Science This week was a little disappointing as our reconstructed rocket launch was scrubbed due to weather. We are rescheduling our lift off for Monday and Tuesday of next week. Please have your child wear old clothes and tennis shoes as the area for our launch is clay and very messy!
Monday and Tuesday were very exciting in the science room. Your children did research on rockets and what forces are applied to rockets. We also read about adding nose cones and fins to help our rockets achieve higher apogees. Your children created diagrams of their reconstructed rockets and detailed procedures for constructing them. Your children applied all their new rocket knowledge to the construction of their updated rockets. We are all very excited to have our new rockets launched! Wednesday was the scheduled launch day but the forces of nature dominated with heavy rain. Disappointment was in the air but excitement is building for next week!
Thursday we played a game to solidify our Force and Motion concepts. We are having a scheduled assessment Wednesday and Thursday in class. This assessment will cover all vocabulary, content reading packets on motion, force, gravity, speed and acceleration. Your children will also need to be able to apply their lab activities to the assessment. All of this information is located in their math/science binder. I have given a copy of our review game 30 Questions to each of your children too. I am very excited about this assessment. We work so hard everyday in the science classroom, I am anxious to see if your children are able to take our classroom activities and information and apply it to a written assessment. This will help me determine where I should place more emphasis on future lessons!
We were able to conclude our week with an amazing guest speaker. Mike Perkins created a phenomenal presentation on rocket history and NASA. Mr. Perkins began by sharing the history of the space program. We were all surprised that the USSR had so many accomplishments in space before the United States began thinking about space exploration. Mr. Perkins had many photos and clips of rocket launches that captured our amazement! The amount of power in each rocket, the courage of the astronauts and the difficulties in discovery of space were all explored with great insights from Mr. Perkins. The presentation concluded with a question and answer session. I had to stop the questions because we ran out of time. I think your children are so inquisitive that they could have continued to ask questions all day. I was very proud of them! Thank you Mr. Perkins!
I would love to conclude with a short story of the kindness and generosity of your children. Our reconstructed rockets had a material list that each student created the previous week. Each student was told several times that they were responsible for bringing in their own 2 liter soda bottle and any other supplies that they may need. On the reconstruction day(s) several students forgot their materials. I had two unscheduled trips to Harris Teeter to purchase forty 2 liter soda bottles. I was very disappointed. We had talked about taking ownership of their learning and acquiring their own materials to succeed in the reconstructed rocket launch. I was hoping that your children heard me and would change their behavior in the future by remember to bring in supplies and taking more ownership of leading their learning. Thursday morning I walked into the resource room and found little baggies on my desk full of money. Coins, dollars and lovely notes. Your children not only apologized but took concrete steps to rectify the situation. I was so touched I had to have a little cry in gratitude that I could be part of the lives of such thoughtful and considerate children! Thank you for sharing them with me! I just love them all!
Math This week has been all about algebra, algebra, algebra! As most of you already know, at CSD we employ a “Concrete-Representational-Abstract” instructional approach. This means that all concepts are first taught at the concrete level or the “doing” stage of math, followed by the representational stage which focuses on the “seeing” of math, and then extended to the abstract or “symbolic” stage of numbers and symbols. Algebra is another great example of a topic that most adults learned only in the abstract form, and as a result, many of us were (or still remain) daunted by the underlying concepts. My goal is for our students to never have to feel this way! Algebra Tiles are fantastic manipulatives, or concrete models of variables and integers, that help us explore concepts to which we can attach the language of mathematics (such as positive and negative numbers, variables, coefficients, expressions, equations, and much, much more). These manipulatives build on the foundation laid by Hands-on-Equations Program taught in elementary school and serve as the perfect segue into higher level algebraic thinking and problem-solving required of polynomials, trinomials, and quadratic equations.
We began the week by learning all about the different Algebra Tile pieces. From there, we deepened our understanding of the rules of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers, as well as how to evaluate expressions and solve equations. We focused on the steps of a process by identifying and communicating with key terms, such as “isolating the variable”, using the “additive inverse to create zero pairs” and “dividing by the coefficient.” If you are interested in Algebra Tiles and are curious to know more, please visit my webpage (http://www.mrsv.org/) by clicking here for an Instructional Powerpoint that explains what they are and how they work. Also, for your child’s convenience, I have posted a printable template on my website so that each child can make a set for home use. I hope that each and every child finds this unit to be fun, engaging, and most of all, understandable!
A BIG thank-you goes out to Barbara Kaser for taking over the responsibility of making the answer keys for the Skills Practice portion of the math homework! Please join me in thanking Barbara for her willingness to share her time and talent with ALL 7th graders!!! Thank you, Barbara!
Study Skills Lesson On Friday, students participated in a study skills lesson with Mrs. Alter. Due to the fact that we are now announcing some tests, we want to set the students up for success by teaching them how to study. She listed gave the students four study tips that apply to all subjects:
1) Schedule a time to study the week prior to your test.
2) Find a quiet, comfortable place to study
3) Take a short break after 20-30 minutes
4) Try to make it FUN!
After discussing the general study tips, we then focused on tip number four: MAKE IT FUN. This week, we looked at fun ways to study for a Math test. In the upcoming weeks we will come up with fun study strategies for Science, Social Studies and Language Arts tests.
Seven Fun Ways to Study for a Math Test:
1) Make flash cards: For students who love creativity, make the flash cards artsy. For the English lover, make poems out of the steps to solve a problem. Carry them with you so you can practice whenever you have down time.
2) Study groups: Gather friends together for popcorn and drinks and study together! Sometimes peers can teach one another better than the teachers can!
3) Online or video games: There are so many fun, online math games (remember Jeopardy?). You can do these on your own or with friends. Many games are also available for video game consoles. Playing while studying is one of the best ways to learn.
4) Make your own study guide: and trade with a friend. Look through your notes and pull out the most important information from the unit. Give it to a friend (and get one from them) to complete.
5) Be the teacher-teach your sibling or your parents. If you can teach something to someone, then you REALLY know it!
6) Act it Out-Drama lovers: there are many word problems that can be performed! Add to the fun by video taping your math acting skills and sharing it with the class.
7) Turn your notes into a Powerpoint-For the tech-savvy child, use your study time to turn your day book notes into a Powerpoint. You could even email it to Mrs. V to see if she could use it in class. What a great way to study and teach your peers!
THANK YOU, Mrs. Alter!!!
