Drug and Alcohol Education Update

Listed below is the overview for the March program:

Assembly:

Basic information regarding alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs (including myths and risks)

Peer Pressure, including refusal strategies

Workshops:

Goals/Decision Making Skills

Valuing a Substance Free Lifestyle (long term impact of addiction)

For the 8th grade we will include what this all means as they transition into high school.

Activities:

Substance Use in the Media

Peer Pressure Scenarios

Substance Specific Worksheets (alcohol, marijuana & tobacco) 

In mid-March, PEER Services will be providing the Advisors with 5 the discussion topics/activities that we can use in the classroom to continue reinforcing the information. They recommend that this is done after all students have attended both the assembly and grade-level break out sessions so that the students have all had the same foundation curriculum. 

Proportions and Fibonacci

This week in 7th grade math the class has continued to work with proportions and on their Fibonacci project.  The class has meet several times in their Fibonacci groups and started creating their keynote presentation about their area of interest.  Using proportions we built a to scale model of the solar system that wrapped around the classroom.  I have also been trying to give them as many real world examples of when proportions can be used using videos.  Next we will be working on scale drawings and similar figures and we will create a scale drawing of our classroom and then they will have to do a scale drawing of their room at home.

Ask your student about the solar system we made and about their Fibonacci project.

Drug and Alcohol Education

Hello all,

For our Drug and Alcohol (D&A) unit in advisory, we are going to bring in a group called PEER Services http://www.peerservices.org/  They are an Evanston based company that specializes in substance abuse education, prevention, and assistance.  In order to truly dive into the subject, we will be covering this topic throughout the month of March by bringing in PEER Services on 4 different dates: March 5th, 10th, 24th, and 31st.  Here's the overview of the four sessions:

March 5th: Introduction and large meeting.  6th grade will be gone on a field trip this day.  Therefore, Mrs. LaGorio and Ms. Hovey will be going over the material with 6th grade on the following day 2 during their study hall. 

March 9th: 6th grade Introduction.  As stated, Mrs. LaGorio and Ms. Hovey will cover everything that was shared on March 5th with the 6th graders during their study hall.  Advisors will let your 6th graders know about this make-up lesson, so they won't plan on using the time for homework, etc.  

March 10th, 24th, and 31st: Break Out Sessions.  Students will be divided into groups based on their class (6th, 7th and 8th) in order to discuss substance abuse topics that are relevant to them. 

On the days when PEER Services is not at NPES, the advisors will be facilitating discussion and helping to answer any questions the students might have.  Also, PEER Services is providing the advisories with handouts and activities that the teachers will lead within our smaller groups. 

According to the student survey completed at the end of last school year, drug and alcohol education is something our middle school students really wanted to see in advisory.  We want to help to best equip our students to make smart decisions as they leave NPES and go onto high school.  

Please contact Tiffany LaGorio, Middle School Advisory Coordinator, if you have any questions at lagorio@npeschool.org 

Birde Eye View Perspective Drawings

The 7th graders finished their birds-eye-view cityscapes. They each researched a different artist and had to portray that artist in their cities, both in the images they chose and the shapes of their buildings. We reviewed the rules of one-point perspective and they set out making these precisely drawn 3-D images. They did a great job in quickly grasping the essence of an artists style and then creatively representing it in this format. See if you can guess which artists these examples represent.

This week each student will present their drawings including a paragraph about their artist 

for a class critique.

 

Article I- The Legislative Branch

Last week, the 7th graders learned all about the Legislative branch of the Constitution.  Students compared the House of Representatives and the Senate and acted out scenarios of how a bill becomes a law.  They also participated in a "Legislator's Challenge" simulation, where they were put in the shoes of a member of the House of Representatives.  Their goal was to pass a bill, but they soon realized that they had many factors to consider, such as lobbyists, mark-up sessions, staying popular with the voters, and representing the views of one's political party.  This week, the students will learn about Article II- The Executive Branch.

Questions for your 7th grader:

How does a bill become a law?

School House Rock, again!

