Math for Monday March 29

Ace 2 (8, 9, 11, 12, 14-26 even, 32, 34)
Ace 3 (11-14, 34)

Tree of Life

I have been working on making the poster boards templates for the Tree-of-Life poster boards. I have drawn lines for the students to write their text on. They should write in pencil first, then follow with a thin tip permanent marker. I bought some for the classroom, and they are more than welcome to trace their writing here. I was initially going to cut the poster to a smaller size, but some students were concerned that they would not have enough room, so I am giving the students the ability to trim their poster if they need to, or to leave it in its original size.

I have also given the students the opportunity to take paper home for working on their torn paper art. There is a template for the art as well, and it is cut to the correct size. They can work on these over break if that will help them to feel more prepared. The art that I have seen so far is beautiful, and is giving a good idea of the habitats where the animals live. The students should be making two pictures for each animal (8 background in total).

I also included a more detailed checklist for what information I expect to find in the divergent trait portion of the project.

Tree of Life

I thought it might be helpful for parents and students to see what the final outcome should look like. Because they are researching two different sets of animals, they will be making two posters, both with the same elements.

I will be providing templates for this project made out of poster board. I have templates for the torn paper art in the classroom as well. Hopefully this will make the assembly easy for all.






This is where the information about the relationship between your animals will be.









There will also be a picture of the animal, but I thought it was nice to see examples of the torn paper art that they will be making.







The pink highlighted areas are new vocabulary that the students may encounter in their research. This element really enhances what they have learned, and allows the audience to share in the learning. For instance in this case I defined the color causing cells in the octopus called chromatophores.




Here is a link to the checklist of requirements for the project.

Science

Parents/Guardians/Family,

This semester your students have been learning about comparative anatomy. They have examined the similarities and differences between different organisms. They have done this by examining skulls, skeletons, hunting and foraging techniques, heredity, and DNA. Now it is time for them to do their own study, comparing organisms of their choice. They have all chosen animals to compare, four in all. One pair has a common ancestor more than 500 million years ago (MYA) and the other has a more recent common ancestor (100-200MYA).

So far, over the last two weeks, your students have chosen their animals, found the most recent common ancestor for each pair, and are now researching the traits that make their animals what they are. These traits should be specific, for example I could say that a bald eagle has feathers, and that is true. But for this project I would want to say that a bald eagle has long feathers for soaring. I would also want to describe the color of the feathers. I would also add that in the juvenile stage, their feathers are a mottled brown, mixed with gold. These are the specific details that will make their presentations really interesting for the audience, and for the researcher.

I was hoping that the presentation of this project would happen before spring break, but it will now be happening the week after. Your students are showing such dedication to the project, and paying close detail to all that they are learning (and are also so excited to tell each other each detail about the organism that they are studying) that the research is taking more time than I thought. Your students are learning about science, and I am learning about how to give the necessary time for a well-studied project. This project will be finished the week after spring break, and I would like to invite all of you to attend the Tree-of-Life. I have to work out the scheduling with Jon. Please be prepared to help encourage your student to work on their research and rough drafts over this weekend, and over break.

Thank you for your support and encouragement,
Renee

Math (March 15-19)

This week we started a new unit: Accentuate the Negative. Your students will be working with both positive and negative numbers. They will use models that help them examine addition, subtraction, multiplying, and dividing positive and negative integers.

Due Monday
Ace 1 pg. 12-16 (1-4, 9-17)

Due Tuesday
Ace 1 pg. 12-16 (8, 18-20, 22, 23, 25, 26)

Due Wednesday
Ace 2 pg. 26-32 (1-7, 29)