Team Update: Week of February 12th

Team Update: 

Please return your progress report envelopes to your advisor.

Class Updates:

Social Studies: This week we wrapped up our unit on Classical Civilizations. Students investigated what caused the Roman Empire to collapse and what caused the Byzantine Empire to succeed and live on. Students will be assessed on this material Tuesday following a major review on Monday.

Science:  This week we figured out five different interactions that organisms have with other populations.  We watched video clips to observe these interactions.  On Friday we started looking more closely at the predator and prey interaction.    Click HERE to see more about what we are doing in class.  Next week we will continue looking at different interactions.

Literacy:  Students took a serious look at Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech in an effort to unlock the rhetorical devices used by each of the orators, and to learn to analyze the more complex passages to understand the messages delivered.   We ended the week with a mastery test on Latin Unit 8.  In the week ahead students will be introduced to the research and presentation project based upon the historical fiction book they are reading for the February IRP in English class!  We're lucky to have the chrome books in class for most of the week! 

English:  This week in English we continued working on our persuasive essays. The students finished up their outlines and ended the week by beginning to write their essays. Next week we will continue to work on the essays and workshop them in class. Students should be working on their independent reading projects that are due next week!

Math: Last week we learned how to solve one-step and two-step inequalities. February's Go Figure was handed out and January's was graded and returned.  For the upcoming week, we are going to learn how to graph inequalities to wrap up the topic.  There will be a quiz on Wednesday, February 14 on inequalities.  To end the the week we are going to start our Geometry unit. 

Team Update: Week of February 5th

Team Update: 

Progress reports will go home on Tuesday!

Class Updates:

Social Studies: Students completed their Roman research projects this week. Be sure to check the gradebook to see how you scored! This upcoming week will be the final week that we cover the Roman Empire. We will learn how the Roman Empire collapse and will start preparing for upcoming assessments.

Science:  This week we figured out that resource availability affects populations.  On Monday we pretended that we were deer looking for food, water and cover.  We studied the populations of June suckers, Mountain Plovers and Hummingbirds.    Click HERE to see more about what we are doing in class.  Next week we will start answering our questions about interactions between organisms.  We will start of the week with a quick assessment on how resource availability affects populations.

Literacy:  Students learned about intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation when we looked at Omnictionary slides on Monday!  Those who understand intrinsic motivation will take the constructive comments offered by classmates to improve their slide shows!  We saw some great ideas!  We also discussed rhetoric - and the devices that are used in famous, powerful speeches.  We viewed a couple of very interesting performances of Rap - including the oldest one on record, Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man, set in 1912.  Students later analyzed Lincoln's Gettysburg Address!  Next week we'll tackle MLK's dream speech and get ready for Latin 8 test on Friday!

English:  This week in English class the students continued working on their argument essays. Thesis statements were finalized early in the week, and then the students worked on their outlines to plan out their essays. The students also did some work with counter argument to learn how to strengthen their arguments by refuting the other side. The February independent reading project was assigned; this month we are focusing on historical fiction! Students should begin reading their historical fiction books over the weekend to get a jump on this project!

Math: Friday we wrapped up our equations unit.  Anyone who didn't turn in their January Go Figures needs to do so quickly! Next week we are going to learn about inequalities! It's similar to equations but a little different.  We will also be handing out February's Go Figure on Monday.  It will be due Friday, February 23rd.  

Team Update: Week of January 28th

Team Update: 

Grades close Wednesday, January 31st!  Progress reports will go home the following week.

Class Updates:

Social Studies: Students researched Roman inventions this past week and ultimately continued their journey learning how Ancient Rome has influenced our world today. This week we will start our in-class research project. This is a 100% student centered project. Students will choose what standards they want to be graded on, pick a topic, create a project that aligns to the standards that they've selected, and finally on Friday they will assess their project and justify why they graded themselves the way that they did. Have a great weekend!

Science:  On Friday we had an assessment, completing our investigations around the question:  How does matter and energy move through an ecosystem?  We figured out that the trout in Lake Michigan do have enough food but there is an organism called the sea lamprey that we have a lot of questions about.  Click HERE to see more about what we are doing in class.  Next week we will start answering our questions about the sea lamprey.

Literacy:  We finally had the opportunity to watch The Children's March, a documentary heralding the thousands of children who became the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. Cotton Balls - don't forget your essays!  Friday was the first benchmark date for the Omnictionary.  The plan is to present a few slides from each show to offer constructive comments for each student.  We've also begun Latin Unit 8!  

