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7th Grade 2nd Quarter Newsletter

October 25, 2024

7th Grade 2nd QuarterNewsletterOctober 25, 2024

Stay Up-to-Date with our Classrooms! Stay Up-to-Date with our Classrooms!

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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 quarterly 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, printed report cards from 1st Quarter will be sent home with students on Friday, November 8th.

7th Grade Exploratory Classes 7th Grade Exploratory Classes

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Art

Students have worked on a 2pt perspective drawing as well as a monochromatic pencil drawing since our last update. For the perspective drawing lesson, students applied the skills they learned and created their own cities/buildings using two vanishing points. For the colored pencil drawing, students focused on recreating the values and textures of their reference photo with a single color (plus black). Everyone has done a great job on these artworks, and I continue to be impressed by the effort they are showing me.
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Band

The 7th Grade band will be working on rhythm labeling and recognition, Concert B-flat, E-flat, and F Scales/Exercises, and preparing for our Winter Concert. The Winter Concert is Tuesday, December 17th, in the High School Auditeria. The concert begins at 7pm, but the students need to report at 6:15pm to warm-up. Concert details will be sent out at the beginning of November. We hope to see you there!

Choir

To access the most recent choir newsletter please go to https://secure.smore.com/n/93x5y


We will be starting our Stoller Bakery fundraiser this week so keep an eye out for information on that. This fundraiser is meant to help raise funds for new mics for our vocal music department. “Make Our Students Heard!”


We also have our opening concert on November 2nd, JAM Fest. The junior high does not typically sing at this event but they are welcome to come support their choir family. The event opens at 5 and the concert starts at 7. Any basket donations can be made through the newsletter.


Also, please see below for important Winter Choir Concert Information:


Winter Choir Concerts (JH at 6:30 and HS at 7:30) - Tuesday, December 10, 2024 - Come join us for our Winter Choir Concert.


Students are to be at the school by 5:45 PM in formal attire in the HS choir room (front of the building)

Students will warm-up and practice singing in the auditeria with their accompanist. Concert will start right at 6:30 PM. At the conclusion of the concert, patrons are asked to promptly vacate the theater as HS students and parents will be entering for their concert. JH students are encourage to stay for the HS concert if they would like to continue singing in choir into High School. JH students should plan to wear formal attire. Mr. Mayes will discuss this with the students.

Engineering

During the second quarter, 7th grade engineering students will be shifting focus from hands-on projects to more modern digital design. We are fortunate to have industry-standard software–SolidWorks–for the students to learn and grow with. The learning-curve is steep, but once students get the hang of it, it’s so much fun to see what they create! We learn dozens of skills specific to 3D modeling (orthographic sketching, dimensioning, extruding, revolving, lofting, etc.) and also gain an appreciation for how 3D models are made… so the next time they 3D print something, they can think “I could make that!” …or maybe… “I could make that better!”

PE and Wellness

Students will be working on yoga (stretching), hockey, basketball, and mini-games moving forward in the PE class. In health, we are finishing up nutrition, talking about personal hygiene practices, healthy relationships, sleep, and anti-bullying.

Technology

As we finish up the first quarter, students are finishing a discussion about digital citizenship. They’ll be using the ideas they’ve had vibrant conversation about in a podcasting assignment starting next week! As we move into the second quarter, students will also be handling subjects like the Google Suite and a big, cumulative final project.

Discovery and Design

Students in Discovery and Design have just finished their Amusement Park Project where they coded SAM blocks to create sound, movement, and lights to mimic an amusement park ride. In Quarter 2, we will start exploring technology in various forms of art. Currently, we are designing creations for our 3D printers to learn the basics of how to format a design to be printed. We will move into digital print creations using Adobe Illustrator, Canva, and our large format printer. Be on the lookout for awesome creations to come home!

7th Grade Core Classes 7th Grade Core Classes

ELA

During our second quarter, our students will be focusing on characters & conflict in realistic fiction selections. Students will be reading quite a few texts, including short stories such as "Thank You, Ma'am" by Langston Hughes, "The Treasure of Lemon Brown" by Walter Dean Myers, “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto, “What’s the Worst That Could Happen?” by Bruce Coville, and "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros, as well as the play "The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry, and a selection of poems. Through these texts, we will focus on building students' skills in citing textual evidence, analyzing themes and central ideas, and examining how specific elements of stories and dramas interact. In their writing, students will have the opportunity to showcase their skills across multiple genres such as narrative, literary analysis, and character studies. Beyond reading and writing, students will participate in a variety of learning activities, including plot diagramming and analysis, dramatic readings with a focus on tone, emphasis, and body language, as well as character analysis exercises that explore motivation, conflict, and figurative language.

Math

Math 7

In Math 7, we have just finished Module 3: “Operations with Integers.” We are moving into Module 4: “Operations with Rational Numbers” which includes operations with positive and negative fractions and decimals. This is also a no-calculator module. Later this quarter, we will work on Module 5: “Simplifying Expressions” and Module 6: “Solving Equations.” Students should also continue to work on their weekly Aleks assignments. We will be MAP testing on November 18th and 19th.
Math 7+

In Math 7 Accelerated, we have concluded Module 3 on rational numbers and are embarking on Module 4. In the module, “Exponents and Scientific Notation,” students will use their prior knowledge of exponents to develop an understanding of the properties of exponents and scientific notation. Students must stay focused and disciplined as we cover 7th and 8th-grade topics. Later this quarter, we will also work on Simplifying Expressions and Solving Equations. Students should continue to work on their weekly Aleks assignments. We will be MAP testing on November 18th and 19th.

Science

Science students are learning about electricity. This week, they completed a static electricity lab that was “shockingly” fun. Next week they are building parallel and series circuits. Soon we will use Ohm’s Law to design a dimmer switch and investigate how electric current can be measured using a compass. Our final project for Chapter Six will have the students building a simple flashlight of their own design with only a limited number of materials.

Social Studies

In social studies we are finishing up our study of the Golden Age of Athens. Next, we will dive into Greek Mythology for several weeks and begin our first writing assignment. Students will study the purpose and history of Greek myths and then create their own myth on a topic of their choosing. This creative writing project reinforces 7th grade language arts standards and encourages students to get creative! We are looking forward to wrapping up our study of Greece during the first half of the second quarter!

Common Sense Media

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.

Click here for JALSD Digital Learning Tools and Canvas Login Instructions
Click here to access Canvas directly.
Ryan Malany
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