Welcome to the Class Updates Page!! Here you will find information about the class and updates that you might need to know! Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about specific due dates or test dates. Use the informaiton here to start a conversation with your child about class!
October 2017:
Math 8:
This month we will be learning about the difference between rational and irrational numbers. We will be learning about how to convert between fractions, decimals, and percents, how to take a repeating decimal and write it as a fraction, Then we will move on to our unit on exponents. We will learn how to evaluate exponents (6th grade) and how to apply the laws of exponents (8th grade)!
Math 7:
This month we will be finishing up our fractions review unit and moving on to a unit over the basics about integers, how we use negative numbers in the real world, and plotting on the coordinate plane.
Math 6:
We are working this month on a unit about rational numbers. We will be learning about finding greatest common factor, least common multiple, using negative numbers in the real world, and number lines. We will then begin our unit on fractions. This fractions unit is always a difficult one so it might not be a bad idea now to begin to review those topics. There are thousands of fractions games on the internet and those would be a great place to start reviewing!
Science 7:
This month we are finishing up our unit over measurement by talking about qualitative and quantitative observations and density. We will then begin talking about motion and forces and Newton's 3 laws of motion.
November 2017:
This month brings the excitement of moving from mostly review topics into some new math as we push towards a long weekend and some Gobble Gobble at the end of the month!
Math 8:
We are finishing up our unit on exponent laws this week and will be moving next onto the unit on scientific notation. We will learn how to write regular numbers as scientific notation and how to tranform numbers written in scientific notation into standard numbers. We will use the exponent laws that we learned about and apply them to performing operations with numbers written in scientific notation.
Math 7:
This month we are finishing up our unit on the coordinate plane with a test this Thursday the 9th. We will then move to a unit over how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide negative numbers! The students are very excited about moving into this unit since it is 7th grade material!!
Math 6:
Last week we began our unit over fractions. We reviewed adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers. We will be multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers and working with completing story problems that involve fractions. We will be spending quite a bit of time working with word problems. A great idea would be anytime you are working with fractions at home (cooking, woodworking, etc) to involve your student! Let them show you what they know! Our test over fractions should be sometime around Thanksgiving (hopefully before break).
Science 7:
This month we continue to work on forces and the laws of motion. Once we finish with Newton's laws we will be completing a tic-tac-toe project where students will be completing 3 small projects that demonstrate their knowledge of Newton's 3 laws. The projects will be due sometime before Thanksgiving break.
December 2017:
Almost time for break!! Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Only a few more weeks left in the semester. Make sure your student is working hard to make sure all assignments are completed and turned in. Keep checking Pinnacle regularly.
Math 8:
We just finished up our unit on scientific notation and will be moving now to learning about algebraic expressions and equations. We will learn how to solve one step equations first (focusing on the steps you use to solve algebraic equations before we move onto more complex equations.
Math 7:
We will be testing our knowledge of operations with integers this Thursday the 7th. We will then begin working on our unit on Algebraic expressions where we will be learning about exponents, order of operations (PEMDAS), using substitution to evaluate expressions, and the most commonly used mathematical properties.
Math 6:
We finished up our fractions unit before break and now we are working on our numerical expressions unit. We will be working with the order of operations (PEMDAS) and exponents in this short unit. After that we will be working on Algebraic Expressions and learning the parts of an expression, combining like terms, and writing expressions from word problems.
Science 7:
In science we will be finishing up our unit on motion and forces and beginning to talk about work, power, and simple machines. Make sure your student has all 3 of their Newton's laws projects turned in. There are still a few missing!
January 2018:
Welcome back!! I hope you had a fun and restful Christmas Break!! Time to get back into the groove of things and get ready for ISTEP!
Math 8:
We will be continuing the Solving Equations unit that we started right before break when we learned how to solve 6th grade One step equations. We will now be moving on to solving two step and multi step equations!! Lots of pre-algebra work here! After we are finished with solving equations we will move on to learning how to solve and graph inequalities. We will also be working on how to write equations and inequalities from story problems (whichi is why we learn all this algebra stuff in the first place!!) Happy Solving!
