Weekly Update: October 27th

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Badger teachers will be holding parent/teacher conferences again on Thursday, November 7th.  If you haven't signed up, we still have space available.  Please use the following link to sign up: Thursday, November 7th.  It was wonderful to meet so many of you this past week!

Field Trip Information: Thank you to everyone who has submitted their field trip forms and payment so far!  It is greatly appreciated!  Please email Mrs. McGuire if you have any questions or concerns.  We're looking forward to our upcoming trip on December 6th! 

Book Orders are due Wednesday, October 30th.  Thank you for the orders that have already been submitted!  If you'd like to order online, please follow the instructions here!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students were assessed on early Greek civilizations on Thursday with a focus on Athens and Sparta. Check the grade book to see how they did! Starting Monday, we will discover Ancient Greece’s greatest rival.

Science: Within the metabolism unit we are investigating the question "Why does Elisa feel so tired?" To help in our investigation we will be evaluating evidence for quality. We will also be modeling how molecules move within the human body systems. There will be a lab write up for the human body system model due Friday. If students need more time they may turn it in Monday. (lab write ups are summative assessments) Also please note there is now a question of the day and all five days are to be turned in every Friday. There will also be a binder check on Wednesday covering pages 1-18 and handouts.

Literacy:  The team watched the classic video Akeelah and the Bee on Wednesday, for two reasons: to see the power of learning Latin and Greek Roots, and to examine some very important traits of personal character.  They wrote about them, and should be ready to turn them in to Google Classroom by Monday.  Next week we dive into Unit 4 of Latin Roots, and  we'll be examining the structure of text in informational text articles.

English: October reading projects are due this upcoming week on Wednesday, October 30th!  Students should also prepare over the weekend for their quiz on Tuesday, October 29th.  Vocabulary and personification notes are posted on Google Classroom and were reviewed in class.  Students also began reading "The King of Mazy May" this week and will continue analyzing the text this coming week.  Be sure to ask them what book they chose for their November projects!

Math: We finished our proportional reasoning unit on Thursday. Grades have been posted on Aspen.    Friday we started our rational number unit.  Students learned how to play the Integer Game, which will be a fun way to practice integers throughout this unit.  Over the next week students will be learning how to add and subtract integers.

Weekly Update: October 20th

Wednesday is an Early Release day! 

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Badger teachers will be holding parent/teacher conferences on Thursday, October 24th and Thursday, November 7th.  If you haven't signed up, we still have space available.  Please use the following links to sign up by night. Thursday, October 24th or Thursday, November 7th.

Progress Reports went home Thursday, October 17th!  Please sign and return the envelopes to school as soon as possible.

Field Trip Information: Thank you to everyone who has submitted their field trip forms and payment so far!  It is greatly appreciated!  Please email Mrs. McGuire if you have any questions or concerns.  We're looking forward to our upcoming trip on December 6th! 

New Book Orders will be sent home this week for the month of October!  Orders are due October 30th.  If you'd like to order online, please follow the instructions here!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students spent this past week researching and investigating two of the most famous Greek city-states: Athens and Sparta. We will continue this journey on Monday. There was one assessment this week, students created a political and physical map of Ancient Greece on Friday. Check the grade book!

Science: This week we start the metabolism unit. Students take on the role of medical students as we explore the molecules the body uses and investigate body systems. We will be using Chromebooks and the Amplify website, learning.amplify.com to interact with system simulations. Tests from the Microbiome unit have been posted and make-ups or retakes need to be completed by Thursday 10/24.

Literacy:  This was a wrap up week in Literacy.  We completed note taking for Chapter 3 of The Omnivore's Dilemma and students were provided with the master set of notes for Fresh, The Movie in Google Classroom.  Learning to study and learn material is incredibly important in 7th grade.  Students were provided with time in class, and provided with many different ways to study the material for the Latin Unit 3 test given on Friday.  It cannot be stressed enough that the study process needs to continue at home, in order to be effective.  There will be a test on Fresh, The Movie on Tuesday.  No more time in class will be provided for studying.  It is expected that students review their notes and the study guide in Google Classroom to prepare.  They should remember the stories told!  

English: This week students read a nonfiction text entitled "Call of the Klondike," as well as a narrative poem called "The Cremation of Sam McGee." Both texts are set during the Gold Rush movement in the early 1900s.  Together, we explored the structure of an informational text, as well as the rhythmic pattern of a narrative poem.  Students will have a quiz on contextual vocabulary words, as well as text structure on Monday, October 21st. 

Math: We are wrapping up our proportional reasoning unit.  Students will receive their study guides Monday, they are expected to be studying for homework this week.  Extra instructional videos and practice can be found on my google classroom, if needed.  Test will be on Thursday, October 24th.  We will begin our rational numbers unit on Friday. 

Weekly Update: October 14th

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Badger teachers will be holding parent/teacher conferences on Thursday, October 24th and Thursday, November 7th.  If you haven't signed up, we still have space available.  Please use the following links to sign up by night. Thursday, October 24th or Thursday, November 7th

Progress Reports go home Thursday, October 17th!

