Important Dates

• May 11th - Reading SOL
• May 18th - Math SOL

Language Arts

What are we learning?

• The student will understand that savvy test takers incorporate all they know about reading in specific genres as they take the test.
• The student will understand that the test writer has a specific answer in mind and that skilled test takers are strategic in order to determine the best answer.
• The student will understand that well-crafted, persuasive writing influences the reader’s thinking, feeling, or action. 
• The student will understand that in a democratic society people have the right to voice opinions and persuasive writing is an effective tool to impact the thinking of others. 
• The student will understand that writers use feedback from others to clarify ideas and broaden perspective in order to strengthen their arguments.

Home/School Connection

Ask your student the following questions: 

• How does what you know about different genres support you when taking a test?
• What kind of test question is best to check which kind of knowledge?
• How can my writing impact the world?
• How can I best achieve my purpose with this audience?

Math

What are we learning?

• The students are learning to make observations and interpret data shown in a circle graph.
• The students are learning to compare data represented in a circle graph with the same data represented in pictographs, line plots, and bar graphs.

Home/School Connection

• Talk with your student about why people use circle graphs to represent data, and how they compare to pictographs and bar graphs.
• Ask your student to show you how to convert a fraction into a percentage so it can be properly represented on a circle graph.

Social Studies

What are we learning?

• The students are learning how struggles over the future of slavery’s expansion agitated the United States for decades and led the nation into the Civil War.
• The students are learning about the major war events chronologically and describe their significance.

Home/School Connection

• Ask your student to describe the state of the nation leading up to the Civil War.
• Ask your student to share what they learned about Gettysburg after going there on our field trip.

AAP

Math:

• We just finished a unit on Surface Area and Volume of 3-dimensional shapes. Students explored the volume and surface area of rectangular prisms and cylinders in large part through the deconstruction and reconstruction of those figures. Through this exploration, students began to develop an understanding of how the formulas are developed to generalize the relationship between the dimensions of a rectangular prism or cylinder and the surface area or volume of that figure. These formulas are a practical application of solving and manipulating linear equations, and students will apply this thinking to solving practical problems. 
  • We went through this unit rather quickly to allow enough time to review for our Math SOL. We will continue to practice in class alongside SOL review, but students may need extra support if working on these types of problems at home. 
• Our Math SOL is Wednesday, May 18th.

 

Language Arts:

• Our next unit dives into Functional Texts. Functional texts (advertisements, fliers, and directions) are a unique type of nonfiction that students encounter in their everyday life. They include text types such as directions (e.g., recipes and how-tos), fliers, advertisements, websites, menus, brochures, forms to fill out, the nutritional content label on foods, and transportation schedules. Students need to analyze and synthesize information presented in these texts to become informed citizens and critical consumers. 
  • Upcoming PBL: How can you, as an engineer, refine a current product to be a new “amazing” future version that people would love?
• Our Reading SOL is Tuesday, May 10th.

 

Social Studies:

• After our trip to Gettysburg as a preview, we will dive into our Civil War unit. Students explore the time period of The American Civil War, with a focus on strained relationships, conflicts, and the spirit of interdependence which prevailed. This unit explores the events and perspectives leading to the American Civil War and the chronology and context of the war itself. Using primary source documents as a major resource, students investigate the social, political, and economic influences in this period of history.

Additional Opportunities to Prepare for Middle School

Register now for 

2022 VIP Summer Camp-Langston Hughes MS

Wednesday, June 29^th – Thursday, July 28^th, 2022

8:00am – 4:00pm

 

Registration Link: https://forms.gle/sM6Ebqzf1218XMmg7

About VIP Summer Camp:

This camp includes rising 7^th and 8^th grade students who will be attending Hughes, Herndon, Carson Longfellow or Cooper Middle Schools fall of 2022. Our enrollment is based on accepting an equal amount of students from each enrolling middle school.  Registrations will be confirmed by June 1, 2022  and payment will be due that next week ($50.00) via MySchool bucks or a check to your enrolling school.  

Students will participate in a variety of activities including Basketball, Soccer, STEAM, Arts & Crafts, Cooking & Film School    Transportation, breakfast and lunch will also be provided daily. 

Additional STEM opportunities provided by Startfield include:

July 11-15 Engineer for the Week - build a team to design a tech prototype that addresses a social issue in your community and use your influence to create a project with purpose. 

July 18-22  Cybersecurity - learn how to protect computers and discover cyber threats through hands-on labs and gaming exercises used by real-world ethical hackers.

July 25-29 Coding Beats  -  use your creative expression to bring beat-making and coding to life and compete to earn the title Beat MVP.

Panther Preview Link

https://forms.gle/qW7UC87D29pPxgTF8

Click here to see what students are learning in Specials!