Welcome to Social Studies!

Welcome to the new school year!  This year in Social Studies, the students will be learning mostly about European history.  We will start with a unit about the Middle Ages and will focus on Europe up until the Industrial Revolution.  This is also the year of the Constitution unit, which will be taught during 3rd quarter.  The 7th graders spent the first week of school reviewing some key points of 6th grade social studies and reviewing the 5 themes of social studies (history, geography, government, economics, and culture).  On Thursday, the class started their first project of the year.  This year, one of my goals as a teacher is to provide more choices to the students, because all students have different learning styles.  For their 5 themes of social studies project, students were asked to choose two different small projects from a menu that had 7 different options with different point values.  All of the projects provide ways to reinforce the idea of the 5 themes.  Ask your 7th grader which two projects they chose to work on.  Next week, we will begin our Middle Ages unit with a section about the fall of the Roman Empire.

Mrs. Wells
Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:30-4:30

Lauren is creating a collage that shows how the 5 themes of social studies apply to her life.

 Ava is reading a current event news article and writing about how she sees the 5 themes in current events.  Emma is creating a book on Book Creator.

Gwyneth is using the Book Creator app to create a children's story about an imaginary ancient civilization.  She is using the 5 themes of social studies to tell her reader information about the group of people.

 Thora chose to make her children's book the old fashioned way.

Max is creating a word web with examples of the 5 themes from the ancient civilizations that we learned about in 6th grade social studies.

7th Grade Language Arts Week 1: Descriptive Food Project

This week students were given the following creative writing task:

“You will choose a food item that you really enjoy.  This could be something that is very common (pizza, burgers, candy) or something unique (perhaps an item from your culture).  After you’ve chosen your food item, you will write a descriptive paragraph about the item and the overall food experience.  Your goal is to make your audience drool when they hear your description.  Appeal to all their senses: touch, taste, see, feel, and hear.  You will also create a visual representation of the food item to show during your presentation.”  

The goal of this writing assignment is to enhance our writing with the best possible word choice, sensory language, and figurative language.  Students may also bring in a sample of their food item to share with the class during their presentation.

Check back to see how these projects are developing!

-Mrs. Payne

Language Arts Office Hours (Room 206):  Wednesday and Friday mornings at 7:45-8:15 a.m.

Welcome to 7th Grade PE

Great job making it through the first week of 7th grade PE! This week we started learning how to juggle, played a couple new warm up games, and we are starting a soccer unit. I have been trying really hard to learn all of the new names. I'm super excited for the upcoming year in PE and have a bunch of new games and activities ready for the middle school students!

Office hours for PE are Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 7:30-8:00.

Rob Hirsch

North Park Art

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year! In art the visual theme for the year will be Food!  Many of our projects, but certainly not all, will be connected to this broad theme. The 7th graders will enjoy a double art period this year, a full 80 minutes! The 7th grade social studies and language arts curriculum lends itself to making some great connections in art. After a visit to the art institute I collaborate with Ms. Lagorio and Ms Wells and we host  a Renaissance festival in late November. We talk about some new artists and genres and continue to learn about color, line, shapes, balance, movement, texture and pattern. An art program objectives guide, project list and assessment rubrics will be available on curriculum night. Keep checking the blog to see weekly updates.

My office hours, which can be used by students to catch up on work are Wednesday from 3:30 - 4:30.

for further details visit the art blog.

7th Grade Science

North Park Elementary School

Dear Seventh Grade Parents,

I hope you all had a great summer and yes, the school year has begun.  In science this year we will explore four branches of science: physical, anatomy, earth and life.  Our studies will take us through the world of energy and heat, chemical interactions, the circulatory and respiratory systems, geology, and last but not least cell structure and processes.  We will use an integrated approach into the discovery of how the world works. 

I will be coaching the Science Olympiad team this year, if your child is interested I feel it will be a fun enrichment and also a good addition on their high school applications.  I will furnish you with more details as the time approaches.

If you are interested in volunteering in the classroom please let me know.  I encourage this because it provides opportunity for more children to receive one-on-one attention.  This can be on a weekly, bi-weekly, or occasional basis.  The more specialized help the students receive in class, the more they will learn.

Finally, please support your student’s success by stressing the importance of good or appropriate class behavior and completing homework assignments.  Credit can only be given if the assignments are neatly completed and turned in on time.  Please also ensure that your child has the required supplies for this year’s activities.

I am looking forward to an exciting and challenging year.  Thank you for your help and support.  I look forward to seeing you at Parent Orientation.

Sincerely,

Mr. Tortorici