Spirit Night

On Friday night, members of the Junior High Band participated in Spirit Night at the Senior High.  Students were able to perform both before the game and during the game!

News from Team 7 O

Social Studies classes are studying world maps, discovering the continents and oceans.  All 5 classes recently created a 'blackboard panel' description of the 7 continents through the 5 Themes of Geography.

Mrs. McGurk's classes are starting 5-paragraph informative essays.  They are choosing from three different topics. 

  

In science the students are finishing the month of October by doing the skittles laboratory investigation.  This is where they try to prove that there is exactly 20% of each color per skittle bag.  This is also the last activity in the Nature of Science unit before they take the unit exam.

Mrs. Mahan's classes are working on inferring using their prior knowledge and specific examples from the text.  We started off by talking about what we can infer from images. Here's an example: (We talked who would have the money to buy such a dog, why they would own it, the personailty the person would likely have, etc.)

http://www.thatcutesite.com/the-tiniest-and-fluffiest-of-all-tiny-fluffy-dogs.html 

  

In PreAlgebra we are studying Integer Operations.  As a review we are playing jeopardy!

Final Jeopardy was really tough!! ;)

In health class we have begun discussions and activities that will help us understand what bullying is, it’s effects on our health triangle and what we can do if we, or someone we know is being bullied.

The Week in Pictures!

On a daily basis, I have the opportunity to visit classrooms and watch our students learn and our teachers teach.  Hopefully, you have the opportunity to hear about some great teachers when you are talking with your children!  If you are hearing some great things, please consider nominating a teacher for the Teacher of the Month, sponsored by the Higher Information Group.  In order to nominate a teacher for the Teacher of the Month, visit the Red Lion Area School District Homepage (www.rlasd.net) and click on the nomination form that looks like (I included a direct link below): 

Teacher of the Month Nomination

Here are some pictures of some of the classes that I visited last week:

News from Team 8-O

8O Blog

In Social Studies, we are continuing to work towards the American Revolution.  There are several upcoming primary source activities.  We continue to discuss current events through the use of political cartoons.  In the picture, students are using a Wiki space to investigate events, which led to the American Revolution.

Mrs. Lee's Math classes are studying the following topics:

Pre-algebra- Fractions

Algebra A- Absolute Value Equations

Algebra 1- Slope

Please bring writing materials to class, and Mrs. Lee will be HAPPY. Do your homework and Mrs. Lee will be HAPPY HAPPY. Study for your test and Mrs. Lee will be HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

In science class we are on Chapter 4 Rocks.  We have simulated the rock cycle using modeling clay and we have looked at several different igneous rock samples.  To introduce sedimentary rocks, students performed the Dissolving M&M Lab using water, vinegar, and oil to see which liquid dissolved the coating of the M&M quicker.  So far, water is winning!

It was Spirit Week this week.  Ashton is sporting Miss Sheckard's favorite team jersey. Go Cowboys!

In Miss Smith’s Academic Literacy class, students just took their first vocabulary test.  They will receive a new set of words in the next cycle.  Students are currently learning to distinguish between facts and opinions, and they will soon study how do determine the difference between what an author says explicitly, and the inferences, generalizations, and conclusions they draw on their own.  We will be focusing on each one of these individually and then we will put everything together in a culminating activity.

 In Mrs. Couch's health class students are discussing health skills that will improve their mental and social health.

For good communication one should express good body language and use active listening skills, which are crucial parts of good communication.

On Friday, Oct. 18, Ms. Suppa's English classes held our first "Literary Tea" of the year.  During Literary Tea, we have snacks and hot chocolate while we discuss our favorite books.   Thanks to all the students who brought in treats to share, and thanks to Mr. Peters and Mr. Raab for joining us to talk about books too!     

2nd Annual Fashion Fair

The 2nd Annual Fashion Fair will take place this weekend.  Families can “shop” on Friday, October 25, from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday, October 26, from 8:00 – 11:00 a.m.  We will have sizes for the entire family.  Any district family is invited to attend.

The students and teachers in the pictures below are helping get ready for the fashion fair by sorting clothes!

PRIDE

Congratulations to our PRIDE winners from last week!

Here are some PRIDE winners enjoying their lunch in the comfort of a classroom:

Teen Read Week

Celebrate TEEN READ WEEK this week (Oct. 13-Oct.20, 2013) !  Check out our Reading Specialist page on our Junior High Website for tips to share with your teen on how to pick books perfect for them! Happy Reading!

News from 8-I

8-I Blog

October 2013

English: Ms. Eckert’s students have just wrapped up their creative Animoto™ presentations, where they crafted 1:30 – 3:00 minute commercials about their chosen essay topics. The creativity demonstrated by our students was incredible! This past week, students have been working hard on their parts of speech and improving their overall writing skills.

In the photo, students are participating in a Jeopardy review game for their parts of speech quiz.

Health: Students are practicing communication skills by describing a picture, so students will be able to draw the exact likeness without visually seeing the picture. Students understand some of the communication problems when experiencing this activity.

Math:

The past two weeks were busy on 8I as we finished up our first units in math class.  Pre-Algebra 2 is taking their test today on order of operations, expressions, and data analysis. We did a group activity last week where students measured each other’s height and arm span to see if there was a correlation between the two. 

