Wow January flew by!

UPCOMING EVENTS this week:

• Report Cards are out on Monday
• Visit from King Chavez High School (parents welcome) Tuesday 9:30-10:30
• 8th grade fundraiser Parents’ Night Out: Friday Feb 5 6:00-10:00
• Field trip to Health Sciences High and Middle College(next week): date TBD
  

The wet week of Jan 18-22 could be considered one of the strangest. We had a three day weekend and then we had a three and a half day weekend! The rain, although welcomed, wreaked havoc on our schedule! Some highlights:

• We welcomed a new student this week! Canelle: Hooray another girl!
• We started our math-graphing project. Both the 7th and 8th graders measured the upstairs area of IA. After all rooms were measured, students created a 2D scale model on graph paper.
• Continued working on our unplugged project. Students were preparing their pod casts and worked on an essay explaining what it would be like to live without the five “plugged in” things they absolutely cannot live without.
  

Last week Jan 25-29 seemed to fly by. We crammed a lot of things in that we missed out on from last week.

• Reading Buddies: On Monday mornings we meet with the 3rd graders for reading and fun.
• Edudance is in full “swing”. Not only are students learning how to dance, they are getting learning about manners and etiquette while they dance.
• Current events: students have signed up every other Wednesday for science and social studies currents events. Our first Wednesday started off slowly as not everyone who signed up was prepared. Those who were, did a excellent job!
• In order to catch up on our “Unplugged” project we took a short detour from ecosystems (7th grade) and chemistry (8th grade). We learned about energy, renewable and nonrenewable resources, pollution and conservation. On Friday, students were assigned to choose and complete ONE of the following activities using the 5 “plugged in” things they can’t live without:
  1. Create a graphical representation of consumption levels of common plugged in items.
  2. Research what happens to used “plugged in” items. Recycled? Dumped?
  3. Estimate the amount of money it costs to buy and/or replace your items over two years. We also started recording pod casts. Can’t wait to hear them all!

TWO concerns:

• My supplies are dwindling not from use but from misuse! This past week three of my rulers were broken. I started the school year with full drawers of markers, pencils, pens, scissors, etc. I bought most of it with my own money. I am down to hardly anything. I do not mind students using my supplies but I do mind when those things disappear or are destroyed. Talk to your student about how they can help to keep our classroom community running smoothly. Beginning this week, students can check out supplies from me, but they will need to return them at the end of the period.
• Cell phones and electronics: Students are allowed to use phones, computers and electronics during breaks ONLY unless otherwise cleared with Tony or I. I WILL take them away if they are used during classtime.

Happy New year!



A lot of changes have happened in our class since "last year"!

• Although we lost a couple of students, we gained three awesome new kids: Amanda, Nicholas and Lucas.


• We have a new schedule. We found that lots of time was being wasted with our old schedule and this new one seems to be working wonders.


• Our new MAPS classes include Edu-Dance(you should see their moves!) and Art(wire sculptures)


• We have a class pet. He is a ball python named Steve. He is the most loved reptile in the universe. Who would have thought kids would line up to hold a snake? His favorite place is on someone's wrist during class.

Morning Meetings:
Our morning meetings as always are my favorite time of the day. I love how tight knit our homeroom class is.

Math Skills:
7th graders have been working on mastering integers. 8th graders are working on inequalities in algebra. We have really focused on getting basic skills mastered. Next week both classes will start a graphing project that includes putting the entire school on a coordinate system. Seventh graders will concentrate on the coordinate system and plotting points on an xy graph. 8th graders will learn how to use graphing to solve algebraic equations.

Science:
7th graders kicked off our unit on populations and ecosystems. We are currently learning about genetics and heredity. Ask your student what a larkey is! We plan on incubating chicken eggs in the next couple of weeks.

8th graders kicked off our unit on chemistry. We are currently learning about elements, compounds and mixtures. Ask your student to tell you the difference between a metal and a nonmetal.


Our Unplugged project is well underway. Students are learning about the importance of electricity and what things we need to be "connected" to our society. All students should be done reading "the People of Sparks"by now. We are currently working on gathering information for their podcasts. Each student was to collect three articles pertaining to the topic they chose about energy, electricty or conservation. We will begin Podcast recording next week.

Upcoming events:

• 8th graders are planning a babysitting night fundraiser for Friday February 5 . We hope to turn it into a monthly event where IA parents and maybe parents from the community can drop their kids off for a date night while 8th graders babysit. More details coming in the Sunday nite IA call.
• We scratched the 8th grade Washington DC trip for this year and are planning to go to Sacramento instead. Details are coming! Look forward to a call or email from Clarissa's mom about how we can make this trip a reality.
• For February: Winter Olympics 8th grade Science Service Project. We will be learning about potential and kinetic energy, motion, velocity and acceleration. Hoping to involve the whole school in Winter Olympics games created by us.