Week of October 10-14

Upcoming Events:
Student Led Conferences are next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. If you have not signed up or forgot your time, click on the link here. Remember this time is for your child to share his/her strengths and weaknesses, academic goals, social goals and personal goals as well as show their learning in our class. So please bring your student and be prompt as there is a limited amount of time for each student.

Minimum days next week are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Dismissal time is 12:00pm. There will be no Rubios lunch on Friday.

Week in Review:
We kicked off our Art Math and Architecture Project this week (AMA) We began by asking the question, "How has art and math influenced architecture?" Our first step in answering this question is collecting information. We started by gathering information about bridges and buildings such as what are the elements of buildings and what types of bridges are there? We will take a look at buildings from our past and compare them to those that are around us now. We will learn how geometry and algebra plays an important role in the planning and building of structures. We plan on taking a field trip in November to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles as well as a local field trip to Balboa Park to investigate elements of art in the architecture of the buildings there. We may also take a day for a San Diego bridge tour.

During math skills, students practiced working on integers. There will be a skills test Friday October 21. Our language arts class finished the first draft of their creative writing piece. Students were given a deadline to have their story completed by Thursday Oct 14. They will begin peer editing by 3 students on Tuesday Oct 18. Their final draft will be due Friday October 21.

We began our Cross Class Connection with the 1st grade. All classes are connected to another class on campus to have an opportunity to share their work, to read together and to be in a mentorship type roll. The first graders met in the eighth grade classroom for a get to know you activity. We had so much fun and look forward to working together this year.

Rubios Friday was changed to Thursday since school was out Friday. We made $68.09. Besides the fact that a whole class was on a field trip, we decided the drop in lunches could have been because many students did not realize Rubios day was changed this week. We decided it might be a good idea to advertise more instead of just relying on the Sunday IA calls to remind parents about Friday lunches.

A special thank you to Jennifer for picking up donated carpet for our science lab. And those eighth graders who stayed after school to move furniture and roll out the carpet... you rock!

We had some changes in our 8th grade staff and are doing the best we can to make the transition for the kids as seamless as possible. As expected, the class is taking to the changes in stride. Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. lisa@innovationsacademy.org

Week of October 3-7

This week was one that required much teamwork. I am so impressed with our class' attitude of ownership this year. The students began leading morning meetings and class council this week. I watched as a leader was chosen each day and how the other students worked together to make the meetings effective for everyone. They try to show respect for each other and honor each other's ideas. I am so excited to watch them grow as individuals as well as a united class this year.

We braved the elements on Wednesday to hike Iron Mountain. Our hike started out cool with a chance of showers. After about a mile of walking it started misting. As we walked higher up the mountain we were immersed in the clouds and quite damp. We trudged up the trail, not being able to see much ahead of us because of the mist. Just after we got to the top, the cloud cover opened up enough to enjoy an incredible view of the horizon. On a clear day you can get a 360 degree view of San Diego county all the way to the ocean. We still enjoyed the nearly 6 mile hike and had a fun time out in nature. A very grateful thank you to Jennifer, Laura and Naomi for helping with the drive.

Our first Friday Rubios lunch program went off without a hitch! We profited $ 115.90. We hope to average $100 per week to raise funds for our Northern California trip in May. Each student in our class helped with order form distribution, advertising, collecting money and orders, and serving food.

Math: Pre-Algebra and Algebra students focused on the rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of integers this week.

Science: Students used the earthworm information they gathered last week to learn about how to create a laboratory report. After collecting their work and realizing many of them were incomplete and lacked detail, we discussed the reasons why complete and accurate laboratory reports are necessary. Students were then given a model of a “good” laboratory report as well as a template that would work for most experiments. Our second drafts were much better!

During humanities, students finished their "Who Am I " artwork, created a presentation rubric and started presenting their work to the class. They also worked on writing individual stories.

Week of Sept 26-30

Upcoming Events:

• Iron Mountain Hike: Wednesday October 3. Leave school at approx 9:30, return to school at 1:00. Wear tennis shoes. Bring water and lunch.



• Friday Lunches: 8th grade fundraiser begins Friday Oct. 7! We will be taking orders and passing out Rubios lunches to IA students and staff. Lunch will cost $4.00 and include an entree, a side and bottled water. Look for menu on our school website and this blog on Wednesday. Students can pay for lunches to their teachers Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday morning. Lunches must be prepaid by Friday morning meeting at the latest.

This past week was very productive! We officially moved into the science lab so we now have two classrooms to work in. (We would love some indoor plants for the lab to help muffle the noise! We are working on getting floor rugs too)

Students are well into math skills according to their appropriate levels. I introduced weekly Academic Language for math this past week and students had their first quiz on Friday. The quizzes are designed to help students master the language of math. New words will be introduced each week with a mastery quiz at the end of the week. Last weeks words or phrases for pre-algebra: integer, whole number, natural number, rational number, evaluate, expression, equation, order of operations. For algebra: constant, variable, coefficient, term, expression, equation, independent variable, dependent variable, order of operations

Science started out a little slippery as students searched for earthworms on our campus. After trying many different spots ranging from dry and rocky to cool and green, students discovered the best place to find the worms was underneath the air conditioners where water was condensing and dripping on the dirt. After we collected them, students created a testing environment in the classroom. The purpose of this activity was to introduce the scientific method and the protocol for designing and reporting on an experiment. Students investigated the question whether earthworms prefer light or dark environments. Rather than always providing the supplies and testing apparatus already set up for them, our eighth graders will learn what it is like to be a real scientist. Often they will create their own experiment from a question they may have about a topic, form their own unique hypothesis, need to search out their own testing materials (worms in this case..."no animals were harmed in the making of this activity!" ), devise their own procedures, analyze and report out their data and present their findings to the class. Next week we will perfect our laboratory reporting techniques and presentations.

During language arts, students began a "Who Am I " activity by creating a piece of art that represents them.

A vocabulary list was generated from an article read in class as students came across words they were unfamiliar with. They defined and acted out the words in skits. The words that students are responsible for this week are: philanthropy, fiscal, aggregate, inconsequential, sacrifice, burden, coddle, federal, revenue, and legislators

Looking forward to another great week!

Lisa and Diana