Break Assignments 6, 7, & 8th grade

6th grade

Your assignment over break is the take home test on chapter 6. Please be honest. You may use your textbook, notes, and internet, but you may not receive help from your parents, brothers and sisters, or friends.

Chapter 6 Take Home Test

You are also welcome to continue working on the periodic table of elements project for extra credit. I would really, really, really like to see that poster finished! You will continue to receive 1 homework point for each card completed, but you will only receive credit if you include all the necessary information and the cards are neat and good-looking.

Periodic Table Project Instructions

7th grade

Please complete your flip books and posters on the stages of mitosis. Bring them into class on Monday. I can't wait to see your creativity and artistic talent! I want to film the the flip books and hang up some of the posters, so make them awesome!

8th grade

You have a chapter in your workbooks to complete about animal behavior. Chapter 16 Animal Behavior pages 225-235. Please do all highlighting asked for, answer all questions in the margins, circle parts of the graphics when asked, and answer all questions at the ends of the sections. Basically do everything except make the foldables.

HAVE A FABULOUS BREAK!!! 

...Gnasher is. He went to the dog park and got a new toy today...

PE 3/6 Dodgeball and 3/8 Yoga in the Park

Boys played Dodgeball on Tuesday during PE. We only had one injury and it wasn't serious (just a couple scrapes after a trip and fall), so I believe the game was a success. Everyone seemed to have fun playing and I had fun watching. Teams were made by counting off 1, 2, 1, 2 so that teams were random and fair. We played with modified rules that allowed "out" players to get back "in" by catching a ball thrown to them by their teammates while they were in the other teams "jail".

Tomorrow (Thursday) Girls will be jogging to the park for yoga class in the fresh air!

I can't wait!!

*Please dress appropriately (sneakers and stretchy pants).

Mitosis Online Quizes

7th graders!
Test your knowledge!
Try these fun quizzes!
Fun Quiz 1
Fun Quiz 2
When you are finished, comment on this post and tell me how you did on the quiz! And, let me know what picture showed up when you finished!

Have fun!
:)

G6 Atomic Bomb Discussion

We had a really awesome discussion about the atomic bomb in class today. Our textbook includes a "connection to language arts" section in each chapter. In this chapter, the reading was a summary that explained how the atomic bomb works and the effects it had on Japan and the end of WW2. We discussed the physics of the bomb as well as the social and political implications it holds. Our conversation included current issues between Israel and Iran and what we think would happen if a nuclear war ever did break out. The atomic bomb releases massive amounts of chemical energy in an extremely exothermic reaction. Potential chemical energy is stored in chemical bonds and in the stronger "bonds" that hold together actual atoms. Here are some short videos that explain the atomic bomb in history.

One of the students asked if it would be worse to have an atom bomb dropped or to blow up a nuclear reactor. The worst disaster at a nuclear power plant in history was in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine. I am posting a link to a site that has straightforward information about the accident and an interesting slideshow:

Information and Photos

Here is a video about the Chernobyl accident:

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

More social studies lessons on World Events at NeoK12.com

I really appreciated everyone's contributions to our discussion today. I am impressed with how attentive and thoughtful you were!

 

Please remember to do your HW on the textbook website and write down anything from this chapter that you do not completely understand so that we can review it before break.

I will be posting your takehome test on this blog on Friday. 

 

8th Grade Grizzly Unit

Hey 8th grade!

You did a great job continuing our discussion about grizzly bears today. I am posting the two clips we watched today and some of our discussion points in case you would like to review them.

Before watching this clip, I asked you to think about some of the changes in the relationship between humans and bears that may be coming about due to the increase in bear population in Yellowstone park. After the clip, we discussed whether your predictions were accurate. Some major points discussed were the bears bringing lots of tourists to the parks and people not respecting the personal space of the bears, people being irresponsible and leaving garbage at campsites, and other people working really hard to make sure that bears cannot get into garbage.

In the second clip we saw that as the bear population s expanding, bears are moving out of the park into towns in the surrounding area. Bears are not able to understand an imaginary line that says this side is protected land and this side isn't. Bears are getting into farms and killing cows and horses for food. This food source is easy and tasty for the bears, but it is really bad for the farmer. Cows and horses cost more than $1,000 each. If a bear kills 100 head of cattle, the rancher loses over $100,000. This is a lot of money. If bears are protected by the endangered species act, they are fitted with a gps collar and released when they make trouble for ranchers. We talked about whether this was right or fair and what each of us feels the right thing is to do with the bears. Several of you thought that the bears that kill cows should be killed. Junte made a point that the bear should be killed, but only after it has come back several times, in other words, it deserves a second chance. In the clip, the rancher decides to move his cattle onto different land. Most of us felt like this was the right choice. I agree. The bears were here first, after all!

Gnash got a bath!

Gnasher had a bath before school today. He pretends like he hates it, but he secretly loves it. After the bath he loves being towel dried and babied. When he gets outs of the bathroom he runs in manic circles with a huge puppy smile. Here he is still looking a bit unsure:

And here he is really happy and excited about being clean:

This is Bilal.

This is Bilal learning about chemical energy during our outdoor reading circle on one of the most beautiful spring-like days of the season so far!

Just for 8th graders!

Hey 8th grade!

I really enjoyed our discussion in class today. Each of you had some really great, thoughtful, and thought-inspiring ideas and I appreciate all of your input!

Here is the link to complete the homework: Grizzly Bear Information 

Remember to click on "Part 1: Bear Ecology" and complete the handout you received in class today with nice complete sentences and quality, thoughtful responses.

In case you would like to review the short video we watched in class today, it is included here:

Tomorrow, we will be going over your homework assignment and continuing to discuss the issues surrounding Grizzly Bears in and around Yellowstone park.

Hooray Odey!!!

Congratulations Odey on getting the most correct answers on Friday's math challenge! You answered 6 out of 10 answers correctly! The next highest score was 3 out of 10 and the average score was 2 out of ten! You rock!!!

It's not break yet, 6th graders!

Here is the link to your homework for the week. This is handed out on Monday, but just in case you don't have it handy, you can always look at here too.

Homework March 5-9

And,
Watch these videos!!!

Video on Conduction

More science lessons on Heat & Temperature at NeoK12.com  

Video on Convection

More educational videos on Heat & Temperature at NeoK12.com  

Radiation Waves

More science lessons on Heat & Temperature at NeoK12.com  

After watching these videos, try this fun quiz, if you haven't already done so!

Fun Quiz!!

Comment on this post and tell me how you did on the quiz. Also, let me know what cool picture showed up when you finished the quiz and how you think it is connected to the topics we are studying!

Have Fun!