7th Grade September Newsletter

Language Arts

We have enjoyed getting to know your students the first couple of weeks.  Students took the iReady diagnostic on Wednesday, August 27.  Look for communication about your student’s reading level the week of September 2.  Our first unit is short stories.  We read a wide variety of stories and our main writing focus is learning to acknowledge multiple perspectives through counterclaims.  Ask your students what their favorite story has been.  At home, we encourage students to actively read (100 pages per week) and to engage in i-Ready if assigned.  We use the following homework cadence: Week 1 TDQs beginning the week of 9/2, Week 2 AOW, and Week 3 Vocabulary on a repeating cycle. We are looking forward to our first unit and a great school year!

Math

It has been a delight getting to know the students and start strong with our new year.  We will start the year off with scale factors and scale copies.  We have an Engineer that is struggling with his Kite designs and needs our 7th graders to help use appropriate scale models/drawings to design a kite that the students will be able to fly.    

At home we encourage you to help your child with multiplication tables, operations with fractions and teach them where you can find scale copies in the real world.  A few examples can be: using maps, looking at building/floor designs, model cars, etc..  We look forward to a great start with our first unit.  

We will be taking the IXL Benchmark the week of Sept 1st. 

Integrated I Math

Hello and Happy New School Year!!

Over the course of the school year this class will cover 8th grade math and a few additional units to prepare students for Integrated II next year.

Our first unit this year will be a Transformations unit. This unit is about rotations, reflections, and translations - which are called “rigid transformations”. Through this unit students will learn about congruence. We will very quickly move on to our Dilations unit where students will take their understanding of congruence to understand similarity and slope. 

Science

We are off to a great start this semester!   Our first unit of study is ‘Searching for Life in Space’, where students will learn about the basic structure of the solar system and why ‘gas giant’ planets like Jupiter and Saturn are not habitable.  Our focus will shift to Mars, where we will explore the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere of the Martian landscape.  Students will use digital and physical models to make observations and collect evidence about geologic processes and determine where Mars rovers should focus their search for evidence of life. Along the way, we will practice essential science and engineering practices like asking questions, collecting data and summarizing our findings in writing.

As an extension activity at home, be sure to go outside on a clear evening with your student - they should be able to show you where to find Venus or Mars (or both!) in the night sky!

Social Studies

It was so much fun getting to know your students the first week back. I’m excited to start the school year! Our focus this year is the Eastern Hemisphere and our first unit will be on Ancient Civilizations, primarily ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. We will explore how the legacy of ancient civilizations continues to impact us today by examining how early societies used their land, developed their belief systems, and created new technologies. Students will have a field trip the second week of September where we’ll go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on one day and explore the  Masjid Abu Bakr Mosque and the Assumption of the Theotokos Cathedral on the opposite day. We’ll explore how ancient belief systems helped influence belief systems today as well as explore Egyptian art and build connections in Science. 

We will need chaperones for the museum. If you’re able to support us on Sept. 10 or 11, please fill out this Google Form. 

Also, all students will need a 1” binder with dividers in class and will use this throughout the school year. I ask that the binder stays in the classroom as we will use it for quizzes and projects.