Science:
This week students will be moving back to their Earth Structure book for chapter 2 “Minerals and Rocks”. We finished off last week with a pretest over chapter 2 and I returned the students’ Weathering, Erosion, and Soil test which needs to be signed by Monday the 25th. We will be starting off with 2.1 “Properties of Minerals” and by the end of the week we will be starting 2.2 “Classifying Rocks”. As always there will be a weekly quiz on Friday the 29th over the week’s material.
Monday: We received new seats today and then prompty set up our vocabulary packets for the next unit. We went over again the requirements that the definitions must be in their own words and the terms used in their graphics must be underlined in any color. I also reminded them their graphics must be in complete color along with labels. We then completed a preview of the chapter and jumped into 2.1 "Properties of Minerals". We completed the definition of a mineral and then 2 out of the 5 characteristics of a mineral boxes (solid and naturally occuring) on page 1 of their notes packet.
Homeroom:
This week students need to remember to bring back both their signed grade card (ASAP) as well as their signed Silver Dollar City forms (gold sheets due by Friday the 29th).
What is Happening: This week students need to remember to bring back both their signed grade card (ASAP) as well as their signed Silver Dollar City forms (gold sheets due by Friday the 29th).
Tuesday: We completed the "Five Characteristics of Every Mineral" today and then moved into a discussion on the nine different tests that can be performed on a substance to determine if it is a mineral or not. We read 2.1 pages 33-35 in our book and then completed the first page along with the first two tests (color and streak) on page two of our Rocks and Minerals notes packets. Students will also need to complete the first four vocabulary words in their Rocks and Minerals vocabulary packets before class tomorrow.
Wednesday: We continued to work on our notes concerning the nine different ways that all minerals are identified by taking an in-depth look at mineral identification tests three through five (luster, hardness, and density). We completed pages 36-37 in our book in class and students were given a short time to finish the remaining four tests (crystal structure, cleavage, fracture, and special properties). We then talked about how we will check pages 1 and 2 of their Rocks and Minerals notes packets against my "golden ticket answer key" as well as their first 8 vocabulary words tomorrow. We will then be in the computer lab completing an educational Brainpop game titled "Master Mines" and answering questions.
Thursday: We first checked our notes packet against my "golden ticket answer key". Then we took our study of the nine tests performed to identify minerals and went down to the computer lab to complete a viewing of the Brainpop "Mineral Identification" and then the educational game "Master Mines". Any student who did not complete their notes was given the opportunity to catch up on them in another room during our time in the computer lab. Tomorrow will be a lab day in which we will perform a few of the mineral test on random samples for ourselves, so please make sure students come dressed apporpriately (see lab safety contract for more details on appropriate dress). Also a short 11 point quiz over 2.1 "Properties of Minerals" will be held once the lab is completed.
Friday: We began the class be completing a lab where students has to preform tests on unknown minerals and then use an appendix in their books to identify the minerals based on their test results. As we wrapped the lab up I reminded students that if they did not have their reasoning page for their lab (page 5 in the Rocks and Minerals notes packet), that it needed to be finished during their "flex time". We then completed the quiz over 2.1 "Properties of Minerals" and class was over.
