Week 32: 7th Grade Science

Weeks: 32

Topic:  Classifying Rocks

Objectives: 

List the characteristics used by geologists to identify rocks

Identify and describe the three major rock groups 

Describe ways in which rocks are used 

Essential Question:

How do rocks compare? 

Key Terms:

igneous, sedimentary, & metamorphic

grains & texture

extrusive and intrusive rock

erosion, deposition, compaction, cementation

foliated

This week: The week the 7th grade geologists will begin to identify, classify, understand how rocks are created, and finally identify a mystery rock.

Differentiation:

classifying

inferring

observing

drawing conclusions

Upcoming:  Creating the Rock Cycle

Water Bottle Project

This week in 7th grade math we are heavily into the water bottle project.  We have finished going over how to find the volume of many 3D figures.  The class is now using their knowledge of 2D and 3D figures to design and figure out the dimensions of their water bottles.  They are being given a great deal of class time to work on the project and ask questions.  Tomorrow for homework they will begin to learn about surface area by watching a video.

Upcoming assignments:
Volume for all three designs due Monday May 2nd
Quiz on Volume and Surface Area May 3rd
Surface Area of all three designs due Monday May 9th
Final Water Bottle Project due Monday May 16th
Test on Geometry Tuesday May 17th

Causes of the Civil War

This week, the 7th graders are presenting projects that they created last week.  Each group will be presenting a mini-lesson about one of the major events that helped spark the Civil War.  Yesterday, Max, Julian, and James taught the class about the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law.  Later in the week, they will learn about the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott case, John Brown, and the Election of 1860.

Week 31: 7th Grade Science

Weeks: 31

Over the next few weeks the 7th graders will become geologist.  They will go into the field and create their own field guide for minerals, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.  To conclude the unit they will study the rock cycle which tie into their knowledge from the “Inside the Earth” unit.

2D and 3D Geometry

This week in 7th grade math we have started our geometry unit.  We started the unit off by figuring out where the formulas for area and perimeter of squares, rectangles, parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids, and circles come from.  We cut these shapes out of grid paper and put them together to make other shapes to learn where the formulas come from.  For the rest of the week, we will be working on volume of prisms, cylinders, pyramids, and cones.  This is leading up to the water bottle project, which was introduced today.  Each student will be asked to create a water bottle out of paper using the shapes that we learned about this week.  The final project will be due in about a month.

Below is a clip from the Fibonacci presentation that we did last week.  All the kids did great work and learned a lot.  Other videos are posted on the NPES facebook page.

7th Grade Language Arts: To Kill a Mockingbird Unit

The seventh grade students started reading To Kill a Mockingbird last week.  Students are actively participating during class discussions and thinking critically about the characters and events in the novel.  Last week, students presented their Introductory Projects.  They created posters for some of the themes in the novel and gave speeches about what the themes mean to them.  Some of the themes included honor, bravery, pride, innocence, and isolation.  Today, students are presenting their Word Expert Vocabulary Projects.  Each student has a vocabulary word from To Kill a Mockingbird that they are presenting to the class in an interesting and memorable way.  Be sure to ask your child what they did for their presentation.

Week 30: 7th Grade Science

Week 30:

This week the 7th graders completed their Earth’s Changing Surface Project.  Like the Anti-Smoking Campaign, I truly enjoyed the variety of ideas and the creativity from each group.  Some of these great ideas were international names for their companies, how they created landforms using toothpicks, and their overall presentations.  When discussing with the class the project they all commented that by doing labs it helped them understand Earth’s tectonic movement and by building a model it helped them understand how our Earth works.  Don’t forget to asked them about this during dinner one night.

Pre-Civil War

This week, the 7th graders are starting a unit about the causes of the Civil War.  They will be working in groups to research and teach their classmates about an important event during the pre-Civil War era.  Then, they will create menu items and participate in a Socratic Seminar in which they will try to answer the essential question "Could the Civil War have been avoided?".

Question for your 7th grader?

• What event are you researching for your pre-Civil War project?

Area

This week in 7th grade math we are going to start our next unit on Geometry.  So far this week, we have finished our history of Fibonacci video and we did the whole class presentation on Fibonacci.  (Hopefully I will be able to post a video in the near future.)  Tomorrow, we will start working on area models for two dimensional figures and discover where the formulas come from.  This is getting the class started with some basic ideas for the Water Bottle Project we will be working on for the next several weeks.  The 7th graders will be taking the MAP test on Thursday of this week.

No upcoming assignments.

7th Grade Language Arts: Persuasive Essay and To Kill a Mockingbird

The seventh grade students have started a persuasive writing unit.  They picked an environmental issue that they feel passionately about as the topic for their essays.  In class, students are using the research they collected to build their outlines and begin drafting their essays.  Be sure to ask your child about their persuasive topic and research.  Students are also working on introductory projects for the To Kill a Mockingbird reading unit.

Middle School Advisory Update

On Friday, April 29th, middle school students will be participating in a "Day of Service.".  Throughout the year, the kids have been investigating four areas: Environment, Literacy, Social Services with a focus on Special Olympics, and Animal Welfare.  They researched the various organizations in Chicago that work in these areas, then partnered with several and have been learning about the local issues in these areas.  For our Service Day, a group of kids will be helping with the Special Olympics Opening Ceremonies, another group with the Open Books project in Pilsen, another group with habitat restoration in LaBaugh Woods, and the fourth group with the Chicago Canine Rescue Foundation.

By the way, the animal welfare advisory group has just launched a website featuring foster pets that need permanent homes.  Please check out their website an post it to your social media.  

http://fureverhomesforfurryfriends.weebly.com.

Middle School Students stuffed over 650 "goody bags" for participants of the
Polar Plunge fundraiser for the Special Olympics.


Books begin to fill up the floor of the Social Studies room
as donations come in for the Open Books Book Drive

Fibonacci

This week in 7th grade math the class is working to finish their Fibonacci Projects.  Before Spring Break, the class worked on the Power Point/Information part of the project.  This week they are creating some sort of product related to their topics.  It is really cool to see the four different groups spread around the school creating things.

The architecture group is creating 3D plans of their own Fibonacci inspired buildings using Google Sketchup.

The art/beauty group is taking pictures of people and overlaying Fibonacci beauty masks on them to see how they line up.

The nature group is doing a stop motion video of them paniting the spirals on a pinecone.

The music group is using boomwackers to make a video of Fibonacci inspired music.

I plan on videoing the kids presentation of their work and I will post it on the blog when it is complete.

Week 29: 7th Grade Science

Week 29:

We are back from Springfield and I hope you all had a fun and relaxing break.  This week the 7th graders are finishing their Earth Projects.  Ask them about Earth’s interior, continental drift, and plate tectonics.