Week of March 21, 2016

Purple Curriculum Updates

Pre-Algebra I with Bina:

This past Tuesday, the 22nd, the Blue Roomers took the chapter 10 test on probability. Probability is a difficult concept; therefore, I have given the students the opportunity to correct their tests and earn half credit for corrections. I helped the students with corrections during class and after school. They submitted their corrections on Friday, the 25th. After I have reviewed their work and given them credit for their corrections, I will send the chapter 10 tests home. Meanwhile we have begun covering chapter 11 on integers, coordinate planes, and graphing simple function.

Pre-Algebra II with Jared:

In Pre-Algebra II, students continued working on dot-to-dot exercises, to perfect their understanding of the coordinate plane. They also worked on graphing functions, discovering function rules, interpreting graphs, and figuring out simple and compound interest.

Pre-Algebra III with Emily:

This week students took a quiz on the first four sections of the chapter. They practiced reading and interpreting circle graphs as well as finding the central angles  and then using compasses and protractors to make circle graphs. We continue to practice reading graphs critically, choosing the best graph for the given data, and then making the graphs carefully and with all the appropriate elements.  

Algebra I with Molly:

This week we reviewed Chapter 8 on Monday and took a test on Tuesday. Our new chapter has us reviewing polynomial expressions. They practiced adding and subtracting polynomials, then finding the greatest common factor for each term of the polynomial. We learned to factor out a greatest common factor (GCF) from a trinomial.

Geometry with Holly:

We started this week in Geometry with a quiz over the first three sections of material,  Then, on Tuesday we discussed using trigonometry to help in calculating area, and on Wednesday and Thursday discussed  circles, arcs, and how to calculate the area of circles, sectors, and segments of circles.

Language Arts with Jared:

This week students reviewed for their vocabulary test via a lengthy game of bingo. They also reviewed for their grammar test on verbs. Besides these two tests, students spent much of the week working on a shoebox diorama about their most recent outside reading book.

World Studies with Emily:

Seventh and eighth graders read a chapter from the book "The History of the World in 100 Objects" by Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum. It was about how a sculpture from the Parthenon of a centaur battling a Greek man personified the ultimate fight: the battle of rationality versus irrationality, of reason versus barbarity, and about the concept of validating war by dehumanizing your enemy, making them the "other". Eighth graders had some excellent discussions, as did seventh grade, but time ran short. Sixth graders read about Greek democracy and completed some worksheets about the reading.  On Wednesday, all students practiced asking and answering common NHD judging questions. On Thursday, all classes began reading about the Roman Republic. And, of course, we all went to Radford University on Friday for the NHD regional competition.

Life Science with Molly:

This week we continued to candle our incubating eggs and learn more about birds. We also learned more about heredity and probability. Students learned how to use Punnet squares to predict the possible genetic outcomes of offspring. Students did an activity about dominant and recessive traits present in our classroom such as dimples, widow’s peak, and cleft chin.

Spanish with Olga & Corinne:

Morning Spanish
This week we reviewed for and took a test on Tuesday on clothing vocabulary and stem changing verbs.

Spanish B

We started a new chapter where we are learning vocabulary to talk about volunteer work, the environment, and places in the community.  We will continue working with the preterite (past) tense and will learn new irregular verbs in the present tense. We returned the last test to the students and it should be in their portfolios.

Spanish C

On Monday, we reviewed for the assessment that we had on Wednesday.  This unit is proving to be challenging for most students, so we will be revisiting some of the material.

Spanish D/K

We continue working with the past subjunctive. On Wednesday, we had a quiz on this tense/mood.  We also listened to music and completed lyrics with missing words as a listening activity. I assigned the students poems to be memorized by April 15. This is a typical activity for HS Spanish II, and  great way to practice pronunciation and learn new vocabulary words.

Art with Patti:

For warm up this week, students added a pattern using a non-traditional too (paper tubes, bubble wrap, card board), they also added an area of texture. After they did a quick response to the warm up prompt, students continued work on their projects. Most of them are working on either artist inspired project, and some have started an art project responding to the element of art “space”. We also looked a quick video about M. C. Escher.

Computer Lab with Holly:

This week the students completed the Word documents they began last week using styles to document their favorite landmarks from the Landmark Game.  The 7th graders presented their landmarks to the rest of the class.

Life Skills / Sex Ed with Molly:

This week 8^th grade students had a guest speaker, former New School student now high school freshman, Cecelia Kominski. She spoke positively to the students about her experience as a freshman and gave them great advice about their next adventure in high school. 6^th grade students discussed the images we found in magazines last week. We then watched video about eating disorders, steroids, and other extreme things teens do to manipulate how they look. 7^th grade students did not have life skills this week, due to our history speaker. Next time, we will expand out media influence to popular music before moving on to pornography in print and on the internet, specifically on apps like Instagram.

Thank you from, The Purple Team

Week of March 14, 2016

Purple Curriculum Updates

Pre-Algebra I with Bina:

On Monday, we began chapter 10 and completed the unit on Friday. Chapter 10 was only five lessons long. Each student was given a study packet on Friday. We will review together on Monday and take the chapter 10 test on Tuesday, March 22^nd. After the test we will begin chapter 11 on integers, coordinate planes, and graphing.

