The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
We started the week with our read aloud of “Rules”and the students are very engaged with the book. We should be able to finish the book during our Reading Cafe on Monday, and will spend some time reflecting on the themes of friendship, compassion, and understanding differences. We are hoping to find some time to blog about these themes before the break.
Students also wrapped up their scripts and filmed their survival instructional videos this week. We have a wide variety of topics and the students had a lot of fun putting these videos together using imovie. We will have the “Voscars” next week. Students will select the top 5 videos to screen and vote on best film, actors, etc.
The stock market game is a huge hit and the students are working very hard to put together a strong portfolio for the competition. We learned about diversity, risk, mutual funds, and bonds this week. Students also researched industries and companies as they considered potential investments. We currently have 6 teams in the top twenty of our region!
The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room (⅞ Humanities):
This week during our morning times together our focus has been on biographies. We asked questions such as: What do they sound like? How are they written? What is included? We did a read aloud of a biography, and students participated in discussions around comprehension, predictions, and author’s voice. As the week came to a close students were introduced to their next big writing piece, which is writing a biography on an important person from WWII. Students took some time to pick a person they wanted to write about, and the people are ranging from political leaders to military generals to athletes. We spent Thursday and Friday in the Library, and with the help of Ms. Hennig, the students were given a range of resources to use to learn about their important person. We are really pushing students to start using a variety of resources when completing a research project, so they are not just relying on websites and the internet. This writing project is going hand in hand with our afternoon classes, and it is also providing students with a more personal or insider perspective on aspects of World War II.
Our afternoons have been focused on continuing our journey around the world learning about World War II. Our 7/8 community has become pros at taking notes! I have been really impressed with the level of dedication and focus while learning about the war. Students have been using the interactive map to guide them through the many years of the war. Students have been traveling to Europe, Northern Africa, Asia, and America learning about different events from the war. This week our focus was on the Battle of Britain, The “Blitz”, and the Leningrad Siege. Students also watched videos on Wartime Nutrition, Rosie the Riveter, and learned about wartime propaganda. Students took a look at a variety of posters such as posters promoting conservation of materials (food, rubber, gasoline), warning about espionage, and encouraging women to join the workforce. Some students even created their own propaganda posters, and these were great! As the week came to a close students took a look at panzer tanks, flying tigers, and kamikaze planes. This immense amount of information gained over the past 2 weeks has been put to great use in class discussions and reflections, and will be used as their research to put towards their World War 2 Perspectives Project which will be launched at the end of next week. Students have been working really hard, and have been saying that they are learning A LOT! Some students have said the map has allowed them to learn about events they had never heard about, get an inside look at some of the tanks and planes used during the time through the 3-D interactive imagery, and some have even said that they can’t believe how much was going on in the world during one time! I look forward to closing up our work next week and launching the new project!
The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
CMP8
This week we completed the “Frogs, Fleas and Painted Cubes” unit with a general review of all the concepts we have covered. We created class records, completed a review and discussed strategies for identifying quadratic equations, quadratic tables and graphs. Due to the Spanish and French midterms, we extended our test taking to Friday. Next week we will move on to the unit called Function Junction! This unit explores function notation and a new set of mathematical concepts.
CMP7
We completed the “Comparing and Scaling” unit with a creation of a class record of the major concepts we explored. We played a rousing game of jeopardy and completed the test on Thursday and Friday. Next week we will begin with the unit called “Moving Straight Ahead” which introduces linear functions.
Science 7th/8th
This week students worked feverishly to create their “Koke Chiller” devices. Students tested and redesigned their chillers for optimum chilling and researched the science behind thermal energy transfer. On Friday, the “Koke” Company Executives came to hear the scientific sales pitches by each team and how their chiller was the most effective. Then the challenge actually took place to see what team could chill 250 ml of room temperature “Koke” to the lowest temperature in 10 minutes. It was a very exciting event, and the results will be announced Monday. Next week we will have block scheduling during theme week. Students will place the finishing touches on their projects and take a Thermal Energy Unit Test.
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