Spring Break!

With only one day left of classes, anticipation of a week off is keeping everyone on the edge of their seats.

Tomorrow we are finishing up our unit on Paleontology. Over the last two weeks we turned our room into a Jurassic jungle. We researched the flora and fauna and then built replicas out of cardboard, newspaper, paint, and plenty of masking tape. We had a life size dinosaurs, vines, and even Ginkgo trees. Each was labeled with facts about the species. We also learned about the geologic ages, fossilization, carbon dating, and jobs related to paleontology. Tomorrow students will take the final assessment on this unit and the jungle will come down to make way for our new unit!


Over Spring Break, students have two assignments. My math students have one additional assignment. All seventh graders are expected to write a formal movie critique for a movie that they enjoyed. This will be the same format as the one we just completed. Students should first write a key word outline. The keyword outline should look like this:
I. Basic Facts (title, release date, director, actors, money made, awards, etc.)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
II. Characters
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
III. Summary of the Plot
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
IV. Resolution of the Problem
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
V. Critique of the Movie with EXAMPLES
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

From this key word outline, students should talk through the essay with an adult or friend. They should use the three key words on each line to form complete thoughts and sentences. In these complete thoughts and sentences should be dress ups and sentence openers. After talking through the essay, they should write it all down. The rough draft is double spaced to allow for editing. During the editing process, they should read the essay out loud and make changes. Then they should have someone else read it and edit for spelling and grammar. When that is completed, they may write up a final draft. This whole process should take about half an hour to an hour each night. I told students that if they emailed me their rough draft before Thursday, I would be happy to do some editing for them as well.

The second assignment that all seventh graders are responsible for is reading! Battle of the Books is well underway and those sneaky eighth graders are determined to beat us. We need everyone reading, reading, reading! The BOB list can be found in a previous post on this blog. They can read the book or listen to the audio book, but do not try to watch the movie as a way to not read! The question writers are devious and will often intentionally write questions about things that were different from the movie.

The third assignment is for my math students. Each student received a packet of math worksheets today. These worksheets focused on skills that they have been struggling with. Students crossed off pages that they have already demonstrated mastery of the concept. Each page contains approximately 4 - 6 problems. If a student had every page, they would need to do 2 pages per day for a total of less than 20 problems. This should take less than half an hour a day.

The intention is for students to work a little bit each day. This keeps their skills from rusting in the Oregon liquid sunshine.

I hope you all have a wonderful week filled with memory building moments.