English:  This week in English class students began to work on their argument essays. The students were working diligently on brainstorming their evidence and fine-tuning their thesis statements. January independent reading projects were due this week, and the project for February will be introduced next week. Students will continue to outline and plan their essays next week, and towards the end of the week the students will begin to write their essays.

Math: The end of the month is fast approaching!  January's Go Figure is due Wednesday, January 31st. Make sure to explain and show your work to get the maximum amount of points. This week we will continue to work on two-step equations, be ready there will be a test on solving equations next week!  

Team Update: Week of January 9, 2018

Team Update: 

Our team will administer the iReady test in both Reading and Mathematics next week, Thursday and Friday.  We will not assign any homework on those days, and encourage you to have your students turn their phones off and get to bed early!  Well rested students perform much better on these computerized tests! We want so much for each one of them to show growth on both tests, as they've worked hard this year.  We appreciate your help!

Class Updates:

Social Studies: We officially wrapped up the Roman Republic this week and started to research the Roman Empire on Friday. Ask your child who claimed to have turned the city of Rome from being built with bricks to being built with marble! Have a great weekend!

Science: What happened to the trout in Lake Michigan?  Students continue to investigate our anchoring phenomenon.  Click HERE to see more about what we are doing in class.  This week we figured out what the trout eats and how food webs work.

Literacy:  Students are settling in to their new groups quite well, and we're really proud of them! We have been working around our snow days, so completing the seventh unit of Latin roots has been a bit of a challenge, but the kids were very logical in wanting to keep the test date at Wednesday, January 17th!  We've also begun our unit on Tolerance.  They entertained one another by listing the the things they can't tolerate!  Open mouth chewing was at the top of the list!  We'll continue with this unit after iReady testing next week, by examining some primary source materials chronicling intolerance in history.  There are some fantastic, short documentaries for kids, and some powerful print articles.    

English:  This week in English we wrapped up our unit on A Christmas Carol. We watched the film version of this classic tale and we discussed our final conclusions about the meaning of this story. We spent some time checking in on the status of our January independent projects, and on Thursday the students took a summative quiz on A Christmas Carol. We ended the week by beginning our unit on persuasive writing. Next week we will continue with our notes on persuasive writing and engage in some fun activities like speed debating to enhance our persuasive skills. Students should be working diligently on their independent reading projects. Two weeks may seem like a long time, but the time will zip by quicker than we think!

Math: Friday we quizzed on expressions, student had a combine like terms and use the distributive property.  Make sure you understand these two skills, as we are going to continue using these skills to solve equations.  Next week we will be starting our solving equations unit, we finally will be finding the value of a variable.

Team Update: Week of December 18th

Team Update: 

Sorry we're late! 

Class Updates:

Social Studies: Ask your child about the war that was fought using elephants! We spent a lot of time exploring Ancient Roman civilization this past week and we're going to keep on exploring this upcoming week. Keep on asking great questions!

Science:   What happened to the trout in Lake Michigan?  Students have been introduced to our new anchoring phenomenon.  Click HERE to see more about what we are doing in class.  This week we figured out how plants make their own food.

Literacy:  We are all focused on the last week of work before vacation.  Students in some classes collaborated to write an interesting essay about the world views shared by farmers featured in Fresh, The Movie.  Another class performed the Parade of Phobias for beloved Ms. Walsh, and her class!  Tuesday is the Mastery test for Latin Unit 6.  Essays are due to Google Classroom by Friday! 

English:  We kept working our way through A Christmas Carol  this week, and we are on track to finish reading early next week. We began our week by making collages to represent our understanding of the story so far, and we saw some very creative arrangements! The students are learning to think critically about A Christmas Carol and are developing some very insightful connections between our world and Victorian England. The students received their second grammar tests back early this week, and the results showed that we need to work a little harder on studying the material prior to taking the test. Grammar test retakes are being held on Monday and Tuesday after school next week. We will be wrapping up with A Christmas Carol next week, and closing out the week with a viewing of the film version of Dickens' timeless classic. Remember that December independent reading projects are due on Thursday, December 21st!

Math: We onto our last week of working through our Rational Numbers unit.  We spent last week learning about converting fractions to decimals, then moved onto multiplying and dividing rational numbers.  We went fast, as this should be review, but if you still struggling there are many videos and extra practice pages located on Google Classroom to help prepare for your test on Wednesday, December 20th.  Don't forget the Go Figure is due Thursday, December 21st! 

