7th Grade Team November 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!

As a reminder, 1st Quarter report cards will be sent home with students on Friday, October 28th.

7th grade choir is working hard towards raising money for the choral program through JAM fest. They are putting together THREE raffle baskets: Mom, Travel, and Baking. If you would like to make a donation to JAM fest, please email Mr. Mayes.

We have also started our Holiday music that the kids picked out this week. This music will culminate in our Junior High Holiday Concert on December 13th at 6:30 PM. Last week, we had a clinician through Mrs. Brennan. She worked with the choir on multiple musical elements. Thank you Mrs. Brennan!

We are continuing to prepare for our Winter Concert, which is Tuesday, December 6th @ 7pm in the JAHS Auditeria. The students will need to report at 6:15pm. Be on the lookout for an informational letter that will be sent home the first week of November.

The band students are working on how to play with a good ensemble sound, musical style, and dynamics. We are also continuing to work on our rhythm literacy skills. We have mastered the Concert B-flat scale and will be moving on to the Concert E-flat scale in our warm-up and technique exercises. Finally, we will be learning how to tune our instruments using tuners.

We are excited to announce that 2 of our 7th grade students were accepted to represent our school in the Ohio Music Educators Association District 15 Honor Band, which will be held Saturday, November 12th at Thomas Worthington High School. The students selected are Hailey Duke and Evan Wiechman.

Our young engineering students have done a great job over the first 9 weeks, already completing our units on types of engineers, manufacturing processes, and the design process. This week, we’re talking a little physics as we prepare for the egg drop project. Following that, students will begin our deep-dive into 3-d modeling, as we learn to use industry-standard software in SolidWorks.

This month in PE we will be creating our own PE games that are inclusive and fun for all! Later in the month we will be participating in badminton and pickle ball (highly requested by the students!). In wellness we will be going back to our goals from the beginning of the semester and revising them. Later in the month we will be talking about ways to be mentally healthy along with physically healthy.

Technology students did a lovely job finishing up the first quarter. They’re starting this current nine weeks and the second half of this class by focusing on the aesthetics of Google Slides–animations, transitions, music, and video. These are skills that often get overlooked, but will be important for future projects!

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

In ELA we successfully completed our Narrative Unit. Our students are wonderfully creative writers with many tales to tell. Next, we begin a study of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson. We will investigate historical documents (primary and secondary sources), perhaps conduct trials for alleged Lincoln conspirators, and work our way into argumentative essays. Students will also read the non-fiction text of their choice to practice the skills we are learning with Lincoln.

Mrs. Heinig's Classes

Our 7th grade readers have been rummaging through our books with our eyes and ears open to figurative language. Realistic Fiction writers use figurative language to create images and bring a piece of literature to life. We have been trying our hands at writing our own similes, metaphors, and personification. We continue to learn the process of character development and consider how we are developing our own character traits through life’s circumstances. Next, we will launch into the world of research and creating presentations to teach our classmates--but the best thing is that we get to choose what it is we want to research. Dolphins? Diesel engines? Ancient Greece? Knitting? Wilderness survival? Neuroscience? Calligraphy? Fashion? Farming? Engineering? Architecture? Oncology? You name it, as long as it is acceptable to teach to a 7th grade audience, your 7th grader can dive into researching it.

Our 7th grade math students have finished their module on operations with integers in Module 3. In this next module, Operations with Rational Numbers, students will use their prior knowledge of rational numbers (fractions, decimals and integers) to understand repeating and terminating decimals and to build fluency in calculating with fractions, mixed numbers and decimals, especially as they occur in combination. This module is the final one without a calculator! Many students could benefit from practicing their quick tables on the Aleks program. Students will know how to access this.

Accelerated Math

Our 7th grade math accelerated students have finished their module on operations with rational numbers. This included adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers, fractions, and decimals. Students were not allowed to use a calculator for this unit. Our next module will be on exponents and scientific notation. These are 8th grade standards but are necessary as part of the accelerated curriculum.

Students in Mr. Woolley’s and Mr. Whitt’s science classes are having a “shockingly” good time learning about electricity. Last week they moved a can without touching it during our static electricity lab. This week they focused on creating series and parallel circuits. Next week they will take part in an inquiry lab where they will design and build a flashlight.

Mrs. Brar’s social studies classes had a blast competing in the Classroom Olympic games! Recently, we have been learning about the Golden age of Athens. Students participated in a “walking tour” of Athens and answered questions about what life was like in ancient Greece. In the coming weeks, we will be finishing our golden age of Athens unit and moving on to the Peloponnesian War and Alexander the Great!