Class Updates
by Mrs. Gaal and Ms. Marrion
Please ask your child about the #HourOfCode activity from yesterday!
Contents:
-Esperanza Rising Book Chat Rubric
-Esperanza Rising Fishbowl Notes and Rubric
-Esperanza Rising Revised Reading Response and Rubric
Math/Science
Enclosed in this week’s Friday folder is the graded math test - along with its rubric – for Unit 2. Depending on individual needs, each student was either able to take a closer look at those skills that needed to be reviewed or investigate new concepts. Please take the time to review areas of need with your child as well. During our next unit, ‘Let’s Be Rational’, we will begin an in depth study of fractions utilizing all operations. This will include not only finding solutions through use of the traditional algorithms, but relying on effective estimation and model drawing to prove the answer. By solving word problems, students will apply these same skills.
In science, we are continuing our study of Newton’s Laws. Ask your child about the Third Law. A reminder - all Powtoons Projects are due on Wednesday, Dec. 10. How can you assist? Please take the time to preview your child’s creation and help them check for spelling and grammatical errors. Our culminating activity - we are looking forward to creating a playlist using each presentation.
Humanities
To begin our week, students participated in a “film school” activity where we explored tips to keep in mind when making a video. On Tuesday, we started a new unit, which emphasizes the elements of culture and civilizations. We analyzed the metaphor of culture as an iceberg. Please ask your child what they remember of this metaphor. Following this, we identified eight different cultural universals through playing a game. I taped a specific example of a cultural universal on their back, and through two rounds, students tried to guess what the word on their back was and what cultural universal it was an example of. In order to deepen their familiarity with these terms, there is a homework assignment to be completed by Tuesday. Finally, we concluded our week by trying to answer one of our essential questions: How do we learn about history? We did this through digging through trash! Please ask your child about our garbology activity.
Next week marks the beginning of a group project where students will be asked to create their own civilizations. This will be a complicated project with a variety of components. As we move through it, all information and expectations will be displayed on the FHS website under the “topics” page.