Middle School: Week of Feb 27

Monday Zoomshrooms studied mathematical properties they have been using since they were young: commutative, associative, identity, and inverse. They then learned a new property called the distributive property. Tuesday they practiced using the distributive property with a puzzle. Freddie said “I really liked the puzzle and want more of that style”. Once everyone completed the puzzle the class played Competing Integers. The class split into two teams and sent pairs up to compete against each other. The competitors were read an integer operation problem and had to write the problem on the whiteboard, solve it, then box the answer. First competitor to box the right answer won a point. Everyone insisted we should play Competing Integers again. Wednesday the Zoomshrooms identified synonyms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and equals. With those synonyms we were able to change English sentences to algebraic expressions and equations.

Shockwave students completed their robots on Monday and started their final check in for the quarter. The beginning of Tuesday was dedicated to finishing up check ins and logic problems. The second half of Tuesday was a quick review lesson on volume of rectangular prisms. They transitioned from using the formula to . Wednesday they learned the second volume equation is also used to find the volume of triangular prisms. Once done with the triangular prism lesson they tried to connect four while solving practice problems. Everyone was able to finish the triangular prism lesson and connect four, so as an award, the class partnered up to challenge each other in chess.

Algebra students were introduced to simplifying radicals on Monday including square roots and cube roots. Tuesday they completed the previous day’s work and two different mazes to practice simplifying radicals. Wednesday they continued to simplify radicals to then add and subtract the radicals with the same index and radicand. This finishes up the unit.

Geometry students started trigonometry, the study of triangle measurement. They were introduced to the sine, cosine, and tangent functions. We had a great discussion on the definition of sine and used the unit circle, a circle with a radius of one, to graph the sine function. After the long talk they had a good understanding and flew through their work of using sine, cosine, and tangent to find missing side lengths. On Tuesday they were introduced to inverse functions and calculated missing angles. Wednesday they used the skills they learned earlier in the week to solve application problems involving angles of elevation and depression.

Creative faucets were turned on full blast this week as all classes continued their narrative story writing projects.

The Zoomshrooms edited and revised the first drafts they wrote last week. These stories are centered around the theme of bravery which they identified from the novel, Number the Stars, and the picture book, The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark. Students decided what text to put on each page, printed the pages, and began illustrating them. 

Shockwave and the Redwoodz edited and revised the stories they wrote last week in style of “The Standover Man,” a book written by one of the characters in The Book Thief.  They determined the themes from the novel and the book within it are love and loyalty, the power of words, friendship, and showing kindness to others; their task was to choose one of those themes and write a personal story about it. Since the character in The Book Thief  painted the pages of Mein Kampf and wrote over those words, we tore pages out of an old book and painted them. After all the paint dried, students hand wrote text on their pages and began illustrating them.

Delta students REALLY got the message this week as they jumped head first into the subject of Propaganda. Using their word wall snapshots from last week, students defined and applied Propaganda in a variety of ways, culminating with their final project for the quarter: producing their own Propaganda posters focused on issues teens are facing in schools and in their communities today.

Monday began with a picture analysis activity focused on how propaganda influenced the minds of American colonists prior to the American Revolution. Students used a FOUR CORNER reveal process to analyze all aspects of the famous engraving of the Boston Massacre by silversmith Paul Revere in 1770. They reviewed Revere’s background to gain understanding and awareness of Revere’s biases as a member of the Patriots, who supported independence from Great Britain, Through the activity, the students discovered that the engraving presented a slanted viewpoint of the incident, identifying images that show sympathy for the Patriot cause.

Applying their understanding of Propaganda devices, students again analyzed posters from the World War II era to identify and explain the devices used. THeir culminating project was to create their own propaganda campaign focusing on issues facing middle school-aged students in their AHB Community and in the country in general.

THe week was capped off with an amazing trip to the Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry. The facility housed really amazing displays of exhibits from the armed forces of Texas from the Texas Revolution to our current war on terror. Students saw thousands of examples of material related to their learning of the first and second World Wars. Some highlights from the trip were the full display of a World War I trench, the dioramas of a French village and the Alamo, a piece of the Berlin Wall. Students listened to stories from a parent who is an active duty recruiter at Camp Mabry. It was a highlight of the school year so far!