Would you like to be a member of congress someday?  Why or why not?

Week 25: 7th Grade Science

Week: 25

Respiration Project:  Get the Message Out

Project Timeline for this week:

Begin to design three videos

2. Chapter Project Worksheet 2 

          Questions 4-5

The above should be completed by 3/2/15. Please check with your child to make sure he or she is on track to complete these assignments.  

Upcoming:  Final ads, and class presentation.

¡La clase de español!

Recently the 7th grade started a new unit called ¡Vamos de compras!- Let's go shopping. In this unit they will learn to:

• Talk about what clothes they want to buy
• Say the cost of clothing items
• Say what we wear in different seasons
• How to use direct object pronouns
• How to conjugate stem-changing verbs e-ie

This week, the class learned new vocabulary related to clothing and seasons.  After introducing the vocabulary, they did a picture walk around the room of different people from magazines and were asked to describe what the people were wearing.  Additionally, they used the new vocabulary to ask a partner to describe the clothing they were wearing, tell how much clothing items cost, and we practiced the vocabulary in context by reading a Spanish dialogue about two teenagers talking about different articles of clothing. 

Next week they will have a vocabulary quiz on Tuesday February 24th and they will be introduced to stem-changing verbs.  Stem-changing verbs can be a difficult concept. They are different from regular verbs because the conjugations are irregular and need to be memorized.  In order to help them, we will be doing a lot of practice using memory aids, metacognitive support, songs and visuals.

Home Enrichment:

Ask your child to describe what you or they are wearing.  Check out some of your child's favorite clothing stores online and see if they can name the item of clothing and the cost in Spanish.    

Week 24: 7th Grade Science

Week: 24

Respiration Project:  Get the Message Out

Project Timeline for this week:

Interviews of people in the different age groups.

2. Chapter Project Worksheet 2 

The above should be completed by 2/23/15. Please check with your child to make sure he or she is on track to complete these assignments.  

Upcoming:  Rough draft of ads, final ads, and class presentation.

Proportions and Fibonacci

This week in 7th grade math we are continuing to work on proportions and Fibonacci.  Today in class we reviewed proportions and how they can be used in a real world situation related to our ages now and in the past based off of the idea that "30 is the new 20".  We will continue to go over the importance of proportions and how they can be used in real world situations tomorrow.  On Friday because it is a half day I will give the class time to do some research in their Fibonacci groups.

We will have a quiz late next week
I am going to assign a POW tomorrow that will be due Wednesday Feb. 25
We will also begin two mini projects next week, a scale creation of the solar system and a scale drawing of their rooms at home.

Preamble, Checks and Balances

Last week, the 7th graders learned more about the ideas in the Constitution.  They learned the words and meaning of the Preamble.  In the pictures below, they are looking at different functions of government and deciding which of the promises made in the preamble the function is trying to keep.  Then, they learned about how the Enlightenment idea of Checks and Balances is applied to the American government.  This week, they are learning all about Congress.  They will have their first quiz next Tuesday.  It will cover Article I of the Constitution.

Questions for your 7th grader:

• Sing the preamble for me! Here is School House Rock to help you out:   

School House Rock Preamble

• According to the Constitution, what is the most powerful branch of government?

Week 23: 7th Grade Science

Week: 23

Topic:  The Respiratory System

Objectives: 

Describe the function of the respiratory system.

Identify the structures that air passes through as it travels to the lungs.  

Describe what happens during gas exchange and breathing. 

Essential Question:

How are the digestive and cardiovascular systems connected to the respiratory system? 

Key Terms:

respiration

cilia

pharynx

trachea

bronchi

lungs

alveoli

diaphragm

larynx

vocal cords

This week the kids will work in stations to understand the function of the respiratory system, the path of air, gas exchange, and how we breathe. 

Differentiation:

Predicting

Infer

Observing

Sequencing

Visualizing

Calculating surface area

Using models

Upcoming:  Please speak to your son or daughter about their  Anti-Smoking Campaign ad.

