The Medeis

The monthly newsletter for the Mendive GT Magnet Community.

September 2017

Welcome to the 2017-2018 School Year at

Mendive Magnet We want to start by saying WELCOME BACK. We hope everyone had a nice summer. Our team is excited for this year!

We have rigorous and engaging curriculum planned for your child. Please make note that we have three evening events this year (round tables). The dates are: November 2nd, March 8th and May 17th. These events start at 6:00 pm and usually last an hour and a half. Please mark these dates in your calendar as these are mandatory events. We HIGHLY encourage parents and/or family members to join us at these events. The kids work very hard on these projects and are proud and excited to show them to family. For more information on round tables, please reference your child’s GT contract.

Please make sure that you have reviewed the student-parent contract thoroughly. There is a lot of important information in it. If you have any team questions, please email Mrs. Porter at lindsey.porter@washoeschools.net.

Our team did vote for a team name this year and the children chose TEAM ALPHA.

This year has started off amazing and we look forward to the rest of the year!

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A big big thank you for the donated supplies!

Thank you to the families who have been so supportive in sending in extra supplies for the classrooms.

We are still seeking:● Yoga Instructor to donate time in a weekly session

Classroom UpdatesEnglish/Language Arts 6 - Ms. Tuttle In 6th grade English, we’ve covered some ground with our first novel, Tangerine, by Edward Bloor. Our narrator, Paul, is navigating friendships, school and family issues while finding his identity as a young man with a disability. He’s a character we can relate to, and that keeps us turning the pages of this great novel. Through lessons and activities on narrative devices, we’re discovering the tools authors use to tell compelling tales. In addition, we’re enjoying sacred writing time and moving toward more grammar and vocabulary study.

English/Language Arts 7 - Mr. King Through our first novel of the year, Flowers for Algernon, we will explore the idea of intelligence, and we will build on our knowledge of analyzing text. Additionally, we will continue developing our skills to become effective writers by using our writing pre assessment to analyze our current strengths as writers, as well as areas for growth.

English/ Language Arts 8 - Ms. TuttleIn 8th grade English, we’re well into our first novel, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs. Through discussions and writing, we’re focusing on the resilience of the author and the strength she displays in standing up for what she believes in despite tremendous adversity. Her memoir gives us much to think, talk and write about and, in her words, we find a person we can admire for her grit and determination. In addition, we’ve been working on writing skills, setting up our vocabulary and grammar study for the year and beginning our narrative project.

Earth Science 6 - Mrs. Hill

We are starting the year off with Nature of Science. Students will be introduced to scientific concepts that will be applied throughout the rest of the school year. Some of these concepts

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include: observations and inferences, the scientific method and its components, variables, SI units and tools, metric conversions, and laboratory safety. There will be a few hands-on labs in this unit that will allow students to learn through collaboration and inquiry. A laboratory safety contract will be sent home within these next few weeks.

Physical Science 7 - Dr. Heiselt

To start off our year, we are reviewing correct lab and reporting practices as we enter the world of Matter and its Interactions (very basic chemistry). Within this unit we will be covering Next Generation Science Standards MS-PSS-1 and MS-PSS-2 which include a great deal of science vocabulary. There will be a number of content pieces that will build on the computational skills being learned in Mr. King’s and Mrs. Seller’s classes. We will also build our engineering skills through a few short builds and explorations. Students really need to use their INVL (Investigation Logs) to keep track of information and data.

Honors Biology - Mrs. Hill

We are currently reviewing concepts from the Nature of Science Unit. Concepts include: observations and inferences, the scientific method and its components, variables, metric conversions, SI units and tools, graphing, and laboratory safety. Students will be working on a graphing project that will require them to collect data and determine the type of graph that is needed to display their data. This will be important for future experiments and data collection for lab reports. This content will also be applied in Mrs. Sellers’ classroom. After Nature of Science, we will be heading into Ecology. A lab safety contract will be coming home soon.

6th Grade: Ancient Civilizations - Mrs. Porter

To start off the year, students will be learning history skills and applying the skills to themselves. This project is called the Museum of Me. You can expect to see this project frequently at home. Students will be learning a history skill in class, then for homework applying that skill to themselves. At the end of the project, we will have an exhibit walk where students will share their museums. After this project we will move into Ancient Mesopotamia.

7th Grade: Early US History - Dr. Heiselt

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We are building our History research skills and reviewing our Geography skills to start off the course. We will also be examining the world-wide influences on early colonization of North America. We will be concentrating on the reasons for the exploration and colonization of North America by Europeans. We are starting our year-long research project on the people of the time periods we will be studying (1490 - Post-Civil War) through our Biography Project. Students will be researching two individuals during each time period and creating a variety of biographical presentations.

8th Grade: Accelerated Analyzing War - Mrs. Porter

We will be kicking the year off with Reconstruction. Students will examine what it took in order to repair a nation that just had a war against itself. We will analyze and compare the plans that Lincoln, Congress, and Johnson had in order to repair a broken nation. Students will also analyze amendments that were added to our Constitution because of the Civil War. Students will also examine the feelings that all Americans had about this time known as Reconstruction.

Math 6 - Mrs. Sellers

This month we will be focusing on the number system. Students will be learning number sense and learning to compute with integers. Students will begin with manipulatives and numbers lines to help grasp these concepts.

Integrated I - Mr. King

The beginning of the Integrated I course focuses on building a strong foundation in evaluating expressions and equations. In order to achieve this goal, we will spend some time reviewing key concepts, such as order of operations and computation of real numbers. From there, we will write and solve expressions and equations.

Integrated II - Mrs. Sellers

This month we will be focusing on the relationship between exponents and radicals, as well as computing with these numbers. We will also begin a unit on coordinate geometry this month! Students will discover formulas used in coordinate geometry and move to proving these relationships.

Algebra I - Mrs. Sellers

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This month we will be focusing on functions. Students will learn function notation, patterns, and how to identify sequences. Students will explore different forms of sequences and patterns.

Honors Algebra II - Mrs. Sellers

This month we will be focusing on complex numbers! Students will be learning the history of “i” and computing with complex numbers. We will extend our learning of quadratics with complex solutions.

GT Challenges - Mr. King

In GT Challenges we are focusing on getting to know one another and building a strong sense of community among the 6th graders. We will create and present an “All About Me” project, as well as work on social/emotional skills.

Enrichment:

For our first rotation students worked on a getting to know you activity called Heart Park. Hopefully you were able to see what your child created. If not, stop by Mendive and check outside of our classrooms. They are posted outside the GT rooms.

We will be kicking off round tables for all grade-levels in the next few weeks.

Counselor’s Corner:

Download the Mendive Counseling App!

http://app.mendivems.com · You can find out who your school counselor is.· It is the easiest way to request a meeting with your counselor.· Quick access to a long list of valuable resources to help you be successful.· School Calendar

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