Week of March 28, 2016

Purple Curriculum Updates

Pre-Algebra I with Bina:

This week, we have focused on integer addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Next week, we will focus on various applications for integers, such as solving equations and graphing   a coordinate plane. We will complete chapter 11 by the end of the week. The chapter 11 test will be on Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week.

Pre-Algebra II with Jared:

Students continued working on functions and graphing this week, and they worked on another dot-to-dot project. We wrapped up our chapter with a discussion of how to write equations to solve word problems, and how to transform equations by rearranging the variables. We then reviewed all that we covered this chapter. On Thursday, students took their chapter test On Friday, students worked on better understanding the coordinate plane on IXL.

Pre-Algebra III with Emily:

We continued reading graphs critically and choosing the best graph for the data set/s and explaining why that particular graph shows the data well. We solved word problems by making diagrams. We reviewed the chapter by making a table comparing all the different graphs we had studied. Then students took a culminating quiz.

Algebra I with Molly:

This week we moved on to multiplying two binomials using two different methods. Students learned to factor several different styles of trinomials into two binomials. We practiced this throughout the week.

Geometry with Holly:

We began the week by extending material we had learned on Friday to discuss the Laws of Sines and Cosines, a very challenging activity for the students.  After a review, on Tuesday the students took a quiz over the last several sections' material.  Then on Wednesday, we finished the chapter material by discussing geometric probability,  We spent Thursday reviewing the entire chapter in preparation for the chapter test on Monday, and finished the week by viewing the movie Flatland.

Language Arts with Jared:

This week students finished their outside-reading-book dioramas, and presented their books and displays to the class. They also continued reading their in-class novels. We took this week to introduce their Authors' Tea projects. As 6th graders are focusing their piece on dialogue, we spent a lot of time analyzing how the author of their in-class novel, The Night Tourist, formatted her dialogue, used dialogue tags, and described the emotions and actions of the speaker. 7th graders are focusing on writing a vignette, so we discussed the requirements of a vignette, and read examples from the novel The House on Mango Street. 8th graders are focusing on writing an interior monologue piece, and we explored the formatting options for interior monologues.

World Studies with Emily:

This week we read about ancient Rome from a couple different sources and in a couple different styles. Students labeled and colored a map of the Roman Empire and learned about the government and laws of the Roman Republic. Students listened to their classmates summarize current events and seventh and eighth graders played a geography game based on the Mediterranean. Eighth graders began a Discovery Channel video series on Ancient Rome. 

Life Science with Molly:

This week we continued to focus on heredity. Students did an activity called Crazy Traits creating an alien, then mating them and crossing their alleles for each trait. These alien families can be seen in the science room. Students observed a long-term experiment we set up where a water plant, elodia, was enclosed in an inverted cylinder under water. After putting the plant in the sun for a week or so, we were able to observe the oxygen made by the photosynthesis process in the plant. We began incubating a new batch of eggs donated by a local farmer who possesses a rooster, so we hope the eggs will be fertilized. On the half-day, 8^th grade students learned about the unique cells of Henrietta Lacks which were collected and used in labs for many years. 6^th grade students were joined by the rising 6^th grade class where they continued to do the alien allele activity.

Spanish with Olga & Corinne:

Morning Spanish
This week in Spanish we began studying reflexive verbs. We practiced being able to recognize when a verb is reflexive or regular, and how to conjugate the verb and choose the correct reflexive pronoun, and we also worked on building sentences using these verbs.
Spanish B

This week we learned about several irregular verbs (decir in the present, hacer and dar in the past). We also learned about Indirect Object Pronouns. We will be having a test on Chapter 8B on Friday April 8th.
Spanish C

We have been looking at vocabulary to describe injuries, emergencies, visits to the doctor's office and the emergency room.  The students have revisions from their last test due on Monday (since today was a half day, I gave them until Monday to hand me the revisions). We also revisited the past tense, and will continue to review this grammar aspect. 

Spanish D/D+

We continue working with "if clauses" and the past subjunctive. We also started looking at articles. We revisited the basic rules of feminine/masculine articles and started looking at some exceptions and why they are exceptions. We will continue that material next week.

Art with Patti:

Students started class adding to their expressive paintings. This week’s focus was negative space and gesture. They also continued working on their artist inspired projects, or the next project, which focuses on the element of art – space.

Computer Lab with Holly:

This week the students created character biographies of characters from their favorite books or movies.  This project allows the students to practice some of the MS Word skills (e.g. section breaks, styles, Table of Contents) that they will need to use when we start our final project next week, the Zoo Project.

Life Skills / Sex Ed with Molly:

This week 6^th and 8^th graders had life skills time and learned about “sexting”. We discussed what it means and watched a video on sexting and the dangers of inappropriate online sharing, as well as the legal issues. 7^th graders did not have class due to a half day, but will cover this next week.

Thank you from, The Purple Team