Day 174 - Geometry Scavenger Hunts - Mrs. Tate - MSMS Grade 6 Math

This post first appeared on Mrs. Tate's Blog

6A students did an extraordinary job on their Geometry Scavenger Hunts. Students chose to use either the Book Creator or Explain Everything app for their presentation. All projects included geometric terms, pictures, and definitions. Students also calculated volume and surface area of three dimensional objects around the school as well as the area of either squares, rectangles, parallelograms, or trapezoids. Here are some samples of student Geometry Scavenger Hunts.

Day 114 - Russia Song Parody - Brian Leslie - Marshall Simonds Middle School Grade 6

This post first appeared on Mr. Leslie's blog. 

Last week students spent part of a class period creating their choice of either a song parody or poem about Russia.  For the assignment, they worked in small groups and had the option to make either one and really to take it as far as they wanted. While some simply wrote down the lyrics, several students created music videos.  In B Block, Colleen, Sydney and Marina worked very hard and even worked through one of their lunch periods creating an outstanding “Let it Go” Russia song parody. Check out the video below to see what an amazing job they did.

Day 98 - 7th Graders Go Shopping (Ir de Compras) - Ms. Mirabella - MSMS Spanish Teacher

This post originally appeared on Ms. Mirabella's Blog

7th-grade students have been busy learning Chapter 3 vocabulary that includes school supplies, clothing, colors, shopping phrases, and the numbers 100-1000. After they took a quiz on these words, students completed a hands-on, “real world” activity where they were given an allowance for back to school shopping. Students had 2000 pesos between themselves and a partner and needed to shop for school supplies and back to school clothes. They first jotted down what items they were interested in, and then created a final draft of their shopping lists in complete sentences in Spanish! I was very proud of their hard work and wonderfully constructed sentences. Here are some pictures of our shopping trips and shopping list composition!

            

Day 85 - NFL Super Bowl Logo Designs - Ms. Phillips - MSMS Art Department

This post originally appeared on Ms. Phillips' Blog

This week in class we discussed the importance of logo designs. Students were given the assignment to create the winning team logo for the  Super Bowl. Most students want the Pats to win but are feeling the Seahawk are the better team. Greenbay had a handful of designs and the Colts the least. If the students designs are any indication of who makes it to Superbowl XLIX it will be the Patriots Vs Seahawks.

Below are a few of the designs that were completed...

Day 74 - 7A Eggsperiments With Osmosis - Stephanie Pratt - MSMS Grade 7 Science Teacher

This post first appeared on the Marshall Simonds Middle School Blog

Students share their findings with Mrs. Pratt.

Last week, the students of 7A conducted a series of eggsperiments in Mrs. Pratt’s Life Science class in order to gain a better understanding of how osmosis works. This lab demonstrated the selectively permeable characteristics of a cell membrane when an animal cell is eggposed varying osmotic conditions. Eggs were submerged in household substances such as vinegar, corn syrup, and even Kool-Aid on different days throughout the week, causing alterations in size, color, and texture. This proved to be an engaging, eggciting, and eggceptionally punny lab for the students of 7A.

A student “washes” an egg shell off after the egg had been submerged in vinegar for a day. 

An egg is submerged in corn syrup on the third day of the lab. 

On the last day of the eggsperiment, students observed how their eggs had changed after each group submerged their eggs into a concoction of their own making the day before. The eggs that emerged on the final day of the lab came out in a variety of colors and textures based on the contents of the mixture, with some eggs turning green, purple, orange or black.

7A students show off their Egg on the last day of the Eggsperiment. 

Among the materials used by students over the course of the lab included but weren’t limited to: hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, corn syrup, and kool-aid. 

“We named her ‘Eggsmerelda’. 

To learn more about this lab and the other great things being done in Mrs. Pratt’s Life Science classes, visit her blog.

Bonus Post - South American Song Parodies and iMovies - Mr. Leslie - MSMS Grade 6 Social Studies

This was originally posted on Mr. Leslie's Blog
Recently students had a weekend assignment in which they had to make either an acrostic poem, song parody or iMovie on South America.  In addition to some great acrostic poems and parodies, several students went above and beyond and created some amazing videos. The time, effort, creativity and, in some cases, musical talent are outstanding. 
Check out the videos below to see what amazing things these kids can do over a weekend.

Sydney's Song Parody

Marina's Song Parody

Colleen's Galapagos Island Movie

Sara's iMovie Trailer

Supraja and Vaishnavi’s Brazil Video

Hirchfield’s Andes iMovie Trailer

Day 46 - Decimal Speed Stacking - Mrs. Tate, Marshall Simonds Middle School Sixth Grade

This post originally appeared on Mrs. Tate's Blog

Students have been working hard within our decimals unit.  We have been playing a fun game called speed stacking to practice decimal concepts such as place value, word form, standard form, expanded form, rounding and comparing decimals, placing decimals on number lines, and working with all four decimal operations.  After each student finishes stacking, a decimal time up to the hundredths place is presented.  I use this number, or slightly manipulate the number, to create a decimal problem for students to solve.   Here are some pictures and videos of some students cup stacking!

Day 26 - Brine Shrimp Lab Project - Stephanie Pratt, Marshall Simonds Seventh Grade Science

 This post originally appeared on Mrs. Pratt's Blog

7A students have designed their own experiments to determine the effect of hatching and/or survival of brine shrimp!  Students worked in teams of 4-5 members.

• First, the students designed their experiment and laid the foundation.  Here's what they did: they wrote a problem and explained their purpose.  Then they wrote a hypothesis they could test.  Last, they drew a diagram of their experiment and listed/obtained materials.

• Next, students set up their experiments!  What creative ideas they had!  Some of the fantastic ideas that students came up with were:  the effects of different colored lights on the hatching of brine shrimp, the effects of a black light on the hatching of brine shrimp, which pH level can support live brine shrimp survival?, does music allow for better hatching rates of brine shrimp?, what foods allow brine shrimp to survive better?, and finally the effect of temperature on brine shrimp survival/hatching rates.

• Then, students collected data with their iPads by taking picture and videos to document progress.  Students created diagrams, graphs, and data tables so they could analyze the results of their experiments.  Each team created a shared google doc.  The google doc proved to be an excellent tool to allow students to collaborate on the lab report (students were happy with the success of this, too).  This way each member really could contribute in a meaningful way and they could support one another in learning how to write a lab report.

• Finally, the teams each created a presentation of about 5-7 slides in Explain Everything app or in the Book Creator app.  They presented their experiments in front of the the class.

Day 25 - Area and Perimeter Scavenger Hunts - Jennifer Tate, Marshall Simonds Sixth Grade Math

This post first appeared on Mrs. Tate's Blog

During math class students were busy working on an area and perimeter scavenger hunt. Students needed to record the length and width of the objects in inches, calculate the area and perimeter using the rectangle and square formulas, and then use the correct label. Items in the scavenger hunt included student desks, tables, books, posters, etc. Here are some pictures of 6A students measuring different items during the scavenger hunt.