Week of January 7

Happy New Year!  Hope you all had a great end to 2012!

Literature Group Note
We have begun new literature groups this week.  The big question is ‘What is it like to walk in someone else’s shoes?  The theme of this literature session is war and the idea of walking in someone else’s shoes.  ⅚ students are reading historical fiction about the Revolutionary War while ⅞ students are reading historical fiction books about World War II.

A note to Parents and Students from Ms. Sherman about the Literature group: Night!
Students were placed in new literature groups this week. About ten students were place with myself, reading the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel. While its an amazing account of what happened to many Jews in Nazi concentration camps, it’s also contains mature themes. The language is not inappropriate or graphic, rather the story details first hand accounts of the horrors witnessed and felt by Jews, at the hands of their captures. The theme of this literature group is: Walking in someone else’s shoes. Based on this theme, students will have discussions about the events that occurred in the book, and talk about their own thoughts and ideas surrounding the tragic occurrences. I am posting this to make you aware of the heavy content these students (10- 7th and 8th graders) will be reading about. If your son or daughter has been placed in the literature group, Night, and you have concerns or questions, please feel free to email me. I can be reached at: csherman@cssu.org.

Ms. Q’s Corner

Math 7
We finished our Moving Straight Ahead review with a rousing game of Algebra Jeopardy. It was a close race between several teams and it was a fun way to practice linear functions. Students began the Unit Assessment on Friday.   We will be moving onto proportional reasoning and geometry next week.  If you find your child with a few minutes to spare, please encourage them to visit Khan Academy to practice their math skills.  

Math 8
We buried and sought treasure this week in math class.  Students placed treasure on a specific point on a grid, then created clues to find the treasure’s position by plotting inequalities and eliminating area, for example  y< x+1 or y > 2x.   With each new clue, students got closer to the treasure.   We learned how to graph and find the solution set for all of the inequalities. It was both fun and challenging.  

Science ⅞
Last Friday was the  much anticipated “Koke Chillin Challenge”.  Students presented their Koke Chillers to the visiting dignitaries from Koka- Kola,  and a plethora of visiting students from WCS.  The visiting dignitaries included such high profile  stars as Fizzy Minaj, Ryan Seagrams, Fanta White, Sunny Dee, Ginger Kale, Dr Mariah Pepper and Fresca Taylor. The mission of each team was to design a portable device that would lower the temperature of “Koke” to a chilly and thirst quenching temperature.  Students designed, built and marketed their device utilizing the principles of heat transfer.  Awards were presented for the “Most Effective Chiller”, “Most Persuasive Presentation” and the “Most Well Noted Design”.  Good work Voyager design engineers!  

Ms. Cooper’s Light unit  began this week with the  exploration of the nature of light through several hands-on investigations.  Using their science notebooks, students recorded observations and generated questions for further investigation.  Students considered the relationship between light and thermal energy, how refraction affects how we view objects, and how the absorption and reflection of light impacts how we perceive color.  After demonstrating their keen scientific curiosity by making thoughtful observations and generating many questions, students shored up their background knowledge about light through reading and watching videos focusing on frequency and wavelength and the electromagnetic spectrum.  Students shared their thinking about investigations and background materials in pairs and as a whole group.  

News from Ms. O
⅚ Science
The big question in science is “what is energy and how do I know when something has it? has been the focus of our investigations this new year.  This unit, energy and engineering, is designed to expose students to engineering principles, as this is the emphasis of some of the new standards coming on-line in science in the next few years.  Students experienced their first design challenge this week, to build a catapult that could launch a marshmallow the furthest.  As part of this design challenge, students needed to account for the cost of the materials used and do the building of the design in 30 minutes.  It was interesting to watch the focus and the collaborative spirit.  I’m so pleased with how students approached this task.  It is so highly motivating that it was fascinating to watch the design and redesign process when it didn’t throw the marshmallow very far!  We will have our launching contest next week.

Math 5
Fifth grade math students have been working on building understanding of the attributes of rectangles and triangles with a focus on vocabulary. Using our word wall, we will begin to record all of the language we are using to understand geometry.  Specifically we are looking at the relationship between rectangles and triangles and ways that we can relate their area.  We have used the words subdivide and enclose as ways to think about area and so hopefully students will have multiple ways to represent the relationship between the area of rectangles and the area of triangles.

Math 6
Students have begun work with integers - positive and negative numbers.  The goal of our work is twofold.  We must first understand magnitude of a number, ‘which is bigger?’ when asked to compare two numbers.  The second goal is to understand operations with integers.  I will be sure to address some algebra concepts in this area due to the difficulty students in the upper grades have with connecting this skill with the idea of balancing equations.  We will also look at the coordinate grid, to expose students to graphing linear equations that include coordinate pairs that have negative positive and negative x and y points.
 

Mr. Merrill’s Wrap Up
This week students started a new literature group round.   The books are all from the historical fiction genre and for the ⅚ students, take place during the Revolutionary War era.  Ask your student about his or her book selection.  
In Language Arts, students reflected on 2012 and wrote a friendly letter to their future selves.  The letters will be mailed on January 1, 2014.  Students included highlights of 2012 and goals for 2013 in their letters.  
In Social Studies, students continued their study of the 3 Branches of Government, preparing for a mock trial that will be held next week.  Students will either be a judge or an attorney in this pro se court.