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