Congratulations PRIDE winners...

Congratulations to our weekly PRIDE winners!

We are thankful for the positive behaviors of our students, so we did an extra drawing!

One of our PRIDE winners chose to hang out with some friends during PM Homeroom.

News from 7-O

Team 7O Blog

Academic Lit

In Mrs. Mahan’s class, we just took a quiz on Inferring and Annotation. The kids did really well! J We are starting up a unit on Point of View and Author’s Purpose in non-fiction next. We’ll look at author’s opinion and how to identify what the author is trying to communicate in various texts.

Image from:

http://drowninginpaperclips.blogspot.com/2012/09/authors-purpose-with-freebie.html

Health

In health class we have been working to improve our body image.  Students have studied what body image is, how the media effects our body image, steroid use and eating disorders. 

Social Studies

Mr. Conrad’s Social Studies classes are learning the importance of accepting others’ differences.  We have examined culture and stereotypes and the negative consequences associated with prejudging people.  Lessons were associated with the Civil Rights Movement, the Holocaust, and basic everyday culture here in the U.S.  We culminated the unit with a classroom discrimination activity that made the students aware of accepting others.  Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!!!

Science

On Monday the students had to turn in their atoms, and elements projects.  One of the projects had students make puppets that then talked about the parts of the atom.  While others projects had the children create children’s books, or songs.  The students also continued learning about the Periodic Table while listening to a song about it

(http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=IsBZx0tv6dQ).

Math

Students are wrapping up the Chapter 3 on Rational Numbers (also know as, the dreaded math “F” word, fractions).  We kicked the chapter off with a song. (http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?v=m94WTZP14SA&sns=em) And finished the chapter by adding, subtracting multiplying and dividing fractions.  Our next chapter is on solving equations.  Which, for many students, is a nice relaxing chapter after the demands of chapter 3!

English

Mrs. McGurk's students have been typing the final drafts of their five-paragraph informative essays on the Google Chromebooks.  They are currently peer editing using a checklist and the highlighting and comment features on the Chromebooks.

News from 8-O

 

 

 

Sleeping on the roof and eating crickets ?!?!

On Thursday and Friday of this week, both Mr. Peters and Mr. Raab upheld their commitment to sleep on the roof (Mr. Peters) and eat crickets (Mr. Raab) since our students at the Red Lion Area Junior High did such a great job raising money through our Race for Education!

As students left school to go home on Thursday, they got a glimpse of Mr. Peters and his tent that he set up on the roof!

After the Thursday evening Board of Education meeting at the Education Center, Mr. Peters returned to the rooftop (and the cold) and tried to get as good of a night sleep as he could.

On Friday, when students returned to school, they were eager to hear about Mr. Peters roof adventure!  As the students entered their first period class, they were excited to watch the morning announcements because they knew that Mr. Raab would be eating some crickets!

Just how many crickets did Mr. Raab have to eat?  Here is a short video that gives you all the details...enjoy!

Classroom Happenings!

 Mr. Whiteford's classes were learning about culture and about an upcoming project that they would be completing.

Mr. Bellenbaum's class was deepening their understanding of the periodic table.

Ms. Mahan's class was reading an article and creating graphic organizers to help students better their understanding of the reading.

Students in Ms. Gillis's classes were working on their communication skills by trying to explain how to create a lego structure to a blindfolded student--not as easy as it seems!

(Above left)  Ms. Dansberry is reviewing landforms with her students to help them prepare for a quiz.  (Above right)  Mr. Strayer's students are creating "Fakebook" accounts for famous men and women in history.

 Students in Mr. Arigo's classes were completing a web quest and they were also honoring veterans that they know.

(Above left)  Ms. Henze's classes were writing a 5 paragraph informative/explanatory paper on one of the following topics: Survivor, Boarding School or a Day of Fun.  (Above right)  Ms. Hom's classes were completing a lab on soil.

(Above left) Mr. Mikula and Ms. Behonek's math class were practicing the concepts that were taught earlier in class.  Each pair of students got similar problems so if they had any trouble, they could help each other!  (Above right)  Ms. Taylor and her students were reviewing the elements while dancing to the cupid shuffle!

(Above left)  Mr. Jefferis's students are discussing the reading they just completed with their partner.  (Above right) Students in Ms. Heishmann's class were using this worksheet to help better understand what they were about to read.

Dance Party Friday

If you follow our Twitter feed, you have heard about our Dance Party Friday!  Each and every Friday at dismissal, Ms. Bensinger makes sure that the music is ready to go so our students can have a positive send off for what we hope is a nice weekend.  Students love hearing the music and some even show off their best dance moves!  This week we had the biggest dance crew yet!  Here is your glimpse into our Dance Party Friday...

