Science:
This week students will be moving on to 2.2 “Classifying Rocks” while continuing to review the properties of minerals (2.1). Towards the middle of the week we will begin 2.4 “Sedimentary Rocks” and participate in a lab where we will create both conglomerate and clastic sedimentary rocks. As always there will be a quiz on Friday April 5th over the weekly material, so please encourage some extra study time this week along with vocabulary practice.
Monday: We started out the week by checking our lab results from last Friday's Mineral Identification Lab. We then moved into a discussion on what is means to classify an obeject(s) through an activity where I had students see how many different ways they could classify materials from their material tub. Lastly, we read 2.2 pages 44-45 in our textbook and completed the "Mineral Compostion and Color" box in our notes. Students were given a little time to complete the three vocabulary words we discussed today (rock-forming minerals, granite, and basalt), and need to finish them if they did not get to it during "flex time".
Homeroom:
This week students have nothing specific for homeroom.
What is Happening: This week students have nothing specific for homeroom.
Tuesday: We completed a review of 2.1 "Properties of Minerals" during the first 15 minutes of class on whiteboards. We then continued 2.2 pages 46-47 and filled in the notes for the rest of page 6 (with the exception of 5th hour who didn't make it to the "Origin" box). Students were then asked to finish their vocabulary up to how far they made it in their notes: meaning if they finished the whole section they will finish their vocabulary for the rest of the section. We will finish 2.2 tomorrow and move on to 2.4 "Sedimentary Rocks".
Wednesday: We began class by once again reviewing 2.1 and what we have covered so far in 2.2. We then pulled out sets of rocks and practiced classifying them by mineral composition/color and texture. We then watched a short video over the origin of all rocks and completed a Find-Someone-Who activity with the notes taken from the video. Students will begin 2.4 "Sedimentary Rocks" tomorrow and have been told it would be in their best interest to begin working on their vocabulary for 2.4 so they can stay ahead.
Thursday: Today students had the option to vote on how they wanted to complete 2.4 "Sedimentary Rocks" and almost all the classes voted to work with their teammates to finish their notes (5th hour completed their notes as a whole class). Students worked on page seven in their "Rocks and Minerals" notes packet and read pages 52-57. Students must have completed 2.4 notes and vocabulary before they come to class tomorrow. We will be having our weekly quiz tomorrow over 2.1 and 2.2, because we will not have had enough time to work with 2.4 for the students to be successful on our quiz. After the quiz we will be finishing 2.4 and participating in a lab if there is time.
Friday: We started off the class by completing a review activity and then took the quiz over 2.1 and 2.2. After our quizzes were completed and graded we then took a little time to finish 2.4 "Sedimentary Rocks" pages 52-57 and had some great class discussion. We unfortunately did not get to the lab today so we will be checking our notes and completing the lab next Monday. Please remind your student that in order to participate in the lab their notes and vocabulary must be up to date. Have a great weekend!
