The Willow Weekly: The Willow Weekly 9/26-9/30

Welcome to the Willow Weekly. Here you will find all of your Team Willow news and information. Please sign up for automatic updates and you will be notified whenever an update is made.

Upcoming Events:

Parent teacher conferences October 11-13 Parent Sign Up for Conferences Link
Early Release Day- October 12
Rachel's Challenge Assembly- October 13
Picture Retake day October, Friday 21st
Second quarter bus passes required Monday, October 17
Red Ribbon Week 24th of October

Important Information:

After school help sessions and activities began Sept. 6th. At least one teacher from Willow will be available for help on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays until 4:00. A list of other after school opportunities can be found here.

T-Shirts Are Here!

We'll be ordering Team Willow shirts this year! Shirts will be $8, and we would like to have shirts ordered by the end of parent-teacher conferences. Please visit this form to place your order today! https://goo.gl/forms/asheaGU5cgJsXeXG3

If you wish to receive the text message reminders or email reminders of homework, please sign up by: 1) sending a text message to 81010 and put in the message as “@hxwillow”, and/or go to https://www.remind.com/ and enter the classcode: @hxwillow.

Visit the Hixson Scholastic Book Fair Online!

You can shop and order online to help support Hixson's library! The book fair will also be set up during parent-teacher conferences.

http://www.scholastic.com/bf/hixsonmiddle1

English –

We wrapped up our 'Launching Reading Workshop' unit this week! Students will be completing a summative assessment on Monday and Tuesday of next week where they will be asked to reflect over their reading lives so far this school year. They will do so in the form of a letter or a recorded audio reflection. This will be done in class, but students might spend some time doing some reflecting prior to Monday!

Don't forget to stay updated with what's going on in ELA by visiting blog.katiekraushaar.com

Social Studies –

This week in Social Studies students have been wrapping up their examination of Mesopotamia. The Vocabulary Test was Tuesday and the results are posted on the Parent Portal. We spent several days exploring The British Museum’s Mesopotamian Website; students worked in groups to complete a web quest on the site which examines all elements of ancient Mesopotamian life.

The Open Note Quiz will be next Wednesday. Notes have been posted on my website for several weeks. We will go over the notes in class on Tuesday.

www.hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson/Classes/pettid

Lisa Pettid – pettid.lisa@wgmail.org

314-918-4602

Math-

This week 7th grade math took a formative over multiplying and dividing rational numbers. They solved a murder mystery and got some practice in on their learning targets. They ended their week with a summative over Learning targets 4, 5, and 1 revisited. Next week we will be finishing up our number systems unit by covering converting between decimals, percents and fractions.

Algebra has a test coming up on Monday over 2.1-2.5. They will be working on a fun project over the next week or two.

Check out my blog for some of the great things we've been doing in class.

I found a nice website, check it out! Sign up for Table Talk Math here! The goal of this site is to provide clarity for what students could be doing to increase their math fluency and also provide prompts to discuss around the dinner table (or anywhere, for that matter).

To sign up for math homework updates message @math7port to 81010

algebra homework updates- message @a493a to 81010

Ashley Porter

porter.ashley@wgmail.org

mathrm214.blogspot.com

Science –

Willow Science

Summative Project DUE Monday, 3 October!

See scoring guide below.

Here are suggested conversation starters for you young engineer:

What are the two objects you have been researching?
Tell me about (object #1).
Tell me about (object #2)
What are you creating for your project?

The targets this week have been:

I am able to analyze and interpret data to compare and contrast universe objects.

The cross-cutting concept have been:

Patterns: Observing patterns & events guides organization and classification & leads to understanding of relationships.
Scale, Proportion, and Quantity: Changes in scale, proportion, or quantity affect a system’s structure and/or performance.

Activities students participated in this week:

Monday - Individual meetings with Sarah Bodi, the 7th grade counselor - meet ‘n greet, Introduction to the Universe Objects goal and summative project, then background research to be able to select their 2 objects.
Tuesday - Pushed out differentiated projects on Doctopus. Object selection and approvals, Installed CiteThisForMe APP and created account on website to manage and create their MLA bibliography
Wednesday: Students researched Object #1.
Thursday: Students researched Object #2
Friday: Created their Projects.

Vocabulary Emphasis this week:

}To Compare are the similarities and what are common characteristics.
}To Contrast are the things which are unique or different.

Space Systems Goal #1: I am able to analyze and interpret data to compare and contrast objects in the universe.

4	I demonstrate innovation, in depth inference(s), or advanced application(s) with the learning goal. In addition to level 3 I am able to: use ratios/scales to relate objects in the universe.
3	I am able to: analyze and interpret data to compare and contrast objects (celestial bodies) in the universe; such as, sizes of objects, habitable properties, layers of the crust and atmosphere, surface features, orbital radius, etc.

Compare & Contrast Universe Objects Scoring Guide

	PROFICIENT = 3
Quality Sources of Data	At least Three (3) or more QUALITY sources are included, cited, and information is complete, and uses MLA format for all works cited.
Object 1	This object is 1) clearly defined & described in student’s own words, 2) supporting details/data/evidence are included, and 3) an explanation of why you were interested in the object is included
Object 2	This object is 1) clearly defined & described in student’s own words, and 2) supporting details/data/evidence are included, and 3) an explanation of why you were interested in the object is included
Comparisons (Similarities)	At least 3 RELEVANT, QUALITY comparisons between object #1 and object #2 are made.
Contrasts (Differences)	At least 3 RELEVANT, QUALITY contrasts between object #1 and object #2 are made
Visuals	Project includes quality visual representations
Presentation of your objects	Included within your PROJECT presentation, the objects are clearly presented, neatly presented and has all the above components