Hi all,
The between break session is in full swing. Make sure your child has the jackets they need to be outside at recess and morning duty - it’s getting cold out there.
Report Cards
All families should have received report cards in the mail this week - if you have not or have a question about something on the report card, please contact the team.
Congratulations Mrs. Brandt
She is the recipient of a $1000 award from Berlin Kia - the money will be used for snacks in the Homework Club, in which several Fusion students participate.
Calendar
December 9 - School Dance (7-9pm; $5 at the door)
December 14 - Two Hour Delay
December 22 - Fun Day celebrations, Penguin Plunge Kick-off
December 23-January 1, 2017 - Holiday Break
January 11 - Two hour delay
January 20 - 8th graders meet with MMU guidance counselors 8-9am (Topic: Transition to high school))
February 8 - Two Hour Delay
Academic Area Update
***Mrs. Bessette was absent on Friday, so she will include updates next week.
Science
7th: The 7th grade will continue to produce several projects during this current unit on genetics and heredity. Please view their mitosis stop-motion videos of mitosis by clicking on their class link: Group C; Group D. This week’s project is to create a model of a segment of DNA using pipe cleaners and beads. Students will also model how the DNA strand separates and duplicates during cell division.
Coming soon, students will create a family tree poster that traces genetic traits and/or traits that are acquired, or learned, over 3 generations. Students have the choice of researching their own family tree, the family of another species, such as a pet, or a famous person's family. The goal is for students to gain experience tracing the lineage of specific traits within a family and to relate this experience to our studies of genetics and inheritance. I know that there can be sensitivity around this type of project for some students and families; my hope is that the options provided allow for every student to have a positive experience with this assignment. Please let me know if you have any particular concerns or suggestions. I plan to introduce the project before the next holiday vacation to give students time over the break to gather photos, images, and information. Thank you.
8th: The 8th grade is in the midst of their force and motion unit. Last week, we reviewed the concept of force, discussed the relationship between balanced and unbalanced forces and motion, practiced modeling free-body diagrams, and evaluated the frictional forces of different types of shoes. The concept for this week was acceleration, which set the stage for next week’s exploration of free fall, air resistance, and terminal velocity.
SS
7th Grade: Students have been learning more about the “Big Five Religions” of the world, and are starting the process of comparing them to each other… and to their own life experiences. In addition, students are starting the process of preparing a dish/meal to share with the class in the week before the break. If you have not heard about the dish/meal PLEASE check in with your child about this assignment. No one likes to find out at 7pm on a Sunday night they need to find a source for goat meat or acai juice.
8th Grade: Social Studies film study unit continues as the 8th graders explore the American identity through five films: two Schoolhouse Rocks shorts (“No More Kings”, and “Fireworks”), April Morning, Johnny Tremain and The Crossing. The students have been exploring the promise and inadequacies of the Declaration of Independence this week.
Math:
7th: We are wrapping up Accentuate the Negative and will have a unit assessment on Wednesday of next week. This week we focused on order of operations and used the distributive property to represent expressions in factored and expanded form.
8th CMP: We started a new unit, Looking for Pythagoras, last week. We have been using grid paper to find the area of irregular polygons in order to find the area of diagonally oriented squares. This allowed us to find the side lengths of these squares as the square root of the area of the squares. This is the foundation for proving the Pythagorean theorem.
8th Algebra: We are wrapping up our work on Unit 1B, Solving Equations. We have spent this week extending some of the work we have done over the course of the unit. We will be having the unit assessment on Wednesday of next week.
