LASF: My School / Stanley Middle School

My School: Stanley School

Student Artwork LASF works in partnership with Stanley Middle School teachers and administrators to design programs that closely integrate with the curriculum to support and enrich the students' learning experiences. Instructor-led classes, artists and musicians in residence, classroom aides, equipment and textbook grants, and teacher support are all part of LASF's presence at Stanley. This year we are excited about several new programs that are under development along with our existing curriculum. As always, we welcome your input and encourage you to communicate with us at any time. We can be reached by phone (925) 299-1644 or by email (office@lasf.org).

2005-06 PROGRAM BROCHURES

Program brochures are available in Adobe Acrobat format (Get Acrobat Reader):
LASF Programs at Stanley | Art | Science | Music | Humanties

2005-2006 PROGRAMS

Art

6th Grade

Cave Art - A lecture with a slide presentation and discussion of the art's style, form, and content. The students create their own cave art using earth-tone pastels.

Indian Mono Prints - A slide presentation of ancient Indian art and a discussion of the many gods and their images that appear in Indian sculpture, architecture, and paintings. Students etch images they've created onto a plate to make the print.

Egyptian Mummy Cases - A slide presentation and lecture from materials depicting Egyptian art. Students create a mummy case out of papier-mâché. The students decorate them with Egyptian motifs.

China Folk Art & Brush Painting - Lecture and slide presentations of Chinese art, stressing the differences between formal and folk art. The students paint a folk art scene using traditional elements of repetitive shapes, colors, and lines to form a composition. The students also learn the technique of Chinese brush painting.

Greek Art Vases - The Berkeley Anthropology Museum's slides are shown accompanied by reproductions of actual antique Greek vases. Students sketch vase designs using Greek motifs that are then filled in with earth-tone pastels and completed with black ink pens.

7th Grade

Bookbinding - The 7th grade Social Studies student experiences the art of bookbinding. A slide presentation and lecture on the history of handmade books show students a sampling of books created by artists. The Artist-In-Resident and the LASF art instructor then guide students through the process of making their own hardbound books.

8th Grade

Printmaking - The 8th Grade History students learn the history of printing, set their own text by hand with individual pieces of type. The text is printed on antique printing presses to create broadsides relating to their study of US history. This is a unique opportunity for students to gain an appreciation and understanding of the art of printing and its place in the history of our country.

Visit the K-8 Gallery to see some beautiful finished projects!

Science

6th Grade

Chemistry II (5 periods) - Students learn to accurately decribe the physical characteristics of common objects and gain experience in the importance of careful observation. They learn to separate the parts of mixtures and tests substances for their relative strengths as acids and bases.

Harnessing Electrons (4 periods) - Students demonstrate some of the effects of static electricity, understand how to make a series and parallel circuit using a switch of three or more lights, demonstrate usefulness of certain materials as electrical conductors, resistors or insulators, construct an electron magnet, and understand the importance of electromagnets inour lives.

Rocks and Crystals (3 periods) - Students learn to distinguish between igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks by using thin sections and microscopes. They compare crystalline formations at different temperatures. They observe microscopic crystal growth and learn that different compounds have different crystal structures.

7th Grade

Microbiology (6 periods)- Students explore the world of microbiology and utlize appropriate scientific terminology. They will culture bacteria and recognize that they are ubiquitous in the environment and on skin surfaces. The streak plate technique will be used by students to isolate individual bacterial colonies. The session will end with a discussion about most bacteria being beneficial to man. This includes the production of chocolate, yogurt, and cheese.

Brain Study (1 period) - Using a longitudinal half of a sheep's brain, students work in pairs to label and identify regions in the brain and to understand the function of each region of the brain.

Heart Dissection (1 period)- In conjunction with the classroom teacher's unit on the circulatory system, students study the heart. Using a sheep's heart, students gain hands-on experience in dissecting and labeling. They learn how to trace the flow of blood and gain an understanding of the heart's function.