Field Trip Information: Badger students received field trip forms in English class this week for our upcoming trip in early December.  If you have any questions, please email Mrs. McGuire.  Thank you to the students who have submitted their field trip forms and payment so far!  It is greatly appreciated!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students spent the week investigating the geography of Ancient Greece and ultimately learned about two of the oldest Greek civilizations. Students were assessed on what a "Dark Age" is on Friday. Please check the gradebook! Starting Tuesday, we will begin questioning two of the oldest rivals in history. 

Science: Students will start the week with a summative assessment for the microbiome unit. The assessment will consist of writing their final argument for a fecal transplant followed by two short answer questions. Students then change rolls from science researchers to medical students as we begin to study metabolism in the body.

Literacy:  Lots of notes this week!  We began the week tackling the vocabulary and roots of Latin Unit 3, and ended the week practicing a different note taking style with  The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This is a short, but busy week, as students should be preparing for the Mastery Test for Latin 3 which will be given n Friday, October 18th! If students use Quizlet, remember to access from my Google Classroom, Vocabulary Links . If it asks for a PW?  It's the proper name of our school!

English: This week students finished the unit on "Barrio Boy," and we continued working with main idea and supporting details. We also switched gears to discuss the reading project due at the end of the month.  At this point, students should be nearing the end of their independent reading books.  An example of a completed project has been posted to Google Classroom and was discussed in class.  Students also had an opportunity to ask questions.  I encourage them to access this example from home if they need a model.  Projects are due on October 30th. 

Math: Students completed another overwhelmingly successful quiz on Friday. Grades are updated and will reflect in the progress report.  This week we will continue with our last topic in our proportional reasoning unit, complex unit rates.  It's one of the hardest topics this year, if your student is struggling please encourage them to use the extra practice and instructional videos on my Google Classroom.  Our next test is on Thursday, October 24th.

Weekly Update: October 6th

Warning! Grades close for Progress Reports this week!!  Be sure to check the portal!

THANK YOU for the September book orders!  Book orders were placed this week and should arrive soon.  We were able to purchase over 20 new titles for our class library!  October book order forms will be sent home with students in the next two weeks.

Field Trip Information: Badger students will be receiving field trip forms in English class on Monday, October 7th for our upcoming trip in early December.  We will be visiting The Palace Theatre to see a live adaptation of A Christmas Carol.  Please be on the lookout for this information! 

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students spent this past week reviewing the basic concepts of government and took a deep look at American government. There was an assessment on Friday; please check the grade book! Starting Monday, we will begin our journey investigating Classical Civilizations.

Science: We are in the middle of our Human Microbiome Unit and will continue investigating the benefits of a fecal transplant. Binders will be checked every week and students should have completed pages 22- 35 for this week's check. Time is allowed to complete work in class but if more time is needed it may be finished at home.

Literacy:  Have your students been talking about food a little more lately?  They have been exploring where their fast food comes from as we have begun reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, the student edition, and we watched Fresh, The Movie. Bring them to the grocery store so they can begin looking at labels!  Friday, students took the mastery test on Latin Unit 2, and I hope to have the grades posted by this afternoon.  This week we will begin Latin Unit 3, and continue our reading.  

English: Students have been off to a great start in English!  So far, we've read two of Gary Soto's works: a short story entitled "Seventh Grade" and the poem Oranges.  We began the year reviewing elements of literature and how they applied to these two texts.  Recently, students finished another short story called "Barrio Boy" and together we discussed how to locate the main idea of a text.  Students will be taking a quiz on Wednesday, October 9th.  They are encouraged to review their main idea notes and study their vocabulary words on Quizlet (there is link right on Google Classroom)!

Also, as a reminder, students should be reading their independent reading books 30 minutes per night.  Their projects are due on Wednesday, October 30th!

Math: Students did an amazing job on Friday's quiz, please check the gradebook to see how your student did.  Great work!  This week we will be continuing to talk about the constant of proportionality (unit rate), and creating equations in the form y = kx to help better understand graphs of proportions.  We will have another quiz on Friday October 11th. 

BADGERS 2019 - 2020

Welcome to The Badger Team! 

It's hard to believe that the 2019-2020 school year has begun!  Badger teachers are happy to welcome your children,  as well as a new science teacher, Mrs. Duval Buell, to our team!  As I'm sure your students told you, we spent the first few days getting to know one another by participating in many team building activities and competitions, as part of our Growth Mindset learning/teaching model.

We watched the Disney movie Meet the Robinsons one morning, to illustrate that making mistakes and learning from them is one of the keys to learning.  Keep moving forward is the motto in the movie, and it applies quite well to The Badger Team's overarching philosophy.  Immediately after watching the movie, we adjourned to the gym, where groups were given paper bags filled with identical, common items.  Students were asked to collaborate, and build a self sustaining tower.  We observed were kids who worked beautifully together, communicated, and gracefully accepted failure every time their structure crumbled.  There was one winning team, who built the tallest, most stable tower, but every team won, because they all accomplished the goal:  to collaborate, fail, and keep moving forward!  Every team built a tower!  This is definitely what we hope to see all year long.  

