Monday, December 19th

Happy Monday, Families! 

We’re nearly there, to the end of the semester and to a Happy New Year!

Don’t forget, we will be stuffing stockings and watching Elf on Thursday, along with educational reading and writing activities of course! Therefore, if your 7th grader would like to bring in a pillow or blanket to wrap up in during our movie and reading , that would be awesome. Also, if you choose to, please have your kiddo bring in something fun and inexpensive to share with their classmates. As a reminder, Oasis students are allowed to wear anything "HOLIDAY."  Think ugly sweaters, Christmas shirts, red, green, gold, anything that makes you think HOLIDAY FUN!  No pajamas and dress code shoes please. 

If your student would like to bring in a treat on Thursday, we will also have time set aside to eat and celebrate. I have plates, cups, drinks, and chips, but I am open to anything else the kids feel like bringing in. Thank you in advance! 

This week in projects, the class is working in partners to finish up their survival of the fittest comics. They have researched an animal of their choice and are creating a comic strip to show how its adaptations have suited it for survival. 

During our reading block we are bringing The Great War/WW1 to a close with a pyramid project that depicts many of the components that we have studies over the last several weeks. Including propaganda, militarism, nationalism, or imperialism (definition and how it applied to one or more of the countries involved in WW1), a major alliance, and a major event. I am very proud of what the class has taken away from this time in our world’s history and I can’t wait to see their finished products. 

We have many fun writing activities planned for this week that they class will be able to show off their narrative writing skills. This is a super creative class that thrives on each other’s writing and ideas. I’m excited to see what they come up with! 

8th grade reading is working hard on finishing up their King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table novel. They are also completing a final project where they have selected one chapter from the book that they will use to create a 3D diorama that focuses on the theme, protagonists/antagonists, setting, and plot. 

Monday, November 28

I hope that everyone is recovering from their Thanksgiving feasts and celebrations. It's wild to think that we are making our way into December this week!

During projects we have come to the end of our heredity and genetics studies with a focus on asexual reproduction and epigenetics. On Thursday we will take the final exam.

7th Grade Reading has been busy reading about the periods after the Civil War with the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. The class has had excellent discussions about the tycoons; Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan, and how much control they had over the country. Making their fortunes on the backs of the working class.

Writing- This week we started sentence diagramming. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but once the class saw these diagrams like a picture of a sentence and treated them more like puzzles, they actually started having fun with it. We have also been studying the eight parts of speech, which will be tested on Thursday. Narrative writing in the works as well. The topic is “A Day in the Life of _____”. So far their brainstorming ideas have been hilarious and I can't wait to see the stories they come up with.  

8th Grade Reading block has continued to make its way through the Middle Ages. This week we have been focused on reading and studying the Black Plague, effects of the Crusades, as well as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the novel, King Arthur’s and his Knights of the Round Table.

Monday, November 7th

This week in projects we are continuing to make our way through the world of DNA, chromosomes, genes, and Punnett squares. The class has shown a ton of interest and curiosity about this subject. It is so neat to see those “aha” moments when they realize how and why we are they way we are.

In reading we worked on Flocabulary today, getting up to date with our current events and yes, counting down to election day. I was impressed with how correct our group was with their predictions on this week’s topics. We are also planning on finishing up our Two Miserable Presidents this week as we read the last chapter, “A Bloody Road to Richmond.” The class will receive a study guide for their final test so that they can study over the weekend if they choose.

We are honing in on our arguing skills this week. The class is working on including background knowledge, a claim, reasons, evidence, and a counterclaim to create a good argumentative essay. I am loving the research these kids are using to support their claims.

8th Grade Reading- This week the class will learn about the Middle Ages and various aspects of it by reading and discussing one of the greatest legends of all time in the novel, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. Wednesday we will work on poetry,  reading a poem and annotating it to apply critical thinking strategies and gain deeper meaning.

Monday, October 31

Happy Halloween!

I made it back to the states after a wild adventure with polar bears, and to no surprise my 7th graders were awesome while I was gone. Today was so fun telling the class about the arctic ecosystem and showing them my photos of the polar bears and other denizens of the north.  

Just a quick reminder, there is no reading or math homework tonight. Enjoy the time out with your kiddos and be safe out there! I also wanted to thank everyone that supplied treats for both the middle school dance and our party this afternoon. You guys rock.