Math 7:
We will be continuing our Algebraic Expressions unit that we started before break. We will continue to work with the Order of Operations (PEMDAS) and properties as we move on to learning about using substitution to evaluate expressions and translating expressions from word problems! Then I think we will be moving on to Geometry. I'd feel more confortable about ISTEP (which usually has some geometry on it) if we made sure we covered that before the end of February. So we will be learning about 2 dimensional geometry (angles and area) before moving on to 3 dimensional geometry (volume and surface area).
Math 6:
We are going to spend some time after break reviewing what we learned about combining like terms in an algebraic expressions. Students were really struggling with it and it is a very important skill to have for algebra. After that we will continue to work through our Algebraic Expressions unit. After that, towards the end of the month, we will be looking at either working with some geometry or solving algebraic equations before ISTEP in the end of February.
Science 7:
This week we will be finishing up our unit on work, power, and simple machines with an open book test. Make sure to bring your book and study guide to class! We will then move into the unit on energy, waves, light, and sound. We will be reviewing the different types of energy we learned about last year in 6th grade and then learning about the different types of waves including light waves and vision and sound waves and hearing. We will also discuss renewable and nonrenewable energy - a great topic of disucssion for home!
February 2018:
It was lovely seeing so many families at Parent Conferences! If you were unable to make it and would like to discuss your child's progress and grades please feel free to give me a call or send an email and we can get in touch. Students have been working really hard getting ready for ISTEP and their commitment is really starting to show! The first round of ISTEP is scheduled for the last week of the month. Math will be done paper/pencil on one day in our classroom. It typically involves four or so problems with lots of real-world problem solving - so if you have any multi-step problems to work out at home (think finding the area of something and then using that area to calculate the cost of buying materials to cover it up, figuring out the cost of buying a meal and calculating the time to cook it, etc) that would be great practice!
We also have some exciting news! We got Lenovo laptops for our classroom!!!!! So exciting!! We will be moving towards using these on a daily basis in class and utilizing Microsoft OneNote for PSL and assignments. It's so exciting to have this technology as we really gear into the 21st century and becoming a STEAM school!! Your student can access their notebook online from anywhere (HERE) to work on assignments or to link to others on Clever or thatquiz. They can even download their notebooks to your home computer.
Math 8:
We will be starting a new unit this month that is mostly 6th grade material with a bit of 7th thrown in: the Ratios/Rates/Proportions/Percents Unit! We will be learning about writing and using rations, finding the unit rate (and completing a grocery shopping Find the Best Buy project in class - lots of real world applications here!), writing and solving proportions from real world problems, and finding percent of a number and using it to calculate tax, tip, discount, markups, and comissions (TONS of real world uses on this one!). We will also be learning about scale models and similar figures and using our knowledge of proportions
Math 7:
We just finished up our unit on 2D geometry and it went very well. Students have a test on Monday Feb 4th. After that we will move on to volume and surface area. Keep looking for lots of real world examples around the house where we use area and volume!
Math 6:
We just finished up our unit on solving one step equations and writing equations from word problems. The test seems to have gone very well. I'm excited to grade it!! Next we will be moving onto 2 dimensional geometry and finding missing angles and the area of various figures. After that we will be working on 3 dimensional geometry and finding volume and surface area.
Science 7:
We almost finished with our unit on Waves, Light, & Sound. We will be learning about light and how we see everything including color and about sound waves and how we hear. That will finish up our unit on waves and our semester in Physics. We will then move onto the structure of the Earth and learning about tectonic plates.
March 2018:
Its been a long journey without some days off and we've got a couple weeks more to go before spring break! The first round of ISTEP is pretty much wrapped up and the push is on to finish learning our new material to get ready for round 2 in April!
Math 8:
We will be wrapping up our unit on ratios, proportions, rates, and percents in the next couple of weeks. We still need to work on converting within and between measurement systems before our test. There's always good practice for this at home converting measurements for cooking, crafting, and construction! Our next unit after that will be completing a unit over geometry. We will be covering lots of figures in this unit so that we can get through 6th, 7th, and 8th grade concepts. We will also be working with right triangles and the pythagorean theorem in this unit. The most important skill in this unit is being able to use a formula, plug in the values for the variables, and chug out the answer! Make sure your student is using the formulas on ALL of their work!
