Week of October 31, 2016

Purple Elective Updates

Book Club
In book club we finished reading Carrie Ryan's zombie trilogy by reading The Dark and Hollow Places, and then we also read a few of her short stories, which were also set in this post apocalyptic world. We had a lot of discussions about character motivations and plot progression, and questioned why a character's first kiss always seemed to lead to someone's death. 

Cooking
From the middle of the trimester onwards the cooking elective students have made zucchini bread, macaroni and cheese, veggie chop suey,  apple crumble and chocolate chip cookies for birthday treats. We plan to wrap up the trimester with a Halloween/fall themed day and finally a lunch spread to celebrate all their work this trimester. The group has been a pleasure to work with! 

Knitting
Students enjoyed knitting and relaxing during this elective. 

Music in Film
It has been really exciting to see all the creative music the Music in Film students have composed this trimester. Since the last update the students have created movie trailers about a topic they chose. After creating the trailers the students began to compose the music to accompany their videos. We will finish these projects on Monday and then view them during our last class period. The Music in Film students also connected with a professional composer in California (through Skype) who gave them lots of great hints on composing music for film and television. It's been a great trimester. 

Children's Garden
The purple roomers in the Children's Garden elective were all enthusiastic with the children. They played running games outdoors. They read to the children. They danced and played "duck duck goose," and Julianne brought in cool cow baby bottles from the farm to do "show and tell" with the kids.

Stop Motion
This semester in the Stop Motion elective, we learned about the entire animation process, as well the key components and jobs involved in it.  We discussed the ideas of character design, storyboarding, and how to take frame-by-frame pictures.  After working on individual projects for several weeks, we showed our finished products on the last day of class, where we provided feedback to each other about what worked, what didn't work, and what we would do differently next time.

Project Management
This semester we learned about project management tools like Trello and Google Drive. We also learned various project management concepts including agile development and scrum methodology, the different steps taken to complete a project, daily stand-up and parking lot meetings, and some team building activities. The students worked on gathering footage for a large project documentary, and (hopefully) will be finished editing the footage into a movie by the end of the elective.

Red Room Learning Buddies
Red Roomers continue to look forward to Mondays so they can spend time with their learning buddies. These middle school students recently accompanied us on a walk to the Y Gardens, joined us in "center time" play, conducted a hexagon project for bee week, and made paper airplanes with them for transportation week!

Landscaping
Students worked around the BNS playground to clear thorny areas, trim low hanging tree branches, and reposition the mulch around the base of trees. They worked hard and enjoyed the time helping to keep the playground looking beautiful!

Art Extension
In the art elective, students have been concentrating on creating art of individual interest. This trimester the focus has been on video art and paper maché.

Yellow Room Buddies
Purple Room Pals Carson and Nate helped pairs of Yellow Roomers conduct a weather-related experiment. They assisted individual students in making 3D paper dice and 3D paper game pieces, and then played the Cycle of Seasons games in small groups. Carson and Nate also assisted with a lesson related to the Yellow Roomers' study of Native Americans.

Geocaching
We set out from BNS each week to locate a geocache cleverly hidden in close proximity to BNS. Students got better at looking in clever locations and interpreting the hints. A few caches required multiple visits before they were successfully discovered. There are still over a hundred geocaches in Blacksburg alone for them to find! 

Japanese Painting
So far we have painted with water colors: a frog, lizard, cat, bamboo, eel, rabbit, mouse, carp, snail, and snake. For the last class students decorated a note card with their favorite image. 

Purple Curriculum Updates

Pre-Algebra I with MaryAnn:
We began Unit 5 this week with adding and subtracting like and unlike fractions and adding mixed numbers. The students are doing a great job with this unit. Today we had a relaxing math game day The students are allowed to bring any math or strategy game from home on these types of days. Next week we jump back into it with solving equations with fractions and measuring elapsed time. The students will have their unit 5 test next Friday, 11-11.

Pre-Algebra II with Jared:

In Pre-Algebra II, we spent the week multiplying & dividing fractions and mixed numbers. We took a short quiz on Wednesday, and then worked on some math puzzles that required turning numbers into improper fractions or reciprocals in order to solve them. On Friday we practiced these skills online.

Pre-Algebra III with Andrew:

We spent this week finishing up our unit on graphing and using linear equations, and we took our unit test on Wednesday.  After the test, we began our new unit on rational numbers, with a start in greatest common factors and prime factorization, which will lead us into working on fractions in the coming week.

Algebra I with Molly:

This week we learned to set up proportions to solve for a variable. We applied the skills learned for solving proportions to similar triangles. Students solved for congruent sides and applied this to real-world situations, such as finding the height of a tree using lengths of shadows. Later in the week, we worked with map scales and calculating distance on a map. We finished the week working on solving percent problems using proportion equations.

