Math:
Da Sprouts had a review exercise on Monday where they had to find the errors in imaginary student’s mistakes. On Tuesday they had their first middle school check in! In middle school, all answers must be justified with math work, a picture, or words. It took a few tries for some students to make that adjustment, but they all turned in beautiful justifications! Wednesday we moved on to review lessons of multiplying and dividing decimals.
EverShrooms first had a scavenger hunt to practice rational operations. Next, they completed an error analysis, like Da Sprouts. Wednesday was their check in.
Polar Bears worked together on a review on Monday. On Tuesday, they researched numbers online like, the number of comments on the Never Gonna Give You Up music video, and the number of people who voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election. They then changed those numbers into scientific notation. On Wednesday, they had their check in.
Mountain Lizards reviewed on Monday for their check in on Tuesday. Wednesday they had a challenging lesson over finding the domain and range of relations.
On Thursday, all students worked on the Stock Market Game.
ELA:
This week all the students wrote and wrote and wrote! Building on the drafts they started last week, everyone edited, tweaked, revised and polished their first essay of the school year. Da Sprouts and Evershrooms wrote about the differences and similarities of creation stories from all around the world, while the Icebergs analyzed and wrote about common motifs and themes.
Crafting interesting hooks, strong thesis statements, and clever endings all while building cohesive, detailed paragraphs that start with solid topic sentences is grueling work, but these writers were focused and determined. Well done Middle Schoolers!
Theme:
The Delta students were cracked up this week with their focus on the Theory of Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics. Continuing our Theme of the history of the Earth, students learned first how the layers of the Earth contribute to the movement of the land. Students notes contributed to our first puzzle of the year: how did the land of the Earth move over its billions of years.
Students displayed their flair for art and design by creating models of the various plate boundaries created through plate tectonics. First with construction paper, then with play dough, and eventually with the bodies! Crafting their models allowed students to see how the earth’s surface is reminiscent of an fragile egg: cracked in the shell, the whites our mantle, and the yoke the is our core. Outside projects on extinction events will be due in two weeks, and students are excited and working hard to complete them.
Delta students got physical when studying plate tectonics this week in Theme. Above, students used communication and teamwork skills to try to unravel themselves. Then applying the same ideas, they modeled various plate boundaries like Convergent, Divergent, and Transform.
Math students finished their first units of study this week, so it was time for check-ins. Each level completed their check-ins and they are available with your students. Below, students get the financial action happening with their first trades and ranks in the Stock Market Game.
The writing process was on full display this week as students worked to complete their first major writing assignment: a comparative analysis of two theories of Creation. Their analysis included an illustration and caption of their interpretation of their chosen Creation stories.
Subduction zones and Syncline folds were on full display by Delta students as they use playdough to model the cracks and ridges that show the Earth’s age during Theme Thursday.
