1. Charged Chromebooks

2. Supply List - bring in supplies on Monday

3. Water bottle (water only, please)

Hello! We had a great start to the year where we discussed and practiced our expectations of being attentive, persistent, organized, and respectful. Next week we will begin our unit on scaled copies and scaled drawings. We are continuing that work for the next few weeks using our awesome Desmos curriculum. Please feel free to look at the family resources attached below. Our learning targets are as follows:

• Determine if one figure is a scaled copy of another.

• Describe characteristics of scaled copies using informal language.

• Explain that scale factor is the number multiplied by each length in an original figure to create a scaled copy.

• Explain the relationship between lengths in a figure and corresponding lengths in a scaled copy

• Draw a scaled copy of a figure using a given scale factor.

• Describe how scale factors greater than `1`, between `0` and `1`, or equal to `1` affect distances in scaled copies.

• Understand and explain how the scale factor between figure `A` and figure `B` relates to the scale factor between figure `B` and figure

• Understand and explain how scaling impacts the area of a scaled copy.

• Calculate the area of a scaled copy.

Standards:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.G.A.1

Solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, including computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.G.B.6

Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, volume, and surface area of two- and three-dimensional objects composed of triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, cubes, and right prisms.

Attachment: https://teacher.desmos.com/desbook-asset/assets/desbook/7/1/7.1-family-resource.pdf

Welcome back to school 2022!! We have begun with a number of administrative tasks to get everyone ready to learn this year: a new “high-school style” schedule with a “float” class, finding our way around the cluster and to the new locations of many teachers’ classrooms, supplies lists, how to use an agenda (and binder clips!), signing into Google Classroom, and more.

Social Studies has begun with a number of broad activities to help us all get to know one another and practice the skills of whole group classroom learning. As we move into our first full week next week, we are planning to delve deeper into practicing the skills of being young historians: qualities such as curiosity and wonder, problem-solving, the ability to search for answers from multiple sources, making observations and inferences (based on observations), reading, writing, and making connections.

Enduring Understandings

September is a time for fresh starts and new beginnings as students enter seventh grade English Language Arts. Focal points during class have included SEL activities, classroom procedures, and a quick look at the daily expectations as we implement Language Live! Writing a short narrative about an enjoyable experience and setting personal goals will set the groundwork as the students take online assessments for appropriate placement. Further information about Language Live will be presented during Open House on Thursday, September 22nd. Each student has checked out an independent reading book required for classroom and home reading. Please encourage your student to read nightly.

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”

– Jhumpa Lahiri

Entering (ELD 1)

Welcome to WMS!

I am Ms. Rix and I am happy to be teaching you this year.

This week we have learned to introduce ourselves, say what we need, and what we like. Ask your students how to greet people in English, answer “How are you?”, or ask some common school questions.

Next week, we will continue to build our skills in explaining who we are, what we like, what we need in school, and how to explain our school schedule.

Welcome! I am so excited to be teaching you this year! This week we did a lot of community building and activities to get to know each other better. We practiced asking and answering questions about ourselves in complete sentences. Next week, we will start with taking i-Ready ELA, a school wide assessment. Then we will review pronouns and practice modals vs. ‘have to’ and ‘need to’. We will talk about community members and their careers, as well as time. If you have any clocks at home, have your child practice saying the time in English!

Welcome to Developing ELD! I’m so happy to be here this year!

This week has been a great time to get to know each other and work on introductions and learning each other’s names. We discussed class guidelines and talked about our school values. We also began talking about our personal values as an introduction to our unit on values, where we will learn all about fiction. Next week we will begin working on vocabulary building as we will begin to focus on reading.

Welcome or welcome back middle school students! Expanding ELD is the last level we offer before students move on to general English classes. This week, ELD 4 students brainstormed classroom norms, introduced themselves to me and to each other, and reviewed class schedules and school norms. Next week, students will take the first of three i-Ready reading diagnostic tests they will take this year, and they will do a short writing assessment for me.

Welcome to Phonics! This class is for students who are in the beginning of their English learning journey and working their way up to reading in English. This week, we did lots of community building and activities to get to know each other. We briefly reviewed concepts of print and then practiced differentiating between uppercase and lowercase letters. Next week we will get to know consonants and identify CVC patterns of words. Have your child show you their Make Your Name activity on our Phonics google classroom.

Welcome to 7th grade science!

Students have been busy doing a Gab Lab Stations activity in order to refresh their science and collaboration skills. As students perform the task for each station, they must read and interpret directions, follow a procedure, collect and record data, use a timer, make observations and draw conclusions. We will continue to work on these science skills throughout the year. Next week we begin our life science unit. Students begin by exploring living vs. nonliving characteristiSciencecs and then examine cells and draw on the learning about plant and animal cells from grade 6 science. Students will be responsible for learning science vocabulary so please ask them to teach you some of the words they study!

Standards we are working towards:

• Classify organisms into the currently recognized kingdoms according to characteristics that they share. Be familiar with organisms from each kingdom.

• Describe the hierarchical organization of multicellular organisms from cells to tissues to organs to systems to organisms.

• Identify the general functions of the major systems of the human body (digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, excretion, protection from disease, and movement, control, and coordination) and describe ways that these systems interact with each other.

We’ve had a great start to our year in ELA class! Our focus for these first days are getting to know each other and forming our relationships as a group. We are also learning some key structures for our class. We brainstormed how to work collaboratively and why (its a top skill for future jobs!) Ask your student to tell you about working in groups on a deserted island scenario. It was really fun. We also had an introduction to Socratic seminars, a fishbowl style discussion. Next, we begin a station rotation to work through six different activities to lay a groundwork and “GPS” for the year ahead.

Our daily homework for ELA is to read! Get in the habit of reading 15-20 minutes a day of a book of your choice!

I have so enjoyed getting to know this years’ group and am looking forward to a wonderful year ahead!

Some Guiding Ideas for ELA Class this year are:

• Voice, Choice & Challenge

• Self-Directed Learning - You are in the driver’s seat!

• Collaborative Learning

• Positivity & Resourcefulness

For an overview of the scope of the year, please see these Massachusetts Curriculum Standards