Well, we made it through our first full 5 day week of school. Thankfully it has also cooled off and it is easier to be in school. Planners should be coming home this weekend to be signed by parents and returned to school. Planners should be checked to see homework, work done for the week and when assessments or other important events will take place.

Student IDs will come out on Monday. Students must always wear them for security reasons.

We are having our Open House on Thursday, September 20th from 6:30 to 8:00. During this time we will have a ribbon cutting to open the new library at 7:30. It is truly a beautiful room.

Remember that students do not have school on Friday, September 21st. Teachers will have all day professional development.


I will also be listing the weeks lessons slightly different. The week will be by subject and Advisory can be checked by going to the Advisory blog @ http://milwoodmiddle.org/staff/blogs/advisory/ .


Science

Monday, September 17th

Students will see their quizzes that they took on Friday. We will then work with the planner for the week. Next, we will be looking at practicing using graduated cylinders and beakers. The rest of the hour we will complete a "Metric Smile" lesson using the Kagan structure "Rally Coach".

Tuesday, September 18th

Mr. Korchnak will be working with the class on metric conversions using algebra. We noticed that not all students understood the Metric Staircase/Ladder method so now we will introduce conversions in this manner.

Homework: Try to complete a couple problems off the metric conversion worksheet and we will work on the rest in class tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 19th

Students needed more time to work on doing the metric conversions algebraically so we will work on them again today.

Thursday, September 20th

We will be working on scientific notation. Students will list the steps to scientific notation in their science journals. Then we will practice with a partner. We will use the Kagan structure Rally Coach. Students will share their answers with the class.

Quiz over metric conversions.


Friday, September 21st

NO SCHOOL!


Ecosystems
(Mr. Korchnak)

Monday, September 17th
Today we will be discussing food webs and chains. I will also be introducing the class word wall. During the lesson we will work in both table teams and as a whole class. The first activity is built around understanding food chains by demonstrating the food chains involved in eating a chicken sandwich. The second activity will be done with the whole class. Each student will have a specific name card representing their role in an ecosystem. We will then use string to show how interconnected an ecosystem is.



Wednesday, September 19th
Today’s lesson will revolve around how energy flows through out a system and how it is returned. We’ll go over cycles that work within a system and the parts of an ecosystem that are responsible for the cycles.

Homework: Pick 10 words from the word wall and be able to explain what they mean and how they help define an ecosystem.