This Week in Humanities

Monday, October 29 - Friday, November 2

This week in Language Arts we are preparing to read Life of Pi.  We are
discussing components of fiction:  setting, symbols, character profiles, and different
types of narration.  We also are working on new vocabulary words for the week, which
include:

Abiding
Credible
Compulsion
Discernment
Exemplary
Illustrious
Incessant
Ludicrous
Obscure

Besides defining each word, students are writing meaningful sentences, listing a synonym and antonym for each, and listing the parts of speech - all on an index card for each word.

Help your child familiarize themselves with their vocabulary words by including them in your daily conversations.

This week in Social Studies we are discussing India, Pacific Ocean, Canada, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, & Christianity.  All of these topics are discussed in Life of Pi and the class is sharing what they know about these topics.

Other things happening in Humanities include our big Zero Waste Assembly.  The entire 7th grade team is putting on an All School Meeting this Friday at 11:00 AM.  They will present their findings from our lunch inventories, present a skit on Zero Waste Lunches, and many more exciting things they've been working on.

Due Dates - 
Vocabulary Words are due at the end of this week.  

DEAR - Students have to finish their 1st DEAR book by next Monday, 11/5.  All students will be expected to write a book review for their blog, which will be due Tuesday, 11/13.

Student Led Conferences

Hello IA Families!

Upcoming Dates
10/23 - Vocabulary Quiz

10/23 - 10/25 - Student Led Conferences

10/23 - 10/26 - Minimum Days, dismissal is at 12 PM

10/26 - Makeup/Retake Quiz Day
             Halloween Dance hosted by 7th grade team  - 5:00 - 8:00, cost is $7, costumes are welcome, cost      includes entrance, pizza, drinks, and snacks.  We still need about 5 chaperones, please contact me if you're interested.
             Yearbook Club for 5th - 8th graders 12:15 - 1:15  sign up sheet in Main Office for those interested.

Important info from the PA

1.  The IA Parent Association has created a Facebook page that will provide updates and reminders about upcoming events.  Go to http://www.facebook.com/IAParents and "like" the page to ensure that you see our updates in your News Feed.

2.  "Spook-a-Grams" will be on sale at IA starting Tuesday, October 23.  "Spook-a-Grams" are a holiday gram which also includes a treat attached.  You can send a fun, holiday message to your child, your children can send some to their friends, or you can order for an entire classroom.  Print out the attached form or pick one up in the office.  Fill it in and cut into four "Spook-a-Grams."  A sales table will be set up outside the office during student-led conferences.  The cost is 50 cents for each gram and they will be delivered to students in their classrooms on Wednesday, October 31.  The Parents Fundraising Group is hosting this event to raise funds for IA.

What's happening in Humanities . . .

Language Arts - Students finished up their Socratic Seminar on who is responsible for Kevin's death early this week.  The blame was pointed at many different groups including:  Kevin's mother, the meat packing factory, government, and the farmers who feed cows corn.  Students took their vocabulary quiz today on their 10 terms from last week and turned in their vocabulary definitions, sentences and drawings.  We continue to work on journal writing, reading our own personal books, and grammar.  

Social Studies - This week we had class discussions on the upcoming presidential election.  Many students have very strong opinions on who they'd like to see win.  A great sight to see was students not arguing about their political views, but listening and respecting everyone's different opinions.  Students also learned about the presidential election and what a popular vote is over an electoral vote.  

Things students can do at home to reinforce reading and writing:  

• Have your child read for 20 - 30 minutes at home, 5 days a week.  Maybe you can do a book club with your child and you read and discuss together.  Reading fluency, comprehension, and writing all improve tremendously when we read daily.
• Journal writing - students can journal daily before going to bed for a short period of time.  Journal writing helps students understand themselves and helps develop student thinking.  A challenge could be to include a certain number of vocabulary words in each entry.

IMPORTANT REMINDER

As you all know, our school has an agreement that we do not assign meaningless homework.  However, students are expected to complete their unfinished classwork at home or on campus outside of class time.  Students should be bringing their binders home daily and checking to make sure everything is complete.  If you have any questions about this, please speak to me during our SLCs.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope to see you this week at your child's conference.

Jennie

Exciting things are happening in Humanities

Hello Families!

Hope you are doing well and enjoying the cooler weather!

Some amazing things are happening in Humanities the past two weeks.  The team had their first Socratic Seminar in class today.  The topic was:  should more split classes by gender?  We watched a few news clips of schools around the country that are doing this and read an article on the topic as well.  It was surprising to see that there were students who supported same gender classes as long as they had opportunities throughout the day to be with the other gender.  The Socratic Seminars gave all kids the chance to talk, even the quieter ones and helped students that talk more usually, talk less to give others a chance.  Tomorrow's Socratic Seminar will be about a boy named Kevin who died from e coli and the question will be:  Whose to blame for Kevin's death?  Ask your child tonight, who he/she thinks is at fault and why?

We are continuing to work on grammar, capitalization, spelling, and vocabulary.  Students were given 10 new vocabulary words to define yesterday.  They had to write meaningful sentences and draw pictures that will help them remember each word.  They will be quizzed on the weekly vocabulary every Friday.  Ask your child about these words and encourage him/her to use these terms in their daily conversations.

Important Announcements:

This Thursday's field trip is to Sea World.  The cost of the trip is $6.00 for both students, teachers, and chaperones.  Anyone that has a Sea World pass can enter free.  If you're interested in joining us, please let us know.  We'll be leaving promptly at 9AM and pick up is at 1:30PM.  Students will be eating lunch there, so please pack a lunch or students can buy lunch at Sea World.  Parking is free!

SLCs - Student Led Conferences will be held next Tuesday - Thursday.  Here is a link to sign up.  https://docs.google.com/a/innovationsacademy.org/document/d/1HxKoq05xOs2QoibuP8dTDeVlW2g6I_9JmiLCoLhrAb4/edit

Minimum Days - Due to SLCs, next week students will be dismissed at 12:00 Tuesday - Friday.

DEAR - several students are coming in to class without a book to read.  Students are welcome to pick a book from my class library, but there are several that aren't interested in those books.  Please check with your child and make sure they have a book they are reading for class that they enjoy.

There will be no field trip next Thursday, October 25th, due to SLCs.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions at jennie@innovationsacademy.org

Did Indians use elephants to fight in wars?

Hello Friends & Families,

Thanks so much for all of those that attended our Back To School Night last Thursday.  It was wonderful talking to each and everyone one of you and sharing what great things our students are working on.  Please know that my door is always open and you can come by anytime after school to see what your child is working on or share celebrations and/or concerns.


Where I'm From
This week students finished editing their Where I'm From poems and self assessed them using a writing rubric.  We'll be framing the final copies this week and they will be displayed throughout the room.  Students will continue to work on charcoaling their sketch for our team mural.  Ask your child what did they sketch?  How does their sketch define who they are and where they are from?

Zero Waste Project
Students have started to take a photographic inventory of different classrooms on campus and will do a data analysis in Wes' room.  In humanities, teams will make posters on what to recycle and what to compost for their assigned classroom.  Looking ahead, students will come up with a plan to educate and help their assigned classroom reduce their waste.

India & Life of Pi
We are gearing up to start Life of Pi in a few weeks.  This week, we had discussions on tigers and why they are considered such vicious animals.  We read the poem "Tiger" by William Blake and analyzed it.  Also, we are discussing India, since the beginning of the book takes place there.  The kids filled in a KWL chart on India and came up with great questions of what they want to know.  One being my title:  were elephants used to fight in wars?  We'll use these questions to guide us as we learn more about the country.  Looking ahead, kids will be in groups researching different topics of India and presenting their findings to the class.

Vocabulary 
-brawl      -illiterate     -patronize     -docile     -aspire    
-indifferent     -pristine     -export     -import    -duped

Students will be assessed on the ten words above this Friday.  They'll be expected to know the meaning and write a meaningful sentence.

Announcements
Field trip to Birch Aquarium is this Thursday from 9 - 12PM.
No school for students on Monday, 10/8