Language Arts

 We have just begun our new (and second to last) unit with the class novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.” By the end of the unit, students will have created a project that makes a change or adjustment to something at Merrill that would make the life of the character in their book easier or more accessible. They just recently got to hear from the ADA as well as the DOJ about what they can do to make a difference, and the power of their voices. Ask your students what project they will be focusing on, they all have wonderful ideas! 

Please make sure your student is reading 100 pages a week AND updating their independent reading tracker weekly. If they are doing i-Ready, they should be passing 4 lessons a week AND updating their weekly tracker. All students are expected to have read our class novel and should be staying up to date on their respective literature circle books. 

Congratulations, your students are almost 8th graders!!!

Math

We have finished up our geometry units including Area and Circles and are now moving into CMAS review.  This will be a review of all past units we have covered that include: Expressions and Equations, Rates, Unit Rates and Percentages, Number Sense with Rational Numbers, and Proportional vs Non Proportional Relationships.  We will be introducing Probability and Sampling, which we will cover in more detail in May.

Along with the review, we encourage students to practice skills on IXL that they may have struggled with throughout the year.  We hope to have a successful CMAS testing and look forward to seeing the growth. 

Integrated I Math

For most of April, students will be reviewing 7th grade math since they will be taking 7th grade CMAS. Even though students know 7th grade math content it is still valuable to review and refresh - especially with some content and topics which are not naturally spiralled into the 8th grade curriculum such as Proportional Relationships, Probability, and Surface Area / Volume / Circles. The second part of April will be time to complete our Data Associations unit - learning about putting a line of best fit onto a scatter plot and then using the equation of that line to make predictions. Students will also learn about two way tables and how to read and interpret data given in this form.

Science

As we ride into the penultimate month of the school year, students will be exploring our next unit, Genetics and Heredity.  In this unit, students will learn about the basics of DNA (the building block of life!), how traits are passed from parent to offspring, how to calculate the probability of inheritance patterns (remember Punnett Squares?), antibiotic resistance (Superbugs!) and so much more!  

In addition, we will debate the use of GMOs in food and the ethical implications of genetically engineering humans as a species.  Exploring this wide range of topics will involve lab investigations, independent and group research, model making and ‘science seminars’ (a type of structured discussion where I get to step back as the teacher and students take the lead!).  Please ask your student to share what they are learning in class as they discover the incredible intersections of biotechnology and genetics!

Social Studies

Happy Spring Break! Hope everyone has a lovely and restful time. 

As we return, students will start our Silk Road unit. This unit will focus on connections between different empires, cultural diffusion and blending, and challenges that merchants and explorers faced. Students will use primary and secondary sources to help answer the question: How did environmental challenges and cultural exchanges create obstacles and opportunities along the Silk Road? 

In addition to the research, students will identify one obstacle that many of the people faced. Students will then work to create an invention that would have benefitted the travelers and/or merchants along these ancient routes. We will compete in teams to invent something “new” but practical for that time period. Along with their invention idea, students will create a sales pitch and marketing poster.. This project is a fun, hands-on way for students to engage with the work. If you happen to have any extra craft supplies and/or thin boxes, please send them with your student as we will gladly use them. Thank you!