Happenings for December 4th – 8th
8th Grade:
Students have begun their unit on safety, tools and machines. They are learning how tools and machines work in the wood shop as well as learning about personal safety in the wood shop. This weeks focus is on how to use the tools, power tools and machines. We are looking at taking the safety test early next week.
7th Grade:
This week we continue to work on our unique fonts by writing them on a poster board and then using our font to create a greeting card. This unit is a great example of what graphic designers do.
6th Grade:
We continue to work on our board game designs this week with a focus on creating the rules for the game in a chronological order. We will be working on our unique boards until Winter break.
Happenings for November 27th – December 1st
*Welcome back from Thanksgiving break!!
8th Grade:
This week we will be finishing up our manufacturing unit. Students should have completed their commercials by Tuesday and then we will watch and critique the commercials on Wednesday and Thursday (if needed). Packets are due on Wednesday, completed.
Our next unit will be on hand tool, power tool, machine and general safety in the woodshop. Students who wish to bring in their own safety glasses are welcome to do so. We do have some here to borrow as well!
7th Grade:
Monday we complete measuring the length of the track and record time of our marble to travel in order to get the speed of our marbles in our paper coaster project.
After that we begin our new unit of Fonts. This new unit explores how writing influences advertising. Students will create their own unique font style after researching fonts found in current current computer programs such as Microsoft Word.
Our next, and final unit will be on architecture.
6th Grade:
Students are continuing with their new unit on manufacturing a board game. They played current board game on Friday and Monday and next we will set up rules for our board games and then constructing the games in groups of 3-4.
Happenings for November 13th-17th
8th Grade:
This week students are beginning their commercials for their shoes. They had fun taking pictures of their shoe models and importing them into their power points commercials.
Oh, and here are some more shoe model created by our great 8th grade students!
7th Grade:
This is our last week for the paper roller coasters in class. I am looking forward to testing them our on Thursday to see which groups coaster takes the longest amount of time to get from the top tot he bottom.
Students will be calculating speed by using the the equation S=D/T,
speed = distance divided by time.
6th Grade:
This week finishes up our invention unit. Students researched an invention, typed a paper about their invention and then created a project describing their invention. This week we are presenting our projects to the class! Packets are due this week, if you did not already turn them in last week.
*Parents please remember that conferences are today and tomorrow from 4-7pm.
Belated happenings for Nov 6th-10th
8th Grade:
Students have been working on their shoe models this week and we have some really cool designs! See below:
Next week we begin commercials to promote our new shoe companies!
7th Grade:
This week we worked on our coaster structures and began adding the tracks!
6th Grade:
This past week we finished up our invention activity with students turning in their timeline/power point or models. “A” day students will begin presentations on Monday and Wednesday, “B” day students will present Tuesday and Thursday.
Happenings for October 30th to November 3rd
8th Grade:
This week starts the design of the shoe using Google Sketchup. Students will create a three dimensional rendering of their shoe design. Later this week students will begin building a model of their shoe using recycled materials. Take a look at these examples from the internet.
7th Grade:
Students are continuing with paper roller coasters this week. Our focus is on building the structure using columns, beams and angle supports. Take a look at how these three components work together to form a strong support.
6th Grade:
Students are finishing the paper portion of the inventions activity and should be working towards finishing the project portion of the inventions activity. Student can choose between a slide show on Google slides, a timeline on a poster or can make a model of their invention.
Happenings for October 23rd – 27th
8th Grade:
This week we will begin with our new activity on Manufacturing. This unit will take about 4 weeks to complete. In this activity students will each form a company which manufactures shoes. Students will learn how manufacturing plays a part in industry, learn about the differences between craft and assembly manufacturing and durable versus no-durable goods.
Students will design an create a logo for their company and then design a shoe on sketchup (CAD program). They will then create a model of their shoe using cardboard. Finally, students will create a commercial to promote their shoe including where a customer can buy one and the costs.
7th Grade:
We continue this week with our unit on structures, with a focus on roller coaster construction and how physics helps in building a coaster. We will work on simple structures at the beginning of the week and then the coaster building should begin by the middle of the week.
6th Grade:
We continue with our research on our inventions this week. Students should be completing their graphic organizers and beginning their papers this week.
*the 6th grade students have had a mini-conference with me this past Friday and will continue this week. We have many students who are not turning in assignments which are reflecting in their current grade. Although notebooks cannot be turned in late (we are simply copying information from the board) packets can be turned in late for a lowered grade.
All classes:
Notebooks will be due next week, please check the board for dates!
End of the first quarter is on November 3rd!
Happenings for October 16th-20th
8th Grade:
We continue our unit on biotechnology this week. Students are building their arm models this week and on Thursday they will spend one class period without the use of their non-dominate are and hand. Students absent on Thursday can do the activity on Friday.
Our next unit will be on Manufacturing and will take about five weeks to complete.
7th Grade:
We finish up our PSA’s today and begin our new unit on structures this week. Our focus will be on how structures support weight and we will give an example of this by building a roller coaster out of paper which uses a marble as the transportation. This project will take approximately four weeks to complete.
6th Grade:
We are continuing our discussion on inventions this week and students will begin to do their research on this activity.
Below are some helpful resources:
Happenings for October 9th – 13th
8th Grade:
This week we have completed the energy unit. Students created folders displaying the seven major types of energy sources used in the world. They made books telling stories about an energy source, drew pictures about energy, made a brochure to encourage someone to use an energy source, wrote an article to discourage the use of an energy source in Dearborn and used a Venn diagram to compare two energy sources.
Now our focus is on or new unit: Biotechnology. Students will be learning how the medical and the technology fields work together to create new medicines and prosthetics to help those with disabilities live normal lives.
7th Grade:
This is our last week working on our PSA’s. They are due to me via email by this Friday! We will be watching them and critiquing them on Monday and Tuesday.
6th Grade:
We continue this week learning about the definition of technology and how to display it using a pict-o-word poster. I’ll be hanging these up later this week in the 6th grade hall. The next part of this unit will be researching an invention.
Reminder that this Friday is a half day!
Happenings for October 2nd-6th
8th Grade:
Students are continuing work on their energy folders. They have been researching the energies used in producing electricity. Those energies are:
- Fossil Fuels
- Biomass
- Geothermal
- Nuclear
- Hydroelectric
- Solar power
- Wind power
This assignment is Due this Friday, October 6th.
7th Grade:
Today we are testing the egg crash vehicles! I hope to post video of the results later! Check back!
Next we will begin a new unit on advertising and animation. Students will be learning about how to create a Public Service Announcement commercial using powerpoint.
6th Grade:
Today we begin our new unit on Inventions and Technology! Our focus this week will be to understand exactly what technology is and how it is used to improve our lives.
Happenings for September 25th-29th
8th Grade:
This week we finish up our career brochures, the brochure is to be emailed to me and packets are to be completed and turned into my tray by the end of the hour. Tuesday begins our unit on energy. Students will be learning about the seven main sources of energy used in the world.
7th Grade:
This week we will continue to build our egg crash vehicles which are due on Friday. Depending on how quickly students work we will test our vehicles on Friday or Monday. Good luck to all!
6th Grade:
Students are continuing to learn about measuring in class. This week we will make a ruler students can take with them to use. Next weeks unit will be on Inventions and Technology.