Psychology
We have been studying Personality this trimester. Students viewed a portion of "Inside Out" and learned about the various parts of the brain that influence our personality. Students created Brain Superheros to represent the various parts of the brain and how they impact personality. We have also taken multiple personality tests. Everyone loved seeing what the tests had to say about their personalities and we had some great discussions about reliability and validity of these types of test- especially over time. Next up- Twin studies and approaches to personality including Freud and Maslow!
Literary Magazine
We have worked on getting things organized for creating this year's literary magazine. Students have set up the digital file for InDesign, and have begun scanning and editing artwork.
Cooking (M)
The Monday cooking elective is off to a great start! Spring Break and a Snow Day have limited our time to cook a little bit. They have made mini-cheesecake bites and fudge to share with the Purple Roomers for birthday treats. They wanted to try to make flan and they did a fantastic job! Next up, chocolate nests for Spring.
Music Games
During our first meeting of Music Games, the students and I decided that we would change our elective to "Games of the Arts." With that idea in mind, we have played singing board games and music card games, acted out various improvisation (theater) scenes, played Pictionary, and reviewed some rhythm notes. When the weather warms up we will enjoy some music games outside and also continue our improvisation activities as well as some games that the students have chosen or created.
Typing
In the the Typing Elective, each student has been given a user account. Meeting only on Mondays, students have been reviewing the keyboard through a fun way to type using Dance Mat Keyboarding. Students are enjoying the overall pace of this software program. Many have seen an improvement in their typing speed. When we take typing test drills in class; many are excited to see that their speed has improved. So coming to class for this elective is fun!! It definitely has built their confidence.
Red Room Learning Buddies
Learning buddy time coincides with afternoon center time. The Red Roomers love having the middle schoolers join them in their play. These learning buddies often help to extend the use of materials in ways the kids really benefit from (snap circuits, Lego, magnets, etc). Always a highlight of the week!
Handwriting
Students have been learning efficient methods of writing. We've focused on letter formation and hand grip. We've also entertained the "personality" of writing, as well as forensic study of hand-writing.
Graphic Design
In Intro to Graphic Design we have talked about how graphic designers create an image for a business. Students have started sketching ideas for a logo to represent a business they have created, or redesigning a logo that already exists. They have drawn an image that they will convert to digital art to use in their logo, and have started learning some of the basic tools in Adobe Illustrator.
Bucket Drumming
This is a fun, talented group of students. We "hit the ground drumming" the first class as we discovered and played various drumming techniques for buckets. The students can now almost play 2 full songs with techniques such as head hits, rim hits, stick clicks, and floor hits. The students are all doing an amazing job reading the music for these techniques. The music includes rhythm notes as well as lines to represent the various technique to be played. We plan to perform for one or two of the classes soon and then begin new songs that we can showcase at the end of the school year.
Children's Garden
Public Art
So far, the students have examined what is public art. They learned about the roll it plays in public spaces and how people interact with the objects. Since they will be participating in creating a public art piece for the NRV in a given format of a window pane; they have to decide as a group what to display and how it relates to the space it will be exhibited in. The show will be at Montgomery Museum sometime in June.
The students have brainstormed ideas about what is the NRV on a personal level, what objects to represent the NRV, and what materials to use such as painting, drawing, stencil or laser cutting to use on the window. There is still not a complete picture on what the final piece will be, hopefully in the next few weeks this will develop as they student begin to experience with ideas and materials, and begin to work on the window pane.
The Stock Market Elective has rocketed with students learning about stocks and mutual funds. While we have had limited time in class due to spring break and other events, students are enjoying their participation in a "REAL-TIME" market game with fictitious money. Students are investing carefully. While the markets seems to rise and fall due to the unexpected events of today's economy. For example, pending trade wars with China, the scandal at Facebook and even the President's tweets with Amazon have made students aware of how these events can affect their stock's value.
Greenhouse
Students have jumped right in where the previous greenhouse group left off. They're enjoying the harvest of cherry tomatoes, starting seedlings for our spring sale, and weeding the plots.
Cooking (F)
Purple Curriculum Updates
Pre-Algebra I with Seema:
After finishing up chapter 12, we reviewed for the assessment and the students took their test. Next we move on to review weeks for the end of year assessment. I will keep you posted on our progress and let you know when I think we will be ready to take that test as soon as I know.
After finishing up chapter 12, we reviewed for the assessment and the students took their test. Next we move on to review weeks for the end of year assessment. I will keep you posted on our progress and let you know when I think we will be ready to take that test as soon as I know.
Pre-Algebra II with Jared:
We spent the week graphing. Students learned about slope, and practiced how to measure the slope of a line, determine the slope given two points, and graph a line with a given slope and point. On Thursday we took a brief quiz on this. Then we started discussing non-linear graphs.
Pre-Algebra III with Ann:
Students finished chapter 9 and took their test on Thursday. We will begin Chapter 10 on Monday- focusing on graphical representations of data. Our end of the year test will be May 1.
Students finished chapter 9 and took their test on Thursday. We will begin Chapter 10 on Monday- focusing on graphical representations of data. Our end of the year test will be May 1.
Algebra I with Molly:
This week students learned methods for factoring more complex
polynomials. They also learned to recognize special cases to apply “short-cuts”
when factoring. We will finish the chapter 9 lessons early next week, review,
and take a test on polynomials and factoring by Friday.
Language Arts with Jared:
Students finished writing the rough draft of their Authors' Tea stories, and then worked on revisions. We also made progress in our novels. 8th graders watched the first half of the film To Kill a Mockingbird, as we have finished the first half of the novel.
