The New Year has started and the first three days were a breeze. It will be a busy few weeks until the next break.
Ugly Mug Contest (and donation)
The winner is…. Santa Mug.
Thanks to the Gautsch family for adding FOUR of these unique mugs to the collection. Donations are welcome any time.
All laptops should remain at school over the weekend.
Calendar:
January 9: Delayed Start
January 18: MMU Counselors meet with 8th graders 1:40-2:40 pm (and so it begins… transition!)
January 21: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday (Inservice - no school for students)
January 24: 8th Grade parent/Family Night at MMU for rising 9th graders (MMU Class of 2023!) - 7pm
February 13: Delayed Start
February 18-22: *tentative* week for the annual bowling and Chinese/Pizza buffett
February 22: Student-Faculty Basketball Game (1:20ish to 2:20ish)
*Only 8th Grade basketball players can play*
Last Day before Break
February 23-March 5: Winter Break (no school)
April 10: Delayed Start
April 20-28: Spring Break (no school)
May 8: Last Delayed Start
Curriculum Updates
LA
Both grades are at the tail end of reading units (dystopian - 8 and historical fiction - 7). Both grades will complete a Reading POST assessment next Wednesday. Students can have more time if one class period isn’t enough. We will be preparing in class on Monday and Tuesday. Students should be reviewing unit skills practiced in their notebooks -- they do not need to be jotting at this time.
Up next:
7 - Companion Books (information writing)
8 - Literary Essay (argument writing)
7 - Companion Books (information writing)
8 - Literary Essay (argument writing)
Math
7: We are close to wrapping up our current unit, Stretching & Shrinking. We will finish the last couple of investigations at the beginning of next week and start reviewing for a unit assessment at the beginning of the following week.
8: We have begun our next unit, Looking for Pythagoras. In the unit, students will discover and prove the Pythagorean Theorem, learn to write fractions as repeating or terminating decimals, learn to recognize rational and irrational numbers, learn to locate irrational numbers on a number line, learn to relate the area of a square as well as the volume of a cube to their side lengths, and learn to estimate square roots and cube roots.
Science
7 - Students did excellent work writing a 5-paragraph essay about body systems before break! We continue to make connections among body systems at all levels of organization. We will be sure all students know the basics of the circulatory, respiratory, muscular, and nervous systems in the next couple of weeks, as we wrap up this unit.
8 - We are continuing our unit on the properties of matter and will relate energy transfer rates to different properties of materials. Students will complete an engineering project later this month, designing a system that keeps an object warm. Some may be asking to bring in materials from home!
SS
7 - Foodarama ended well! What a great experience and we had just the right amount of food. Otherwise, students are beginning a unit about government systems that leads off with an experiential activity in Feudalism. It’s always one of the favorite activities of 7th grade.
8 - While students enjoyed the American Revolution Film Unit (and the excessive amounts of popcorn). It’s time to move on to the creation of the nation - the Constitution era! Students are beginning with a dive into the language within the Declaration of Independence, then will quickly move into an assessment for the first form of government, The Articles of Confederation.
Enjoy the return of snow (or at least easy to remove snow) and have a restful weekend.
The Fusion Team