I’m happy to see that so many of you have already signed up for our parent/teacher conferences on Friday. If you haven’t had a chance to sign up, there are still quite a few open slots. Also, if you have any questions or need a different time/date, please do not hesitate to contact me.

This week….

We are starting a new project this week focusing on heredity. This week the class will be studying dominant and recessive genes as well as Mendel's theory of inheritance.

This week in reading we are continuing to move our way through the novel, Two Miserable Presidents and dive even deeper into a few of the 10,000 battles of the Civil War. I love how well the class has done with tracking the parallels between Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln during this time of war.  

During writing, the class is honing in on their argumentative writing skills. So if you find that you kiddos is backing up their arguments with reasons and evidence, give them a high-five for me!

8th grade reading is taking off on Middle Ages. We will be beginning our King Arthur novel soon. I am excited to see what the class already knows about this exciting time in history.

October 10th

Welcome to the last week of the quarter! I’ve got a couple announcements for you.

*Thank you so much to those of you that have already signed up to bring treats to our Middle School Halloween Dance. You guys are seriously such an awesome group of parents, I don’t know what we would do without you.

*We’ve got auctions on Wednesday. Please have your kiddo bring in something that they would like to make available to the class to bid on with their class cash/dojo points.

*It’s Fall Break next week! No school October 17-21

*Mrs. Byrd- In Canada the week after fall break photographing polar bears. We have Mrs. Swan as our amazing sub that I have no doubt will take excellent care of your kiddos while I am out.

*Middle School Dance - October 28th Oasis 6:00-10:00
Costumes $5 / No Costume $7

Projects- We are continuing with our research of endangered species. The groups are really becoming experts on their animals and coming up with great plans on how to get them closer to getting off the endangered list. They will have the Monday we return from Fall break to practice and rehearse their presentations, then the real deal will be on Tuesday the 22nd.

7th Grade Reading- We are continuing with our Two Miserable Presidents novel, this week the focus has been on why both the Northern president Lincoln and the Southern president Davis were indeed so miserable.  

7th Grade Writing- The class is finishing up their three causes of the Civil War cause and effect essays. At the end of the week we will research an animal and compare and contrast it to a family member, example: My Grandmother is a Sea Turtle.

8th Grade Reading- The 8th grade class is finishing up the quarter with reading and researching world religions, Students will work in teams to create presentations that identify and describe the five key world religions: Christianity, Hindu, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism.

Monday, October 3rd

Hello October! We have a busy week ahead of us as we make our way into the end of the first quarter.

Projects- We are moving deeper into ecosystems and researching endangered species as teams. Each group will work as research scientists to educate themselves about an endangered species and determine what has caused to be on the endangered species list. Next they will take what they have researched to develop a plan of recovery to present to “Congress.”

7th Grade Reading- This week the class will move further into our Two Miserable Presidents novel, focusing on a few of the key leaders for the Confederate and Union armies.

7th Grade Writing- Students will use the book Two Miserable Presidents to cite evidence for writing about three causes of the Civil War. Through using their cause and effect reading and writing strategies, students will compile their informative essays.

8th Grade Reading- Our 8th graders continue to respond to critical thinking questions and class discussions about the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. At the end of the week, they will have a checkpoint to assess their knowledge of ancient civilizations and their societal, religious, political and technological influences on modern society.

Monday, September 19, 2016

**Mrs. Byrd’s Class Picture Day - Wednesday, September 21st @ noon**

Projects- All of that studying of the body systems paid off today, as the class completed their final assessment. The remainder of the week will be dedicated to learning about photosynthesis and how it

7th Grade Reading- This week we will continue to make our way through Two Miserable Presidents. The class has done an excellent job of discussing the reasons that set up the US for the civil war in the first place. I was also extremely proud of the class for using format matters while answering comprehension questions and summarizing the current events of our world today during Flocabulary. I hope that their dinner conversations at home are just as great as the ones that they have in our class discussions.

7th Grade Writing- We are finishing up our Electoral College essays this week. We also started quick writes with prompts. I sure have missed listening to the kids share their work. Today we heard from two students that wrote about role models and not surprisingly, they both wrote some really great pieces about their family members.

8th Grade Reading- Ancient Egypt will be our reading topic this week. The class will be making the connections as to how this ancient civilization helped with the foundation of today’s.   

Wowzers, we are officially half way through the first quarter. Here's to another week full of learning and exploring.