Geometry with Clare:

We have a had a busy week making good progress through Chapter 4. We have been able to spend time working on the proofs game project, too, and I plan on trying these out on Monday after the students have taken a quiz on lessons 4-1 through 4-4. Should be interesting! Thursday we spent a lot of class time discussing just one problem (!), why one particular triangle proof could not work. Although time consuming, I feel such discussions, in which all enthusiastically participate, provide valuable learning on logic, using vocabulary, and visualizing the issues. After that, we were able to spend some time outside using congruent triangles to measure a couple of items. Next week, we will continue with Chapter 4 and there is a research project due Thursday.

Language Arts with Jared:

In Language Arts, I began the week by reading to them for Halloween the short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs. We then looked at a brief Simpsons parody of the short story to lighten the mood. On Tuesday we continued wrapping up a few different units we were working on this trimester. 8^th graders took their grammar test on prepositions, and read the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce. They then watched a Twilight Zone episode, which featured an Academy Award-winning short film based upon the short story, in order to have fodder for starting to write an analytical essay comparing the two.  7^th graders took their grammar test, and their vocabulary test this week. Afterwards, they read the short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury. 6^th graders took their grammar test on prepositions, and then read “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, and for homework read the EC Comics adaptation. The focus of our next essay will be on learning how to write solid thesis statements.

World Studies & Civics with Andrew:

This week in World Studies, we talked more about the background of the American Revolutionary period, looking at some specific influences that shaped the Founding Fathers' ideas.  We reviewed what we learned with a kahoot quiz game.  The students got an introduction to NHD research, and their first research check was assigned for the end of next week.  All of the students also worked on their campaign posters for the Fictional Character Election project.  8th grade students began looking at different campaign strategies used by real candidates, and will wrap that discussion up on Monday.

Physical Science with Molly:

This week we spent time reviewing for our matter test. They watched a review video and completed a packet of review sheets. The answers to the review sheet are uploaded to google classroom. 7^th grade students took their test on Thursday. 6^th and 8^th grade students will take their test next week. We also began a study of the properties of water. Students watched a demonstration of Brownian motion, then did a dilution lab. For Science Fair, all students turned in their preliminary lab report, complete through materials and methods. Next, in an effort to prevent procrastination, students will be giving regular progress reports.

Spanish with Corinne:

Morning Spanish

Sunshine A

This week we finished Chapter 1A, talking about likes and dislikes. We will have a test on the chapter on Tuesday November 8^th. Students joined in with their cohorts on Monday for a cultural lesson on Día de los muertos.

Sunshine B

This week we reviewed for and took a test on Chapter 5B, vamos a un restaurante! Students joined in with their cohorts on Monday for a cultural lesson on the history of Día de los muertos.

Spanish B

On Monday this week we had a cultural lesson about the history of Día de los muertos. We continued working with the vocabulary in Chapter 6A, describing your bedroom. We also learned how to make comparisons, such as better than, worse than, older than, and younger than (“más + adjective + que). We then began learning about the superlative, how to say that someone or something is “the most”. We will continue working with this concept next week.

Spanish C

On Monday this week we had a cultural lesson about the history of Día de los muertos. We spent the other says reviewing for and taking the second quiz on Chapter 1B, extracurricular activities. 

Spanish D

On Monday this week we had a cultural lesson about the history of Día de los muertos. We continued working with the vocabulary in Chapter 7A, making paella and how to form negative tú (informal) commands. We also began learning about the impersonal se, which is used when the subject of a sentence is unknown.

Art with Patti:

Purple Room artists experimented with using painted paper as a shape layer and then explored texture by drawing on top of their shapes for their art warm up. Students then continued working on brainstorming, sketching, and art making with a focus on “happiness” as a theme.

Life Skills / Sex Ed with Molly:

6^th grade students broken into gender groups and looked at how hormones initiate puberty. Each group learned about individual glands or organs of the endocrine system that release hormones and colored them on a diagram of the body. Next time they will read more about puberty and watch a video in split gender groups.

7^th grade students were split into gender groups and watched a video called Straight Talk About Puberty for Boys and another for Girls. Next time they will learn more about puberty in separate gender groups and focus on the puberty growth spurt.

8^th grade students were split into gender groups and body changes during puberty. The boys learned about voice changes male breast changes and read from My Body, Myself for Boys and What’s Happening to my Body for Boys. Girls learned about growth stretch marks and began talking about breast changes through puberty. They read from My Body, Myself for Girls and What’s Happening to my Body for Girls. Next time the girls will continue to learn about breast anatomy and the boys will learn about their respective sexual anatomy.

Thank you from, 
The Purple Team