May/June 2021
5/6 Homeroom
When students arrive to school, they pass in homework and unpack for the day. They then either go to breakfast or stay in the classroom for a brainteaser puzzle and to connect with classmates. After breakfast, we do the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom. Following that, we do morning meeting. This is a chance to check in with one another, share stories, connect, and we frequently enjoy a fun game together.
On Fridays, briefly on Thursdays, and during other small windows of time, we do read aloud in the 5/6 classroom. We just finished Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. It takes place in Pennsylvania in the 1960s. Two Mills is a segregated town and our homeless main character, Jeffrey Magee, finds himself coming to see both sides of the town and grappling with the reasons the town is so divided. This is part childhood fantasy, part comedy, and part serious.
Our next read aloud is Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar. This novel is a hook for 6th graders who will be studying life science next year. This is a mystery about a biological accident in a small town. It gets quite scientific and also explores personal relationships inside and outside of school.
On Fridays, briefly on Thursdays, and during other small windows of time, we do read aloud in the 5/6 classroom. We just finished Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. It takes place in Pennsylvania in the 1960s. Two Mills is a segregated town and our homeless main character, Jeffrey Magee, finds himself coming to see both sides of the town and grappling with the reasons the town is so divided. This is part childhood fantasy, part comedy, and part serious.
Our next read aloud is Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar. This novel is a hook for 6th graders who will be studying life science next year. This is a mystery about a biological accident in a small town. It gets quite scientific and also explores personal relationships inside and outside of school.
7th Grade on Fridays
The 7th graders meet for math/science for 30 minutes before lunch and for another hour in the afternoon each Friday that the 8th graders are at the boat shop in Bath. We are in the midst of watching a film called Akeelah and the Bee. It is an inspiring film about a girl from LA who makes it to the national spelling bee championship. We recently took a science walk down to the gut to explore life in both fresh water and salt water. We'll take another couple of walks this year and do a small engineering project.
5/6 Math |
7/8 Math |
The 5th grade math group is in chapter 9, which is all about adding and subtracting fractions. In our next chapter, we'll get into multiplying and dividing fractions.
The 6th grade math group has been working with equations and inequalities. This is their first time seeing either of these things and it can be challenging. We are writing, solving, and graphing inequalities right now. Next up, we switch gears and study geometry. Chapter 9 is all about area of 2-D shapes and chapter 10 covers volume and surface area of 3-D shapes. The 7th grade math group is finishing up their study of geometry. This includes finding the volume and surface area of composite figures. Students need to know how to calculate the areas of parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids and circles and be able to do this well. Our final two chapters will cover probability and statistics. All three math groups do math games once every two to three weeks. We have recently been playing Esti-Mysteries where students are estimating how many of an object are in a jar, then seeing clues that cause them to adjust their estimates, until there are just a few possible correct answers. Students have 45 minutes of aleks.com to do each week. This 45 minutes needs to be completed between Monday at 8AM one week to 8AM on Monday morning the next week. The students get to choose which topics to try to master each week, which helps them review concepts and allows them to try math topics we'll cover in the future. I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in math and to keep track of assessment scores. My goal for each student is to score a 3 or better on each mathematics standard. This score indicates mastery of the standard. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work (engaged learner, responsible learner, and respectful learner). You can login to Unified Classroom by going to classroom.powerschool.com. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and how to navigate around the site. |
The 7th grade math group is in the middle of their study of geometry. This includes finding the volume and surface area of composite figures. Students need to know how to calculate the areas of parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids and circles be able to do this well. Our final two chapters will cover probability and statistics.
The 8th grade math group is already on its final chapter in our book. They are studying scatter plots, lines of best fit, two-way tables, and then doing some data analysis. When we complete the book, we'll go back to a few things we skipped earlier in the year, mainly surface area of cones, spheres, and cylinders. Then we dabble in Algebra I, the course the students will be taking next year. We'll begin with expressions, equations, and functions. The Algebra I group is just finishing chapter 9: quadratic functions and equations. The next chapter is about using and manipulating radical functions, then applying it to geometry. We'll then study rational functions and equations, then study statistics and probability. Each week, the 7/8 students have work to complete on aleks.com. Those who have mastered fewer than 50% of the topics are required to master a minimum of 8 topics/week. Because the material gets harder as you increase the percent of topics mastered, those students who have mastered 50% or more of the topics are required to master 5 topics per week. The students get to choose which topics to try to master each week, which helps them review concepts and allows them to try math topics we'll cover in the future. Both math groups do math games once every two to three weeks. We have recently been playing Esti-Mysteries where students are estimating how many of an object are in a jar, then seeing clues that cause us to adjust our estimates, until there are just a few possible correct answers. I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in math and to keep track of assessment scores. My goal for each student is to score a 3 or better on each mathematics standard. This score indicates mastery of the standard. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work (engaged learner, responsible learner, and respectful learner). You can login to Unified Classroom by going to classroom.powerschool.com. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and to navigate around the site. |
5/6 Science |
7/8 Science |
Our current unit is Earth Systems. In this unit, we are studying many things. These include the phases of matter, volume, density, the water cycle, where water is naturally distributed on Earth, proving that invisible things do exist, rock types, the rock cycle, erosion and weathering, fossils, the Earth's structure, and we'll be using Moh's hardness scale. We'll finish the year with a brief study of the properties of matter.
I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work. You can login to Unified Classroom by going to classroom.powerschool.com. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and how to navigate around the site. |
The 7/8 students are studying waves and energy. We are learning the forms that energy takes and focusing a lot on gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. We will spend some time doing experiments with thermal conductors and insulators. By the end of the unit, students will have a more thorough understanding of what temperature is. We'll also study waves: their parts, where they occur, and how they are transmitted. We will finish our year with a unit on chemistry.
We are still planning to race our CO2 cars by the end of the year. The students are getting close to finished with their designs on their Ipads. We will 3D print the cars when they are done. I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work. You can login to Unified Classroom by going to classroom.powerschool.com. You login using your child's gmail account. He/she can show you how to do this and how to navigate around the site. |