Algebra 1A just finished up their first unit on material that is needed in order to be successful in algebra. You can see a few students in the picture doing an activity on Surface Area and Volume. 

Algebra 1AB already finished their first unit and will be finished with their second unit the end of next week. 

Science: Students have finished up a chapter on minerals with an activity where they mined chocolate chips out of chocolate chip cookies.  They had a great time trying to keep their land in tact and not have to pay reclamation costs.

Social Studies: Classes are just beginning to study the Road to the Revolution.  We are building a case for why we needed to break away from England.  Students were given a "persona" for this unit.  Throughout the unit, they will be discovering how this time period affected them as colonists.  Once everyone has been affected, it will be time for a war! 

The Race for Education is underway and we are receiving donations daily!  Our goal is $15,000 toward a new sound system for our gymnasium as well as other educational needs.  We are over half way there in just our second day of returned mail.   We appreciate your continued support!  THANK YOU!

Mr. McIntyre's English Class: Students are studying subjects and verbs so that they can write better sentences.

Academic Literacy: Students are continuing to discuss themes surrounding "age," such as discrimination, stereotypes, cultures and their views on coming of age, along with various time periods or ages in history. In support of the informational texts students are reading, they have been determining and summarizing the central idea and applying text analysis concepts and skills to analyze news articles and web articles. Students are beginning to think critically about what they are reading by using humor, irony and/or delivering a message in the development and creation of their own cartoons that are related to themes or ideas pulled from text.  This is an introduction to teaching bias and opinion as we begin to look closely at the difference between subjective and objective ideas and details the author is using in informational text.

News from 7-I

Science with Mr. Schreckengast

Our Science classes are finishing up the Nature of Science Unit.  We just completed the assessment for Concept 3: Standard Units of Measurement.  Below are some pictures from that assessment.

We are now working on Concept #4 in Nature of Science: Graphing.  Students are learning how to draw a line, bar, and pie graph.  They are also learning how to decide what type of graph to make when given data.  The choice of what graph to use will make a difference in how easily the data is understood for analyzing.  The students will end this Concept on Graphing by conducting a lab with Skittles Candy. They are going to use their data collection skills and graphing skills to determine if there are an equal amount of each color in the Skittles bags.  The company’s goal is to have 20% of each color.  We will see what the students find out. Below are the some pictures of the Skittles Lab.

Math with Ms. Therrien

Advanced Pre-Algebra is working on Chapter 2: Integers. The chapter will include adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers as well as graphing in all 4 quadrants of the coordinate plane. The photo below shows a group of students practicing integer addition by playing Integer War.

The Pre-Algebra students are finishing Chapter 1: The Tools of Algebra. The picture below shows a group of students completing a Team Review as a study prep for the chapter test.

Social Studies with Mrs. Elicker

As a conclusion to our unit on Continents and Oceans, students worked in groups to solve the “Continents of the World Puzzle”.  Students used their prior knowledge as well as their textbooks in order to complete the puzzle.  Students were amazed at the amount of information that they were able to provide to their group to solve this fun yet challenging puzzle!

 

Health with Mr. Martin

Currently in health class we are discussing how self-esteem and body image have a tremendous impact on the health, happiness, and success in our lives.  We are also discussing how our culture and society impacts and distorts our view of what a healthy body image should be and how this distorted view could potentially result in some negative behavioral and lifestyle choices.

Students are also continuing to work on their monthly Critical Reading assignment, wellness calendar, self-esteem booklet, and random acts of kindness assignment just to name a few.

English with Mrs. Henze

In English we are learning about sentence structures (fragment, simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence).   Today students sorted examples into the types of sentences to help prepare them for the test Friday.

PRIDE T Shirts

PRIDE STARTS WITH YOU!

Why not show off your "PRIDE" by wearing it?  T-Shirts are now available to order so you can show off your "PRIDE"!  Orders are due by October 25th.

The Week in Review...

Although the week was quite rainy, the rain did not keep away "High-Five Friday" or the music on Friday afternoon!

Throughout the week, I was able to get into a variety of classes--here is a sampling of what I saw:

TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

Students in Mr. Durchin's 7th Grade Technology Education class were working on a variety of projects at various stages of completion:

ENGLISH

Students in Mrs. McGurk's English class were at the board creating their own sentences using subject and verb magnets provided by the teacher.  The students definitely created some unique sentences!

FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES

Students in Mrs. Kinney's Family and Consumer Sciences class are continuing to learn about sewing! 

The students above are watching a YouTube video on how to thread the sewing machine before they try it on their own.

Students in Mrs. D'Aleandro class were practicing making Iced Chinese Green Tea.

SCIENCE

Students in Ms. Sheckard's science class were taking notes and discussing different types of rocks.

Students in Mr. Schreckengast's science class were completing their Skittles lab by completing a pie chart on the average number of Skittles by color.

PRIDE
Here are a couple pictures of our PRIDE lunches...it looks like one group did not want to brave the colder weather!

CONGRATULATIONS to our weekly PRIDE winners featured below!