Math 7:
We are working hard through our unit over solving equations and inqualities. We have solved simple one step equations and will be moving on to more complex equations that involve more steps and more complex numbers such as fractions. After we finish, our next unit will be over ratios and proportions.
Math 6:
The test from the equations unit was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! So many A's and A+'s it blew my mind!!!! Unfortunately we will have to keep working with our two dimensional shapes with geometry. It is so very important that students identify the shape and use the correct formula. We have a few students that want to do the work in their head and that is causing some struggles. Please make sure your student is writing the formula on all their work, plugging in the values for the variables, THEN picking up a calculator to chug out an answer. This will help so much! We will be finishing our unit on volume and surface area soon before moving on to ratios and proportions. Time to sharpen those shopping skills!
Science 7:
We just had a very interesting speaker from Anthis Career Center about their programs and how important it is for students to keep up their grades and good study habits while still in middle school!! Ask them about it!! We will be testing soon on the spheres and layers of the Earth and moving on to our next chapter covering plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanos!!!
April 2018:
Hello families!! I hope everyone had an awesome spring break!!!! Here's hoping those vacationers brought back some WARM WEATHER!!!! Burrrrrr!! We are on our final push before the second round of ISTEP which will start the week of April 16th with math. Exact dates will follow.
EDIT: Math ISTEP testing will be APRIL 17th, 18th, and 19th. Make sure your student gets lots of good sleep, eats breakfast either at school or at home, and remembers to use the restroom before class. They are TOTALLY ready and I'm sure they'll ROCK it out of the park!!
Math 8:
We will be wrapping up our unit on geometry and the Pythagorean Theorem before ISTEP and will then move into some serious Pre-Algebra work. We will start with graphing equations and examining the slope of a line. After that we will be looking at graphing and solving systems of equations and how we can use those in the real world.
Math 7:
We are currently working on converting within and between measurement systems so there are great opportunities to work on this skill in the kitchen, when crafting, and constructing and building things! After we finish with proportions and take our test we will be working exclusively on 7th grade material. We will be graphing equations and examining the slope of a line.
Math 6:
We are currently working on converting within and between measurement systems so there are great opportunities to work on this skill in the kitchen, when crafting, and constructing and building things! After we finish with proportions and take our test we will be working on graphing and interpreting graphs. We will then be working back through a few things we struggled with this year before starting on some important 7th grade skills we will need for our math class next year!
Science 7:
We are almost finished with our unit on plate tectonics and will be taking about earthquakes and volcanoes soon. After that we will move on to the rock cycle and soil formation. Keep checking those Pinnacle reports!
May 2018:
Hello families!! I can't believe its the last month of school!!! This year has literally flown by!! It will certainly be a busy month as we wrap up our 6th grade curriculum and begin working on some 7th grade standards in math to get ready for next year!! Keep pushing ahead, getting those assignments in, and staying up to date with Pinnacle!
Math 8:
We just finished our unit on slope and linear equations and will be moving on starting next week to Systems of Linear equations where we have multiple equations for the same situation which we solve and interpet the solution in terms of the problem. If there is any time left over before the end of school we will work with calculating simple and compound probability, which is always lots of fun!!
Math 7:
We are ready to take our test over ratios and probability and will be moving into our last unit: Linear Equations next week!! We will be finding slope from a line and from two points, writing the equation that matches a line, and using equations to graph a line.
Math 6:
We are finishing up our unit on graphing and will be spending the last few weeks of school reviewing some critical concepts from this school year. The second week of May we will be reviewing unit rate and coordinate graphing. The third week of May we will be reviewing skills from our Algebra units including order of operations, substituting values into an equation and solving, mathematical properties, and translating expressions and equations. The third week of May we will be reviewing fractions and decimals and beginning work with integers. The last week of school we will be completing a fun STEM project!!!
Science 7:
We have finished our unit over earthquakes and volcanoes and will be spending a week or so learning about types of rocks, soil formation, erosion, and deposition before starting our last unit over cells and mitosis. We will be talking quite a bit about how cells and living things function, how the organelles within a cell function, and how cells make new copies of themselves through the process of mitosis.