Monday, August 29, 2016

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.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

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.)