The first month of 2023 has flown by, but we have made every day worth it here at TCS. This week was filled with good spirits welcoming Mr. Dan back to the school! The offsite PE has been a hit the last couple of weeks at the gymnastics gym. Here are some interesting fun facts to start off your weekend:

1. The little dot over a lowercase i and j has a name , “tittle” meaning a tiny amount or part of something. 
2. Water sounds different depending on its temperature due to how fast the energy molecules move (faster when hot).

Rhythm is the longest English word without a vowel.    

Here’s a look at what is happening in each of the classes:

What’s happening in Science?

Seventh graders brainstormed their topics for Science Fair projects this week. They began to contemplate the importance of the scientific process and how their projects are representations of the natural world. Seventh graders also presented their invasive species projects to the class. They will present their research presentations to the middle school next week, as well as begin to set up their experiments. Thank you for your support helping with supplies!

What’s up in Math?

Hello seventh grade parents! Most of you may have heard that I have returned to TCS in a reduced capacity, teaching only grades 6 and 7, before returning home to be with my daughter. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back! I’ve missed the kids and the school very much. It’s pretty much been one big socio-mathematical black hole in their absence. Doing much better now! Enough of that, you say. What about my kid’s Math? Well, I’ve been merciless in my return: poring furiously with them through the workbook and lessons, drawing and changing graphs, plotting and analyzing numbers. We’ve been working primarily on scatter plots these past few days: plotting 2 variables on a chart, like points per game vs. assists, or the carat weight of diamonds vs. their purchase price. The dots that result create patterns; they express positive or negative relationships. They show strong relationships and weak relationships. The kids will eventually learn to calculate and interpret those relationships as correlation coefficients, but for now just recognizing the patterns is ideal, and they are excellent at it. We even worked with it on the graphing calculators – chaos, but fun.

It is a pleasure to be able to work with your sons and daughters again, even in my more limited time constraints. Thank you for your patience and support. And now, it’s back to Math!

–Mr. Dan

What’s happening in ELA?

This week seventh graders are finishing up with their “writing about reading” papers, pressure maps, and emotional timelines. For their papers, each student has taken their essay through the writing process using the box-and-bullet method. You can ask your child to see an example of what that means. Your students also learned how to write an introduction identifying the topic and thesis. Students are also expected to use MLA for cover sheet, in-text citation, and bibliography. I anticipate the students being through with their project no later than Tuesday, January 31st. Please follow up with them and see where they are in their “writing about reading” project. Each student’s essay should have an introduction, three paragraphs, and a conclusion. Your seventh grader should also have two visual representations of their short story in the form of a pressure map and/or emotional timeline.

Finally, your students have completed week twelve grammar lessons and will begin week thirteen next week. Reading logs should be completed Monday through Thursday.

What’s going on in Social Studies?

This week students worked hard in their preparation for their midterm assessment! Students were assessed over all of the content they have covered from the beginning until present day! Students took their assessments on Friday and grades will be returned on Monday! 

We will be pushing forward with our content next week! We are going to be diving into Industrialization with a fun little game that will bring out their artistic skills and then move  into a jigsaw activity before analyzing some photos from different periods of Industrialization! 

Important Dates:

• February 14 – Valentine’s Day Bake Sale, Book Fair, and Bingo! (1:15 – 2:45)
• February 20-21 – February Break (No School)