Thursday 2/25/2010

Thursday 2/25/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students began class with a quick ten minute discussion about the expectations of how to act when a substitute teacher is present. Tomorrow, both Mr. Kovach and Mr. Olsen will be absent and there will be a sub in the classroom. Students were reminded to be on their best behavior. Next, students were introduced to the cell, the make up of a cell and the different parts of the cell. We did this through an interactive powerpoint presentation. Students took notes and asked questions throughout the presentation.
Homework: None.

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class using and practicing skills on their Flashmasters. Students then kept working with rectangular prisms finding both the surface area and the volume of many examples.
Homework: Review Homework #6 is due Friday.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class by practicing their multiplication and division skills by using their Flashmasters for the first 5-7 minutes of class. We then jumped back into our discussion of surface area and volume of cylinders. Students made predictions and preformed a few calculations of cylinders that Mr. Olsen used in a demonstration used to show how taller and skinnier cylinder have less volume that a short, stout cylinder.
Homework: Review Homework #6 is due Friday.

Wednesday 2/24/2010

Wednesday 2/24/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students wrapped up the electricity unit by writing a two paragraph summary of the film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Students were to summarize the main problems presented during the film and talk about the potential solutions as well. Paragraph two had students selecting one of the main problems and expanding upon it by offering some solutions of their own. We then transitioned into the next unit of human biology. We ended class with a group discussion on the similarities and differences of an animal and a human.
Homework: None.

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class using and practicing skills on their Flashmasters. Students were then introduced to rectangular prisms. After talking about, giving some examples and pointing out examples of rectangular prisms within the classroom, students were introduced to the formula on how to find the surface area of a rectangular prism. Students then did a few practice problems.
Homework: Review Homework #6 is due Friday.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class with a quick review of finding the circumference and area of circles. Students were then given a quiz to test their knowledge of finding the surface area and volume of rectangular prisms and circles. We then shifted gears and began talking about cylinders. We talked about the definition of a cylinder and pointed out examples of cylinders from around the classroom.
Homework: Review Homework #6 is due Friday.

Tuesday 2/23/2010

Tuesday 2/23/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students began wrapping up our electricity unit by watching a video titled "Who Killed the Electric Car?" We just about finished up the video, and tomorrow in class students will be expected to write a one to two paragraph essay summarizing the video and the problems and solutions offered in the film.
Homework: None.

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class using and practicing skills on their Flashmasters. Students worked with circles, and today's activity revolved around students determining the relationship between the circumference and the diameter of a circle. (Pi).
Homework: Review Homework #5 is due Wednesday.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students moved into how to find the surface area and volume of rectangular prisms. Students worked in groups of four, and finished up the activity to build three separate three dimensional prisms, and to calculate the surface area and volume of each. Students then worked with circles, and today's activity revolved around students determining the relationship between the circumference and the diameter of a circle. (Pi).
Homework: Finish up the circle activity from class for homework; Review Homework #5 is due Wednesday.

Monday 2/22/2010

Monday 2/22/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students began wrapping up our electricity unit by watching a video titled "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Class started off with a group discussion on the different sources of energy, and the definition of renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. We will finish up the video tomorrow, and students will be assigned the task of writing a one paragraph response to the film.
Homework: None.

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class using and practicing skills on their Flashmasters. Students worked with circles, and today's activity revolved around students determining the relationship between the circumference and the diameter of a circle. (Pi).
Homework: Finish the Circle activity from class today; Review Homework #5 is due Wednesday.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students moved into how to find the surface area and volume of rectangular prisms. After some instruction, and a practice problem, students were introduced to today's activity. Students worked in groups of four, and were tasked to build three separate three dimensional prisms, and to calculate the surface area and volume of each.
Homework: Review Homework #5 is due Wednesday.

Thursday 2/18/2010

Thursday 2/18/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students continued working on their resource essay rough drafts. Today was the last day for students to work on their opinion papers in class. The final draft is to be handed in at the beginning of class on Friday morning.
Homework: If students did not finish their paper in class, it is homework!

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class using and practicing skills on their Flashmasters. Students worked with circles, learning the formulas for the radius, diameter, area and circumference. After doing a few practice problems, students were given a worksheet with an activity on it. Students went down to the gym and measured the diameter of the half court circle and the free throw circle. With that information, they are to calculate the area, circumference, and the radius for each. If they have a ball of any sort at home, they are to find the same information for the ball as well.
Homework: Finish the Circle activity from class for homework.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students moved into how to find the surface area of rectangular prisms. After some instruction, and the introduction of the formula to find the surface area, students were asked to do a few different practice problems. After practicing, students were introduced to nets, and how they can find the surface area of a three dimensional object that they create themselves. Students also worked with finding the volume of three dimensional objects as well.
Homework: None.

