Week 2 Sept 10-14 Planning and Preparation

Upcoming Events:
Tuesday Sept 18 The Language of Math Vocab Quiz 1
                    tessellation       polygon     equilateral triangle
                    rhombus           hexagon    symmetry

Wednesday Sept 19 2-4 pm: 8th Grade Bake Sale Fundraiser for Beach Campout

Tuesday Sept 25 The Language of Math Vocab Quiz 2
                    axis of symmetry      transformation     translation
                    rotation            center of rotation        reflection

Thursday Sept 27 Back to School Night 5-8pm

Wed Oct 3 9:00am - Fri Oct 5 12 pm:  San Clemente State Beach Campout

Mission Beach Jetty

The all middle school beach trip to kick off the year was a fantastic success! Thank you to our 8th grade parents for chaperoning and to those who drove groups, dropped students off separately, donated food and ultimately contributed to such an exciting day! The purpose of this trip was to solidify our middle school community and we observed many students from different grades having a great time.

Baby Brittle Sea Star found hiding
from predators inside kelp 

Much of our learning this year will take place outside of the four walls of our classroom!  The 8^th grade will have many field trips this year that will enhance the projects and studies of our students by providing hands-on learning experiences as well opportunities for students to go places they may never have been. The field trips also help students continue to develop social skills, not only with each other, but also with other adults, students from other schools, and so on. The benefits of fieldtrips are innumerable, which is why Tony and I place particular importance on each student’s participation in these valuable experiences since we view them as a direct extension of our school day.

The following is the email sent to all 8^th grade parents concerning our next field trip: Our first project of the year will involve students in measuring and assessing the conditions of local beaches and reporting their findings. We are kicking off this project with a two night expedition to San Clemente State Beach.  We will leave the school on Wednesday, October 3rd after lunch and return to the school on Friday, October 5th at 12:00pm.
     The students are planning a supply list and a menu which we will send home and post on our blogs next week. We are looking for at least three male and three female chaperones who will stay with students at their various campsites. Parents, if you are able to chaperone, please click here.
     The cost of the trip, including gas money for the drivers, totals $20 per student. We will hold a bake sale on Wednesday, September 19, with the hope of raising most of the money then.
Students have already volunteered click here to see what your child volunteered to sell at the bake sale.

 Inside the classroom this week, students were introduced to study skills, notetaking, recording work and presenting work.  We started our somewhat permanent class schedule which includes morning meeting,  90 minutes of math/science and 90 minutes of humanities in the morning.  After lunch, we devote our afternoon to interdisciplinary projects and class meetings.

The students got back into the math mode after a long summer by investigating symmetry.  We learned new vocabulary words to help describe patterns and tessellations.  An important aspect of understanding mathematics is being able  to decipher the language of math. As with any language, fluency comes with practice and exposure to the vocabulary.  Students were guided through note taking and good practices for organizing information in order to access it later.  We set a date every Tuesday for vocabulary assessments and time every day in class for math practice.  Next week students will create tessellation to display in our classroom.

As an introduction to our year in science, students discussed the scientific method and how it is used not only in science but in all inquiry.  During one of our science activities this week, students were given mystery boxes. Each closed box had a marble and a divider inside.  Students were asked to describe the inside of the box as precisely as possible without opening the box.  It was interesting to watch as students worked in groups, discussing their reasoning and how they came to conclusions as to the design of their box.

I am loving this group of 8th graders!  They are eager to learn and I can tell will keep my learning along with them!