Hi all,
SBAC week went well - student sare putting in their time to show their best - team acknowledges their efforts.
8th Grade Families:
Please notice the attached permission form for the 8th grade field trip to the Great Escape Amusement Park! Hard copies were sent home with students last Friday. This trip is one of the final celebratory events for this current graduating class. Please look over the letter, consider chaperoning, and direct any questions or comments to lisa.windhausen@cesuvt.org!
All Laptops are at school over the Weekend
There should be no school laptops / electronic devices at home over the break. If one does make its way home, please secure it in a spot where it will remain unused for the break.
Calendar
May 16 and 17 - SBACs continue for both grades, 8-10am
June 1 - 8th Grade: Move up Day at MMU
June 13 - Vivasionville returns (more information coming)
June 14 - Totally Going to Happen! 7th Grade Field Trip to Sandbar State Park ($15)
June 14 - Totally Going to Happen! 8th Grade Field Trip to the Great Escape ($65) - Field Trip Permission form attached
June 19 - Tentative last day for 8th graders (MMU Class of 2022) and Recognition Night
June 20 - Tentative last student day of school (grades 5-7)
Curriculum Updates
LA
*** Both grades are in writing units right now. Students are still expected to read 30 minutes/day. ***
At the end of the year with the weather improving and summer so close, it can be really challenging for students to maintain focus. After this last writing unit, the hope is to reward students for their hard work with a fun read aloud (7th) and a picture book unit (8th). We have had some conversations/reminders in LA recently around following expectations and ending the year on a positive note :)
7 -- Students continue to work on their realistic fiction stories. Mini lessons this week focused sticking with a story/idea, developing details for the main character and today, extensive time for drafting.
8 -- This week we tried something new. Both 8th grade LA classes are currently doing some shared writing to create a thematic essay about jealousy in our mentor text “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury. Body paragraphs were written in small groups and we decided as a whole class how to revise them and incorporate that writing into a finished piece.
Math
7: During these SBAC weeks we are taking the opportunity to do some enrichment activities with the Comparing and Scaling units. We will plan to have the unit assessment the week after next.
8: We are ready to wrap up the Comparing & Scaling, but were not able to squeeze in the unit test before SBACs started this week. We spent our time doing some more practice and prep work. We will plan to have the unit test this coming Monday and Tuesday.
Science
7 - This week, we explored predator-prey relationships, as well as three symbiotic relationships: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Students should be able to describe several examples of each of these relationships to you! Next week, interns with UVM’s Watershed Alliance Program will come to lead lessons on water quality indicators of streams. Science Group C will go outside to study the Brown’s River on Tuesday; Group D will go on Friday. Please help your child check the weather forecast and dress accordingly! Please also remind your child to check for ticks when they return home after their field day!
8 - Students completed a variety of assignments over the last 2 weeks, which are beginning to pile up for a few students. Please check with your child about their work status. There are 2 readings on schoology, a CER lab write-up using an online gravity simulator
SS
7 - Population Pyramid and Sovereign State Game: Students continue to work on their pyramids by evaluating different age ranges and how these statistics can explain the past - and the future - of a country. The Sovereign State game is in full swing with students actively trading with one another for food, machinery and other natural resources.
8 - Confederate Statue Controversy: Students are in the final stages before the project. They finished exploring the histories of individual statues and began making arguments for why Civil War statues were crrated in the first place.
Personal Finance Activity of the Week: 5 Stocks on your Birthday - Language of Money students are in the process of developing stock portfolios. Their activity is based on this one by NextGen Personal Finance.
Happy weekend - the weather forecast improved dramatically. All students are remanded to yard work.
Team Fusion