Wednesday 2/17/2010

Wednesday 2/17/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students continued working on their resource essay rough drafts. Students were required to have turned in the final copy of their rough draft for final edits and suggestions from the teachers today. Edits will be returned to the students at the beginning of class tomorrow. Thursday is the final day for students to work on the Energy Source Opinion Paper. The final draft is to be handed in at the beginning of class on Friday morning.
Homework: None

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class using and practicing skills on their Flashmasters. Students then took a quiz on area and perimeter of rectangles and triangles. Students had to measure three different shapes accurately, before calculating the area and perimeter of each. We went over each problems together as a class. Next, the subject of diameter and radius of circles were introduced. Students talked about the formulas to find each.
Homework: None.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students began class with a reflective discussion on how we can make math a more exciting and fun class. Then we moved into how to find the surface area of rectangular prisms. After some instruction, and the introduction of the formula to find the surface area, students were asked to do a few different practice problems.
Homework: None.

Tuesday 2/16/2010

Tuesday 2/16/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students continued working on their resource essay rough drafts. Students should have finished up the ten step explanation concerning how their resource is converted into electricity. If they have not finished by the end of class today, it is homework tonight, and is due first thing Wednesday morning. Students are working towards producing a two to three paragraph essay on their opinion of the resource assigned to them. Editing will continue throughout the week.
Homework: None

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students only had about 10 minutes of class time, which were spent working on their math skills using the Flashmaster hand held computers. Afterwards, school held an assembly honoring Elizabeth Peratrovich.
Homework: None.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students took a quiz to see where they were in relation to finding the area and perimeter of parallelograms and triangles. Students were to draw a parallelogram using the dimensions given, and calculate the area and perimeter of their drawing. The same directions were given for drawing a triangle.
Homework: None.

Thursday 2/11/2010

Thursday 2/11/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students began researching information on the internet concerning Coal and Nuclear power sources. The objective of the activity was to help students understand how to look for, locate and sort through all of the information available concerning that topic. Once students began finishing up this activity, they were assigned an energy source to begin researching the step by step process to explain how that resource is converted into electricity.
Homework: None

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students are working to improve geometry skills and they began working with area and perimeter of parallelograms and triangles. Today's activity involved a scavenger hunt to find different shapes around our school, and to calculate the perimeter and area of each of the shapes they found.
Homework: Review Homework on finding perimeter and area of parallelograms and triangles is due Friday.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students are working to improve geometry skills and they began working with finding the circumference and area of circles. Today's activity involved filling in the formulas for radius, diameter, circumference and area, before solving a few practice problems themselves. Next, students went down to the gym to measure the area and circumference of the half court circle, the free throw lane circle, and finally measure a basketball. After students finished their calculations, there were a few questions they needed to answer in order to finish the worksheet.
Homework: Finish the circumference and area worksheet as homework if they did not finish in class. Review Homework on finding perimeter and area of parallelograms and triangles is due Friday.

Wednesday 2/10/2010

Wednesday 2/10/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students continued with the concept of electricity generation and finished the worksheet of three different countries sources of electricity generation.
Homework: If students did not finish the worksheet today in class, it is due first thing Thursday.

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students are working to improve geometry skills and they began working with area and perimeter of parallelograms and triangles. Today's activity involved constructing a parallelogram step by step, figuring the perimeter and area for each shape as the student builds the polygon. Students were also responsible to fill in a data table. The second part of the activity involved constructing two congruent triangles in order to form a parallelogram.
Homework: Finish the area and perimeter of parallelograms and triangles worksheet if they did not finish in class. Review Homework on finding perimeter and area of parallelograms and triangles is due Friday.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students are working to improve geometry skills and they began working with area and perimeter of parallelograms and triangles. Today's activity involved constructing a parallelogram step by step, figuring the perimeter and area for each shape as the student builds the polygon. Students were also responsible to fill in a data table. The second part of the activity involved constructing two congruent triangles in order to form a parallelogram.
Homework: Finish the area and perimeter of parallelograms and triangles worksheet if they did not finish in class. Review Homework on finding perimeter and area of parallelograms and triangles is due Friday.

