Weekly Team Email - 1/27/17

Greetings Team Falcon Families:

Happy National Puzzle Day! We trust by now you’ve received your child’s progress reports for trimester two. If not, please be in touch with your child’s advisor. Here’s a look at your child’s experience last week on Team Falcon.

Humanities: We continued to examine and interpret several primary sources concerning the fate of slavery in the antebellum U.S. We spent a full class period unpacking Thomas Jefferson’s famous “Firebell in the Night” letter, regarding his feelings toward the Missouri Compromise and the fate of the Union. We paid particular attention to the skillful way he used metaphors to express himself. After a brief overview of the 5Ws of the Civil War (who, what, where, when, why), we backtracked and began the process of creating a timeline of some of the key events that happened on the road to the Civil War. The week culminated in a wonderful presentation Friday by noted Civil War historian, Howard Coffin, accompanied by Mr. Kaigle and Mr. Strong from the General Stannard House Committee, and Mr. Ballard from the Milton Historical Society. Team Falcon students were a warm audience for this lively presentation that helped bring the Civil War to life for us. We encourage you to ask your child about the key ideas that s/he took away from the presentation.

This coming week, we will continue looking at the Civil War in one part of humanities, while the other part will focus on the informational writing portion of the science fair. This is a great opportunity to show the cross-curricular connections of our material, and we look forward to supporting their work in this way!

Science: Last week students were working on representing data in tables and graphs so that they can analyze their data starting on Monday. Students reviewed an example graph and data analysis (due on Tuesday, 1/24), and completed a plan for their graph (Step 10). Next, students began using Google Sheets to build a data table that would graph the data like they planned. This was a Google Classroom assignment that was due on Friday, 1/27. Next week, students will write their data analysis and conclusions, and edit their other written pieces. This coming week is the last full week before the SEF. Once again, students are welcome to stay after on Wednesday and Thursday if they let me know ahead of time so I know they have arrangements to get home.

In other news, all of the remaining brook trout eggs have now hatched and are feeding off their yolk sacs and swimming around the bottom of the suspended basket. They are expected to begin feeding on solid food and swimming up in the water column after we return from winter break.

Grade 6

Math:. Students are continuing to work with percents. They practiced finding the whole number when given a percent of the number using tape diagrams, double number lines and equivalent ratios. Students solved problems like the following: Sally is buying an item on sale that is 25% off and she saved $15 what was the original cost?  Students also continued their practice of adding and subtracting mixed numbers.

Students will have a summative assessment on Thursday, February 2, that will focus on unit rates, ratios and percent of number. Students could practice these skills on Tenmarks or Khan Academy.

Grade 7

Math:  Students are continuing to work on the signed number unit.  Students have been practicing addition and subtraction of positive and negative numbers using horizontal and vertical number lines. We are also continuing to review fraction addition and subtraction with mixed numbers.

Please continue to encourage your child to practice their signed number and fraction addition and subtraction skills at home using Khan Academy or Tenmarks.  

Grade 8

Math: Students began the week learning about the Pythagorean Theorem.  They worked on applying the theorem to find missing side lengths of right triangles. Students also reviewed adding and subtracting mixed numbers.  We will continue the exploration of the Pythagorean Theorem in the coming weeks as well as begin an exploration on similarity.          

Students can continue to explore these topics on Khan Academy or Tenmarks.                          

Personalized Learning: Students took some time to research their topics of interest and began posing some possible inquiry questions based on those topics.