Ski and Ride Academic Reminder: If your child does Ski and Ride on Fridays, we would like to encourage you to support (and maybe nag a little!) about work completion. We will try to check in all homework by Wednesdays so that you can plan each week as to whether your child should go or not. Thanks!
CMP8
How do parabolas reflect their quadratic equations? Using the IPad and the Desmos graphing calculator, we explored a series of quadratic functions to see what would happen when we changed the coefficients in front of the variables. We then investigated tables from linear, exponential and quadratic equations to see what patterns we could find with first and second differences. Finally, we explored jumping and falling objects using the rate of acceleration. We will be finishing up this unit in the next week.
CMP7
Rates, ratios and proportions were the order of business in class this week. Students used proportions to find unit rates and solve problems with unknown values. We investigated the “constant of proportionality” and reviewed for our Comparing and Scaling Unit Test that took place on Friday.
Science 7th/8th
What role do the organelles play in the life of the cell? What happens if an organelle doesn’t function properly? We saw an excellent Ted talk on the history of cell theory and read and took notes on cellular reproduction. Students participated in a microscope lab on mitosis. Finally we saw some excerpts from the BBC movie on the “Secret Life of Cells.” It was a very science filled week.
The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room
7/8 Humanities: As this week unfolded so did both of our final projects for the trimester. For AM Humanities we’ve been focusing on stories. We’ve been asking questions such as: What is a story? How can stories be told? What makes a great story? To answer these questions we’ve been taking a look at plays and how stories are told through play form. We’ve looked at Broadway musicals through the PBS program “Broadway: The American Musical”, and learned about some of the stories that took the stage through 20th Century History. We learned about how important the characters and setting are in a play, and we also learned about how song and dialogue can tell the audience a lot about the story. After our work with musicals we took a closer look at what some may call one of the best stories of all time, and it just so happened to be originally written in play form. This story is “Romeo and Juliet”. Our classes took a look at one scene in particular: The Balcony Scene. Students did partner readings in class, and some took part in a performance for our class. We then learned that one story with a great plotline can be performed and told in many different ways, including being retold by garden gnomes in the movie “Gnomeo and Juliet”. Students are now working on their final project which is to work in a group and write their own historical fiction 5-minute play! So far I am hearing some very interesting and fun ideas! This project will be due after the Voyager Play Unit. What’s more fun than 1 project? 2 projects! Our PM Humanities classes are working on their Cold War projects. These projects are giving our students the chance to take a look at a specific person or event from the Cold War and learn a bit more about it! Students will be sharing out their gained knowledge through an interactive class presentation. Each presentation has to include a Google Drive Presentation covering the 5 W’s of their topic, a whole class activity, and the group needs to provide the class with some kind of handout. Students have been working very hard in their groups for this, and I can’t wait to see the outcome next week! Look for some of the presentations on the 7/8 Humanities website!
The Week in Ms. O’s
Math 5: Multiplication menus and division. Ask your child to solve 457 divide 13. It will give you a sense why conceptual scaffolding works so well for students. It’s been a week of practicing and relying on this strategy to understand the mechanics of a partial quotient method.
Math 6: Students in 6th grade had their 3rd studio class of the year on Wednesday and experienced a lot of disequilibrium as a result of fraction division. Now don’t go telling your kids that we multiply by the reciprocal. We are building trust in the equivalent fractions strategy which may lead to some deeper understanding of the algorithm we all learned but can not explain! Try doing it! It’s impossible! Students are ugghhing about math reflections. Teacher advice: They are learning how to explain their thinking and are doing an amazing job! Just roll your eyes and ignore them!
Science ⅚: I apologize for missing so much class this week! I had three professional days in a row and they all affected pm classes. In my absence, students built some understanding of the physics and engineering of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Awesome videos on NBC Learn.
We ended our week attending an UP CLOSE Circus. Students worked with materials to see what changed when viewing objects through these materials. Without telling them as much, we are moving toward microscopes and why they were such an important engineering innovation for seeing the MICRO World, our new theme and unit.
February 6 NEED Volunteers: Want to help monitor some microscope stations? Two time slots: 9:30-11:30 and 1:10-2:50. Let me know if you can help!
Mr. Merrill’s ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up
The mounting tensions between the North and the South in the 1850’s eventually thrust the United States into Civil War. This week, students explored slavery and some of the important concepts and events leading up to disunion. We used primary documents - photos of slave quarters, Reward posters, and excepts from slave narratives to discuss life as a slave and the resistance movement during this period of time. Students created word maps for some important vocabulary words, responded to prompts in their writer’s notebooks, and completed the Mission US - Flight to Freedom game. Students had a vocabulary quiz and an “As I See It” discussion on Friday to wrap up the week.
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