8th Grade

Understanding Electricity (6 periods)- Students expand their knowledge of electricity through exploration of how electricity is used in modern technology. They discover how electricity is generated, explore the concepts of resistance and conductivity, and learn about different types of circuits and electromagnets.

Optic Topics II (5 periods)- Students analyze and explore concepts pertaining to optics. Topics include waves, light, color, lenses and vision.

In addition...

Mechanical Advantage - Developed from teacher input, this curriculum provides teachers with the curriculum and materials to teach mechanics to 8th grade students. Jointly developed with science teachers, LASF has provided a kit of simple machines including incline planes, pulleys and levers. Using these materials, teachers can teach this unit to their classroom. LASF assistance is available. LASF has updated equipment for this unit with a grant in 2005. (Note: This unit is supported by LASF but is taught by Stanley teachers, not LASF instructors.)

Annual Science Fair

LASF sponsors an annual science event at Stanley. Each year, the fair rotates between a traditional science and a Rube Goldberg fair in order to broaden the scope of participation. This year, LASF is hosting a Science Expo with displays and activities from a variety of science related exhibitors.

Health Education

A comprehensive program for all 7th graders designed to increase students' awareness of health issues and to provide them with the knowledge necessary to make conscious choices toward a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

Social Studies/English & Language Arts

Writing for Mastery Program
This program provides tutors to work with students on their English/History Core Class writing assignments. Tutors meet with each student four times, offering advice on thesis statements, sentence structure, grammar and other writing skills. The purpose of the Writing for Mastery Program at Stanley is to improve writing by giving individual feedback in the organizational and developmental stages of writing.

LASF has worked closely with the Stanley teachers to develop models for sixth and seventh grade and maximize the effectiveness of this program for students. The teacher first assigns a writing project. LASF tutors then meet with the students, either in a small group or individually, to review their paper and offer suggestions and recommendations on how the students can improve their writng. Any feedback from the second meeting can then be incorporated into the final draft which will be turned in to their teachers. In addition, LASF supports the MY Access! program.

My Access!

LASF helped fund this innoative Web-based writing environmnet to improve sutdent writing. The program applies artificial intelligence principles to guide students and provided consistent and relevent feedback, at the same time engaging and motivating them to write more and improve their composition skills.

Class size reduction

LASF also provides funding for two 8th grade English sections to keep class sizes down.

Music

Musicians-in-Residence - Help by professional musicians for students in band and orchestra increases individualized instruction.

Funding for Guest Artists and Programs for Performances

Grants continue to support the music program by offering funds for computers, the grand piano, and sheet music.

Second choral music section

LASF funds the second, advanced choral music section, new at Stanley this year. jThis class allows more experienced students to enjoy more challenges.

Administrative Support

Note: Get music department news via email - When you sign up a the Stanley Middle School music department web site, you will receive automatic email notifications about events happening in the music department. The music department will keep you informed about everything from concerts, special guests from the San Francisco Symphony to new features of the web site. This should be no more than an email or two a week, on average.

Technology

LASF provides funding to repair and upgrade existing equipment to protect our investment in technology and offers teachers guidance in integrating technology into the classroom.

Teacher Support

Woodshop Aide

Teacher Training - partially funds annual conference at Asilomar and other miscellaneous workshops/conferences during the year

Other Support

In addition to the more than 1,000 hours of instructor-led instruction at Stanley as well as a variety of other programs, services, and equipment, grants awarded for current school year include:

Assemblies

Teacher support and training

Stanley School Needs You!

Are you looking for a way to become more informed and involved at Stanley? LASF rep positions are a great way to see your LASF contributions in action, help decide how future funds should be spent, and participate on campus with teachers, students and other parents.

For more information about ways to represent LASF or to volunteer, please email us at office@lasf.org or call 299-1644.

The artwork on this page was reproduced from original art created by students of Lafayette public schools made in LASF art classes or in art classes supported by LASF funding.