Welcome to 9-A!

We had a lot of fun during our last day of school before Winter Break. Here are some pictures of 9-A at the Sing-Along and at our class party.

Last week Calvert held a holiday toy drive. Students brought in wrapped new or used toys to donate to families in need. Look at the mountain of toys we collected!

We are studying Ancient China in History class. The girls learned about Confucius, and we discussed proverbs and sayings. As a fun activity I asked them to try to guess the endings to some well known (to adults) proverbs. Here are some of the responses:


Make Your Own Proverb

A bird in the hand
 …means you have bird seed
…you get to keep it

Many hands
 …mean a job well done
…of an octopus

Absence
 …is disgraceful
…is not the perfect way to skip a test
…is nonsense
…is different than being there
…sorry you are sick
 …of color is bad

Out of sight
…could make your mother scream
… in the mist
…is hard to see

Too many cooks … make too much food

No news …no paper
     … take a snooze

Let sleeping dogs … sleep in or they will bite

When the cat’s away…the owner screams
    …eat his/her food
    …I play with yarn
   …the dog is bored

Birds of a feather
…fur of a dog

Every cloud has
… rain, a shape

All that glitters
 …makes a mess

It never rains
 …cats and dogs
 …when birds are there

The grass is always greener
…than the ocean
    …in the spring
   …the sun is more yellow
   …when the sun is out

Don’t count your chickens
 …when one is in the oven
   …count your money
   …unless they lay an egg
   …count your ducks
   …or they will move
   …when you know they are all there
   …until you count your eggs
   …because you might be one

You can’t have your cake
 …until you eat your dinner
…without candles
…until you rake

It’s no use crying
…when someone else is buying
…whining is bad enough
… if you’re proven guilty
…nothing will happen
…just get up

Last week the entire 9th Age took a trip to the Walters Art Gallery downtown. We toured the Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome exhibits and saw many of the things we are learning about in history class. Then the students visited the studio where they had the opportunity to make their own amulets. I stayed upstairs at the exhibits all day, but Miss Strom was able to take a few pictures of  some of the 9-A girls when they were downstairs in the studio.

On Friday the girls played in their first Crow vs. Canary game. There were three soccer games going on at once, and the girls did a great job displaying their skills!

We had a great time parading in our costumes. Our Halloween party was a blast! Thank you to all of the parents who helped to make our celebration successful!!

In conjunction with our study of Ancient Egypt the girls had the opportunity to make a piece of paper from strips of  papyrus, just as the Egyptians did many years ago. The papyrus strips come from a plant that grows in Egypt. After they have soaked in water for a few days they become pliable. The girls wove the strips together and placed their "paper" between two washcloths. We then piled heavy textbooks on top. Twice a day the girls switched out their damp washcloths for dry ones. By the end of the week we hoped that the papyrus would be fused together into a sheet of paper. We call this the papyrus experiment, because it doesn't always work. This year's papyrus did not fuse very well. This helped the girls realize how tough it must have been for the Egyptians to create paper to write on.