Cluster 3
It's Where You Wanna Be!
January Update
To Parents, Guardians, and Caretakers,
We are halfway through both trimester 2 and the school year! Progress reports were sent home this week via email for families to check their students progress on PowerSchool. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out!
Below you will find some photos, school wide updates, and Cluster 3 class updates!
Thanks!
Cluster 3
Cluster 3 Hallway Meetings
Important January & February Dates/Announcements
1/29: iReady Math Diagnostic
1/30: iReady Reading Diagnostic
2/19-2/23: NO SCHOOL February Break
Math with Mr. Casciano
Cluster 3 Math with Mr. Casciano - January
Hello Cluster 3 Families,
Last week we finished our Proportional Relationship and Percentages Unit 4 with a test. The end of this unit brings us to about the mid way point of the school year. We are now moving into Unit 5, Operations with Positive and Negative Numbers. In this unit, students extend what they learned in Grade 6 to add, subtract, multiply, and divide positive and negative numbers. We will continue to have weekly homework, mid-unit quizzes, end of unit practice days, and end of unit assessments in Unit 5.
Please see the breakdown of this unit below.
Section 1: Adding and Subtracting (Lessons 1–5)
Students use a variety of strategies and mental models to add and subtract negative numbers.
Lesson 1 builds on students’ intuitions as they explore how the position of a submarine changes if you add and remove floats and anchors.
Lesson 2 bridges from adding or removing individual objects to movement on a number line. Students also notice that starting at `4` and removing `3` anchors (`4-(-3)`) has the same value as starting at `4` and adding `3` floats (`4+3`).
Lesson 3 introduces decimals and fractions into the number line context as students complete a series of challenges that involve moving a bumper a specific distance in order to make a ball hit a star.
Lesson 4 asks students to create their own number lines to reason about and notice patterns in numeric expressions like `7-4` and `4-7` and variable expressions like `x+y` and `x-y`.
Lesson 5 is an opportunity for students to practice everything they have learned as they solve a series of puzzles.
Section 2: Multiplying and Dividing (Lessons 6–10)
Students extend what they learned in Section 1 to make sense of multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers. Sections 1 and 2 prepare students to solve equations with positive and negative numbers in Unit 6.
Lesson 6 uses the context from Lessons 1 and 2 to interpret expressions like `3(-5)` as three groups of `5` anchors.
Lesson 7 introduces students to a new context for making sense of multiplying with negative numbers: distance, rate, and time on a number line. Students answer questions about what a turtle’s position would have been in the past (negative time) or if a turtle is moving to the left on the number line (at a negative rate).
Lesson 8 extends the context of distance, rate, and time to introduce division with positive and negative numbers.
Lesson 9 asks students to reason more generally about the sign and value of expressions that involve each of the four operations. Students order different expressions from least to greatest based on values for different variables.
Lesson 10 incorporates a similar puzzle element to Lesson 5 as students aim to use positive and negative integers to create the greatest possible value of an expression.
Section 3: Applying Operations (Lessons 11–13)
Students apply what they have learned to understand issues in society.
Lesson 11 asks students to use what they know to solve problems about how temperatures have changed across the world and how the amount of sea ice is changing in Greenland.
Lesson 12 continues to focus on sea ice as students use positive and negative rates to make predictions about the levels of sea ice in the future and the possible impacts on seaside communities.
Lesson 13 combines everything students have learned to explore the financial and environmental impact of solar panels and other choices individuals and institutions make to reduce carbon emissions.
As always if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Social Studies Presentations
Social Studies with Mr. Kirkaldy
In Social Studies, we are wrapping up our study of Central and South Asia by analyzing how religion and beliefs influenced leadership in the Mauryan Empire. We studied two individuals: Kautilya, who advised the first two Mauryan kings, and Ashoka, the third Mauryan king, who had a complete change of heart when it came to conquering other lands and peoples after a particularly bloody war. Comparing and contrasting these two viewpoints, students have read excerpts from works written by these two leaders and discussed how in particular religion and beliefs influenced them.
Next week, we will be moving to East Asia, with a focus mainly on China. We will start with some vocabulary and the geography of this region by using and creating maps. In terms of geography, we'll be focusing more on human geography and how the physical environment of the area impacts human life.
Updates from ELD & Foundational Reading Classes
ELD & FOUNDATIONAL READING- https://www.smore.com/1a8k7
Updates from Specialists Classes
Specialists Classrooms - https://www.smore.com/7szae-the-specialists-update
ELA with Ms. Fitanides
English classes are finishing up our Social Issues Book Groups next week and they will be completing a group assessment/presentation to show understanding of the themes and social issues in their books. Additionally, we will practice theme comparison writing that will introduce them to this common form of writing that will appear later on MCAS. Next week we have iReady on Monday and Tuesday morning. Please try to have your kids in school if at all possible, because iReady make-up requires kids to miss their regular classes and they tend to fall behind. They should bring their reading books to the testing site so they can read quietly if they finish early (I do not recommend finishing early!!!).
Up next in ELA we will be doing a writing unit!
Standards:
- I can cite evidence to support analysis of what a text says explicitly and through inferencing
- I can determine themes and analyze the develop of these themes throughout a text
- I can understand how elements of a story interact and influence each other
- I can consider points of view of different characters in a text.
Open Response Editing & Revising
Science with Ms. Smith
SCIENCE with Ms. Smith
Science students have just completed their element “Superhero / Supervillain” projects on a specific element. The projects enabled students to research one particular element and then create a superhero or villain based on that element’s properties. The results are interesting, entertaining, and enlightening!
Now students are distinguishing between elements, compounds and mixtures to help them understand what a “pure” substance is in chemistry terms. Students use pictures, formulas and examples as they work through these distinctions. In addition, we will learn some basic chemical reactions and how to express these in chemical equations.
Chemistry Learning Targets:
1) Recognize that there are more than 100 elements that combine in a multitude of ways to produce compounds that make up all of the living and nonliving things that we encounter.
2) Differentiate between an atom (the smallest unit of an element that maintains the characteristics of that element) and a molecule (the smallest unit of a compound that maintains the characteristics of that compound).
3) Give basic examples of elements and compounds.
4) Differentiate between mixtures and pure substances.
5) Recognize that a substance (element or compound) has a melting point and a boiling point, both of which are independent of the amount of the sample.
6) Differentiate between physical changes and chemical changes.