Tuesday 2/9/2010

Tuesday 2/9/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students continued with the concept of electricity generation. Students were handed a worksheet that had a table for three countries and the percentage of each different energy source used by that country. Students were to perform some calculations to convert the percent to a decimal and the decimal to a degree in order to create circle or pie graphs for each country.
Homework: Students should have the front side of the worksheet (the calculations) completed for class tomorrow.

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students began working with area and perimeter of rectangles. Today's activity involved answering the question "We want to know how much paint it will take to paint all the parking space lines in the school parking lot." Students went outside and measured the length and width of a parking space line, as well as counting the total amount of parking space lines in one row of the parking lot. With that information, students will be able to perform some calculations and answer some questions on the worksheet.
Homework: Finish the area and perimeter of rectangles worksheet for Wednesday.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students began working with area and perimeter of rectangles. Today's activity involved answering the question "We want to know how much paint it will take to paint all the parking space lines in the school parking lot." Students went outside and measured the length and width of a parking space line, as well as counting the total amount of parking space lines in one row of the parking lot. With that information, students will be able to perform some calculations and answer some questions on the worksheet.
Homework: Finish the area and perimeter of rectangles worksheet for Wednesday.

Thursday 2/4/2010

Thursday 2/4/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students were introduced to the two kinds of electricity, static and current electricity. After a brief introduction to what the definition of each is, students were set free to complete four different activities dedicated to helping students gain a deeper understanding of static electricity and current electricity through hands on experience. Students were to finish the lab questions by the end of class.
Homework: Finish lab questions if they were not completed in the class time given

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students continued work on identifying, classifying and naming geometric shapes. Students were to finish the worksheet where they calculated the sum of the interior angles for eleven different regular polygons, as well as the individual interior angles for each shape. After they finished the worksheet, students began the next portion of the activity which is to draw eight perfect regular polygons from the calculations they performed on the worksheet.
Homework: Review Homework #3 is due Friday.

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students continued work on identifying, classifying and naming geometric shapes. Students were to finish the worksheet where they calculated the sum of the interior angles for eleven different regular polygons, as well as the individual interior angles for each shape. After they finished the worksheet, students began the next portion of the activity which is to draw eight perfect regular polygons from the calculations they performed on the worksheet.
Homework: None

Wednesday 2/3/2010

Wednesday 2/3/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students finished up the Morse code activity, before continuing to work with their simple circuits. They began working with several different materials in order to determine if that material was a conductor or insulator of electricity. Students filled in a table, made predictions for each material, and proceeded to test each material as well.
Homework: Finish lab questions if they were not completed in the class time given

7th Grade Math: Today in math, students continued work on identifying, classifying and naming geometric shapes. They have produced a poster with multiple geometric shapes organized by number of sides. Students then got out a text book and gave each shape a proper name. After finishing this portion of the activity, students were each given a protractor and straight edge, and were informed that they were to measure the interior angles of each regular polygon. So, after some instruction on how to determine the difference between regular and irregular polygons, and how to properly measure an interior angle, students got to work.
Homework: None

8th Grade Math: Today in math, students continued work on identifying, classifying and naming geometric shapes. They have produced a poster with multiple geometric shapes organized by number of sides. Students then got out a text book and gave each shape a proper name. After finishing this portion of the activity, students were each given a protractor and straight edge, and were informed that they were to measure the interior angles of each regular polygon. So, after some instruction on how to determine the difference between regular and irregular polygons, and how to properly measure an interior angle, students got to work.
Homework: None

Tuesday 2/2/2010

Tuesday 2/2/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students began working on a new lab with electric circuits. After building a simple series circuit (a single circuit), part two of the activity was working with sending a message via Morse code.
Homework: Finish lab questions if they were not completed in the class time given

7th Grade Math: Students then began work on identifying, classifying and naming geometric shapes. They have produced a poster with multiple geometric shapes organized by number of sides. Students then got out a text book and gave each shape a proper name.
Homework: None

8th Grade Math: Students then began work on identifying, classifying and naming geometric shapes.
Homework: None

Monday 2/1/2010

Monday 2/1/2010

7th & 8th Grade General Science: Today in science students completed a fourth lab relating to magnetism and magnetic fields. This lab focused on students recognizing and measuring the forces of attraction and repulsion. After completing the activity, students had several questions relating to magnets and magnetic fields to answer using the book for help.
Homework: Finish lab questions if they were not completed in the class time given

7th Grade Math:
Students used the first twenty minutes of class to finish up their chapter four tests. Students then began work on identifying, classifying and naming geometric shapes.
Homework: None

8th Grade Math: In math students took the chapter four test.
Homework: None