Projects:

These guys are rocking the Body Systems project. Their posters are looking great! I’ve got a couple pictures of the kids working on them in our ClassDojo Story, be sure to check them out! We’ve got one more day to work on finishing up the organs, labels, functions, diseases and disorders. Thursday the groups will present their posters to the class, explaining the ins and outs of their assigned body system. Then Monday, we will have our final assessment.

Reading:

We are starting Two Miserable Presidents; The Amazing, Terrible, and Totally True Story of the Civil War by Steve Sheinkin this week and the class couldn’t be more excited. (Okay, I’m sure they could be, but I’ll take what I've got!) For the first chapter, we will be focusing more on the reasons the country was being torn apart and how it wasn’t only due to slavery. We will also continue our work on annotating poems, paying close attention to the mood and tone that is created.

Writing:

Has your kiddo come home with questions about the Electoral College? If not, ask them about it. We have been and will continue working on informational essays explaining the role and purpose of the Electoral College in a U.S presidential election. This has been a tough topic and really working through the entire writing process from reading information, making lists, informal outlines, and rough drafts has been essential.

8th Reading:

This week is all about ancient civilizations! We have been reading information texts about the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas Empire. The class has been quite intrigued by their religious practices, cultures, and economy. Just as an FYI, during our read to self time, the students will need to have an actual book. Unfortunately, reading from their phones is no longer an option. Thanks for understanding.

Week Four

I hope that everyone is having an excellent end to a fun and extra long weekend! I am excited to get started on week four. I can’t believe we are nearly halfway through the first quarter already!

Class Dojo!

As many of you already know, we are using ClassDojo in our room this year to encourage important skills, like working hard and participating. I’m also working on using it to better communicate with you: we can instantly share messages, updates and photos from that happenings in our classroom. Most of our parents have already signed up to join. Thank you so much, you guys seriously rock! I just wanted to make sure you also knew that there is a free mobile app for iOS and Android that might make it even easier to use. :)

Tomorrow we will dive deeper into our Body Systems project. The class has been assigned their group members and body system. This week groups will be researching the organs, their functions, and disorders and diseases related to their body system. Eventually groups will be putting all of this information onto life sized posters that will be used to teach the rest of the class.

This week we are reading and annotating passages that give a snapshot of the life and economies of the north and south in the years leading up to the Civil War. One idea that we have really found interesting is how the Southern states had become increasingly more dependent on slave labor while the Northern states came to depend on a commercial economy. From the readings this week, the class should come to understand why more than half of Ireland’s population came to the US, the impacts that diseases like cholera, typhoid, and yellow fever had, and the rise of labor unions in the North.

During our writing block, we will continue to work on our informational essay to the prompt; What is the electoral college? Explain its role/purpose in a U.S. presidential election. We are focusing on writing strong thesis statements, that will set up the essay. We will also center our attention on setting up an organization chart that will help keep the facts the kids want to use in their essay straight.

Our 8th graders have made their way through history, reading about the lives of hunters and gatherers and how they developed into early farming societies. We’ve been focusing on pulling out  just the main idea and important details while taking notes and annotations. This week we will continue practicing these skills as we read passages and complete notes on the Incas, Aztecs and Mayas.

Week Three

Welcome to week three!

I have to start off by giving one more shout out to my kiddos that ran for Student Council offices last week. I was so proud of all of them that stood up in front of nearly the entire school and poured their little hearts out explaining why they would be best for the job. That took some serious guts! Also, congratulations to Miss Teagan for being nominated as Oasis’ 2016-2017 Student Council Vice President!

In projects this week we are finishing up our exploration of cells. Today the entire middle school did a gallery walk, where our classes traveled through each room, observing and learning each other’s three dimensional models of systems. Some of my favorite justifications include:

“The cell membrane is the structure of the jail. The structure of the jail is the cell membrane since the structure is behind the fence also known as the cell wall. The cell membrane is the inner layer of protection. The jail’s outer walls let certain things in and out, similar the what the cell membrane does.”

“The Cell Wall is only found in plant cells and it is positioned by the Cell Membrane and keeps all the cells safe. In a farm the fence is represented by the Cell Wall. The fence is similar to the Cell Wall because the fence protects everything inside the farm.”

“The Lysosomes job in a cell is to remove waste. In Cabela's the customers represent lysosomes. Customers purchase and remove merchandise from the shelves and exit the store, therefore the merchandise that is no longer needed leaves the store.”

