
Cluster 3
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Cluster 3 Hallway Meetings :)
October Update
To Parents, Guardians, and Caretakers,
Thank you to all of those that were able to attend our student led parent teacher conferences!
Below you will find some November updates along with Cluster 3 class updates!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out!
Thanks!
Cluster 3
Important November Dates/Announcements
11/10: No School
11/22: Half Day
11/23-11/26: Thanksgiving Break
Math with Mr. Casciano
Cluster 3 Math with Mr. Casciano - October
Hello Cluster 3 Families!
We’re two months into the school year and we’ve been working a lot with scaling and proportional reasoning. We have created scale models, read maps, and learned how to connect proportional stories, tables and equations. Creating equations has made our math look a little different since we have introduced variables. Our next unit will focus on the circumference(proportional) and area(non proportional) of circles.
Student Goals in Unit 2 - Proportional Reasoning
- I know that two paint mixtures will look the same if the ingredients are in equivalent ratios.
- I can use equivalent ratios to generate the same color paints.
- I can identify patterns in tables that represent proportional relationships.
- I can use a table to calculate unknown quantities in a proportional relationship.
- I can determine the constant of proportionality from a table and explain what it means.
- I can use the constant of proportionality to calculate unknown information in a table.
- I can justify whether a table represents a proportional relationship or not.
- I can explain where to find the constant of proportionality as a value in a table.
- I can write equations to represent proportional relationships.
- I can connect each part of an equation of the form = to the situation it represents.
- I can use an equation to solve problems involving a proportional relationship.
- I can explain what reciprocal means and how it is related to constants of proportionality.
- I can write two equations for the same proportional relationship.
- I can explain why a relationship is proportional or not by looking at the equation.
- I can explain what a proportional relationship looks like when represented with a graph.
- I can justify if a graph represents a proportional relationship or not.
- I can interpret points on the graph of a proportional relationship.
- I can identify the constant of proportionality from a graph of a proportional relationship.
- I can write an equation of a proportional relationship from a point on a graph.
- I can compare related proportional relationships based on their graphs.
- I can create four different representations of a proportional relationship (description, table, graph, equation).
- I can model a real-world situation by deciding what information is important and making assumptions.
- I can use proportional relationships to answer a question about a real-world situation.
Social Studies with Mr. Kirkaldy
Learning Targets:
- I can explain how steppes, mountains, deserts, and fertile plains have affected the development of societies and the lives of people in Central Asia.
- I can use the language of cause and effect in my explanation.
This week we have shifted our focus a bit to the geography of Central Asia to investigate how geography impacts the lives of people living there and how it has influenced the development of societies. Students have labeled a map and taken notes from a short video that shows the geographic features of the different regions in Central Asia. Students will be putting together all the information they have learned to write cause-and-effect sentences about how geography influences lives in Central and South Asia.
This year, we have chosen to pilot instructional materials from Investigating History, a series of new curriculum units developed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in collaboration with Primary Source, a global education nonprofit based in Watertown. These units are aligned with the Massachusetts History and Social Science standards and are designed to develop students’ critical thinking skills through engaging, inquiry-driven, resource-rich activities. Each Investigating History unit has gone through a rigorous, three-year design and development process that included subject-matter experts, experts in social studies teaching, and practicing Massachusetts educators before being ready for use in your child’s classroom. Our teachers will also participate in ongoing professional development focused on the Investigating History materials throughout the year.
As part of the curriculum implementation process, some teachers may be participating in an independent, third-party evaluation conducted by Tufts University to better understand how the curriculum is working and how it can better serve all students and educators across Massachusetts. As a result, your child’s classroom may be observed and images of their work may be shared with researchers. Some students in grade 6 may also be asked to take a short, computer-based, non-evaluative assessment to measure student learning related to the curriculum. Rest assured that this assessment will not impact your students’ grades nor will students be photographed or their work identified except as being a part of the cohort of students in Watertown. Teachers will have access to the aggregated data at the conclusion of the school year as part of their work to refine the units for the coming school year.
Check out our School Friends' Smores
EDL & PHONICS CLASSROOMS - https://www.smore.com/1a8k7
Specialists Classrooms - https://www.smore.com/7szae-the-specialists-update
ELA with Ms. Fitanides
English classes completed their Where I'm From Poems which are now gracing the hallways of the 7th grade wing. They worked really hard and it shows. Come by and have a look!
Next up is a short story unit to review and reteach key concepts that will pave the way for our first novel in November/December. We will be reading three short stories together as a class to model the skills needed to meet the standards. Students will then continue this learning in small groups with a variety of leveled texts before we have a cumulative assessment to show what we have learned.
Standards addressed:
RL7.3: I can analyze how elements of a story interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot; how conflict impacts characters, etc.)
RL7.2: I can determine a theme of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text through the use of recurring topics (A&A)
RL7.2: I can analyze how character growth and change reveals a theme.
Science with Ms. Smith
Science With Ms. Smith
We have delved into the digestive system to learn about food breakdown, and now are investigating the nutrients that are in our food and how our body uses these. As students learn about these essential biomolecules, they are finding out what elements they are made up of as well as what foods they are found in. Students are connecting specific nutrient molecules to cell parts to better understand how our bodies are made.
Our next focus is the circulatory system. Along with learning the workings of that system, students will explore how the circulatory system interacts with the digestive system and other body systems.
Biology standards
6.MS-LS1-3. Construct an argument supported by evidence that the body systems interact to carry out essential functions of life.
8.MS-LS1-7. Use informational text to describe that food molecules, including carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, are broken down and rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support cell growth and/or release of energy.