Your students are adjusting quite well to the Badger Lite program - not lugging huge, heavy backpacks to classes!  We've provided each student with a large format copy of their individual schedule, as well as a small format copy which they were given time to tape to the inside of their lockers.  The hope is that with structured time to return to lockers, they will become accustomed to planning to carry only what they need for two to three classes at a time.  We've notice a majority of students are using a small string bag to keep only those materials they'll need in every class - their agenda, pencil case and their Passport.  Please be sure to ask your student to share their Passport with you!  

There remain a handful of students who did not have the opportunity to do back to school shopping for supplies, so we thought it would be helpful to remind you of our list:

• personal ear buds for standardized tests
• a 1" 3-ring binder with a set of five dividers, and loose leaf paper for English
• 160 3 x 5 inch flash cards with a flexible storage container  for Literacy
• Literacy will share the 3 ring binder for English
• 2 spiral notebooks and a folder for Social Studies
• a 1/2" 3-ring binder for Science with loose leaf paper
• a composition book and a folder for Math
• a large supply of pencils and erasers

Many thanks for subscribing to our blog!  Each Badger teacher will post interesting information and updates every Sunday.  

Weekly Update May 12th

Progress Reports: Grades have closed! Progress Reports will be coming home Tuesday, May 14th.

I-Ready: Students will be completing their last I-Ready testing for the year on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  Be ready!  We recommend going to bed early and eating something for breakfast!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: Students spent the week working on an in-class research project on the Middle Ages. Students will wrap up the Medieval unit with a performance task on Monday and Tuesday. We will start the Renaissance on Wednesday.

Science:  We'll be wrapping up our unit at the end of this week with an assessment.  Students can log on to their unit anytime to review the concepts that we've been learning about.  At the end of the week they should be able to tell you exactly why the moon jelly population exploded in the Glacier Sea!

Literacy:  We have returned to The Omnivore's Dilemma to enjoy learning about how an ecological, sustainable farm works!  In the week ahead we'll get the final unit of Latin roots started, and take the final round of iReady tests.  

English: Students submitted their final independent reading projects for the year last week!  We also began a new article in Study Sync, entitled "The Dangers of Social Media."  It has yielded such wonderful, honest discourse in class, and I'm proud of our students for respecting alternate points of view.  We discussed author's purpose as well as counter-claims within the article.  The article mentions the "Wait Until 8th" Pledge, which we then explored in class.  Students will spend time this week creating pledges of their own and working in small groups.

Math: Students are wrapping up our statistics unit we are still working with sample variability and random samples this week.  The study guide will go home on Tuesday and the test is Friday, May 17th.  Make sure to study and ask questions.

Weekly Update: May 5th

Progress Reports: Grades will be closing this week!  Make sure you are caught up.  Progress reports will be going home the following week.

Spirit Week!

We'll be celebrating SPIRIT WEEK this upcoming week!  Please remember all dress code rules apply!

Monday: Pajama Day
Tuesday: Crazy Hair Day
Wednesday: College Day
Thursday: 80's Day
Friday: Color Wars - Grade 7 is RED!

School Walk-A-Thon:  Each team will be participating in a walk-a-thon to benefit our school's PTO.  Collection envelopes for our school fundraiser were sent home with Badger students and are to be returned by Friday, May 10th.  Any amount helps!  Thank you for your fundraising efforts!

Book Orders are due to Mrs. McGuire no later than Thursday, May 9th!

Class Updates: 

Social Studies: After returning from vacation, we spent time wrapping up the late Middle Ages. We recapped the Black Death along with researching the story behind Joan of Arc. Students were assessed on Friday. Next week, we will be starting an in-class research project!

Science:  We had a great time on the field trip!  It certainly was the highlight of our science lessons.  Next week we will be completing a mid-unit assessment.  Students are well on their way to figuring out what happened to the moon jellies.  

Literacy:  It's been a very productive week.  Students have been working diligently in class on their Art of Civil Disobedience essays. We have had Chrome Books available all week, so that students can type their work once the editing and revision processes are complete.  The finished document, typed and printed, is due by the end of the school day on Monday, May 6th.  All papers received after that date will be considered late.  The Latin Unit 11 Mastery test is scheduled for Thursday, May 9th!  Students need to be sure that they are studying that material, too! 

English: Just a friendly reminder that final IRP projects are due Thursday, May 9th.  An example has been posted to each Google Classroom.  Badger students worked on a district common assessment this past week, which required them to read nonfiction and fictional excerpts.  We continued with another nonfiction article in our Study Sync unit about the dangers of social media.  This article yielded excellent discourse in class!  Be sure to ask your student some of the topics we addressed together!

Math: We have covered histograms and box plots, now onto populations and samples.  Student did a great job on their last quiz and we are flying through this unit!  This week we will be learning how to determine the difference between a population and a sample.  Using samples we will then learn how to select a sample and determine how to take a random sample.  Our next test will be Friday, May 17th.