7th Grade Team September Newsletter

Staying connected to our families is important to our teachers. In addition to the front page of our Canvas courses, we are excited to share this monthly newsletter with our families to keep you aware of upcoming events, activities, lessons, units, and materials from our classes! The 7th Grade Team has compiled this newsletter to share some of the upcoming experiences your student will be having with us. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's teachers!

The 7th Grade band is adjusting to their new schedule of having full band everyday. We will be focusing on rhythm reading, new warm-up, and technique exercises, as well as using fundamentals to learn new music together.

The 7th Grade Choir is getting into the full swing of things by learning the basics of singing and how to produce the best sound. We are focusing on breath control, reading rhythms/pitches, and also reinforcing rehearsal etiquette. We have been learning different rounds as well to get us used to hearing other parts at once. Concert dates have also been sent home to parents, so please keep an eye out for the sheet.

7th grade engineering students have already been hard at work, getting hands-on & working in teams during our “Spaghetti Tower” and “K’nex Directions” projects. Next on the agenda, we will be exploring the “Types of Engineers” unit, discussing the need for many different fields of engineering. Students will be introduced specifically to 12 common types, and will choose 2 of those types to research further on their own in a web quest.

Assignments/Due dates to be aware of:

“About Me Blog” (8/25, past due)

“Spaghetti Tower Reflection” (9/1)
“K’nex Directions Reflection” (9/11)
“Types of Engineers Webquest” (9/12)
“Types of Engineers Assessment” (9/15)

In technology, students are currently working through a Photoshop-esque program in order to learn professional image modification techniques. This month, they’ll also be learning about how to find reliable websites to do research for a creative project and do some light video editing to create a commercial for the school.

Mrs. Danner's and Mrs. Kline's Classes:

In ELA 7, we are diving into our Realistic Fiction unit with our read-aloud Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Students will also begin book clubs with their own realistic fiction text. Students had an opportunity to sample many different texts and our newly renovated library. We encourage families to talk about our reading texts at home and even check out our classroom Canvas class for the opportunity to listen to Ghost. We are excited to work through our first texts and make our way to our first big piece of narrative writing. Please encourage your student to read at home!

Mrs. Heinig's Classes

During the first week in Mrs. Heinig’s ELA 7, we concentrated on building community and getting to know each other. We’ve talked extensively about respect and integrity as the foundation for life, much as Reading and Writing are the foundations for all school subjects. We’ve also worked in our class to establish habits of good readers and writers and improve our organizational skills as a foundation for continued learning. We’ve started the year with our Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir unit for reading and writing. We have chosen people who give us hope, help us find our way, and show us what real GRIT looks like. After we have read to be inspired by someone else's life, we will write our own memoirs. Please talk with your students about their book choices and encourage them to continue reading at home for at least 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

Mr. Whitt and Mr. Woolley’s seventh grade science classes are starting the year with ecology. In the next couple weeks, students will be attempting to “Capture the Wild Bead” in a lab dealing with estimating populations. They will make a biome poster. And they will be using microscopes to discover an unseen world in a drop of pond water.

Mr. Woolley’s 7th grade class syllabus can be found HERE.

Mr. Whitt's and Mrs. Brar’s social studies classes will be starting off the year with some review of important geography and economic review topics. We are already in the midst of our first project, which requires students to apply some geographic concepts they learned in sixth grade to a country of their choice. In September, we will move on to studying our first ancient civilization, the Ancient Greeks. This first true unit is full of hands-on activities that will have students out of their seats and engaging in the content. We’re looking forward to diving into the past!

Common Sense Media is an online tool that can help parents and students make informed decisions regarding media use. This tool can be used for many types of media, including books, movies, video games, and apps. Additionally, the “Parent Tips and FAQ” section can provide families with valuable support on facilitating social media, cell phone, and screen time use with their child.