Northern California Trip Day 1 a success!

Are We There Yet?

We made it safely to our destination nearly 12 hours after leaving IA.  We are camping on the South Fork of the American River overlooking Sutter's Mill.  Super cool. Too dark to see anything.  Can't wait to wake up to the beautiful scenery tomorrow!  Below are some sights along the way.




Castaic Fire on the Grapevine

Lunchtime Pitstop

Student Question of the day:  We saw signs posted up and down the highway once we reached Bakersfield saying "stop the congress created dustbowl". What does that mean? Google Central Valley Dustbowl and see what you discover.

Spending money and optional expenses

Here are prices for optional items on the trip:

Moaning Cavern:  click here for release form. Sign and return to school
   rappelling 72.00
   zipline  44.00
   rock climb 5.00

White Water Rafting 80.00 (release form will be available in class tomorrow)

Wax Museum 12/child 16/adult
Ripleys Believe it or Not 21.99

Dinner on the road Day 1 and Day 9  20.00

Extra Spending Money  $50-100

Where did the year go?

Teacher appreciation week was so nice! Many thank yous for all of the wonderful gifts, flowers, yummy food and most of all the notes and cards filled with sweet words. 

Upcoming Events:
May 16- May 24:Eighth Grade Northern CA Trip:
Monday May 27: No School-Memorial Day
Friday June 7:  Six Flags 8th Grade Night
Monday June 10- Wed. June 12: POLs
Thursday June 13: 6:00 pm 8th Grade Promotion at Gazebo in Old Poway Park
Friday June 14: Last day of school Beach Party at Belmont Park

TRIP UPDATE
Things to do before the trip:
TUESDAY: Bring to Lisa's class all camping supplies(if you signed up) sleeping bags, pillows marked with name.
WEDNESDAY: Bring luggage (carry on size suitcase or duffle bag)  Emergency Contact/Medical Release and any other forms for optional activities.
THURSDAY:  Arrive at school at 8:00am.  Remember to eat breakfast beforehand and have a lunch and snacks packed for the road.

Students not going on the trip:  Your Trip Assignment starts Thursday and is due Tuesday May 28

In all the excitement of our trip, academics in the classroom is still happening!
MATH:
 Students in Algebra A learned more about angles and parallel lines. Academic Language learned this week includes transversal, corresponding angles, alternate interior angles, supplementary angles and complementary angles.  Students in Algebra B continued solving quadratic equations.  This week we worked on solving equations by Completing the Square.  Students know have many different strategies to solve quadratic equations; 1) Solving using the Zero Product Property, 2) Solving using square roots, 3) Solving using the Quadratic Formula and 4) Solving by Completing the Square.

SCIENCE:
We completed roller coaster physics by gathering data to determine velocity, potential energy and kinetic energy of their rides.
Last Friday, I introduced our culminating physics activity that finishes off our investigation into motion   I brought in a hovercraft that was made by a group of students two years ago. We discussed what it would take to make it move and how we could possibly improve its design.  Students then created mini balloon hovercrafts. This next week we will be designing and building our rideable hovercrafts.

Exhibition Night Was A Huge Success!

Upcoming Events:
Wed. May 8 and Thurs. May 9: English Star Testing
May 16- May 24:Eighth Grade Northern CA Trip:
Friday June 7:  Six Flags 8th Grade Night
Monday June 10- Wed. June 12: POLs
Thursday June 13: 6:00 pm 8th Grade Promotion at Gazebo in Old Poway Park
Friday June 14: Last day of school Beach Party at Belmont Park

These past few weeks have been crazy as we finished up our Solar Ovens and Roller Coasters for Exhibition Night. Our schedule has been interspersed with quite a bit of Star testing as well. I am looking forward to a week of normalcy!  Last week as students were rushing to put final touches on their work, I was able to talk to them about how our experience mirrored the Real World.  The stress, frustration when things didn't work right, collaboration,  meeting deadlines, and sometimes missing deadlines are all things people face in their jobs. 




Our Room in Motion project is far from over as we took more time than we thought we would in the building stages of our Roller Coasters.  This week, students will be able to test their individual rides and calculate velocity, kinetic energy and potential energy.  I am excited to compare and contrast the different rides. Our culminating activity for our Motion project will be building Hovercrafts where we will investigate deeper into Newtons Laws of Motion as well as buoyancy and Bernoulli's principle.

Northern California Trip Update

 TRIP UPDATE We leave next week!

• The last installment of $150 is due Monday May 6. Please bring to Donna in the Office.
• Click here for packing list.
• Click here  to download Emergency Contact/Medical Release Form due Friday May 10.
• We are looking for a few camping items that we can borrow. Click here to see if you can help.

