Anderson-Shiro
Junior High Academic Newsletter - Issue 7
6th Grade News
ELA: The countdown to STAAR has begun! We will be practicing reading comprehension, skills, and strategies to prepare for the reading STAAR exam. In ELA, they will be creating a restaurant menu that will be colorful and creative to express their idea of the perfect dining experience!
MATH: Over the next four weeks, we will be working on a self paced math review. In this review, every skill taught in class will be re-taught. A letter was sent on April 13, 2018 with your child explaining this in more detail. If this letter never made it home, please feel free to contact me and I will send you another copy.
SCIENCE: We will investigate methods of thermal energy transfer, including conduction, convection, and radiation. Then we will discover energy transformations. After that, we move into the structural layers of Earth, including the inner core, outer core, mantle, crust, asthenosphere, and lithosphere.
SOCIAL STUDIES: The students will be finishing up and presenting their 3-D Asia Projects. We will be finishing our unit over Asia and looking forward to starting the Africa Unit.
7th Grade News
I am so proud of the hard work the students put into their STAAR Bootcamp for writing. They worked hard, asked good questions, and were mentally ready for the STAAR test. With the STAAR Writing test behind us, we are going to start our new unit in writing with doing a comparison project over the book and movie "Wonder" then move into a small research project.
MATH: In math we are starting the Irregular Figures unit. In this unit, we solve for the area of known shapes that have been put together to form an irregular shape. Next, we will learn how to solve for Surface Area and Volume of 3-D shapes.
SCIENCE: In science, we will observe and describe how different environments support different organisms. Then we will be able to recognize levels of organization in plants and animals.
SOCIAL STUDIES: In Texas History, we are studying the Republic of Texas and early statehood unit. We are in the early stages of a creative project “The Amazing Texas Chase” that allows students to design a game show based on historical sites we have studied. The format of the game show is similar to the Amazing Race on CBS. As we progress through our units, we will continue to work in our interactive notebooks.
8th Grade News
ELA: Over the next three weeks, we will receive our STAAR results during the week of April 30th. We will start a new class Novel, "Nothing but the Truth," in reading and we will begin our Research Project in Writing.
MATH: We will watch Hidden Figures movies and discuss the importance of culture, math and science. We will then begin projects applying the math concepts we have learned.
SCIENCE: In science, we will discover characteristics that affect populations in ecosystems as well as abiotic and biotic factors. Then we will discover effects of environmental change on populations.
SOCIAL STUDIES: During the week of April 16th, we will be taking two pretests of past STAAR exams. Then we will be reviewing the category weaknesses found from the STAAR pretest as well as begin our extensive STAAR review in class. Flashcards and diamond puzzles will be sent home as a review for the STAAR test. Please look for more information on the STAAR review coming home as a parent/guardian information letter.
Upcoming Dates
April 26, 2018 - Progress Reports Go Home
May 14, 2018 - STAAR for 6th and 7th Grade Math
May 15, 2018 - STAAR for 6th and 7th Grade Reading
May 16, 2018 - STAAR for 8th Grade Science
May 17, 2018 - STAAR for 8th Grade Social Studies
Progress Reports Go Home