Team 6: It has been another busy month in the sixth grade. In English, the students wrapped up the Moment PBL unit. They each wrote about a significant moment in their life, and then they shared them with their English classes. Finally, the students shared their pieces on a blog. Then, last week they started reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver. During this first full class novel, students will be following the theme of individuality and writing about it in analytical paragraphs. They are focusing on the guiding question: What makes someone a unique individual, and why is that individuality important? The grade will watch the movie adaptation of the book before winter break.
In social studies, students continued their study of Egypt, and they have finished researching their roles for Egypt Day. They have started to rehearse and develop each room collaboratively. We look forward to having the 5th grade and the parents join us for our Egypt Day performances on December 14th.
In science, students began an introduction to human anatomy. Students also created an iMovie for their “Get to know YOU” presentations. Students selected a general topic and picked specific items they found interesting to present to the class. Students will be concentrating on learning specific bones of the skeletal system and also tying human anatomy in with Egyptian mummification and doing the Apple Mummy Lab. Finally, students will compare/contrast the anatomy of frogs to that of humans.
In Math 6, students finished a unit on solids and their nets. They learned to identify nets of cubes, cuboids, prisms, and pyramids; identify the solid represented by a net; determine whether a figure can be a net of a given solid; and determine whether a solid can be formed from a given net. They have just started a percentage unit where students learned how to express part of a whole as a fraction or as a percentage, express one quantity as a percentage of another, find the whole or a percentage part when given the value of a percentage part, and solve word problems which involve percentage.
In Advanced Math, students finished a unit on percentage. They learned how to express part of a whole as a fraction or as a percentage, express one quantity as a percentage of another, find the whole or a percentage part when given the value of a percentage part, and solve word problems which involve percentage. They recently started our work on speed. Students will interpret speed as distance traveled per unit of time, read and write units of speed, find average speed, and solve word problems that involve speed, distance, and time.
In Hyper Math, students will spend several classes working on a relationship called Direct Variation. The students have seen this before in the guise of “solving proportions,” but they will learn to graph linear equations from their work on this and will incorporate the concept of slope from their “Stairs Project.” It should be challenging and possibly fun!
We look forward to seeing many parents and families at Parent-Teacher conferences and Egypt Day!
Team 7: The seventh grade recently visited the Bronx Zoo to kick off their science unit on conservation. At the beginning of the unit, students will focus on biomes, trophic levels, and food chains. Eventually, students will focus on and research an endangered or threatened species of their choice. In English, students are finishing up their dystopian short stories. They will be reading them aloud to their peers this Friday. They will also publish their stories on writeabout.com for all of their classmates to read. In social studies, students are beginning their unit on oppression and resistance. Students will begin reading the novel When My Name Was Keoko, while examining the various faces of oppression and how oppressed people seek to resist this. Lastly, math classes are continuing to use problem strategies to attack each challenge. More specifically, Math 7 classes are adding and subtracting integers in their current unit. The Hyper Math class is working with their calculators to program matrixes. Lastly, the advanced group has just completed Unit 1 with a Stretch Your Mind Assessment.
Team 8: On Monday, November 27, the eighth grade headed to Philadelphia to visit not only the Constitution Center, but also the Franklin Institute. At the Franklin Institute students participated in a live action science demonstration about combustion, and at the Constitution Center students explored the different freedoms which our Constitution protects. This field trip was a cumulative experience for the chemistry unit in science class as well as an entry event for history’s class Constitution unit. Meanwhile in English class, students are reading the classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, and learning how Ray Bradbury effectively used symbolism to convey his fears for society. Finally, math class is preparing for an interdisciplinary unit with science on density. The final project for this unit will be to construct a miniature boat from recycled material that can hold mass. The boat which can hold the most mass will receive a special accolade from the math and science teachers.