purpose room from 7 until 7:30.

If you’re not able to be there with us at night, please feel free to come by the lower school during the day between 1:30 and 2:30. The middle schoolers will be there setting up for the evening and sharing their projects with the lower school students. We look forward to seeing you there!

Civics: This past week, we initiated a 5 week Civics unit. Brenda Bono has been working with us to develop this unit and we are fortunate to have her expertise! For the first two weeks, we will be focusing on learning about the foundations of civics – branches of government, characteristics of democracy, and how laws are created, among other topics. Part of civics will have students learning about laws that affect their generation and wrestling with topics that are pertinent to young adolescents – from acquiring a drivers license to issues dealing with alcohol to voting rights. A central question of the civics unit will be looking at issues on a scale with one end being freedom and the other end being security.

The following three weeks will be focused on interfacing with people who are civic and political leaders, including a trip to Olympia to sit in on the final days of the legislature to visiting with Tacoma’s mayor to attending a Tacoma City Council Meeting.

Social studies: Students have been continuing their research into a topic related to Tacoma history. Topics range from early logging practices, the first businesses established in Tacoma, early athletic teams, the Chinese expulsion, the Hudson Bay Company, among others. Next week, we will be wrapping up the research phase next week.

English: In class, we have been reading Dragonwings and discussing plot and literary techniques.

The Nitty Gritty: The Seabury STAR Auction is now only two weeks away. Families should all have received invitations in Friday Folders or by mail. Please return your ticket purchase/meal selection forms as soon as possible!

A limited number of *Wish Tickets* are still available. Remember — the auction committee will only sell 50 of these $100 *Wish Tickets* before the auction. The winning ticket (drawn at the start of the live auction March 6, 2010) entitles the holder to one live auction item of his or her choice!

We are nearing our procurement goal for the auction, but still have a little ways to go — make sure to get your final donations turned in to either campus as soon as possible. I have a big stack of procurement forms at the Middle School if you need more.

We’re also working on topping off the two M.S. theme baskets: “Camping” and “Family Game Night.” Drop off your donations any time during the school day, or send them in with your student.

Thank you for all of your help!! (Hint: scroll to the bottom for the sneak peek of our auction project).

English: Students wrapped up week 9 in “1,100 Words” with a test Friday. If you’re feeling brave, ask your student to give you a quick vocabulary quiz. Impresario, extortion, bigot, vexatious and virulent were all discussed and defined this week.

Science: Students continue to work on projects for the rapidly approaching science fair.

Make sure to mark your calendars for Thursday, March 4.

There are going to be some pretty amazing projects this year, and I would highly encourage you to sign your child up for the South Sound Regional Science Fair. The Regionals are held at Pacific Lutheran University every year, and it’s a great chance for your child to see what other students his/her age, younger, and older are working on and get experience presenting projects and advocating for themselves. We’d love to have a strong showing from Seabury at Regionals this year, so I’ll be talking to the students and encouraging them too!

Auction project sneak peek: Shh, don’t tell anyone we showed you.

Check out the rest of the class projects and other auction items here.

The nitty gritty: Don’t forget, next week is a three-day week!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be business as usual — then we’ll see you the following Tuesday! Childcare will be offered at the Lower School on Feb. 11 and 12 – make sure to return the forms attached to Joslyn’s Thursday e-mail by this afternoon if you require childcare.

Everybody should have received their report card via e-mail earlier this week. Please contact Halley if you did not receive your student’s report card. Please don’t hesitate to call or e-mail with any questions.

We’re also doing a final push to fill up our Middle School auction baskets. We could use a few more games for “Family Game Night” basket, and our camping basket could use some TLC. E-mail Brenda Bono with questions about the baskets.

Auction tickets are on sale now! Make sure to RSVP to Katherine Overton for your spot at this year’s auction!

Service Learning: We made our second visit to the residents of Franke Tobey Jones this week, to continue interviews and discussions. Last week residents gave us great feedback on our students and their excitement about this project.

English: Students continued their work on Dragonwings, and on vocabulary in 1,100 Words.

Math: Math instruction has continued this week with some new topics and some review. Topics have included proportional and nonproportional relationships, ratios, unit rate, similar polygons, lowest common denominator, and everyone’s favorite: reducing/adding/subtracting/mult/dividing mixed numbers and fractions.

Science: Exciting things have been brewing in Science! Our first couple of due dates for the Science Fair were this week. I was able to meet with each student and talk about his/her Science Fair topic and how it might be translated into a measurable experiment. (Only a couple more students to talk to because of absences.)

There are some really cool projects being planned: everything from harvesting wind energy, to the effect of electricity on ferrofluid, to the effect of different pH levels on yeast, to learning styles, to lie detecting, to investigating strategies of crooked carnival games!! So cool. Next, the students formed their ideas into testable questions and began to think about constructing an experiment that will answer their questions. The next due dates coming up are next week as the students compile a list of resources they’ll be using for background information and then decide exactly how they’re going to construct their experiments.

The Science Fair is on March 4th this year and will be held at the Lower School campus at 6:30pm.

There are going to be some pretty amazing projects this year, and I would highly encourage you to sign your child up for the South Sound Regional Science Fair. The Regionals are held at Pacific Lutheran University every year, and it’s a great chance for your child to see what other students his/her age, younger, and older are working on and get experience presenting projects and advocating for themselves. We’d love to have a strong showing from Seabury at Regionals this year, so I’ll be talking to the students and encouraging them too!

Snowshoeing: We had a great time!

Thank you Dr. Todd for accompanying us to Mt. Rainier! We learned a lot about what it would take to be a glaciologist — and we could use a LOT more practice before we are ready for the kind of day these scientists take on!