News from 7 I

Science With Mr. Schreckengast

Mr. Schreck’s Science classes have been studying Building Blocks of Matter for the first weeks of the second marking period.  The three concepts covered in this unit are:

1. The History of the atom.  In this section, students learned about atomic theorists such as Democritus, Dalton, Thomson, Rutherford, Chadwick, and Bohr.  We studied what each of these scientists discovered to help us have our modern day atomic model.  The students also completed a writing prompt explaining the scientist that they believe had the most influence on the Modern Model of the Atom.

2. Structure of the Atom.  In this section, students learned about the relationship between protons, neutrons, and electrons within the atom.  We also learned about isotopes and ions.  

3. The Periodic Table.  In this section, the students will learn how to read the periodic table.  They will know that it is organized by atomic number, groups, families, and periods and not just randomly placed into a diagram.  I challenged the students to learn the atomic number, symbol and name for several elements on the periodic table.  We made flash cards for them and they are busily studying them.

The students have been very excited learning about the atom and the periodic table, which will lend itself to some very interesting labs in our next unit:  Properties of Matter.

Social Studies with Mrs. Elicker

Mrs. Elicker’s Social Studies classes worked on completing the Landforms GeoQuest Adventure.  This activity was a webquest activity that helped students identify and describe land and water forms throughout the world.  Additionally, students were able to describe how land and water forms were formed and how they affect people and their environment.  Students especially liked working with the National Geographic Maps website that gave them a close up view of the world as well as their own neighborhoods!    

Math With Ms. Therrien

Ms. Therrien’s math classes have been studying integers and fractions.  

INTEGERS:   In this chapter, students learned the rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing with negative numbers. The coordinate grid was extended to include all four quadrants. There was an introduction to multiplying and adding variables.

FRACTIONS:  In this chapter, students are learning about the rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions (rational numbers). There have been some new vocabulary terms like “relatively prime” and “rational number”. The fraction chapter incorporates the integer rules as well as problems adding and multiplying variables.

In the next chapter, we will be solving equations.

Health with Mr. Martin

Mr. Martin’s classes have just finished discussing the topic of stress and how students can better cope with and manage the stress they face in their own lives.  Let’s face it; we all know that life can be stressful at times.  Many of our teens are facing an enormous amount of pressure in and out of school related to academics or social issues.  It is imperative that we equip our teens with the skills necessary to face life and deal with life’s stressors in safe and healthy ways.  

Moving forward, we will be talking about other sensitive and dangerous behaviors and ailments some students struggle with in regards to their mental health, such as anxiety and depression and how they affect people.  

I am very aware of the sensitive nature of these topics and will do my part to be sensitive to individuals who may be or may have struggled with these issues in the past.  

I once again encourage all parents and families to talk to your teens about these topics as they play a significant role in their growth and development.  

English with Mrs. Henze

Last week students presented speeches that included a multimedia presentation created in google docs.

This week we have started a unit on word morphology.  Students will be learning about root words associated with the body, 10 common prefixes,  and 10 common suffixes. For each word part, students will be completing a Tic-Tac-Toe Board of activities to help learn the word parts. Whole class activities will also be used to learn in this unit.  For example, today we played Simon Says as a class to learn the root words.

 

In Mrs. Vasellas’ Academic Lit class the students have finished Unit 1 by completing a writing assessment and a test.

News from 8 I

PRIDE Winners

Congratulations to the PRIDE winners from last week!

Have you ever wondered what our PRIDE winners win?  We have a number of weekly prizes for our students to choose.  Two prizes that were selected this week were:

Hanging out with some friends in the gym during PM Homeroom

Reading the afternoon announcements

News from 7-L

Team 7-L
BLOG UPDATE

Team 7-L Math with Mr. Flay

Students have successfully completed Chapters 1 and 2 and are now beginning Chapter 3. Chapters 1 and 2 introduced Algebra through variables and expressions, equations, and graphs, and integers.  We will continue to build on these basic principals in Chapter 3 as we add operations with rational numbers to the mix!  Kids are doing great and as long as we continue participating in class like this picture shows, we will continue the great success we have already gained this school year!

Team 7-L Academic Lit. with Mrs. Vasellas

In Academic Lit students are working on their final assessment for Unit 1. To prepare they completed a close reading of the poem, "The House."  Students were allowed to use their PD's for vocabulary. 

Team 7-L English with Miss Maxwell

Miss Maxwell's students have been working hard on informative essays and speeches about a variety of choices.  Some students opted to write about spending the day with a person of their choice, others chose to write about surviving on an island, and other wrote about spending a year in boarding school.  Student essays and presentations were incredibly creative across the team. Way to go 7L! Our next unit will be about word morphology. 

Team 7-L Science with Mr. Dellinger

In the last few weeks students have worked on their Atomic Theorist facebook page where students create a fake social networking page of one of the famous scientists that helped form the atomic theory. Students used a template and input images or their scientist, biographical information, and wall posts that would correspond with the scientist.

