Seven Persons School News

 Our Fine Arts Academy is off to a great start. The schedule is sometimes a little different, but at this time the students have music twice a week with art and drama once a week. The teachers are flexible during this rotation so sometimes the students have 2 classes of drama or art instead of music, depending on what they are working on.  This post will focus on Art. Specifically, on a mask making project.  Step 1: the messy task of making the mask. It was an interesting, yet strange scene to come upon - students lying on desks, prepared to be 'masked'! And the messy process ... Step 2: Sketching the design of the mask.  Step 3: Based on the design sketch the students recreated their ideas onto their masks.  Step 4: Students reflecting on the process - 3 things I learned, 2 things I like about my work and 1 thing I would like to do differently. The work was displayed for all of the school to enjoy! I had a chance to talk to a couple of the students. Ben said he...

Our library is almost ready to be 'back in business' and we couldn't be more excited. Tackling a library facelift is a little more complicated than it may appear. It is not a question of just taking the books out, setting up new furniture and returning the books to the shelves. It is a wonderful opportunity to thin out the books, removing those that are out of date or have not been taken out by students and staff in years. In other words, it is a chance to update our collection. I know it has taken quite some time to get the library back up and running but it is almost ready to go. In fact, November 15th will be the first day our students will be welcomed back into a 'newish', updated, beautiful space.  We could not have done this without the commitment and dedication of many of our educational assistants, thank you. Additionally, to the grade 7 and 9 students who so quickly dismantled an enormous library in a matter of an hour.  Also, a heartfelt thank you to Mrs. ...

  What is the point of a makerspace? Our grades 4-6 students who are not in the Fine Arts Academy have the opportunity to engage in some Makerspace activities 1 afternoon a week. A makerspace allows students to develop a maker mindset.  They need to be able to engage in iterative thinking, creative thinking, critical thinking, they need to know how to pivot, how to change, how to revise, how to persevere. They need to solve complex problems. They need to think divergently. All of those are involved in that maker mindset. In addition to engaging in designing, building and creating, students are also encouraged to play board/card games.  In many ways, board games, card games, and dice games are all secret teachers: they can engage and sharpen children’s logic, reasoning, and creativity without them even realizing it. From pattern recognition and math problems to language and socialization, board games teach a variety of valuable skills are a great way to supplement and dive...