 

2013 Eighth Grade Northern California Trip Itinerary

Day	Activities and cost	Basic Location Information
Thursday May 16	Drive from IA to Coloma Resort, Coloma, CA (approx. 10 hours)   4 nights/$18 per person per night Tent cabins	http://www.colomaresort.com/
Friday May 17	Moaning Cavern $5.25 Students $10.25 Adults   Zipline, Rappelling, Rock Wall Optional	http://www.caverntours.com/MoCavRt.htm#MCwalk
Saturday May 18	State Capitol (Free) Metered Parking (approx $8 per car)   Old Sacramento Schoolhouse $10 per class donation	http://capitolmuseum.ca.gov/ 10th and L Streets     http://www.scoe.net/oldsacschoolhouse/visit/index.html
Sunday May 19	Marshall Gold Discovery State Park (Free)   White Water Rafting or Ropes Course (Optional)	http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=484
Monday May 20	$6 per car toll bridges   Rob HillCampground $250 per night for two group campsites $7.00 per person per night	http://www.presidio.gov/explore/Pages/rob-hill-campground.aspx
Tuesday May 21	Alcatraz Island $29.95   Angel Island Immigration Station $20 (ferry)	http://www.nps.gov/alca/index.htm   http://www.aiisf.org/
Wednesday May 22	Bike Ride Across Golden Gate Bridge $24.00     Drive to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Beach (approx 4.5 hours) $ 312 for 2 nights $4 per person per night	www.blazingsaddles.com  ‎     http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=570
Thursday May 23	Monterey Bay Aquarium $29.95 per person Chaperones per 4 students free    Pfeiffer State Beach and Pfeiffer Falls  $5.00 per car parking	http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/       http://www.hikinginbigsur.com/hikes_pfeifferfalls.htm
Friday May 24	Head Home (approx 10 hours)   Expected Arrival Time 9:00 pm	drive down Hwy 101

So True!

The past few weeks

Forgive my lack of posts for the past month as it has been busy in the Moncrief household.  I rarely bring personal things into my classroom blog, however, without the support of Tony and Luisa,  Beth (my substitute for 3 days), and my 8th graders and their families,  our classroom would not have run so successfully. Many thanks for the messages of concern for both Brianna and I.  A quick summary for those of you who didn't know:  My daughter Brianna had a spinal cord surgery to implant a shunt into her spinal column.  This was done to release excess spinal fluid (syringomyelia) which was causing nerve damage and loss of muscle mass in her arms and hands.  Despite the two inch scar she now has on her neck, which she thinks is totally cool, she is recovering well and will have physical and occupational therapy to regain some of her strength.  Two weeks after Brianna's hospital stay, I got to visit my doctor to remove a bit of basal cell carcinoma from my cheek.  I have had a lovely bandage across my nose for a week now as the skin graft heals.  Thank you Tori for coming to school in solidarity last week with a bandaid across your nose!!

Thank you for your support and patience this month!

 Meanwhile, back in the classroom......UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Make-Up/New Student/Spring Pictures:  Tuesday March 19
• Student Led Conferences (SLCs) will take place from March 26th - March 28th. These are half days, so conference times will begin at 12:45. Families will spend fifteen minutes in each room. Please type your student's name in a time slot. The starting room does not matter as you will visit both rooms and see work in each.

          Please click here to sign up. 

• No School Friday March 29.  Spring Break Begins!  March 29-April 7. 

Past Field Trips:  Thank you to all parents who helped with this past month's fieldtrips.  We traveled back in time in Vista a week ago Saturday to witness a Civil War reenactment.  We wandered through the Yankee and Confederate encampments and had front row seats for the battle at Gettysburg.  Not all students were able to attend since it was on a Saturday but it was a great learning experience for those who came.  

Tony arranged a great day on Thursday down at the San Diego Courthouse.  Check out the link to his blog (Links I Like) for details and photos.---->

In Math this month, PreAlgebra students focused on proportions, similar figures and cross products.  Did you know that many word problems can be set up as proportions (equivalent fractions)?  We have discovered rate problems, similar figures, percent problems and indirect measurement can all be solved using proportions.  Students created "mini me" pictures of themselves by scaling down their body measurements to 1/10th and 1/100th their actual size.

 Algebra, students focused on exponent rules, simplifying exponents and exponential growth and decay. This next week we will test the formula for exponential growth as we watch a cheese sample grow moldy.

Our murder mystery finally came to a close.  After all of the evidence was gathered and tested and all of the suspects were interviewed, some students were still certain they knew whodunit.  The final evidence that sealed the case was a tire track found at the scene.  Only one of the suspect's vehicles matched those tracks found at the scene. That same suspect's fingerprints, writing sample and food choice at the restaurant that night were all "dead" giveaways!  What a great time we had, learning about the scientific method, chemistry and using logic to solve a crime!