The 7th graders are finishing up the Percent Unit and will have test on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Their next topic will include square roots and the Pythagorean Theorem. THey have already done some investigation of these using GeoBoards.
The 6th graders are now working on dividing with decimals. We are also looking at what happens when a decimal is multiplied or divided by a power of 10. I learned that one should “move the decimal point”. Today, we learn that the decimal point is stationary and that the place value of each number increases or decreases a determined number of places depending on the number of zeros in the multiplier or divider. Students used a “Place Value Slider” to begin their investigation and then developed their theories about how problems could be worked without the sliders.
The intermediates are exploring ‘The Road to Freedom” as we discover what the founding fathers were thinking as they debated leaving the protection of Great Britain and King George to begin a new country. We have laughed and learned as John Adams feverishly tries to ‘win over’ the other delegates for independence in the movie (musical) “1776”. We have seen Thomas Jefferson’s magnificent work with the Declaration of Independence and we know what it means to ‘put your John Hancock’ on a document. Our literature selection for this unit is a Newbery Honor book, My Brother Sam Is Dead.
“All his life, Tim Meeker has looked up to his brother, Sam. Sam is smart and brave and always knowsthe right thing to do. Everyone in town admires him. Until now. Sam has enlisted in the new American Revolutionary Army. He talks about defeating the British and becoming independent and free. But not everyone in town wants to be a part of this new America. Most people are loyal supporters of the English king-including Tim and Sam’s father. War is raging and Tim knows he’ll have to make a choice. But how can he choose when it means fighting his father on one side and fighting his brother on the other?”
Ohio Model United Nations – OMUN has begun again for the upper unit as they begin their research on Algeria. We are developing our resolution, preparing a talent, working on a power point and writing speeches as we prepare for the upcoming simulation in March.