World Studies & U.S. History with Ann:
We wrapped up the 1920s this week by presenting FakeBooks. Students also took a quiz on the material. Next week, we will begin the Great Depression.
We wrapped up the 1920s this week by presenting FakeBooks. Students also took a quiz on the material. Next week, we will begin the Great Depression.
Earth Science with Molly:
Students continue to focus on the water cycle, as we learn more about
our weather unit. We’ve done demonstrations and labs to create clouds and make
them disappear, filter water through different sized grains, and measure
humidity with a psychrometer.
Spanish with Corinne:
Sunshine Spanish
HS Spanish I, part II
Sunshine A
This week students studied and reviewed for a test on
chapter 3B, maintaining your health.
Sunshine B
This week students practiced and reviewed for a test on Chapter 8A, going on vacation.
This week students practiced and reviewed for a test on Chapter 8A, going on vacation.
This week we learned how to conjugate –er and –ir infinitive
verbs in the preterite (past) tense. We also learned about the irregular verb
“ir” (to go) in the past.
HS Spanish II, part I
This week we began learning about the imperfect tense. The
imperfect is a past tense, but is used to talk about ongoing or repeated
actions in the past. Students chose to do a project in place of a test for this
chapter. Their project is called “cuando era niño” (when I was a child) and
will be a presentation on themselves as children. I have given everyone a
rubric with the points and requirements, and these projects will be due on
Monday April 23rd.
HS Spanish II, part II
This week we reviewed the vocabulary from Chapter 7A,
cooking. We also reviewed positive informal commands (students learned these in
6th grade), and then learned about negative informal commands. Students
received the rubric and outline for their cooking project. They will research a
dish from a Spanish speaking country and present the recipe and history of the
dish, and after we will have an 8th grade only “Spanish lunch”.
Projects and food are due on Friday April 27th.
Art with Patti:
Students
are given engagement grades for each class. As a reminder, students are
informed about their work in different ways. They submit work/create an online
portfolio, assignments and grades are sent home weekly through Google
Classroom, they reflect on their art in both Artsonia and with Google
Classroom. This is a great way to check in with students about grades and
assignments.
Sixth - Weaving - Small
Woven Tote: Students explore fiber arts 4/4 - Students add 2
more "wingspans" of yarn, overlapping "tails", and
continuing pattern.
4/3 - Begin weaving: (students review how to use
the yarn wall) and weave in a "wingspan" length of yarn. Foreground,
Middleground, Background Students will complete a project that includes foreground,
middleground, background, overlapping elements, and diminishing size. Students
are encouraged to BE CREATIVE with theme choice, thinking beyond typical
landscape. Art Project: "Fun" Reflection
For this project, students create an artwork based on the theme
"fun". They are to use any medium that best fits the project,
thinking about composition and creating a focal point. Art Project:
Symbolic Portrait Think
about portraiture in an abstract way. What are likes, how time is spent,
favorite foods, hobbies, family representation, favorite places to visit,
personal beliefs, how you define yourself. Create an artwork that is a
representation of yourself, combine several visual illustrations to convey a
composition of imagery representing self without the focal point being a
self-portrait. Paint, collage, draw, text and lettering can be used to create
this work.
Seventh
- Surrealism:
Students learn about Salvador Dali and the surrealistic art style 4/4 -
Realistic v. Surrealistic: On a new piece of paper, and the same object,
students thought about how they could change their object (animate it, add a
different texture, change the environment, etc.) and drew the object in a new
form. 4/3 - Using pencil, students added
value to imply dimension in their drawn objects. 3/28 - Students chose an
object from around the art room to draw from. They concentrated on contour line
only. Self Guided Clay Project
Students are using the skills and inspiration from the clay trinket box they
have completed. They are exploring other ways to use pinch, slab, coil,
sculpting and joining clay pieces of their own design. Art Project: Using "Space"
Students completed an art journal warm-up, which features positive and negative
space. For this projects students will expand on the idea of using the element
of art, space. How do artists create the look of depth, and add dimension on a
two-dimensional surface? Students need to think about foreground/background, how
to use value, how to use size, how does color change to show depth? Art Project:
"Fun" Reflection For
this project, students created an artwork based on the theme "fun".
They are to use any medium that best fits the project, thinking about
composition and creating a focal point.
Eighth - Romare Bearden:
Collage 4/5 - Students drew from observation. They chose an object
around the room or one of their printed images to practice drawing contour
lines and gesture lines. 4/4 - Students continued to print images
Art Project: "My World"
For this project students created an artwork based on the theme "My
World". They are to use any medium that best fits the project, thinking
about composition and creating a focal point. Art Project: All About Color To
further explore color (one of the elements of art) students will create a
representational project where the composition includes all of the hues in the
color wheel, plus neutrals, and black and white.
Computer Lab with Lorraine:
This week the Purple Room students continued to work on their Thinglink projects. Many were continuing to work on the image in Google Drawing which will be uploading to Thinglink. Secondly, after choosing a relevant topic from the book, students will create a five slide Google Slides presentations. This part of the project requires research and citing their sources. Next students will upload an appropriate Youtube video about their topic, an appropriate sound and an usual fact and short discussion. We will present this projects during the third week in April.The 6th and 7th grades students are creating their project on the novel, The Witness and
The 8th grade students are creating their projects on the novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird".
P.E. and Health with Matt:
Life Skills / Sex Ed with Molly:
6th and 8th did science during Life Skills this
week to make up the time missed during our field trip. 7th grade
students discussed what it means to be male or female, then learned more about
gender identity. We then discussed sexual orientation and attraction. Next
time, 7th grade students will watch and discuss a video about sexual
orientation.
Thank you from,
The Purple Team
The Purple Team
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