November/December 2020
We've made it through 2 months of school! It has been great to have the students in person again. We are ready to go remote, should we need to. Resources and assignments will also be available to students when they are absent via Google Classroom.
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. 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. Cam Miller, an educator in residence from Camp Kieve, has been joining us again this year and will help with some of our morning meetings.
On Fridays and during other small windows of time, we do read aloud in the 5/6 classroom. Our 1st read aloud of the year was The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick. The students rated this book 4+ stars (out of 5). We have read a couple short stories from Paul Jennings. We are now onto our 2nd novel of the year: Lawnboy by Gary Paulsen. It is a humorous book about a 12 year boy and his burgeoning lawn mowing business. Things get pretty out of control, but our main character learns a lot about economics and money management in the process. There are a lot of math and economic concepts presented in a very engaging way.
On Fridays and during other small windows of time, we do read aloud in the 5/6 classroom. Our 1st read aloud of the year was The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick. The students rated this book 4+ stars (out of 5). We have read a couple short stories from Paul Jennings. We are now onto our 2nd novel of the year: Lawnboy by Gary Paulsen. It is a humorous book about a 12 year boy and his burgeoning lawn mowing business. Things get pretty out of control, but our main character learns a lot about economics and money management in the process. There are a lot of math and economic concepts presented in a very engaging way.
7th Grade on Fridays
The students and I brainstormed at the beginning of the year possible projects and activities for our time together on Fridays. We ensured the activities were strongly connected to science and/or math.
So far this year, we have done a few things. First, we designed and created paper skyscrapers designed to withstand a heavy wind load (from a floor fan). The students worked in teams to create the best tower they could. After testing the towers, we decided to redesign and rebuild our towers to make them even better, learning from our past mistakes. We did a 2nd engineering project where we created pumpkin cars for a derby. The students really came through by bringing in supplies, working hard, and even cutting down a small tree to make wheels from. Our cars ended up not working (the wheels were too small). We plan to try this again in a future class period. Another thing we have done on Fridays is go on two nature walks- one where we tried to find and photograph a wide variety of insects (we found a lot!) and a 2nd where we collected a wide variety of barks and seeds. We ended up planting some of the seeds to see if we could grow them in the classroom. We will continue to do engineering projects and science lessons during our time together on Fridays.
We meet 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.
So far this year, we have done a few things. First, we designed and created paper skyscrapers designed to withstand a heavy wind load (from a floor fan). The students worked in teams to create the best tower they could. After testing the towers, we decided to redesign and rebuild our towers to make them even better, learning from our past mistakes. We did a 2nd engineering project where we created pumpkin cars for a derby. The students really came through by bringing in supplies, working hard, and even cutting down a small tree to make wheels from. Our cars ended up not working (the wheels were too small). We plan to try this again in a future class period. Another thing we have done on Fridays is go on two nature walks- one where we tried to find and photograph a wide variety of insects (we found a lot!) and a 2nd where we collected a wide variety of barks and seeds. We ended up planting some of the seeds to see if we could grow them in the classroom. We will continue to do engineering projects and science lessons during our time together on Fridays.
We meet 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.
5/6 Math |
7/8 Math |
The 5th grade math group has recently mastered multi digit multiplication, prime factorization and quickly multiplying and dividing by powers of 10. The next two chapter in our math book focus on long division with one-digit and two-digit divisors.
The 6th grade math group just finished a chapter about percents, their first encounter. They learned to convert between fractions, decimals, and percents. They learned to find percents, find the part when you know the whole and the percent, and to find the whole give the part and the percent. We are now working on multi-digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with decimals. Next up is multiplying and dividing fractions in chapter 4. The 7th grade math group has just finished chapter 2, where they used percents to find a percent of a number, found the part if the percent and whole were given, and found the whole given the part and the percent. We extended that learning to other applications of percents: markdown and markup, simple interest, % change, % error, taxes, and gratuity. We we are now moving onto multiplying, dividing, adding, and subtracting integers. In chapter 4, we will tackle rationals numbers (fractions, decimals, and integers). All three math groups do math games once every two to three weeks even, if we go remote. 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 has just finished chapter 2, where they used percents to find a percent of a number, found the part if the percent and whole were given, and found the whole given the part and the percent. We extended that learning to other applications of percents: markdown and markup, simple interest, % change, % error, taxes, and gratuity. We we are now moving onto multiplying, dividing, adding, and subtracting integers. In chapter 4, we will tackle rationals numbers (fractions, decimals, and integers).
The 8th grade math group has been working to master solving equations with one variable. The equations have either one solution, infinite solutions, or no solutions. Next up is learning to solve equations with two variables. In chapter 4, we'll get into functions. The Algebra I group is just finishing up chapter 3 in the book. This has been all about linear functions. We have used graphs, tables, equations, and verbal descriptions to describe functions. In chapter 4, we'll focus on finding equations for linear functions. And in chapter 5, we'll look at linear inequalities. 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 even ,if we go remote. 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 |
We are in the midst of our space unit. The students have learned why seasons happen on Earth. They've been tracking the moon each night and recording their observations in their moon journals. We are getting close to formally studying the moon phases and connecting our observations to what changes happen in the moon during a month. We are now studying stars through research about constellations. Our next unit will be Earth Systems.
I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work and attendance is taken for each Zoom class. 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 have completed their unit on the scientific process. The culminating project was that each student created their own experiment to answer a question they'd been wondering about. They wrote their first lab report to share their results and process. They also created a slideshow and presented it to their classmates. They had some wonderful projects (from extracting DNA to rolling sport balls down a hill, to testing the food preferences of both dogs and periwinkles) and they showed a lot of great thinking.
We are now doing our space unit. We started with learning about why seasons happen on Earth. This is a big concept for middle school science. We will be learning about planets, stars, and galaxies as well. The student will even be able to tell you some properties of stars just by looking at their colors. I am using Unified Classroom/PowerSchool to keep track of work completion in science. Students will also be scored on the Habits of Work and attendance is taken for each Zoom class. 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. |