Pre-Algebra II with Jared:

In Pre-Algebra II, we began the week with a celebration of Pi Day. Students competed amongst themselves in an attempt to find the value of pi to the greatest accuracy. They measured all sorts of circles (some as big as hola-hoops), and students got as close as 3.135 for the ratio between the circumference and diameter. We then ate pie. Students then continued exploring number sequences and patterns, before discussing functions. On Friday we had our chapter quiz, and introduced graphing on the coordinate plane with a dot-to-dot puzzle.

Pre-Algebra III with Emily:

We began the week after spring break with Pi Day activities, including reading a Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi, drawing two circles of different sizes and measuring each circumference and diameter and then dividing to see how close everyone could get to the ratio that is pi, and we ate home-made, gluten free cherry pie (thanks, Jared!). Then we started Chapter 10: Using Graphs to Analyze Data. We are skipping geometry chapters eight and nine for now. Students made frequency tables, line plots, stem-and-leaf plots, and box-and-whisker plots. Students used intervals to display data and read graphs critically.  

Algebra I with Molly:

We returned from Spring Break with a celebration of Pi Day (yes, we ate pie!). Students turned in their pie recipes complete with equations for the ingredient amounts. We learned about exponential functions. We applied these to exponential growth and decay equations. We will review the chapter on Monday and take a test on Tuesday.

Geometry with Holly:

We started off our return from Sprint Break by celebrating Pi Day on Monday.  Our activities included an exploration of many things we could do with a paper circle, a game of Mono-PI-ly, where the students reviewed many aspects and uses of pi, and the always favorite pie eating.  On Tuesday we began Chapter 10 and the study Area.  So far we have discussed how to develop the area of parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids, kites, rhombuses, and regular polygons.  We finished the week by discussing the areas and perimeters of similar figures.

Language Arts with Jared:

This week students worked on reviewing the vocabulary words from their past three quizzes, and whittled down the 60 words into a small stack that they need to review for next week's Vocabulary test. Students also took their individualized spelling quiz, focusing on words that they had misspelled in their writing over the past few months. We're also reaching the end of our grammar unit on verbs, and will begin review for Tuesday's grammar test. In our literature unit, we took advantage of the nice weather and read from our novels out loud in the sun outside.

World Studies with Emily:

All classes watched a final movie on ancient Greece and completed a packet of activities including video questions, reading vocabulary and doing a cross word puzzle, studying a timeline and answering questions, completing true or false statements, and reading interesting facts about ancient Greece. 7th and 8th graders read a couple-page handout about Athenian democracy and compared it with the US democracy. Students did some follow-up exercises – multiple choice, flow charts and Venn diagrams. 6th graders watched two performances – a Greek myth and Elise and Mason's NHD project. Everyone discussed annotated bibliographies and process papers as we looked at examples online. Students ended the week by reading about Alexander the Great, writing responses in their journals, and debating whether he was a hero or a villain in teams of two against two.

Life Science with Molly:

This week we began observing and candling our fertile eggs in the incubator. Students learned about chicken anatomy and how an egg is formed in the chicken every 24 hours. We’ve had our last two Luna moth cocoons hatch out and can see that we have one male and one female by comparing their antennae. Hopefully, we will have fertile eggs! This week we began studying heredity with a focus on Mendel’s pea plants.

Spanish with Olga & Corinne:

Morning Spanish
We reviewed the chapter we were working on before Spring Break. We worked with stem changing verbs and the vocabulary to talk about clothes and going shopping.

Spanish B

We reviewed the chapter we were working on before Spring break.  We reviewed the past tense of all regular verbs and the irregular verb "ir" (to go).  We had  test on Friday on these forms and the vocabulary.  We also watched another episode of the miniseries "¿Eres Tú, María?" and the students have started making some interesting guesses about the ending.

Spanish C

We continue working with two past tenses (preterite and imperfect) and when to use each.  I reminded the students to be patient when learning these forms because they can be challenging.  We spent the week reviewing them.  We also learned vocabulary to talk about natural disasters (hurricanes, tornados, storms, etc).  We will have a unit test next Wednesday.

Spanish D/D+

We took a step back to review the preterite tense, which we had not seen for a while. We revisited regular and irregular verbs. I am know confident that the students have a good grasp of that tense.  Then we went back to the past subjunctive.  We will have a quiz on these forms next Wednesday. We finished the week by listening to music.

Art with Patti:

This week we are beginning class with an art warm up, where students are creating layers for an expressive painting. They did a responsive color background and a translucent glaze so far. They are also continuing to work on their current projects. Most of them are working on either artist inspired project, and some have started an art project responding to the element of art “space”.

Computer Lab with Holly:

This week on Monday/Tuesday, the students submitted their final guesses for the Landmark Game, and on Friday found out the results.  All three of our teams placed in the top five schools for their age group.  Congratulations to all! They worked hard researching clues to try and determine  all of the landmarks.  On Thursday/Friday the students learned how to create and use styles in MS Word, and used these styles to begin creating documents to describe their favorite landmarks from the Game.

