Upcoming: We will be celebrating Special Friends and Grandparents Day on Thursday, May 27. Students are encouraged to invite a special friend to join us here at 11 a.m. to tour the school and view our new mural, then enjoy lunch at the Broadway Farmers Market. We’ll be making and mailing invitations next week. Mark your calendars! Read more here.

There will be a Babysitter Training class on Saturday, May 22nd. Please let me know if your 11 years old or older child would like to attend. Read morehere.

Math: Our Course 3 students have been doing some pretty sophisticated graphing of quadrilateral and cubic functions. It’s been a challenging skill for them, and they’ve done an admirable job! Course 1 and 2 students have been working with classification of geometric shapes and expressing how to find missing measurements of angles in algebraic form.

Architecture: We’ll be visiting BCRA again on Monday to go over our SketchUp projects with them and work with their SketchUp expert to learn new tricks. The students also thought/talked/wrote in response to a question Gail at BCRA had for them about what makes an architectural icon. The last time we were there, we helped them brainstorm ideas for the new Children’s Museum project they’re working on. (Highlights included a velcro wall and an indoor wading pool.)

We’re also working on writing a detailed history of the Union Station, its architecture, its renovation and the district with the intent of giving the finished product to one of the local historical societies and possibly more… Details soon!

Middle School Exams: This year, middle school students will be taking End of Year Exams. The exams will be comprehensive in nature, although we will not be covering the full year’s worth of material. We will be placing specific emphasis on how to study for an exam rather than the results of the exams. This is not a “high stakes” exam and will not have a disproportionate impact on the students’ final grade in any subject. As this is the first year that students have taken an exam, our focus will be to generate a successful experience.

The goals are:

• To understand what a comprehensive test constitutes
• To further develop study skills
• To develop test taking strategies
• To have students derive some success around taking exams
• To prepare students for high school
• To assist in drawing closure to the school year

Schedule: We will begin to review material during the week of June 1. Students will receive information from their teachers about the content of the exam and to develop outlines and strategies for studying that material.

Exams will be taken June 7th, 8th, and 9th.

Students will have an exam in English, Math, Integrated Studies (Glaciology, Tacoma history, Civics, Architecture) and French.

Upcoming:

Next Friday we will bus over to the Lower School for lunch and a visit to the Scholastic Book Fair!

Saturday, May 15 is the Seabury Fundraiser Fashion Show! Hosted by Maxwell’s Speakeasy in Tacoma and produced by Seabury parent Ondia Shapiro.

Ondia’s shows are always filled with fun and flair and this one will not disappoint. The show will highlight spring looks that can be found in her 6th Avenue Tacoma boutique.

She will be using a combination of her regular models and Seabury staff members to walk the runway. This alone should be reason to come!

The food will be a fabulous buffet spread of salmon, chicken, salad, roasted veggies and potatoes, dessert and non-alcoholic beverages. A no-host bar will be open for those who might want a little something extra. Read morehere.

Coming home today in Friday Folders is a flier for a fun event at Seabury Middle School. We will host “Special Friends Day” on Thursday, May 27. Students will be able to invite a grandparent, parent, or other “special friend” to tour the school, view our brand-new mural, and enjoy lunch at the Broadway Farmers Market. More information here.

THANK YOU! A big thank you to parents and students for all you have done for us during Teacher Appreciation Week. From cards, to flowers, to snacks and breakfast, we have felt incredibly appreciated all week long.

Mural: We began work this week on our mural project with Jose Orantes. We have prepped and started work on eight massive plywood boards that we will paint and install in two locations on Court C.

We also welcomed a new student this week. Great to have you Connor!