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The seventh graders started the year off with prayer service outside and a beautiful group picture. We discussed our theme S.O.A.R. (Safety~Ownership~Achievement~Respect) and how we need to S.O.A.R. in all parts of our lives. We created an eagle with our names, so the seventh grade can soar like an eagle. In Religion, we are learning more about Jesus, Mary, and the Saints plus different national holidays-Patriot Day, International Day of Peace, and more. When we learn about one of the many saints, we are learning how to live our lives to be closer to God. Each Religion class starts with a meditation, where we relax and focus on God. Math class was fun drawing scale copies and learning about scale factors. We spent a unit on scale drawing where we learned about making scale copies and using corresponding sides and angles to draw a scale copy. This unit led us into our next unit on proportions and writing equations. When we write an equation, this helps us to determine if we have a proportional relationship. We are solving equations using a table to help us. This table makes it easier to determine if there is a proportional relationship. Learning about relationships will help us in our next unit of circles. What helps people rise up to face difficulties? That has been the focus question for our current unit in seventh grade Reading. We started to explore that question by reading the short story “Rogue Wave”. The aim of a short story is to interest and entertain readers. Authors achieve this aim by crafting compelling characters who experience events and situations that readers want to follow until the conclusion. Short stories may be based on real-life, everyday situations or on imaginary and unusual ones. They can be funny or serious, and they usually have something meaningful to say about life. In an adventure story, the characters usually face extremely dangerous situations in exciting settings. We have also looked at various informational texts focused on the 20th Anniversary of September 11 and the start of Fall. Students in seventh grade English are off to a wonderful start. They are perfecting their writing skills by responding to thought provoking journal questions. Also, students research the 188 artifacts from the Thoreau Collection found on the Concord Museum web page. They chose the one that appealed to them the most and drew it. Then the students wrote a personal narrative from the artifact’s point of view as it tells the story of its experiences in the Thoreau household. Students also review basic grammar and punctuation on a daily basis. In addition, seventh graders are reading the novel The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Students are involved with many writing activities based on this novel including identifying them, symbolism, and literary devices. They are also comparing and contrasting Henry David Thoreau’s words with the themes present in this short novel. After completing the novel, students will write an expository paper explaining the ways the novel reflected the values and actions of Thoreau. In social studies 7th grade students began the year by taking a virtual field trip to Greece. Students are learning all about the vast accomplishments that the Ancient Greeks achieved. The Greeks are well known for advances in science, mathematics, art and most importantly for developing the world's first democracy. This achievement still influences our own society today! It has been an exciting start to our school year in science. In seventh grade our students have been learning about the various stages of the water cycle. We've watched videos, read, and even conducted several experiments in our science lab to learn more about this topic. The experiments we conducted involved making it rain, by using boiling water, a glass container, a glass plate and some ice cubes. The students predicted what would happen when the warm air came in contact with the colder air. Just like in nature the liquid evaporates into the atmosphere where it condenses, forms clouds, and then begins to precipitate Another experiment involved placing a plant in a sealed plastic bag and placing it on a window sill. After a while students were able to observe tiny droplets of water forming on the plastic bag. The process is called transpiration and it's when plants release water back into the atmosphere! Plants are amazing things! We are now moving into studying the various layers of our atmosphere, and exactly what happens in each. Stay Tuned!!!
Safety ~ Ownership ~ Achievement ~ Respect