Updates
The marking period is coming to a close. Reportcards go out on Tuesday, so we are no longer accepting late work. We may be working on Jupiter Grades over the weekend, which may limit your ability to see any grades/assignments that are undone. Just so you know…
Abnaki was fantastic. We will post the link to a student video next week! Thanks to all parent chaperones and to faculty who spent overnights and long days with students moving to and from school. We hope you heard good things at home.
The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room
7/8 Humanities: This week started off with a Book Review Workshop with the 5/6 side of Voyager House! It was great to see small groups of students discussing their favorite books from the year and recommending books to each other. Many students left the workshop with a Summer Reading List. I also provided a link to the “Favorites” and “Must Read” lists that we made during the workshop on my website. The rest of our morning time together this week consisted of working on our Myth/Legend project. Students have been working diligently on these stories and they are coming along so well! Students are also being asked to create a one page illustration to go with their story. I’m also excited to share that I have been given the opportunity to use a classroom set of Chromebooks till the end of the year, so our 7/8 students have been given the opportunity to use Chromebooks in our classroom. It has been really great to have a Chromebook for every student in class to use when needed. They are quick to start and students sign in with their school email address, which automatically brings them to their Google Drive! This has been a huge bonus for our Myth/Legend project and our “Amazing Race” styled class challenge!
Speaking of the challenge, this has been what our afternoons have consisted of for the week. Students were introduced to this in-class project/challenge last week. The challenge is called, “Travel the World to Better the World”, and it is being completed with a competitive aspect with inspiration from the show “The Amazing Race”. Each class period students are given a clue to take them somewhere in the world, but wherever they land they have to do some kind of good deed or provide a service! Some examples of where students have travelled are a country to: help in saving an endangered species, protecting an endangered place, or even volunteering in a country that was recently hit by a natural disaster. Through this in-class project/challenge students are learning about global geography, travel, current events, and are going to some places they never even knew existed! Some students are even learning about how expensive it is to travel around the world, and what kind of planning it takes to actually get from one place to another. Our knowledge of the world is certainly growing! For every place teams travel to they have to track their travels on a map using Google Maps Engine and they have to write a postcard! Through their postcard writing students reflect on what they did in the country they travelled to and learn about the language, currency, capital, and physical features of that country. This has been a really fun project, and students have been extremely focused and determined to make it to the finish!
Mr. Merrill’s ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up
We started the week off with our Book Review Workshop with the 7th and 8th grade students. Students shared and reviewed favorite books and compiled a personal summer reading list. Copies of the lists will be sent home with reports. Students will have an opportunity to visit the library to take out books over the summer. We will also have a book talk led by D.A. Library staff before the end of the school year.
Narrative writing workshops focused on events and ending. Event writing strategies help build suspense using dialogue or detailed sentences. The ending of the narrative should show how the problem was solved, can bring the story “full circle”, and wrap up with a theme connection or message. Students brainstormed and completed a revision activity, then started to type their narrative on a google doc. Completed narratives are due Thursday, June 5.
Ms. Quatt Update
CMP8
Review continues this week as we prepare for the algebra final. We are also looking for test taking strategies that allow students to filter out the chaff to find the kernel of the problem. We will have some drop in math time during our time at Camp Abnaki. Students should continue to work through material on their own.
CMP7
Students completed the Filling and Wrapping Unit Test. We are finishing our year with a projectile engineering task. Students are trying to route out a horde of Mongols from the castle stronghold. Teams will be designing, building and testing their projectile devices, gathering and graphing their data and redesigning their device for accuracy.
Science 7th/8th
We completed the Climate Change Unit test and began to look at designs for sustainable energy efficient and climate friendly housing. Students created drawings and explanations for their housing creations. When we return from Camp Abnaki, we will have a final engineering task as a culminating event to both their humanities and science investigations.
The Week in Ms. O’s
Math 5: Students have been finishing up end of year assessments and reviewing the skills studied this year through Jeopardy! It has been fun and has allowed me to provide some extra instruction along the way.
Important note: Students will be required to take pictures throughout the summer on patterns they see in nature. Summer is a good time to take photos and most everyone has a phone that can photograph these days. I will send home the assignment next week and post on next week’s Voice!
Math 6: We completed Variables and Patterns and are now doing a rotation review activity, cycling through all of the necessary computation skills necessary for math here on out. Students did a great job today. This activity will allow for some extra instruction over the next few days, so I am pleased with how focused the students were during this time.
⅚ Science: Students have a take home practice test this weekend! Please help them complete it!
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