Over the course of a school week, XIS students will engage in a wide variety of subjects and classes. Let’s take a peek at some of the things XIS students have been learning recently.
Lower Elementary
Miss Ware’s first grade class took some time to look at how our world has changed by looking at inventions from the past 100 years and comparing them to their modern-day counterparts.
It is almost mind-boggling to think how in a mere 50 years how much computer technology has changed. Now stretch that out to 100 years!
Meanwhile Ms. Stewart’s second grade was learning about the Earth’s surface in science, and in these pictures they are focusing on weathering and erosion. They learned how rocks can slowly change by rubbing sandpaper on a rock for 5 minutes. Then they used a magnifying glass to make observations.
An interesting experiment! Who knows what passion for geology and science was sparked by practical experiments like this. Perhaps there is a future geologist or metallurgist in her classroom?
Upper Elementary
Meanwhile Ms. Howell and Ms. Hao’s fifth grade students presented their Wordly Wise group projects to the class. As you can see from these pictures, these projects both allow students to learn, apply what they have learned by explaining it to their peers, and express themselves by making a presentation.
And these presentations are as different and varied as the students themselves! No two presentations are the same!
It’s like Speed Dating, but with Math
Ms. Papendorf’s third grade class got to practice their math skills in an activity called “Multiplication Scoot”. Students complete as many math problems as they can during the allotted time at one desk. Once time is up, they “scoot” to the next desk and see how many problems they can get done as the timer ticks down.
This gives students a chance to challenge themselves to solve math problems and use their thinking skills in a high-pressure but low-stakes situation. We all know that later in life, there are times we have to apply the knowledge and skills we know in higher pressure situations that *do* matter, like during SAT tests.
Upper School
Budding Polygots
Thanks to some of our native Spanish speaking staff, we have been able to offer Spanish as an elective to both middle school and high school students.
Here we can see Ms. Saraño’s high school Spanish class introducing themselves using Spanish. Soon, we will have a handful of budding polyglots!
Cellular Respiration and Snack Time
Finally, in Ms Bean’s biology class, students were doing an experiment to study fermentation as an anaerobic alternative to cellular respiration.
It’s an interesting experiment, and sometimes when doing experiments with food, the greatest challenge is making sure students don’t try to eat the foods before the experiment is complete!
You can read more about this topic here: