In addition to classes this week, Middle School participated in Fire Prevention Day and prepared for next week’s Thanksgiving Gathering. First, students listened to a presentation by Bethel Assistant Fire Chief Bill McAllister and a couple of volunteers from the Botsford Fire Department. Then, they were shown how machinery like the jaws of life and the technology involved in the fire uniforms can help save lives. Finally, students jumped on the truck!
In preparation for the Thanksgiving Gathering, the Middle School baked breads. It sure smelled delicious around the building! Last week, students chose recipes that they wanted to bake and prepared them in Advisory this week. Students baked lemon bread, lemon raspberry bread, Japanese milk bread, chocolate chip banana bread, and gluten-free apple bread. The 8th grade is also prepared to host next week’s school-wide Thanksgiving Gathering.
We hope you have a wonderful break full of people that bring you joy. We are grateful for you.
Humanities
6th grade Humanities continued reading Out of My Mind this week. The class is working towards annotating their nightly readings in order to lead their own discussions. This week, students were asked to develop discussion questions instead of nightly comprehension questions. Then, they sat in two groups using their discussion questions to guide the chapter reviews. The groups utilized a circle format to help with listening and responding thoughtfully. This proved to be quite successful. Mrs. Lamb enjoyed sitting in and listening as the class led themselves. Additionally, a final writing piece was introduced and mostly drafted for the descriptive writing unit. Second-round writing conferences began as well.
7th grade Humanities classes worked on writing this week. The class reviewed mechanical editing marks and practiced using an Everyday Edit. They finished drafting their literary analysis essay, which proves a statement from the novel to be true using specific examples and direct quotations from the novel as support. Some students completed initial self-editing checklists, and the class will hopefully begin peer edits next week. The class has been working on current events, which will be presented on Monday.
The 8th grade has been busy between Leadership and Humanities classes. In Leadership, they collected and organized all of the FWM community’s donations for the Thanksgiving Food Drive. This week, students also completed the 2024 Fraser Woods Ornament and Limited Edition Ornament designs that will be sold at the pop-up Fraser WoodShop booth before the winter concert. Students created a prototype then got to work quickly, cutting 30 ornaments on the Glow Forge.
In Humanities class, the 8th grade is in the last third of their class novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here. They began their initial brainstorming for their history essay, Reimagining History. This essay requires both research and making a cause-and-effect claim. They must make a change to something in the course of the history of Native Americans after European contact and imagine a few subsequent effects of that change. Would anything be different today?
Math
Pre-Transition: This week, students wrapped up their learning of Chapter 3. They began the week by learning how to add simple fractions and mixed numbers and reviewing how to apply the properties of angle addition. The class closed out the week by playing a review game of Jeopardy and taking the Chapter 3 test. Students will dive into Chapter 4 when they return from Thanksgiving break.
Transition: This week, students closed out Chapter 3 by learning how to convert among decimals, fractions, and percents and estimating the square root of a number to a stated decimal place. The class ended their week with a review game of Jeopardy and showed their mastery on the Chapter 3 test. Students will jump into Chapter 5 when they return from Thanksgiving break.
Algebra: This week, students finished learning Chapter 4 by finding equivalent forms of formulas and equations and solving and checking compound inequalities. The class closed out its week by reviewing Chapter 4 concepts and taking the unit test. Students will begin Chapter 5 when they return from Thanksgiving break.
Geometry: This week, students completed learning all of the Chapter 4 concepts. The class began by drawing and identifying images of figures under composites of two reflections, drawing translation and glide-reflection images, and exploring isometries. They wrapped up the week by reviewing all Chapter 4 concepts and taking the unit test. Students will begin Chapter 5 after Thanksgiving break.
Science
6 grade:
Students spent this week learning about Earth’s history, specifically fossils and Earth’s past. Students learned important geological terms, information on the rock cycle, what fossils are and how they are formed, along with the many different types of fossilization. The class will complete a lab next week making their own fossils to better understand the creation of mold fossils and cast fossils.
7 grade:
Students worked the majority of this week on learning how to separate mixtures. They began the week working with their Techbook, conceptually learning separation techniques such as evaporation, distillation, and chromatography. They ended the week practicing these techniques in the lab. Students worked well together to conduct these activities. Next week the class will finish their chromatography lab to complete this set of activities.
8 grade:
The class began the week working in their Techbook and discussing the topics of where cells come from, what cells are and why they are important, what structures most cells have in common, how animal cells and plant cells differ, and how unicellular and multicellular cells differ. Students ended the week working on a lab in which they compared various types of cells: prokaryotic vs eukaryotic and plant vs animal cells. The class will finish their cell comparison lab next week before Thanksgiving break.