Team Update: Week of December 11th

Team Update: 

Grades: Report cards go home Monday, December 11th.  The team will be holding off putting in Trimester 2 grades until our grade books are switched over to reflect our new classes.

Class Updates:

Social Studies: Ask your child who conquered the world while in his 20s! Students learned just about everything that you could imagine about Alexander the Great this week. Students learned the best way, yet easiest way to learn, is to simply ask questions. We're going to keep on asking questions and keep on being curious next week as we learn about Ancient Rome. 

Science:   What happened to the trout in Lake Michigan?  Students have been introduced to our new anchoring phenomenon.  Click HERE to see more about what we are doing in class.  This week we figured out how plants make their own food.

Literacy:  It was a very busy week in Literacy! Students arrived on Monday to find the classroom rearranged!  Surprise!  We spent time in Google Classroom learning about the final performance task for the Latin root units: The Omnictionary!  Be sure to ask your student for all the details!  We ended the week diving in to our new resource StudySync, a comprehensive online resource for ELA teachers.  Students logged into their district accounts, and read a fantastic article which creates an academic bridge between Mrs. Tino's trout phenomenon and the topics we are discussing in The Omnivore's Dilemma!  Next week:  Unit 6, with the test slated for Monday, December 18th!  

English:  We continued with our reading and discussion of A Christmas Carol this week, and we are really starting to do some deep thinking about the story! We began the week by discussing Marley's chains and making a chain of our own to discuss what holds us back from living a fulfilling life. We had a great discussion with some very thoughtful comments. We ended the week with our second grammar test, and it was definitely a tough one. Now that we are in trimester two we are upping the ante, and the work will begin to increase in difficulty, so get ready! We will be continuing with A Christmas Carol next week with more discussion, analysis, and a word collage! Students should be starting to frame their December Independent Reading Projects because believe it or not, the 21st is rapidly approaching!

Math: We are continuing to work through our Rational Numbers unit.  Last Friday students quizzed on multiplying and dividing integers.  Overall it went very well!  This week we will be starting to convert fractions to decimals using long division and ordering fractions and decimals on a number line.  We will then move onto multiplying and dividing positive and negative fractions and decimals. Don't forget the Go Figure is due Thursday, December 21st! 

Team Update: Week of December 4th

Team Update: 

Grade Book:  Grades have officially closed for Trimester 1.  There were many students absent on Friday, and missed exams.  We teachers will be available for students to make up work on Monday and Tuesday to make up the exams they missed.  Wednesday is an Early Release day, and our grades must be posted by Thursday, so make up work must be completed by Tuesday.  Plan accordingly.

Class Updates:

Social Studies: Students explored all aspects of Ancient Greek culture this week in Social Studies. It seems that the majority of students loved our day discussing Socrates and the evolution of philosophy. On Monday, we'll come back and revisit a lot of those philosophical questions that we pondered this past week. Then starting Tuesday, we will begin to learn about a young man who was able to conquer most of the known world.

Science:   What happened to the trout in Lake Michigan?  Students have been introduced to our new anchoring phenomenon.    Click HERE to see more about what we are doing in class.  This week we figured out why we need food and where it comes from.  

Literacy:   What is Joel Salatin's world view?  How does his view compare with Mr. and Mrs. Fox's world view?  Students watched Fresh, The Movie this week, and will work collaboratively to discuss this and other concepts which will require that they sharpen their critical thinking skills.  Latin Unit 5 test rounded out the week.  The test results are in, and lots of students need to spend more time studying as we move into Unit 6.  Monday morning will bring a new arrangement in the room, and some exciting work in Google Classroom! 

English:  In English class we continued with our classic literature unit and began to read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. We began by focusing in on some difficult vocabulary, and now we are diving right in to breaking down the text to make meaning. The students are really enjoying the different roles in the play version of the story. Next week we will be continuing to read and discuss the text in class to figure out what Dickens was really trying to say with this story. The students will receive their December Independent Reading Project on Monday, and will have their second grammar test on Friday. Remember to use Quizlet and study those flashcards!

Math: We just finished up adding and subtracting integers! This week will will start multiplying and diving integers.  The next Go Figure will go home on Monday, and is due Thursday, December 21st.