Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Projects: Some students are still trying to figure out their model using simple machines to complete a simple task. It's hard work and they've done well! We will work on presentations for the rest of the week and present next week.

8th Grade Reading: Students took a short quiz on To Kill a Mockingbird yesterday. Today we watched "The Week in Rap" and started our discussions. Students need to study the website and be prepared for a Flocabulary quiz tomorrow. 

7th Grade Reading: Students are working on determining  narrative elements of The Outsiders. Today we read chapter 6 together and students need to read chapter 7 independently for homework tonight. 

Writing: We will be doing numerous short essays around our novel The Outsiders. We are starting with a comparison/contrast on the similarities between the Socs and Greasers. Next week we will write about which one we would rather be, using evidence from the text.

We will have an auction on Thursday. Please send in items if you are able. 

Monday, January 25, 2016

Projects: Students continue to build a 3D model of a structure that uses simple machines to complete a simple task. They will have the rest of the week to work on their structures during projects. This is a change from our original schedule. We will give the students 2 extra days so they can refine their products!

8th Grade Reading: Today we watched Flocabulary and discussed the stories from the week. Students have a Flocabulary page due in class tomorrow. They must write the summaries of the stories by using main idea, details and complete sentences. 
Tomorrow we will start To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. We will begin by researching Harper Lee and gaining an understanding of her as an author and how her own experiences may have led to her writing this novel.

7th Grade Reading: Today we watched Flocabulary and discussed the stories from the week. Students have a Flocabulary page due in class tomorrow, Tuesday, January 26. They must write the summaries of the stories by using main idea, details and complete sentences. 
Throughout the week we will discuss the characters who are introduced in The Outsiders and add character traits to a shared document we started today.
Poetry annotations due Wednesday, January 27 for 7th grade for the  poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay." 

Writing: Students are finishing up their expressive/reflective writing on their favorite mistake. This group has some serious talent with narrative writing! We will finish these then go back to more informative/expository writing. We continue to work on IXL lessons and Root of the Week.

We will have an auction next Thursday, February 4. Please send in items for the auction if you are able.  Thank you!

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Projects: Students finished blueprints of prototype demonstrating simple machines to perform a simple task  and will begin building tomorrow.

8th Grade Reading: Students will take their Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde final tomorrow. They have been preparing and should have all of their notes ready to go. I plan to give them a few minutes more to prepare before they start. If they don't finish, they will have time to do so on Thursday.

7th Grade Reading: Flocabulary! Students watched and read about current events by listening to and viewing the "Week in Rap". Homework due tomorrow--2 pages of "Week in Rap" We will start a new book this week. We will be reading S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders.

Writing: We are moving into another narrative titled "My Favorite Mistake." Students will recall a time when they made a decision that resulted in a less than desirable consequence. They will end with a reflection on what they learned and what their thoughts are today.

There will be no Valentine's Day parties at school this year. Please do not allow students to bring class Valentines to school.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Projects: Students were put into groups of 4 for their simple machines project. Everyone should be brainstorming ideas and items that can be brought from home to construct an 8 step machine that performs a simple task.

8th Reading: We are trying to finish Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Students will collect evidence of duality for their final and take the final on Thursday.

7th Reading: Finished Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde today. Tomorrow students will work on collecting evidence of duality from the novella, and choose an example of duality in real life to discuss and give examples of.  We also watched Flocabulary's "Week in Rap." Students have one page of Flocabulary homework due tomorrow.

7th and 8th poetry annotations due Wednesday

Monday, January 4, 2016

Happy New Year Bighorn Families! I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday break. Now, back to reality. :)

Projects: We started a new science project today. Students will be researching Rube Goldberg and designing, in groups, an 8 step prototype using simple machines to accomplish a simple task. Today we put together the trap in Mousetrap games, watched videos that demonstrated a series of simple machines working to accomplish tasks and went over the project and some of the guidelines. This project should be a lot of fun and the students seem excited about it.

7th and 8th Grade Reading: Flocabulary's Week in Rap featured the end of 2015 with top stories from the year. We spend A LOT of class time discussing and reading the stories, and 7th graders took a quiz. Eighth grade will take their quiz tomorrow.

Writing: Root of the week is "geo." Students worked on origin and sample sentences using words with the root "geo" in them.  We also wrote freely, which students always love to do. We are going to go deeper into reflective writing this week and do IXL to learn to recognize sentences with vague pronouns.

Happy January!!!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Projects: Worked on Bill of Rights posters with partners
We will have a test on Wednesday over vocabulary terms related to the Constitutional Convention, as well as an essay question over The Virginia Plan, The New Jersey Plan and The Great Compromise.

8th Grade Reading: We watched "The Week in Rap" and discussed current events. We also read chapter 1 in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

7th Grade Reading: Same as 8th

Writing: New root of the week (dys) and we worked on our encyclopedia entries

Please send stocking stuffers by Thursday. We will stuff them before lunch.
Please send in new pajamas for children in need by Thursday, December 17.

We will watch "Elf" on Thursday afternoon. Please let me know if you do not want your child to participate in this and I will find an alternate activity for them. Students are allowed to bring snacks to enjoy, and I will have some popcorn to share.

Happy Holidays!!!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Projects: We are continuing our study of American government. Today we started a movie called "In Order to Form a More Perfect Union." It's a complete reenactment of the Constitutional Convention and all of the issues that arose there. So far it's been fantastic! On Wednesday we will start a mini project, in which students will partner up and research, write about and illustrate one of the first ten amendments. I am hoping to have these completed by Thursday after the block, but we will see. There will be a test on government terms and concepts next week. I am planning the test for either Monday or Tuesday, but I have to see how far we get this week. I have front-loaded all vocabulary and told the students what to be prepared for as far as open ended essays go.

7th and 8th Grade Reading: We watch "The Week in Rap" today and discussed the many current events. As always, the students had impressive points to make.

Writing: We are almost finished with our "Day in the Life of....." essays. I am quite impressed with the creative writing talent that exists in this classroom. They are writing well-developed narratives and are keeping it tight!!! "Keep it Tight" is my catch phrase for 7th grade narrative writing. Ask the kids what I mean by that.

Homework:
Students need to be studying for their projects test scheduled for next week. Also, Flocabulary will come home tomorrow and will be due Wednesday. It's just one page. This will be for 7th and 8th grade reading blocks.

Please remember to send in new pajamas if you are able.