Friday, December 21, 2012

What a great last school day of 2012!  I hope all of you have a relaxing and fulfilling winter vacation, with plentiful time with your family and friends!

****REMINDERS/UPCOMING DATES****

 

Guided Reading/Grammar 
*We will switch groups right after break again.
*We will briefly review the different sentence types and move into the PWS (Paragraph Writing Strategy)
 
Advanced Math
*Review in-class on Wednesday, January 2 and Thursday, January 3
*Review online in the evening of Thursday, January 3 (details to come soon)
*TEST FRIDAY, JANUARY 4 (Those who do not finish need to find time either after school on the 4th or on Monday before or after school.)

Language Arts: 
*Read Chapters 7, 8, 9 in The Westing Game
*Complete the journal response (listed below in Wednesday's blog entry)
*Be sure you are all caught up in your reading and journal responses (look at previous blog entries to get these).  Otherwise, you will be drowning in work when you return.  After break, we will have assigned reading and journal responses EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Start with a clean slate so as to save yourself from stress later. 

NHD/Social Studies:
*NHD, NHD, NHD, NHD... What can I say?  Use your time wisely over break and get some researching and notetaking done!  This would be the perfect time to find more resources and start developing a project plan of some sort.  At the end of January, we will be implementing your plans and creating the projects, so be ready to do an awesome job!
*On January 10 (for my Block 1 LA class) and January 11 (for Block 2 LA class), we will walking to the Main Library again for use of the research resources there.  We won't have a tour this time, and hopefully the library's Wi-Fi will be up and running.  You will have a lot of time to get some work done.
*Remember to keep track of all your bibliographic information (names of authors, titles, publication dates, and website addresses) so that you can successfully create an annotated bibliography later.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Guided Reading/Grammar:  There will be a short quiz on complex and complex-compound sentences on Friday.  Tomorrow is the last bit of time we will have to decorate our door.

Advanced Math:  Your assignment is to finish the table demonstrating a growth rate of 6% with an initial value of $2500.  Go up to ten for the input value.  We did 0 and 1 together in class.

Language Arts:  Your assignment, due January 2, is to read Chapters 7, 8, and 9 and respond to the following journal prompt:   Imagine that you are planning your own Westing game. Write out your own, imaginary will. Make sure to use language that is suitable and appropriate to will-writing. (This does not need to be as long as Sam Westing's will; 10-12 sentences is plenty.)

NHD/Social Studies:  Most of you were able to get your thesis statement approved today.  Remember you need to have three of the five teachers approve your thesis statement.  Once you have approval (as well as while you are waiting), you should continue researching your topic.  Read, read, read...become experts on your topic. 


BLANKET DRIVE ends Friday!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Guided Reading/Grammar:  Students are reminded to bring their grammar notebooks to class tomorrow.  There will be an assessment on complex and complex-compound sentences this Friday.

Advanced Math:  Because of the GeoBee, we did not have math class.  We will pick up where we left off tomorrow.  The Growing, Growing, Growing test will be the Friday after break.

Language Arts:  We continued our study of The Westing Game.  Homework:  Read Chapters 4, 5, 6 and write a paragraph response to the following prompt:  Pick 2 characters from the novel.  What positive and negative traits do they have?  Make a Venn diagram.  Label the circles with the names of the characters and fill in the circles with their similar and different traits.

NHD:  Formulate a thesis statement for your NHD project.  Your goal should be to have an approved working thesis by Friday before you leave for break.

SMALL BUSINESS CLASS IS HAVING A BLANKET DRIVE!  SEVENTH GRADE HAS CURRENTLY DONATED ZERO BLANKETS.  LET'S CHANGE THAT!