Week of September 28, 2015

Purple Curriculum Updates

FALL ELECTIVE UPDATES:

Yellow Room Helpers

Our Purple Room Pals have been assisting the Yellow Roomers in their learning about water and the weather cycle. PR students are working with different YR's (one PR to 1-2 YR's or two PR's to 3-4 YR's) to conduct science experiments, to observe and identify cloud types, and to correctly read thermometers. PR Pals have also read aloud to YR's. We love our Purple Room Pals!

Book Club

The students in the book club elective have been reading the Jaguar Stones, a four-part adventure book series based upon Mayan mythology. So far they have read Middleworld, The End of the World Club, and are almost finished with The River of No Return. While everyone has enjoyed learning about the Mayan legends and about the Death Lords, we collectively agree that the protagonist is annoying, and we're all rooting for him to suffer a violent death in book four.

Music Elective

We have experienced a variety of European and American folk music as well as Native American, African American, and Latin American music.  Upcoming topics include African, Middle Eastern, Jewish, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian music.  Our two students have proved far more than satisfactory in this course so far and they make elective time the highlight of my day.

Children's Garden

This trimester the BNS students engaged in age appropriate play with children ages 4-5 years. We talked about modeling helpful phrases to initiate play ("hi! Can I play too?") and phrases that respect personal boundaries ("please stop that--I don't like it." Or "you can hold my hand but please don't pull on my clothes"). The BNS students played preschool "soccer," ran in foot races, built nests in our fairy garden, and jumped through hula hoops. On rainy afternoons, they worked with kids in small groups to build giant floor puzzles and sing songs.

HTML Elective

The students have been using Codecademy to learn how to create websites using HTML for structure and CSS for design.

Cooking Elective

So far in the elective, we have learned about kitchen safety; identifying fresh herbs; playing a card game about building sandwiches (these activities occur while the food is in the oven).  We have alternated sweet and savory recipes each week so that they experience cooking treats like fruit pizza but also full meals such as fish and veggies.  The popover cooking class even included some scientific concepts about the power of steam and temperature.

Stop-Motion Elective

Students have been creating background sets and characters in their choice of media. They will photograph their characters making small movements, then put the photos together using a movie program to make a video.

Red Room Learning Buddies

The Learning Buddies have been helping Red Roomers learn in small groups--much to the delight of the Red Roomers! They have taught matching games, made rainbow bead necklaces, and demonstrated hand shadows.

Geocaching & occasional Greenhouse Elective

We have enjoyed finding geocache locations near the public library and some near BNS. We've learned they're not always easy to find! We have "grabbed" some trackable geocoins donated to us by John McGee and plan to deploy these the next time we find a geocache. We spent one class at the Dollar Store finding good prizes to trade when finding the larger geocaches. The students have each made up their own medium sized geocache containers and have been scoping out locations near BNS to start their own geocache. We've spent a couple of days at the YMCA Greenhouse scoping out locations for the new geocaches and preparing our two BNS plots for use during the Winter Greenhouse Elective.

Backcountry Skills Elective

This week we continued developing our backcountry skills with another injury simulation (insect sting) and introduction to the "rule of 3's" and basic gear needed to survive in the wilderness. We also began our study of knots by learning the Siberian hitch and a modified figure-8 knot.

Pre-Algebra II with Jared:

We started the week with 2-step equations, practicing re-writing each step, and showing all of our work. We then introduced inequalities, and looked at the similarities and differences between them and solving regular equations. We ended the week by working on 2-step inequalities.

Pre-Algebra III with Alex:

This week we extended our study of equations to solving and graphing inequalities. Students applied various solution strategies to word problems and evaluated their efficacy as a class. We completed a quiz reinforcing the week's concepts (sections 2-4 through 2-7) and will continue our review of Chapter 2 in preparation for next week's chapter test.

Algebra I with Molly:

This week in Algebra, students used geometry formulas to solve for different variables and answer questions. We finished the chapter with a focus on using data to find the mean, median, mode, and range. They also learned to create and read stem and leaf plots. We spent time reviewing the chapter and will complete the Chapter 2 test on Monday.

