December Newsletter

7th Grade: The 7th graders just finished a creative writing essay about Zombies and received their grades. It was great to see all my students’ imaginations soar! They have their next vocabulary quiz coming up, and they’ll be getting more over the next few months. I recommend asking them what they’re new words are, maybe practice studying them with them. It will definitely motivate them. We have started Call of the Wild, and have gotten a great background on the Alaskan territory and researched the Klondike Gold Rush. Some of my 7th graders also wrote Thank You cards with Mrs. Oliveira’s class and walked them over to the WB Firefighters and Police officers to thank them for all their hard work during the week of Thanksgiving. It was so nice to get to meet a great amount of you at Parent Teacher Conferences. Remember to reach out with any concerns or questions. I hope you all have a Happy Holiday and a great new year and enjoy our last month of 2019.

8th Grade: The 8th graders have just begun the novel, The Giver, and a lot have taken a liking to it. Please ask them about it when you can, they’ll be happy to share. I have assigned each student a different group where they created their own “Utopian Society,” and added rules, location, climate and occupations within their societies, just like in the novel we are reading. They also have another vocabulary quiz coming up and will continue to receive new words every one to two weeks. If any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I loved meeting a lot of you at Parent Teacher Conferences. I hope you all have a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year, as we enjoy our very last month of 2019.

In 7th grade math we just finished a test so please be looking at Aspen for their grades. Students that receive less than a 70 are advised to do test corrections to gain back some extra points on their grade. We are currently working on ratios and proportions. I use a lot of pricing from stores or scenarios where we compare brands and price per item. If you are ever out and about with your child and see a great example of figuring out which item is a better deal have your child help out and let them see that math is everywhere!

In 8th grade math we have a test the first week in December right before progress reports. Please be checking Aspen for missing homework and for that test grade. We are currently a few weeks into our Linear Relationships unit where students are looking at lines and matching them to real world scenarios. I used a phone bill as an example this past week where we imagined having a monthly payment on a new phone 11 as well as the data package chosen. This then helps them predict how long it will take them to pay it off or is the brand new phone worth the cost? Any real life scenario you can throw that them that will help reinforce this idea and make the algebra involved more interesting would be great!

7th grade science is beginning an exploration into rock formation and dating. We will also be studying how fossils form and students will get a chance to look at and handle real fossils for a lab soon!

8th grade science is wrapping up our unit on Chemistry. We are looking forward to a CSI investigation lab and a chemistry exam between now and Christmas break.

In 7th grade social studies class students are beginning to present their google slide presentations on The Fertile Crescent. We are also set to begin a new unit on Egypt and students will complete numerous journal entries on what it would be like to live during the time period under study. In 8th grade civics class students are going to be learning about the development of the United States Constitution, coupled with the Bill of Rights. We are looking forward to School Resource Officer Thaxter coming into the grade eight classes to discuss the fourth amendment of the Bill of Rights: Search and Seizure and how this functions from the police perspective. Students should also be diligently working on their NHD projects. There will be a check-in on the annotated bibliography the week of December 2nd. At this point students should also be working on their exhibits at home as the due date for this project is January 15th.