Team Update: Week of April 2nd

Students had a blast dressing up for advisory wars as a part of March Reading Madness!

Class Updates:

Social Studies: Last week students researched the Magna Carta and how it has greatly impacts our world today in regards to human rights. This upcoming week, we will move away from the Magna Carta and begin our journey learning about the Crusades.

Science:  This week we have been working on figuring out where we are going next.  Students have been analyzing graphs of the sea lamprey, trout and chub.  Although we know that the sea lamprey has played a major role in the decline of the trout population, we now know that there must be something else too.  Click HERE to see more about what we are doing in class.  Next week we will continue to investigate abiotic factors to help us solve the trout mystery.

Literacy:  We continued our exploration into the art of civil disobedience and peaceful protest by reading some wonderful articles about Mahatma Gandhi originally published by Caliope Magazine for Middle School.  The articles provided a needed frame of reference for the protests made famous during the Civil Rights Era of the 1960's and those occurring around the country now, in response to the tragedy in Florida.  We will complete the trilogy by viewing Viva La Causa next week, a documentary about Cesar Chavez's work to bring about change for migrant workers.  Omnictionary Benchmark due on April 5!  Instructions on Google Classroom!

English:  We continued reading The Giver and exploring the themes and techniques that Lowry used to craft this classic story. We delved into techniques like allusion and point of view, and the students even had their own Ceremony of Twelve, just like in the book! We rounded out the week with a highly engaging Break Out Box activity in the library about dystopian literature. The students completed an escape-room like activity and solved the puzzles to break into the box. They showed a tremendous ability to work together to solve a problem! Check out the pictures of students celebrating below! The March IRP is due Monday, so students should be finishing that up over the weekend. Next week we will continue to read The Giver and students will be presenting their March IRPs to the class.

 Math:  Last week we had great success with our surface area quiz!  I gave out way too many A's to start the trimester, nice job everyone.  Congrats to Theta who won the March Madness Challenge and will not have a Go Figure for April. As for anyone who hasn't passed in their March Go Figure please do that as soon as possible. April's Go Figure will go out later this week.  We also have a Geometry test on Wednesday, the study guide will go home on Tuesday.