Geometry with Holly:

After finishing chapters on review and basic tools, this week we get into the meat of our study of Geometry.  So far this week we have studied the properties of parallel lines; proving lines parallel; and identifying parallel and perpendicular lines.  With this work, we are getting heavily into formal proofs.  These require a lot of logical thinking and attention to detail which the students may not be used to using.  Your students may become frustrated at first as I catch their mistakes, but remind them that this is the same as learning any new skill.

Language Arts with Jared:

Students spent a lot of time this week typing up their essays in class. Students wrote their full rough draft of their compare/contrast essays, and then we spent a class period working together in a "Thesis Statement Workshop" and another day in a "Concluding Paragraph Workshop." After working through their revisions, students are going to turn in their final drafts next week. We also finished reviewing their vocabulary unit (quiz on Monday), and students turned in the words that will be on their first individualized spelling lists.

World Studies with Alex:

Greetings Purple Room families! It has been an exciting first week at BNS and I'm eager to continue getting to know this enthusiastic group of learners. Thank you for making me feel immediately welcome in the community!

This week in World Studies we began our study of Mesopotamian civilizations with an introduction to the Sumerian culture. We also continued to develop our NHD topics and began researching potential sources for our trip to Newman Library next Tuesday. Students are beginning to refine their topics and relate them to this year's theme of "Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange." I'm looking forward to watching these projects grow and with them our students' connection to the material!

Life Science with Molly:

This week students continued to focus on insects and specifically our chrysalides. They drew and described the changes they observed in the chrysalides and many were lucky enough to catch a butterfly or two emerge from its chrysalis this week. They also compared the head of a caterpillar to that of the butterfly. 7^th & 8^th grade students took a quiz on insects this week and 6^th grade students will take a quiz on Monday. They learned about taxonomy and how scientists classify organisms. They came up with their own groupings for a collection of leaves and began making a taxonomic key for each group. They continue to practice scientific inquiry skills in preparation for science fair projects.

Spanish with Olga & Corinne:

Morning Spanish
We continue to work on verb conjugations. We had a quiz this Thursday.

Spanish B

We continued practicing the vocabulary we would use when we are at a restaurant.  We reviewed the verb "guitar" (to like) and learned another verb that has the same structure: faltar (to miss___). We also learned two other irregular verbs: venire and traer (come and bring).  Finally, we reviewed the verbs see and star.  These verbs are tricky because they both mean "to be", but each is used in a different context.  After reviewing the forms, we started talking about when to use each.  We will have a chapter test next Friday, October 9. I told the students that if any of them would like to borrow a textbook from last year to review vocabulary, they are welcome to do so.  Just let me know!

Spanish C

We continue talking about extracurricular activities.  We revisited and practiced  the structure of comparative sentences, and added statements of equality. We learned how to tell/ask someone for how long they have been doing something. We will have a chapter test next Friday, October 9. The students also have a writing assignment du on October 14.

Spanish D

We continue talking about the great outdoors! We continued practicing command forms and giving directions to a group of people.  We also learned usage of the preposition "poor".  We read about El Yunque, a tropical forest in Puerto Rico. We also watched a video about it. We learned about la cotorra  (Puerto Rican parrot), an animal that is very endangered, and the preservation efforts to save it.  We will have a chapter test on Wednesday, October 7.  The students have their cooking project.  Their top choices for what to cook are due to me on Monday Oct. 5, so that I can assign each of them a different dish.  Projects are due on October 23. Please let me know if there are any questions about the project.

Spanish D+

We continue to work on grammar (past tense) and readings.

Art with Patti:

Students continued working out their compositions for an artwork that included something that was representational with something non-representational.  They are all coming up with individual ideas. We have been having a lot of discussion about how artists work, and how we can better implement that process in the classroom.

Computer Lab with Holly:

This week we finished our unit on Cyber Security and the student demonstrated their skills with two written activities.

Life Skills / Sex Ed with Molly:

This week 6^th & 8^th grade students focused on learning the basic techniques of calligraphy writing. We will occasionally take breaks from our sex-ed lessons and focus on calligraphy. 7^th grade students will get to do this another week, as I was out for their class on Friday.

Future topics are as follows:

6^th: Will be looking at how hormones initiate puberty, during which the students will be broken into gender groups.

7^th: Will be discussing acne.

8^th: Will be learning the function of each sexual organ.

Thank you from, The Purple Team