Math
Monday, Zoomshrooms had a lesson on converting fractions, decimals, and percents. Tuesday and Wednesday they practiced those skills independently with a solve and color, a matching worksheet, and a modified Go-Fish game. They were diligent workers Tuesday and Wednesday which allowed me to give our Gamma shadow students their own lessons on percents. Thursday we had a lesson on bonds and asset allocation. They spent time researching bonds and when and why they should invest in them.
Shockwave students started the week by recalling formulas. As a class we wrote the area formulas for squares, rectangles, parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids. All formulas learned last year. Then we added our new 7th grade formula, the area of a circle. They used all 6 formulas to find areas of composite figures on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday Shockwave students had an introductory lesson on congruence and similarity. They ended the week with a lesson on scale drawings.
Algebra students transitioned from system of equations to system of inequalities. On Monday they learned how to graph inequalities, then on Tuesday they stepped up to graphing system of inequalities. That concludes this unit, so they spent Wednesday and Thursday working on an escape room. Hopefully they will escape Monday!
Geometry students learned about medians, centroid, altitudes, and orthocenters. Additionally, they studied the Triangle Inequality Theorem and determined if specified sides could create a triangle. They ended the week with a spirited game of BINGO to practice circumcenter, incenter, and centroid. The first round was a tie with a simultaneous BINGO!
Language Arts
We kicked off the week with our second book club discussion about War Horse. This book is quite unique in that it’s a story of World War I told from the perspective of a horse. On Tuesday we celebrated our main character, Joey, with activities about horses. First we watched a newsclip about equine therapy and learned how horses are excellent “therapists” for people suffering from anxiety and PTSD. We then learned about the suffix “ine” (relating to, like) and played a game matching “ine” words (equine, porcine, murine, etc.) to their animal pictures. Last but not least, we worked together to label the anatomical parts of a horse: fetlock, forelock, girth, hock, and more.
Wednesday we began a story quilt project about War Horse in which we are focusing on conflicts from the perspective of Joey, the horse. We did a quick lesson/review about internal and external conflicts then small groups worked together to identify all the conflicts in the novel that directly affected Joey. Thursday each group made a plan to split the work among their members and type all those conflicts onto a graphic organizer. Monday they’ll create a quilt to display it all!
Theme
Armistice has been declared! War is over! PEACE!
This week in Theme, students focused on the end of World War 1. We started the week off by focusing on how conflict ended in the 11th hour, of the 11st day, in the 11th month of 1918. The significance of Armistice Day was analyzed in countries around the world, and students then traced the legacy of that day and how it transformed into Veterans day. Students learned the differentiate between Memorial Day, a solemn occasion honoring the nation’s military dead, and Veterans Day, a celebration of the service given by all those who wore military uniforms
Students created World War 1 Commemorative Coins based on design techniques used by the United States Mint. Students generated symbols of reverence and respect to use as design elements on their coins. The results were absolutely amazing!
In keeping with the ideas of honoring military service, students also learned to properly fold and store the American Flag, other procedures of flag etiquette, and the history of various versions of the flag. One of our guiding concepts in our Theme for the World Wars is how patriotism was a driving force behind World War 1. We will be transitioning to World War 2 next week.
Mr. Steve wanted to thank those who have reached out to thank those of you who have sent information dn samples of their family contributions for the war. We have had the students learn history in class with great benefit. We still need volunteers to drive students and attending staff to Camp Mabry on March 2nd. Please reach out to Mr. Steve through email to let me know if you can go and how many students you can accommodate in your vehicle.
