Team Berlin Update 9
October 18, 2024
Trip 1, 10/22: National Museum of Natural History sponsored by the Science and Geography Departments
Geography: This visit will connect to the Sub Saharan African geographic unit of study and will have students learn about the diverse cultures, geography, and contributions of the region’s people.
Science: This visit will connect to our learning about plate boundaries and the movement of the surface of the earth. Students will learn and review these concepts as they examine the layers of the earth and the fossils that give us evidence of geological history.
Trip 2, 11/8: National Museum of African American History & Culture sponsored by the ELA Department
This trip is focused on students investigating and documenting real-life acts of courage in connection with their exploration of courage themes in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Earth Science with Ms. Ballantine
Hi Scientists!
Thank you for your donations of marshmallows and toothpicks! After completing their Roots summative at the start of this week, students finished the short week with an engineering design challenge and demonstrations of seismic waves.
Next week in science, students will be exploring the interior structure of the Earth through a scale modeling activity. They will delve deeper into plate tectonics with a Gizmo activity and learn about Pangaea and the asteroids that contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Students have completed all their root word lessons for Term 1. Roots Quizzes will resume in Term 2- no Roots quizzes until the start of November.
On Tuesday of next week students will go to the National Museum of Natural History for a joint Geography and Earth Science field trip. For the science portion of the trip, students will visit the Hall of Fossils: Deep Time exhibit to learn more about fossils and ancient life, how scientists date rocks and fossils, and what they can teach us about the history of the earth and how the continents have moved around.
Lastly, if your child has any missing assignments, we encourage you to ensure they complete these before the end of the term on November 1st-late assignments received after the 1st cannot be graded.
Before Roots quizzes return and before we begin preparation for our Plate Motion summative, I want to share some tips on how to best study for science.
Study Tips for Science:
Roots quizzes:
-Students can use their colored Roots organizer in their agenda to study words. Family members can quiz students on roots, definitions, and example words.
-Students can practice writing sentences for each root word, making sure to include the root word in another word (for example, bi in bicycle) and the meaning/definition of the word.
Summatives:
-Students will usually receive a paper study guide to fill out before their summatives. It can be filled out at school or at home.
-Blookets (online quiz games) will be posted to Canvas. Students can play these on a computer, tablet, or phone. They are a great way to study for students who like video/computer games, or students who want a different format from the study guide or notes!
-Before summatives, students may take their science binders home and review vocabulary connections, worksheets, quizzes, and any other relevant info.
-Flash cards: a great option for Roots summatives or unit summatives! Writing things down helps students remember it better, and it’s a good way to study with someone else.
Math with Mr. Brown & Mr. Gawthrop
Math 6
This week students worked on converting within units of measurement. This week students will continue working on converting within and between measurements as well as calculating percent using the proportional method. Included in our virtual classroom will be a link to a portion of Illustrative Mathematics dedicated to allowing parents to give support of current topics from home. Students needing extra time/technical assistance are to see me during iRecess for help.
Math7
This week students will complete and End of Unit/RCT Assessment on scale drawings and began working on proportional relationships. This week students will working on proportional relationships. Included in our virtual classroom will be a link to a portion of Illustrative Mathematics dedicated to allowing parents to give support of current topics from home. Students needing extra time/technical assistance are to see me during iRecess for help.
Language Arts with Ms. Byrns & Mr. Gawthrop
This week students completed their second ELA Summative. They used character traits and conflict to build towards identifying a universal theme. Next week we will do some creative writing, with a focus on sensory language and then DIALOGUE (lots of punctuation practice!).
Homework & Conversations at Home:
Students are showing improvement on 1) Remembering to do the NF article homework and 2) Using annotations to show their thinking and focus their reading on that homework. Next week's article is definitely a bit heavy as it provides a short history of the KKK. The KKK, usually referred to in the text as "night riders" has already popped up in Roll of Thunder but will play a more significant role in the plot of our next few chapters. Please consider talking to your child about this article or what's going on in the book.
Independent Reading:
With Roll of Thunder, it has been harder for us to find class time for independent reading, so please encourage your child to make time to read for enjoyment at home. I recently added a set of the first 10 Goosebumps books to our class library for anyone looking to take a stroll down memory lane. ;) It's also a great time for students to pick up graphic novels or shorter books to read when they aren't giving all focus to ROTHMC. Congrats to Roza for finishing the 40 Book Challenge. Roza is loving her current read, The Candymakers 2 by Wendy Mass.
Katy Byrns
Geography with Ms. Trenkle
This week in Geography we began Unit 2: Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). We have studied political, physical, and thematic maps about this region, as well as added six key words to our vocabulary. Students will have a quiz on this on Thursday, 10/24 (changed from 10/23!). All links are in Canvas—this includes the thematic maps, links to practice maps, and a Nearpod with the vocabulary. We will also review in class on 10/23.
Next week on Monday we will discuss the Five Themes of Geography and apply them to SSA. We have our field trip to National Museum of Natural History on Tuesday. Please see the list of reminders for our trip below. Students have work to do in the exhibit that will be a geography grade. Wednesday we will review for our quiz and take the quiz on Thursday. Students will complete one slide about the Five Themes of Geography and them in class on Friday.
The CEA (Current Events Analysis) is our ongoing homework. Templates are provided on Monday and a soft copy of the template and article can be found in Canvas on Sunday before the week starts. It is due on Friday and will be accepted on Monday for 80% credit. Students just turned in CEA #2 on 10/18 and CEA #3 is due on 10/25.
As we are having a map quiz, I wanted to share some tips on how to study for these quizzes. I have messaged in class that students should study for their quiz 10-15 minutes per night. Unlike elementary school, students will need to start to budget time to review notes or practice material to provide opportunities and time for the material “to stick.”
Recommended ways to engage with the material for Geography:
—make flashcards for the vocabulary and have a family member quiz students
—practice the Seterra map links in Canvas
—have students pick up extra blank maps from class and practice filling them out at home, checked by themselves and/or family members.
We have finally finished our giant map and started to post the amazing postcards we have received on our map! We have had a great time reading postcards sent to us by so many family, friends, and YOU! Thanks for sending us postcards and keep them coming!!!!
Shout out to Team Berlin students Kai and Jake! An email from Theenie Freeman at the DC Department of Parks and Recreation was received after she read Community Action Letters from Deal 6th graders (including Kai and Jake!) We look forward to receiving more responses in the future!!! See the announcement below. :)
Lastly, we are in desperate need of Kleenex for the classroom. If you’re able to send a box in, please do. All of our runny noses are thankful! 😊
Library Corner
The latest library newsletter has arrived! Check it out at the link below:
https://secure.smore.com/n/9vs8z
Stephen Reichlen
Library Media Specialist
Deal MS – DC Public Schools
