Thursday

We began work on our weed essay today. Each student has a piece of paper telling about the essay. The rough draft must be typed and is due March 3rd or before. The final copy is due March 8th or before. The essay is 5 paragraphs and 750 words or less. The theme is Why Weeds Won't Wait The idea for the essay is why it is important for us to identify and eradicate weeds before they take over and destroy our economy.

We also finished working with our temperature graph finding out the mean, median, mode and range of the highs and lows the last week of January. We made the graph all during January so that the students could practice making and reading charts and graphs.

Wednesday

Today did not go as planned, but we managed to make things work. Yesterday the students were given information about a weed essay that they will be required to write. But the papers with the information did not arrive till 2nd hour today. Tomorrow we will start on the essays in class. The students will be bringing home the information sheets tomorrow. The due date on the final copy will be March 8th. The rough draft will be due March 3rd. This will be graded.

Today we continued our work on gathering data and creating charts and graphs using the information. Students invented their own graphs and then worked on them to make them better.

Tuesday (and Monday)

The school computers were down for much of the day yesterday and so Monday's assignment did not get put up. The students were to do the worksheet that goes with pages F4-F15. We learned about position, motion, velocity and speed by using toy cars on a very large map.

Today we corrected the homework and then learned about making data charts and graphs. We raced four cars down a ramp, compiled the information and tomorrow we will use that information to find speed, velocity, acceleration and momentum. The students timed the cars at .5 meters, 1 meter, 1.5 meters etc until we reached 3 meters. The goal of this lesson is to help the students learn to take data, put it into a chart and make a graph of the information they have found.

The 6th graders will not go to learning stations today, instead they will go to an assembly which will tell them about a weed essay that they will be writing soon. There are prizes associated with the essay. Students should be bringing the information home with them today.

Thursday

Today we did our last video of Project Northland. This video was about alcohol abuse. The students learned that alcohol is not a choice that just affects the drinker, it affects everyone.

On Tuesday the week control program will be here. Students will be writing a paper about controlling weeds. Information should be coming soon.

Wednesday dress up dance on Thursday

Today we learned that speed = Distance/time in seconds. We learned the equation then we went into the hall, and with timers walked and then ran for 20 meters. The students timed each other and then we came back into class and determined our speed. We will continue with this lesson on Monday. We also corrected last night's homework.

Students were given back their corrected tests. These tests can be corrected for half points following the instructions I sent home at the beginning of the year and reviewed with the students today. (Must be on a separate paper, stapled to the test, complete sentences are required, not questions and answers but complete sentences) These corrected tests are due Thursday at the start of class. Late tests will not be accepted.

Tomorrow is the school's Valentine's Day dance. Students are strongly urged to dress in their nicest clothes for this dance. The dance begins about 3 p.m.

Tuesday

I hope you all had a great vacation yesterday. We are back at work today. We corrected and reviewed Wednesday's test. I will go through those and have them back to the students tomorrow. Anyone who wants to improve their grade can fix each incorrect question for half credit. If the student missed a lot of spelling words, they can write the word correctly ten times and they will receive 1/4 points. (Mis-spelled words lose 1/2 point) For the student to get the corrected test's points they must: 1. Write the number of the problem. 2.If it is multiple choice, write A, B, C, or D. 3.Then, and this is absolutely required, they must write the answer out in a complete sentence, even the multiple choice questions. An example would be

2. C Volume is the amount of space an object takes up.

I don't want them to write the question, I want an answer so complete that I know what the question was.

Tonight's homework is reading F2-F15 and the questions on page F15 1-5.

Thursday - No school Monday because of President's Day

During Project Northland today, we watched a movie showing our students the effects of cigarette smoking on skin, faces, lungs, voice box, etc. The students all agreed that smoking would be a wsste of time, health and money. We will be starting our scientist reports soon. I am still correcting tests. Hope to finish that over the week-end. Remember, no school on Monday. Have a great week-end

Wednesday

It is test day. We had to add a few more places for the students to find the volume of regular and irregular objects, but other than that slow-down, all went well. We are now starting into section F. The students will be working on their second report soon. This report will be about a scientist. More information will be coming soon.

Tuesday test tomorrow

To review for our test, students went to the lab and answered as many questions as they could in twenty minutes. For example, number 1 was a fork in warm water. That is an example of conduction. Number 2 was the sunshine, that was an example of radiation. After twenty minutes we stopped and I went through and told them the answers at all of the stations. Students should have that paper and yesterday's review notes to study. Remember, in science, spelling does count. I will have all the main words on the board and students are allowed to ask for the spelling of any word that they need for the test. Wednesday is the test and Thursday is Project Northland.

Monday - Spring pictures are tomorrow

Today we finished learning about electromagnetism, made a model of a motor (that is just fun) and then began the review for our test which covers E1-E140. The questions on the test cover material that we have been reviewing regularly. The test will be on Wednesday.

Tomorrow afternoon we will take Spring pictures. Students do not need to bring money until parents have approved the pictures. A flier should be coming home today.

Thursday - test Wednesday

Some 8th grade students and Mrs. Braun came in today to help Mrs. Bloxham with Project Northland. The students brought in two lungs, one a healthy lung and the other a lung affected by cigarette smoke. The healthy pink lung inflated nicely while the black lung was hard to inflate. Students that wanted to put on gloves and felt how differently the two lungs felt. Students were encouraged to protect their lungs.

We have a test on Unit E on Wednesday. We will be reviewing Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday

Today we watched Plato and learned about magnetism and electromagnets. We could see what magnetic domains look like. We will finish this on Monday. There will be a test a week from today, Wednesday February 10th. Tomorrow is Project Northland, be sure to bring back your books with the activities accomplished and signed by your parents.

Tuesday

We studied the scientific theory of why the Earth has a magnetic field. The students are still learning to use the metric system and we reviewed that today. We corrected last night's homework and discussed the importance of learning as much as we can. Students discussed how different electrical devices, such as MRIs, have helped them and their families.

Students should review the reading assignment. There will be a unit test on Wednesday of next week. We will review for that test on Monday and Tuesday.

Monday

We learned about magnets today. We are making a nail into a magnet using wire, a battery and a nail. Students then went to the lab and worked with different materials to see how many layers would stop the magnetic force.

Students have homework tonight. They are to ready E116-125 and do the worksheet Electromagnets. They should have it in their science book.