Tuesday

The school board informed the teachers yesterday that classes on Thursday would end at 1 p.m. Please make sure your parents know that you will be coming home early.

6th grade: We covered some new material today. We discussed ionic bonding, covalent bonding and metallic bonding. The reading covers pgs E 30- E 45. A couple of good sites you csn warch to learn more would be: Making Molecules with Atoms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmgE0w6E6ZI and Ionic, Covalent and Metallic Bonds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGA8sRwqIFg
We also watched the Acids and Bases song as we hope to be doing the experiment tomorrow.

7th grade: We began the discussion of bacteria today. Students watched two videos, one showing how quickly bacteria reproduce. The other was a short favorite from last year telling about how to be safe from disease causing bacteria.

Monday:

6th grade: students made atoms today from pipe cleaners, beads and fruit loops. I also had the students make sure their cells were completed so we can get them graded.

7th grade: We studied more about viruses today. Students drew the hidden and active cycle of a virus and then began to draw and label the bacteriophage and the flu virus.

Thursday

6th grade:We reviewed parts of the atom and then watched a power-point presentation on atoms.


7th grade: We learned about viruses today. Viruses are not alive, but they have either DNA or RNA. They are an interesting phenomenon. The link below should take you to an interesting site on viruses.


http://www.beyondbooks.com/lif72/2c.asp

Wednesday

6th grade: Students worked on finishing three different assignments, the Osmosis graph, the periodic table key and their biomes.

7th grade: We did a little housekeeping (they left their books and notebooks in a mess yesterday so we cleaned up for five minutes) Then students worked on pg 199 1-10. This is an in class assignment, not homework.

Students watched Fiddler on the Roof, presented by the high school

Tuesday

6th: Students corrected their papers today. Then we learned about the periodic table of elements. Students began to work on the key for their periodic table.

7th: Students reviewed relative and radioactive dating and the meaning of half-life. Then we reviewed a little about genetics and Gregor Mendel. Then each team worked to answer a question and explained their answer to the class about mass extinction, natural selection etc. (The questions came from pg 200)

Tomorrow we will be watching Fiddler on the Roof as performed by the high school.

Monday Argh Internet down - so sorry

6th grade: Homework E15 1-5 We finished the chapter on physical properties. Now we will be talking about atoms and chemical properties

7th grade: Finished the section on fossils and natural selection. We will have a small test on it tomorrow.

Thursday

6th grade: Thursday we learned about all sorts of different mixtures. We learned about suspensions, emulsions, colloids, solutions and alloys. Then we let some transparency ink travel up a coffee filter, showing the different colors the ink was made of. Next we saw that milk is a colloid because it is undissolved particles in a substance. We used the beakers from yesterday's density experiments to show suspension and emulsion and then we stirred salt into water and made herbal tea to show solutions. Lastly we discussed that alloys are a mixture of metals. Finally the students finished their Osmosis Egg Experiment graph.

7th grade: Today we reviewed fossils, relative dating and radioactive dating on Plato. Monday we will cover the different time periods from Pre-Cambrian to the present time.

Wednesday

6th Grade: We covered the notes on matter, mass, weight and density. We then found the density of a piece of clay. Next we did an activity to help students pay attention to physical characteristics of items. Finally we started the graph for our osmosis egg experiment. We will finish that graph tomorrow.

7th grade: We discussed the timeline of the Earth. Students learned, that according to scientists current beliefs, that if the Earth was on a 12 hour clock of the earth;s time, humans didn't show up until 11:59 p.m. That is pretty interesting. We also began learning about fossils.

Tuesday

6th grade: Students finished the osmosis experiment with the eggs today. It was interesting to see that the corn syrup egg that we put into the salt water was larger than any of the other eggs. Then we noticed that the osmosis process increased the volume of the corn syrup nearly 40 ml. Next we began a density experiment wherein we poured different types of liquids into a graduated cylinder. The denser liquids went to the bottom and the less dense liquids went to the top. Students guessed where the liquids would end up. Then we dropped small items in to see which were the most dense.

7th grade: We reviewed natural selection. Then each team took a biome and reported the adaptations organisms in that biome would need to make to survive.

Monday

6th grade: Today we covered some basic vocabulary in physical science. Mass, matter, volume and density were the main words. Then we learned about the states of matter and put different food coloring in water of different temperatures to see what they molecules would do. Finally we played a state of matter game to see if students knew what that would be. Anyone wanting to play that game can go to this blog and look for the Plasma game.

7th grade: We are covering Charles Darwin and natural selections. We played a game to find out what would happen to the white and brown mouse living on white sand.

Thursday

6th grade: We reviewed mitosis and meiosis today and then watched videos on heredity and punnett squares. Students turned in the heredity chart they did with their families. We also popped two of our eggs that we have been experimenting with. That was fun. Then we switched the corn syrup egg into the salt water and the salt water egg we put in the corn syrup. We will see what happens on Monday. We had a TALL assembly today for attendance. This time the 8th graders won the grade prize.

7th grade: We finished our unit on Heredity today. We discussed purebred animals and hybrid animals. We also discussed different genetic diseases and how they are inherited. We will be starting on a new unit on Monday.