7th Grade Team November Newsletter

Staying connected to our families is important to our teachers. In addition to the front page of our Canvas courses, we are excited to share this monthly newsletter with our families to keep you aware of upcoming events, activities, lessons, units, and materials from our classes! The 7th Grade Team has compiled this newsletter to share some of the upcoming experiences your student will be having with us. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's teachers! As a reminder, printed report cards will be sent home with students on Friday, October 27th.

7th grade engineering students have just started our SolidWorks unit, which is an industry-standard program for 3-D modeling. These models can be used both in planning and prototyping with the aid of a 3-D printer. For the next few weeks, students will be following 5 step-by-step tutorials as they learn the basic skills of the program. This will lead to our final project… more on that next newsletter!

The seventh graders are embarking on a new quarter with tech! This month, they’ll be working on a podcast focused around the ideas of digital citizenship, doing a Slides presentation focused around the deeper aesthetic aspects of the program, concentrating on a short Google Maps project, and then doing a big, cumulative final project that combines all of the things we’ve learned in the class together!

Mrs. Danner's and Mrs. Kline's Classes:

Our Realistic Book Clubs are coming to a close with some really cool projects. Ask your student about their club’s project! We are also writing about themes that we see across our novel and poetry reading. Our next adventure is Narrative Writing. We are excited to see our young writers in action.

Mrs. Heinig's Classes

We are continuing to read Realistic Fiction for another two weeks. Our focus has been on finding figurative language in our texts, and analyzing how it impacts or enhances our stories. We have also been in the application phase, writing our own forms of figurative language as we get ready to author our own Realistic Fiction. Another focus has been understanding how particular elements of a story interact--characters, plot, conflict, setting. We are pulling out not only what a text explicitly says, but the inferences and connotations therein. All of the short stories we are reading as a class can be accessed on my Canvas Home Page. Please have conversations with your student about the independent books they are reading to be sure you approve of their choices.

In Math 7, we just ended Module 3 over operations with integers. Module 4 will consist of operations with rational numbers. This will include positive and negative fractions and decimals. This builds on the foundation of fractions and decimals built in grades 4-6. This is also a no calculator module. Students may be challenged in this module, but we will continue to work on developing the necessary skills. Our Module 4 Assessment is planned to be November 19th as of now. Students should also continue to work on their 5 Aleks topics each week.

Math 7+

In Math 7 Accelerated, we just finished Module 3 on rational numbers and started embarking on Module 4. In this module, Exponents and Scientific Notation, students will use their prior knowledge of exponents to develop understanding of the properties of exponents and scientific notation. By having a solid understanding of exponents and scientific notation, students will be better prepared to study more advanced mathematical concepts in later courses as well as within more advanced science concepts. Students will need to stay focused and disciplined as we cover both 7th and 8th grade topics.

Science students are learning about electricity. Last week, they completed a static electricity lab that was “shockingly” fun. Now they are building parallel and series circuits. Soon we will use Ohm’s Law to design a dimmer switch and investigate how electric current can be measured using a compass. Our final project will have the students building a simple flashlight of their own design with only a limited number of materials.

Seventh grade social studies students are working on the final touches for the Greek Myth project. Students have chosen a topic that interests them and have worked hard to create a myth that explains the origin of their topic. We’ve had a lot of fun exploring our creativity and reviewing our narrative writing skills. Next week, we will begin wrapping up our unit on Ancient Greece by studying the Peloponnesian War, sketchnoting about Alexander the Great, and exploring the legacy left by the Greeks.

Common Sense Media is an online tool that can help parents and students make informed decisions regarding media use. This tool can be used for many types of media, including books, movies, video games, and apps. Additionally, the “Parent Tips and FAQ” section can provide families with valuable support on facilitating social media, cell phone, and screen time use with their child.