Cluster 1 Newsletter
April 8 & April 15
Hello Parents, Guardians, and Caregivers!
See the updates below from the Cluster 1 team. Have an amazing weekend!
All our best,
Cluster 1
English Language Arts Update
We’ve entered into our final round of book clubs! Students visited the library and enjoyed a presentation from Ms. Cole before selecting novels to read. Some titles that students are reading include Butterfly Yellow, Grenade, Dough Boys, and Hurricane Child. Students are expected to read both in class and at home. They have personalized reading calendars to keep them accountable for daily reading in case you're curious to see where they're at! This unit will last about 4 weeks. Ask your student what books they’re reading!
We're stressing accountability and preparedness-- so please do all you can to encourage your students to read and come to class prepared (reading and work finished) to speak in class discussions!
Math Update
We just wrapped up our Expressions and Equations unit. The students learned how to evaluate numerical and variable expressions with whole number exponents. Then they used tables, equations, and graphs to represent relationships between independent and dependent variables. Our unit test happened on Thursday and we began Unit 7 on Friday. This upcoming unit will be all about positive and negative integers, fractions, and decimals.
Here is a link to Desmos’ Family Resources for Unit 7
Science Update
We are working on finishing up our Ecology Unit this week with a Town Hall debate. Students worked to find a balance between the need of an ecosystem and the needs of humanity.
Next week we will begin looking at fossils and how they can provide us insight into what our planet was like long before humans were here!
Social Studies Update
This week we explored the three Abrahamic religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. In our studies, we researched, took notes, and completed a Venn Diagram to visualize similarities and differences. Next week, we’ll journey to Africa to investigate how Islam spread through Trans-Saharan trade routes.