Mayfield Junior School: A New School Year is Well Underway

With two weeks of school now completed, Mayfield Junior School students and teachers are already deep in to lessons, projects and activities for the new school year. The 8th grade spent two days at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center to prepare for their big year ahead and returned united, energized and confident. Both seventh and eighth graders have completed an iPad Boot camp to get them (and their iPads) ready and they’ve started elective classes with new choices such as chess and cooking inspiring strategic and creative thinking. Mustang athletes have been on the field and court gearing up for fall season sports.

As research for an upcoming project with the Huntington Gardens, 7th graders have been exploring eastern cultures by experiencing different practices such as yoga, tai chi and Buddhist meditation. The traditional elf project will soon begin in sixth grade art and fifth graders have already completed their first iMovie assignment in Drama class. In the Lower School fourth graders are choosing between strings or brass as they advance in the instrumental music program. Third graders have learned about Galileo and started night sky observations for a science unit and second graders have jumped right in to creative writing. First graders have started to learn about capital letters and sentence structure and kindergarteners are starting to feel at home as they venture out to enrichment classes such as art, music and P.E.

A special theme of embracing the wonder and what ifs life has to offer has been integrated through all grade levels and subject matters since day one. Lower School students are being encouraged to re-consider the norm, think-out-of-the-box and encourage imagination. In the Middle School, following the faculty’s summer reading assignment, students are reading the book “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio during advisory and reflecting on the importance of kindness. A good start to a promising year!

Mayfield Junior School, 405 South Euclid Ave., Pasadena, (626) 796-2774 or visit www.mayfieldjs.org.