Hello Families!
We are looking forward to student-led conferences on April 11th. Students are currently preparing their presentations for you. They will be sharing highlights and reflections from the last two years. It will be a celebration of growth! If you didn't sign up yet, here is the link to the sign-up sheet.
Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium Field Trip & the April 8 Total Eclipse
If your child didn't tell you about it, the presentation at the planetarium was excellent. It was a beautifully woven presentation about the science behind eclipses versus the mythology of Ancient peoples who came up with some creative ways to explain eclipses. It was a great way to learn more about the upcoming eclipse. All CBMS students will receive eclipse viewing glasses provided by our school. Please keep in mind that glasses must be worn to view the eclipse directly. Just as important, UVM medical center shared that it is not safe to view the eclipse through a camera, telescope etc. so taking images of the eclipse without a special filter will damage both your eye and the camera. Click here to read more eclipse safety provided by UVM Medical.
Language Arts
We recently finished reading Ghost Boys. For each section of reading students responded to journal prompts and participated in class discussions. The frequent written reflection and connection to the book allowed students to work on our three writing standards for the unit.
- I can write with elaboration
- I can demonstrate command of the conventions of language
- I can analyze and cite text evidence when making connections and inferences
Between their writing and our class discussions, I'm impressed by their ability to make thoughtful connections between the themes in the book and current events. Our Civil Rights unit earlier in the year helped lay the groundwork for them to better understand the complexities of implicit bias and racism today. You should be proud of your students. They have exceptionally mature and thoughtful conversations about challenging topics.
I have many objectives as a Language Arts teacher. You can walk into my room anytime and see the current unit's essential questions and learning targets posted. However, that is just the academic piece of what we do. My greater goal is to help them be critical thinkers, engaged citizens, and problem-solvers. Through the topics I cover in my class and the books I choose to teach, students begin to understand the lived experiences of others. Students develop the ability to have civil discourse about challenging topics. They begin to understand the connections of the past to the present and how to have agency over their present and future actions. Students gain the ability to understand themselves better AND have compassion for others. They contemplate ways they can affect change even as a middle schoolers. I leave school each day knowing that my students have gained valuable skills and knowledge that will help them be good humans now and in the future. Thank you for trusting me with their education.
Here are two quotes from Ghost Boys that are powerful words to live by and themes in my class...
Bonus: On the days students have WIN Block with Mrs. Michael, they are working on informational writing pieces. They are super excited about the topics they have chosen. We have topics ranging from Black Holes to Taylor Swift. These pieces will be published on a special website we've created to share their writing. Access to the website will be shared with families at a later date as students need to take their writing pieces through the entire writing process before we have them publish it to the website. Mr. Spaulding, our Literacy Interventionist, is co-teaching with Ms. Michael at this time so there are two teachers available to provide students with feedback during their writing process.
Social Studies
Students currently in Ms. Michael's Social Studies class are learning about the many contributions of Ancient Greece to modern society. Ask your child what they've learned so far and what their favorite part of the unit has been.
Math
We just finished our unit on dividing fractions. Students can share the recent assessment with you during conferences. To be proficient, students are expected to have an algorithm for dividing fractions. Most students successfully use common denominators to accurately find quotients. Some students began exploring the standard algorithm but need understanding to be proficient. In our next that we begin after VTCAP testing, we will be reviewing place value to the right of the decimal and extend operations with decimal-fractions to multiplication and division. Students in Ms. Anderman's WIN block continue to complete practice work on recently learned concepts as well as complete extension work.
Science
Our current science unit is Matter and its Interactions. Students are learning about the structure and properties of matter and have completed a variety of activities that allow them to develop an understanding of the following content:
Gases and liquids are made of molecules that are moving about relative to each other.
In a liquid, the molecules are constantly in contact with others; in a gas, they are widely spaced except when they happen to collide. In a solid, atoms are closely spaced and may vibrate in position but do not change relative locations.
Students will be switching from science to social studies the week before break.
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| Students created a controlled experiment to answer the question "Does temperature change the speed of particles in a liquid?" |
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| All of the above investigations and activities are helping students to be able to model and explain how air could be used to lift a person |
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