Life Skills / Sex Ed with Molly:

This week students browsed magazines looking for ads in magazines critically. They were asked to find ads that seemed to be trying to sell something more than their product. They cut out these ads and tried to explain what the implied or promised benefits of purchasing the product were. These posters can be found in the science room. We will discuss these ads this week and write reflections. Next time, we will expand out media influence to popular music before moving on to pornography in print and on the internet, specifically on apps like Instagram. 

Thank you from, The Purple Team

Week of February 29, 2016

Purple Curriculum Updates

Pre-Algebra I with Bina:

On Wednesday, the students completed the chapter 9 test. For the remainder of the week we reviewed for the end-of-year test. Following break we will begin chapter 10 on probability. I have posted some online math games on Edmodo for students who want to use them as additional review.

Pre-Algebra II with Jared:

We started this week with a review of finding the volume of cylinders and prisms. We then practiced solving various word problems, before reviewing our unit. We spent some time online, working on more challenging problems with IXL. On Thursday we took our chapter test, and then on Friday we introduced our graphing unit.

Pre-Algebra III with Emily:

This week students continued working within a binary number system, reviewed chapter seven, and took the chapter test on Thursday. I explained a few of the more difficult problems from the test on Friday.  Also on Friday, students worked on some fun and challenging math problems that required skills from past chapters. 

Algebra I with Molly:

This week we reviewed and applied their knowledge of exponents to exponential functions. They wrote rules for finding numbers in a geometric sequence, then graphed some exponential functions. We will complete the chapter after Spring Break. Students began work on a Pie for Pi Day activity, which will be due the Tuesday after break.

Geometry with Holly:

This week we finished Chapter 9.  On Monday, with Kerstin, the students discussed Tessellations.  Upon my return on Tuesday we discussed Composition of Transformations.  Then on Wednesday,the students took a quiz over the last four sections.  After a review on Thursday, the students took the chapter test on Friday.

Language Arts with Jared:

This week students took a vocabulary quiz. Grammar topics covered included the passive voice and phrasal verbs. We discussed our literary magazine, and students spent some time thinking about what they would like to submit and revising earlier drafts. In our Greek-myth-based literature unit, eight graders read from the graphic novel version of "The Odyssey," and they compared it to a chapter of the original version. They also explored Onomatopoeia. Seventh graders began their novel Nobody's Princess. Sixth graders continued in The Night Tourist, and following an art activity we discussed how authors describe and represent their characters.

World Studies with Emily:

Students mostly worked with their assigned groups to write a script for a Greek myth.  Students worked well together adapting the myth to a performance, making or procuring sets, props, and costumes for their respective myths, and practicing their plays. All groups except for one performed on Friday. And, on Monday or Tuesday, all students read about the role of social media in this presidential election and about caucuses and primaries from a recent Junior Scholastic magazine. Classes also read a bit about presidential candidates, and then anonymously voted for both a Republican and Democratic candidate. I counted and posted our BNS Purple Super Tuesday results. 

Life Science with Molly:

This week students began taking measurements for their egg osmosis lab. Three control eggs were set up and measured each day as well. They are measuring weight, volume through water displacement, length, width, and circumference of their group’s manipulated egg and taking note of the changes. Students completed work on their cell division posters. 7^th & 8^th grade students learned about how cancer occurs and how it relates to cell division. We reviewed for and took the cell unit test on Friday.

Spanish with Olga & Corinne:

Morning Spanish
We continued working on clothing vocabulary, demonstrative adjectives, and irregular verbs. We will set a date for the test when we come back from break.

Spanish B

We continued practicing the past (preterite) tense of -er and -ir verbs, and the irregular verb to go (ir). We learned about the "a personal" and when to use it. We read from "Alejandro"

Spanish C

We continue working with the Past tense and its two variants. We also continue talking about celebrations, traditions, and cultural differences regarding those.

Spanish D/D+

We continue working with the subjunctive mood. We have been looking at the differences between present and past subjunctive, when to use each, and what it means. We have also been talking about "what ifs" by using the past subjunctive with the conditional tenses.

Art with Patti:

Students have been working on or finishing projects based on a master artist. They are creating artworks that are inspired by the artist. I’m seeing a lot of variety in artist choices of media, sizes, and themes. We have also started talking about the element of art, space that will be the focus of the next project.

Computer Lab with Holly:

This week the student received their third and final week's clues for the Landmark Game, and continued researching then sending and answering e-mail from the other schools.  Due to Sprint Break, the students will miss one week of teamwork to complete researching their Landmarks.  We will have one more class period after we return to finalize their guesses.  However, students may research their landmarks on their own over if they choose to.

Life Skills / Sex Ed with Molly:

This week 7^th & 8^th grade students focused on how the characters in the movie Tinker Bell are portrayed. 6^th grade students watched a short section from a Skills for Healthy Living video about Analyzing Media Influences and specifically how food is marketed to us. We discussed the media influence on what we crave and what we choose to eat, then watched a documentary critiquing the Disney prince and princess stereotypes. We will continue to focus on media and self-image when we return from the break.

Thank you from, The Purple Team