Weekly Update (May 18)

Greetings Team Equinox Families:

• Looking Ahead - The Middle School will be putting on a “Power to the People” Night on Thursday, June 7.  This will be an opportunity for students to showcase their end-of-unit artwork that represents a civil rights struggle.  A letter will be sent home soon with more information.

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

Science:
In Science, we are studying the theory of plate tectonics after learning about Pangea and the Continental Drift.  Students should finish their projects on plate tectonics this weekend if they have yet to.  We will start our study of rocks and minerals next week. 
Our Trout Release Date is set for June 11th from 8am-1pm at Mills RIverside Park.  If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out this form.

Humanities:
In Social Studies, we have begun our Power to the People project by conducting research on an American changemaker who has fought for equality and rights in this country, past or present.  Students have been assigned a person they are interested in researching, and are working to find resources and information about their person and the struggle.  In the weeks to come, students will be writing a research paper about this person, which connects to their art project in ELA.

Homework - Students should complete any missing work (please check PowerSchool and Google Classroom).

In ELA, we finished looking at LGBTQ+ struggle for equality, and introduced our struggle for equality art project, in anticipation of our Power to the People celebration on June 7. Students were also given their STAR reading assessment, and I handed back most students’ scores (one class will receive theirs on Monday). If you have any questions about this assessment, please let me know. Next week, we will start planning out how to finish the art project and the artist statement in time! Students will be given a spelling test on Tuesday. All 7th graders should bring their favorite book to school on Wednesday.

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

7th Grade Math: This week students continued  to explore how to interpret, draw models  and write algebraic expressions and equations to represent real world problems. Students spent time reviewing how to add, subtract multiply and divide rational numbers. Students also took their STAR math assessment.

Next week students will explore the connection between math and poetry.

Optional Homework:  Practice using all operations (+, -, /, x) for rational numbers or practice percent problems on Khan Academy.

8th Grade Math: This week students continued their exploration of  congruence and geometric transformations.  Students continued to practice rotations, reflections and translations of two dimensional figures. Students worked on giving specific directions for transforming figures, for instance including degrees of rotation and direction, clockwise or counterclockwise.  Students also took their STAR math assessment.

Next week on Tuesday students will take a test on rigid transformations.

Optional Homework: Students can continue to practice doing transformations using Khan Academy.

Make it a great week!
Team Equinox

Songs of Change

Today in class, we looked at some songs that represent different struggles for equality. Here, for your listening pleasure, is a Spotify playlist of those songs. Happy listening on this sunshine day...

Weekly Update - 5/11

Greetings Team Equinox Families:

• Looking Ahead - The Middle School will be putting on a “Power to the People” Night on Thursday, June 7.  This will be an opportunity for students to showcase their end-of-unit artwork that represents a civil rights struggle.  A letter will be sent home soon with more information.

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

Science:

In Science, we are studying the theory of plate tectonics after learning about Pangea and the Continental Drift.  Students will start station work and their project next week! We have officially changed from physics to earth science and are excited to spend some time exploring our earth!

Humanities:

In Social Studies, we have looked at the civil rights movement in regards to Native Americans.  We learned about the history of Native Americans in terms of being removed from their land, and examples of art expressions of these struggles as well as examples of Native American activism from the 1960s and on.  We also completed our weekly map quiz and did our weekly current events discussion. Next week we will begin looking at our end-of-unit Power to the People project.

Homework - Students should complete any missing work (please check PowerSchool and Google Classroom).

In ELA, we finished our exploration of African Americans’ struggle for equality and have moved on to the LGBTQ community. We’re looking at art that represents these struggles with an eye towards deciding what art project students will create for our Power to the People celebration. We also worked on identifying independent and dependent clauses, and complex and compound sentences, as preparation for using commas more precisely!

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

7th Grade Math: This week students continued  to explore how to interpret, draw models  and write algebraic expressions and equations to represent real world problems. Students focused on  interpreting one another’s work and writing equivalent expressions and equations. An example of this is 4(x + 2), could be written as x + 2 + x + 2 + x + 2 + x + 2 or 4x + 8.  Students also practiced evaluating expressions by substituting in numbers, for example when x = 1 then 4(1 + 2) = 4 x 3 = 12 and solved equations. Students practiced recording information in a bank ledger using deposits and withdrawals. Students also worked on problems involving percentages, tips, tax, discounts and profit.

Optional Homework:  Practice using all operations (+, -, /, x) for rational numbers or practice percent problems on Khan Academy.

8th Grade Math: This week students began to explore congruence and geometric transformations.  Students learned about rotations, reflections and translations. Students then practiced doing these transformation with a set of directions. For example students would move a geometric shape on a coordinate grid using information like rotate triangle ABC around point A 90 degrees clockwise and then were required to redraw the image of the triangle.

Next week we will continue this exploration and begin to look at how transformation effect a geometric figure.

Optional Homework Students can continue to practice doing transformations using Khan Academy.

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

Social Thinking Ideas:  

Team Equinox