“The nucleus is the control center of the cell, it tells the others what to do. The Coach is like the nucleus because he tells the players where and what they need to do. He is also one of the most important people in any baseball game.”

“We decided to use the blood as cytoplasm because our organs float in it. The cytoplasm is the fluid that fills the cell which helps the parts float together. In our model the blood is what the parts “float” in”

“The nucleolus is an organelle that directs proteins to different parts of the cell. The Map in the middle of the mall represents the nucleolus. We chose the map to represent the nucleolus because the nucleolus directs proteins just as a mall directs the people.”

Tomorrow we will complete our cell final and then move into body systems, with the goal of creating full sized body posters that depict the six main systems of the body.

7th Grade Reading- Our first week of reading log homework went swimmingly! Thank you for checking in with your kiddo and signing their reading log over the weekend.  This week we will continue using the Daily Three (Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Word Work) along with making our way through the Antebellum period. It has been so interesting to listen to the class discussions and questions about the North and South during this time. We will also work on annotating a new poem!

Writing- I am so excited to start our first writing project of the year. We will start out strong with an informative essay on the Electoral College. We will begin tomorrow by reading through some examples of informative papers written by 7th graders, looking closely at the evidence based terms and how well they stuck to the facts. Next we will move into developing thesis statements of our own using the six writing traits.  

8th Grade Reading- This week we are moving from hunter gatherer societies to agricultural and early farming societies. We have been using the CAFE strategies “ identify main ideas and details in informative texts” as we continue to read and annotate articles. Focusing on these skills has helped build a deeper understanding of this revolution.

Week Two

What a fantastic first week in seventh grade! I can’t believe how much I missed these people, nor how happy I am to have them back. I am proud of this group of kiddos having no problem getting back in the groove.

I also want to thank all of our parents for taking the time out of their evening to join us for the back to school night! It was awesome to see everyone again. My class and I are so fortunate to have such amazing support at home. You guys rock!

During Projects this first semester, we will be studying Science. Starting with the structure and processes of cells and ecosystems in the first quarter, then moving to heredity and biological evolution during the second quarter. Week one had the class working on and introduction to our first project with bottles representing cells and the organelles that make them work. It was so cool to listen to the kids quiz each other using their models. Now we will begin the larger portion of this project with groups building a 3D model of a replica of something in their lives connecting it to the functions and processes of a cell.

7th grade reading didn’t waste anytime getting right to work with our Daily 3 and CAFE strategies. The kids were also stoked to see that Flocabulary is back on the game plan for Mondays. I was quite impressed with how up to date they were with current events happening around our world. During these first weeks we will be reading about the Antebellum Era. On Tuesday and Thursday we will focus on the North and the South in Pre Civil War being a divided nation and how the economic developments affected the new country. Wednesdays will be our poetry day of the week were the class will practice annotating poems, looking for rhyme scheme, figurative language, mood, and tone.

7th grade writing- During the first week the kids wrote about themselves with their “mini me” writing assignment. Each student created a little paper person that represented who they are using pictures, words, and colors. Then they wrote a paragraph explaining why they chose what they did. If you haven’t checked them out yet, please do! They are in the hall, above our class hooks, outside of our classroom. This week we will continue with an overall review of our 6 traits and hone in on the parts of speech.

8th grade reading- This quarter, Tuesdays and Thursdays will be dedicated to readings about hunters and gatherers, early civilizations, and world religions. On Mondays we will check in on current events with Flocabulary while focusing on our CAFE strategies. Then Wednesdays will be full of poetry! The class has shown really great insight with their poetry annotations so far.  

Homework:

7th and 8th Grade Reading-->20 minutes of reading every night. Students will have a home reading log that they will fill out each night to be checked the next day. Parents will only need to sign the log at the end of the week, to be returned the following Monday.  (This will not be their homework every night. There will be many times that students come home with Flocabulary homework or have IXL practice in lieu of reading.)

Welcome 7th Grade Families!

Hello 7th graders and families!

I hope that everyone is having a fantastic summer vacation.

If you are here looking for our supply list, just click on the tab above labeled "2016-2017 Supply List" for everything you need.

Since you're here, please take a second to follow our class blog for updates and important information to be automatically sent to your email. All you've got to do is enter your email address under the "Follow by Email" option located on the right.

Thanks everyone! Enjoy the rest of your summer break and I will see you soon. :)

-Mrs. Byrd