Math:
This was a wonderful first week!
The 7th graders classified rational numbers on Tuesday and created their own nested diagrams. On Wednesday they reviewed how to add and subtract integers, and on Thursday they completed mazes and a solve and color to continue practicing.
The 8th grade class reviewed how to convert between fractions and decimals on Tuesday, then dived into square roots. Wednesday they learned how to find the square root of perfect squares and on Thursday they learned how to estimate non-perfect square roots.
The Algebra class jumped right in and covered four lessons this week: distribution, solving two-step equations, multi-step equations, and equations with variables on both sides. They ended the week rotating through task cards to practice solving equations.
ELA:
Our first week in ELA set a great tone for the school year, as we dove right into writing and journaling. Students were able to detail their experiences over the summer and outline poems about our new space at AHB.
Students investigated a classic poem, “The New Colossus”, which celebrated the meaning of the Statue of Liberty. Students engaged in an exercise focused on writing about their viewpoints of America through the eyes of Lady Liberty. The statements from the exercise were given to the students, and they arranged them into a new poem.
“The New Colossus” ties into our theme of immigration and our first novel Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Students tackled vocabulary words from the first reading section, and read together to establish the initial actions and characters in the novel.
Theme:
What a great start to the school year in Theme. Students created new Interactive Notebooks and walked through summaries of the new Theme topics for the school year. New students, welcomed in our traditional “bridge” of veteran students, joined the whole class in scavenger hunts, and the creation of class agreements.
Our first theme, Industrialization and Immigration, focuses on the development of the US economy and culture through the industrial revolution. We simulated life in Pre-Industrial America by having students complete a world map in conditions reflecting the 19th Century, with candles and quill pens, the 20th Century, with white board and modern equipment, and lastly the 21st Century, with computers, printers and the internet.
Students also produced skits to dramatize several characteristics of Pre-Industrial America, including Cottage Industries, and subsistence farming.
What a great first week it was for students in the Upper School! Getting to know one another and their teachers, and engaging in fun activities, like creating poems about their viewpoint on America in ELA class to kick off a new novel study.
AT TOP: New Upper School students are welcomed by veteran AHB students as they make their way upstairs on the first day of school. Ms. Amanda posts new Epsilon Class agreements.
As part of our first week orientation, Epsilon students work to check items off their list during an Equipment Scavenger Hunt.
After creating phrases that illustrate viewpoints of America, ELA students engage in creating poems relating to the famous work“The New Colossus”. The poems tie into our first novel, UPRISING, a historical fiction novel about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
7th grade students playing Integer War and working on their daily lesson.
Our first theme focuses on the growth of US society during the Industrial age. Students created skits to illustrate Pre-Industrial life, and also simulated school in the 19th century with candles and quill pens.
