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