Happy Spring to All! I hope everyone is able to get out and enjoy the weather. It finally feels like Spring. This is Ms. Oudsema's last week with us and we wish her the best of luck with her future endeavors. If you haven't heard, due to unfortunate circumstances for some of our science teachers, we will be moving back the date of the Science Fair to May 24th. This will give students more time to work on their projects.

Those of you who participated in the school play, "Wonderful Job!" I'm so proud of you.

EXTRA CREDIT THIS WEEK! TAKE HOME ONE OR MORE ELEMENTS FROM THE CLASSROOM PERIODIC TABLE THAT IS NOT DONE YET AND RECEIVE 5 POINTS EXTRA CREDIT FOR IT BEING COMPLETED AND PUT ON THE BOARD WHERE IT BELONGS.

Monday, April 23rd

Science

Lesson 9 from the Student Pages (Chemistry). Students will be looking into the following key questions: Can invisible substances like oxygen and other gases be involved in chemical reactions in any other way (not just as products)? Students will explore this question through a lab in which they will create a closed system to create rust and another lab that will demonstrate that oxygen is present and takes up space.

Homework: Think and Write page 38 #1-5. Remember to copy the question into your journal and then write your answer in complete sentences.

Creation Station
Work day for those who have not finished their Memoir (Due Thursday, April 19th). For those who have finished their Memoir, bring something to do quietly in class.

Tuesday, April 24th

Science

I will be at WMU working today so Ms. Oudsema will be our substitute teacher today. Collect Think and Write questions p. 38 1-5 at the end of the hour. Lesson 10 from Student Pages (Chemistry) p. 39, Does Rusting Need Air? Students will continue with yesterday's lesson and observe what happened to their steel wool and Erlenmeyer flask with the balloon on it. There will also be two teacher demos, that will help students with the big idea of air.

Homework: Finish questions 1-8 from page 40-42. These should be started in class with just a little to finish at home. Remember to copy the question into your journal and then answer it in complete sentences.

Wednesday, April 25th,

Science

Students will finish questions 9-11 from page 43 for their Threshold activity in class. We will trade papers in class and work on correcting them as a whole group today. This will allow for class discussion on what occurred and what their ideas are on air. After the Think and Write questions (40-43) have been answered, we will create a mind map to help students to write a paragraph on how the Law of Conservation of Matter applied to the reactions from the rust/flask/balloon and the two teacher demos from yesterday. Students should write and edit this in class and turn in their final copy.

Creation Station

I am going to be looking into the viewing of the movie, Freedom Writers, for today. If I receive the okay, then we will be watching this today and for the next few class periods to help students see how powerful their own writing is and how writing can help communicate to others what is happening in their own world.

If we cannot watch the movie, we will begin to look at poetry. Students will begin the lesson on "Where Poetry Hides". They will look for places in their own life that they can draw upon to create poetry from. We will also be looking at their memoir to turn into a poem.

Thursday, April 26th

Science

We will be working on our class science fair projects today and tomorrow in class. Today and tomorrow we should be getting materials and doing the experiment.

Friday, April 27th: Today is a half day.

Science

Today, we will be finishing our science fair experiment and collecting data.