Fibonacci/ratios

This week in 7th grade math the class will continue to learn about Fibonacci and we will then start our next unit (unit 6) on ratios/proportions/percents.  Yesterday we looked at number patterns inside of the Fibonacci sequence and discovered the connection between the Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio.  Today we measured our faces and our bodies and discovered the the golden ration is all over our bodies (see pictures below).  I then placed the students into one of the five Fibonacci groups: nature, art/beauty, architecture, music, and history.  They will then be responsible to make a keynote presentation and a product of some sort related to their topic.  We will also be learning about ratios, unit rates, and proportions this week.

Ask your child about Fibonacci?  What group are they in?  Why did they chose their group?  Where does the golden ratio come from?

L.A. Blog-Research and Shakespeare!

Good afternoon, parents! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

This week, the students are very busy working on two different projects: one, their research paper, which is moving along quite quickly, and the other, finishing Shakespeare and the subsequent work. After receiving their grades outlines and works cited pages, the students know where to begin on their first draft. We also had a lesson on how to create in-text citations and when it's appropriate to add these in.

Shakespeare has been a blast! We are going to finish the play this week and the students will be introduced to their upcoming group project and a Shakespeare test later this week. I have no doubt the students will do amazingly well on both.

We are using class time this week to work on both projects, as well as a couple of spelling sheets and Writer's Notebooks.

Here are this week's/next week's due dates:

Rough Draft of Research Report: Due Tuesday, February 17th
Shakespeare Test: Thursday, February 19th

Have a great three-day weekend coming up!

Happy Presidents' Day!

What would Van Gogh's city look like?

The 7th graders finished up their clay work and started a perspective project. They were each assigned a famous artist to research and then required to design and draw a city that represents the work of that artist. They learned how to draw in one-point perspective from a birds eye view to make their cities look realistic and they had to design at least one building in a shape that represents their artist. Here are few example of works in progress.

We should be able to finish next week and then we will have a class critique.  

L.A. Blog-Happy February!

It's hard to believe we're already into February, and we had our first official Snow Day! I hope everyone had a good three day weekend because of it.

This month, we are wrapping up some big projects. The seventh graders are working hard on A Midsummer Night's Dream and just wrapped up Act III. We've had some very exciting and informative discussions, and everyone seems to understand the play pretty well! Hopefully, we will be finishing the play by the end of next week or early into the third week of February.
The students will have a project based on the play, but I won't be introducing it until we are done reading.

Next, the students are working hard on their research papers. They just turned in their outlines and works cited page, both of which are essential to the final draft. Any errors they make on these should be corrected for the final paper. The final paper is due Tuesday, February 24th.

The most important thing to remember for this month is that the students need to balance their time between doing work in class and at home. I often give them a lot of class time, so they should be using it wisely!

Wrap Up:
Final Paper due Tuesday, 2/24

Have a wonderful week!

Constitution

Today, the 7th graders began their Constitution unit.  We began the unit by brainstorming how the ideas from the Enlightenment might have inspired parts of our government.  Students moved around the room in groups to write down their knowledge and predictions about each of the Enlightenment ideas that are found in the Constitution.  These ideas will form the basis for the rest of the unit.  The famous Constitution test will be taken the week before the students go to Washington D.C.  In the meantime, students will learn about the basics of our government while they debate and discuss the ideas in the Constitution.

Question for your 7th Grader:

• What do you already know about how the United States government works?
• Can you see any Enlightenment ideas in our modern government?

Fibonacci and Ratios

This week in 7th grade the class is preparing for the Mid Year Final and continuing to learn about Fibonacci.  Today I handed back the unit 5 test (which needs to be signed by Friday) and we went over the entire test and used it to review some concepts for the Mid Year Final that has been moved to this coming Thursday.  On Friday and Monday we will continue to learn about the Fibonacci sequence and its connection to the golden ratio.

Mid year Final on Thursday the Feb. 5

Week 22: 7th Grade Science

Week: 22

Nothing much to report on.  Completed our CVS section on vessels in our body, beginning our section on blood and preparing for our Respiratory project on smoking.