Students have also been working on the structure of the atom with the help of www.kscience.co/uk/animations/atom.htm interactive website. This helps them to build the first 20 elements of the periodic table and illustrates how the subatomic particles of the atom interact. Students enjoyed this activity and found it very beneficial.



Currently, students are working toward completing their district-required writing prompt for science that involves the atomic theory. Students will be completing this by midweek and then learning about ions, isotopes, and the periodic table through next week with the Unit 2 Test occurring the week before Thanksgiving break.

Team 7-L Social Studies with Mr. Arigo

Students in Mr. Arigo's classes are classifying and categorizing some of their favorite media shows and characters and then applying that grouping knowledge to their newly learned information of geographic landforms.  They will be moving into studying the world's cultures in coming weeks.

Team 7-L Health with Mr. Martin

In health class, we just finished discussing the significant role our culture and media play on influencing teens and their body image.  We discussed many significant health problems and issues affecting our children and youth and how the culture and media are defining how many teens see themselves and what they perceive as beauty.  We have been discussing many issues including:  poor self-esteem and confidence, eating disorders, steroid use, plastic and cosmetic surgery, drug and alcohol use, among other fashions and fads teens are willing to participate in and engage in simply because it is cool or popular and they want to fit in or be accepted. 

Now that we have finished discussing body image issues, we are moving on to discuss the impact stress can have in the life of teens today.  Teens are often facing more and more stress and pressure today and at younger and younger ages.  Some of the stressors teens face today are no different than things we have all faced growing up, but there are also many new challenges and problems that pose a risk to the health, growth, and development of our teens that weren’t necessarily around or at least not as common in the past.  In class, we will help students identify what stressors they are facing in their own personal lives, how to recognize the warning signs of stress before they get out of control, the significant affects stress can have on the health and body, and how to deal with and manage stress in a safe and healthy manner.

I encourage all parents to discuss these important issues with your teens, because they play a significant role in their growth and development.

News from Team 8L

November Blog – Team 8L

Academic Literacy - We are learning about craft and structure in informational text. Through various texts we will discuss viewpoint, author's purpose, tone and word choice to consider how the author responds to conflicting viewpoints. Students are currently in the process of learning the skill of debate and will be using these tactics in classroom debates. 

Science - This last month we finished up our chapter on Rocks.  We classified and identified rocks by their formation.  Each student was required to identify and pronounce each of the rock names.  We are currently working on the weathering process of minerals and rocks.  During this chapter we have completed two labs.  Students thoroughly enjoyed the "Heating and Cooling" of rocks lab.  They got to put rocks directly into a bunsen burner flame and then put it in a cold beaker of water to see how the rock reacts.  The second lab we just completed was on the surface area of antacid tablets to show how it affects weathering.  Students continue to work on writing lab conclusions.  The science department is working to improve the conclusions and increase the expectations of their writing.  Coming up next students will be playing with dirt in our soil chapter.

Social Studies – We are continuing to travel through the American Revolution and learn about how we overcame various obstacles to defeat British.  Each student has chosen a person, event, or battle and created a “Fakebook” page to depict how that person/event/battle impacted the Revolutionary War.  After our Thanksgiving break, we will be taking a look at the United States Constitution and how it applies to their everyday lives.

English - In Mrs. Park's English class, students are wrapping up a short story unit.  Students have read several classic short stories, and they will now

be constructing short answer essays about those stories. Students will respond to writing prompts using the short answer essay response format.

Students will be required to show textual evidence, make inferences, and draw conclusions as they construct the short answer essay.

Also, during this marking period students will be participating in Book Clubs. Students will select a novel to read with their peers, and they will

then be completing reading reflections, engaging in group discussions, and completing a cumulative group project about the book. Finally, students will

be writing a literary analysis on the book.

Math - Honors Algebra students are studying equations and graphs of linear functions.  There are several linear equation and graphing models that will be utilized; additionally the concepts of parallel & perpendicular lines will be explored to see the effects such characteristics have on the equations.  To add a twist to this unit, students will discover how to graph and write equations of absolute value functions ~ their behavior is rather consistent!

Algebra 1A students have learned several number properties and the application of the Distributive Property.  In the current unit, they are beginning to study writing linear equations that model real-life situations.  Their focus will then shift to using algebraic properties to solve such equations, as well as solving absolute value equations.  Unit 1 will conclude with dimensional analysis and uniform motion word problems.

Pre-Algebra 2 students are in their third unit in which, as their Alg 1A peers have already done, they'll learn the Distributive Property, as well as the basics of equation writing and solving.  As we progress through Unit 3, the work will become more challenging by solving multi-step equations and equations with variables on both sides.

Health class is completing the unit on Mental Health as of this next 3 day cycle (Nov. 18, 19).  We will then begin our unit on Growth and Development, exciting times for 8th graders in Mr Stambaugh's class!!!!!!!

Congratulations

Congratulations to our weekly PRIDE winners from last week!  It is great to see our students continuing to go above and beyond our expectations on a daily basis.