Weekly Update - 3/23

Greetings Team Equinox Families:

Next week is SBAC testing. Here is a schedule for the first week of testing. This week’s focus is on English/Language Arts. The following week will focus on Math. Please feel free to review this schedule with your child in anticipation of a smooth testing process. We encourage students to get a good night’s sleep and be ready to go on Monday!

Here’s what your child has been up to this week on Team Equinox~

Science:

This week students finished their egg drop and presentations! All students did an amazing job describing how Newton’s Third Law.  Today, we started tapping trees for our maple syrup unit. Students who did not tap trees today will start this process on Monday.  Please make sure that your student has appropriate footwear and clothing to go outside this next week.
Science Homework: Wear warm clothes all week!

Humanities:

In Social Studies, students learned about anti-semitism in Germany and Europe overall.  Students looked at German laws that discriminated against Jews, taking away their rights and opportunities.  Students also learned about some of the ghettos in Europe that the Jews were forced to live in, and the conditions within these ghettos. We also completed our weekly map quiz and learned about current events through our “Week in Rap” video.  

Homework - Students should complete any missing work. This week: Kristallnacht Reading and Response, Geography of the Ghettos, Jewish Ghetto Worksheet, WWII Timeline/Geography Worksheet

In ELA, we continue to read Prisoner B-3087 and to focus on our speaking and listening. We worked on creating in-depth questions and used those as a base for discussion circles. On Friday, we began work to prepare for our next discussion. Students should answer all eight questions on this worksheet with two pieces of evidence each. Students took their first spelling tests, which have been graded and returned back to them. If they scored 13 or higher, they will move on to the next spelling level.

Homework: Finish Discussion Questions; Independent reading for 30 minutes each night (for 5 of 7 days per week).

7th Grade Math: This week students continued their exploration of volume and surface area.  Students made cylinders and rectangular prisms from the same size piece of paper changing it from landscape to portrait; they predicted which prism or cylinder would hold more popcorn.  They tested their prediction and calculated the volume.

Students explored the surface area of rectangular prisms, triangular prisms and cylinders. Students also practiced adding, multiplying and dividing mixed numbers and decimals.  Students will continue this exploration into next week.

8th Grade Math: This week students continued to their exploration of the Pythagorean Theorem.  Students practiced finding missing side lengths of right triangles using the formula a2 + b2 = c2. Students also explored the Converse of the Pythagorean Theorem, using the formula to figure out if a triangle is a right triangle or not.  Next week they will continue this exploration and also work on volume and surface area of various three dimensional shapes.

Homework: (Optional) If students want to continue to practice and deepen their understanding of our current topics in math they can log on to Khan Academy or Tenmarks.

Social Thinking Ideas:

On the following page you will find social thinking ideas we will talk with our students about as they begin discussion circles in ELA.

 

Team Equinox