Middle Schoolers dove headfirst into content in each of their core and special area classes this week. They learned how to organize their materials, their planners, and their lockers. Organization is a skill that is so important to explicitly teach in Middle School, as it doesn’t always come naturally. So, here are some things that we introduced this week that you can help support at home:
- Executive Functioning (daily block after third period right, before lunch) is a time where homework is written in planners, plans are made for studying, and materials are organized in binders, book bags, and lockers.
- Planners are to be used to help keep track of important dates, deadlines, and daily homework. They are to be taken home and brought back to school everyday.
- Google Classroom is our lifeline! Here, they’ll find study guides, rubrics, extra math practice, etc. Your child has access to everything they need for school all on one Google Classroom page – which they can access from home (computer, tablet, phone, etc) using their school Google Account. Reach out to your child’s advisory teacher if you need help getting logged in at home!
- Linked via Google Classroom, students can access their grade level Google Calendar to see their daily homework assignments, test/quiz dates, and due dates. These Google Calendars will be linked in the weekly newsletter for parents to access, as well! It will be updated frequently with important dates and assignments. Students copy their assignments for the week in their planners during Executive Functioning! Teachers will also send reminder emails about big dates like tests and projects when the time comes.
- Graded tests, permission slips, and other handouts will come home in your child’s blue take home folder.
Utilizing these organizational skills and tools will not only ensure a successful academic middle schooler, but also guarantee that your child feels calm, collected, and prepared for school!
-AG
ELA- This week in ELA, 7th graders dusted off their persuasive writing tools to tackle our argumentative writing unit. Writers considered how they could use persuasive rhetoric and thoughtful research to effect real change in their community. They began selecting “school improvement” topics to lobby for – students have their eye on new sports programs, facilities, and policy as they dive into research. These papers will be due 9/10, with the potential to be passed on to the TCS Board and head of school! We also started new ventures in vocabulary + greek/latin roots!
Next week we will continue to flesh out school improvement arguments with outlines, evidence, first drafts, and consideration of counterarguments! Be sure to encourage your 7th grader to begin studying their vocabulary + greek and latin roots for next week’s test on 8/28.
Science- In science we rocketed into our study of planetary science by establishing our understanding point of view and used Google Earth to view The Cooper School from different altitudes. Then we turned our curiosity to the moon. Over the next month students will keep a moon journal – observing the moon every night to see how the shape and position change. Next week we will explore evidence for the Earth’s shape and the relationship between the sun and the Earth.
Social Studies- Seventh grade began working on North and South America and how humans ended up on these continents. We began discussing the two major theories of this and will lead into our first project in which they will debate these two theories (land bridge, water). This is the start of several debates this year, teaching them ways to communicate, disagree and share ideas with each other and others they may not agree with in a respectful and empathetic way.
Math- This week in math, 7th grade mathematicians explored different types of rigid transformation within a coordinate plane such as rotations, reflections, and translations. This new type of math was challenging in the most rewarding way! They described what happened to the coordinates of a shape after it underwent a sequence of transformations.
Next week, we’ll connect this new knowledge to congruence vs. similarity, what makes two shapes similar or congruent, and how to create congruent figures using scale before diving into a new and fun architecture project!
