Hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving break!

Upcoming Events

• Family Night this Thursday Dec 2 Potluck!
Please bring favorite dishes according to your last name:
A-K: Main Dish to serve 6-8 people
L-R: Side Dish plus 1- 2Liter drink
S-Z: Dessert plus 1-2Liter drink

• No School Friday Dec 3 Teacher Professional Development Day

• Friday December 10 7th and 8th grade Field Trip to UCSD(drivers needed for 40 kids. please let me know asap if you can drive)

• Jan 20 Reily's Farm in San Bernardino(2 hours north). This all day trip is a living history exploration of the Revolutionary War. The trip includes dramatic and cultural workshops, a light lunch and two mock battle scenarios. The cost is $20 which includes the fieldtrip, lunch and gas. Please bring money asap as we need to pay a deposit now. Drivers needed!

Class Happenings
Math:
Students continued learning about and identifying the slope and y-intercept. Using pattern blocks, we determined equations of lines. We also learned how to graph a line in just a few seconds using only the slope and y-intercept.
Science:
Before the break, students designed posters to present information they learned about the discovery of atoms and elements. We also"created" edible cookie atoms to understand the structure of the atom and where protons neutrons and electrons are located. We are gathering more information about elements this week before our actual investigation into a “crime scene” that takes place at IA next week.

Fundraising update: We earned over $100 at our second Pizza day! We have over $1100 in our account for Sacramento. Our goal is $10,500 (500 per student)though so we have a lot of work to do!

****A special thank you Crystal’s Family for hosting our garage sale on November 6. Thanks to donations from IA families, we raised $695.37 for our Sacramento trip!

Upcoming Events
• Pizza Fridays I need parent help setting up and picking up pizzas!
• No School Next Week Nov 22-26! Happy Thanksgiving
• Family Night Thursday Dec 2 Potluck! Bring your favorite family dish
• No School Friday Dec 3 Teacher Professional Development Day
• Friday December 10 7th and 8th grade Field Trip to UCSD(drivers needed)

Class Happenings
The last couple of weeks in math have been devoted to introducing functions, function rules and the Cartesian coordinate plane. We played Human Twister to solidify the meaning of the origin, the x-axis, y-axis and graphing ordered pairs. Students are learning how to define slope and y-intercept and use them in linear equations written in the slope-intercept form. We started an ongoing Stretching Slinkies experiment where students gathered data about pennies and nickles. Students graphed the information they gathered and will be using those graphs to find function rules, slope and y-intercept for their data.

Science this month was devoted to more hands on labs. In the wrap-up of our "What's the Matter?" unit, we investigated solids, liquids and gases and their characteristic properties. Students created a non-Newtonian fluid – sometimes known as oobleck or sticky sand. It’s a liquid, no, it’s a solid, no wait, it’s a liquid again! We discovered that one plus one does not always equal two by measuring the height of two cups of water and then measuring the height of one cup water plus one cup sugar. We watched a Styrofoam cup painted like a witch “melt” when set in acetone. We just started our new unit on Atoms and Elements. Our culminating activity will include an investigation into a “crime scene” that takes place at IA.

If you haven’t heard, the 8th graders have been busy raising money and learning real life math skills at the same time. Before our first Friday Pizza Day, students estimated that about 1/3 of the students at IA would order pizza. They calculated the cost of supplies, a breakdown of individual meals, and profit margin. It was exciting to see that our estimations were spot on! We estimated we would sell 67 meals and the actual total was 65. Our class profited $105 after expenses. We look forward to doing it again this upcoming Friday.

FYI the Academic Language Quiz 5 included the words: Domain, Range, Coordinate Plane, Axis, Origin, Ordered Pair, Function, and Function rule I was impressed with how many students did really well on this quiz! I think they are getting the hang of it!
Academic Language Quiz 6 is this Friday(Nov 19)
Math terms:
Slope
Y-intercept
Linear Equation
Slope-intercept Form
Science terms:
Atoms
Model
Theory
Nucleus
Electron
Electron Cloud