Friday, September 16, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace
• Wed., 9/21: Field trip to visit Anne Griffin's beehive in Florence and scout examples of Roman architecture along the way. We are leaving around 10:30 am and should be back by 2:30 pm. We will make arrangements for Blue House lunches, but otherwise make sure that you have food that doesn't require heating up.

Humanities:

• Due Mon., 9/12:
  • All: Finish the three thinking maps to prepare for the test. One on John Locke, one on Rome, and one on Montesquieu.
  • Lord of the Flies: Read Ch. 7 and complete reading log.
  • Girl Who Owned a City: Read Ch. 11 and complete reading log.
  • Come prepared to discuss.

Math:

• Due Mon., 9/12: Complete Math's Mate 1.2 (photocopy), according to following protocol:
  • No calculators (unless you have an accomodation to use one - you know who you are)
  • Show work for problems marked with * on separate paper, along with work for other problems as you see fit. Make sure work is labeled with the number of the question, and staple work to the back of the sheet.
  • Work independently.
  • Complete any attached N/A problems from last week. You may need access to last week's sheet for diagrams.

Music:

• Due Tuesday, 9/20:Write a prose and a verse for the words "Community" and "Individuality". They should be about the relationship between the words.

Moment of Zen:

I guess that's one way of looking at it

Ingrid Dabringer sees something more looking at maps. Like some looking at clouds, she sees shapes in the land formations, and then adds to the maps to bring out her visions. Mostly, Dabringer sees people and faces in the land, often in motion. Click above to see more of her map art.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace
• Wed., 9/21: Field trip to visit Anne Griffin's beehive in Florence and scout examples of Roman architecture along the way. We are leaving around 10:30 am and should be back by 2:30 pm. We will make arrangements for Blue House lunches, but otherwise make sure that you have food that doesn't require heating up.

Humanities:

• Due Fri., 9/16:
  • All: Sign (and have a parent sign) Community Compact and return to school.
  • Lord of the Flies: Read Ch. 5 & 6 and complete reading log.
  • Girl Who Owned a City: Read Ch. 10 and complete reading log.
  • Come prepared to discuss.

Math:

• Due Fri., 9/16:
  Gr. 8:
  • Read pp. 47-48 (handout).
  • Do #3 on p. 48 (3a-f) & Challenge.
  • ⇒ You will need a metric ruler to complete the assignment. You may also need height data from yesterday.
  
  Gr. 7:
  • In Data About Us, p. 16-18, do #3-6, 11-14.
  • Challenge: Also do #17 & 18 on p. 20.

Science:

• None

Español:

Gr. 8

Moment of Zen:

Zen Sunflowers Combat Radiation

Buddhist Monks from Joenji Temple in Japan are leading an effort to plant millions of sunflowers in the areas surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which melted down in the aftermath of last March's earthquake. Sunflowers, as well as some types of amaranth and mustard, are believed to absorb radiation from the soil, helping quicken the reparation of the soil from the nuclear meltdown. In the months following the disaster, monks from the temple distributed more than 8 million sunflower plants and 200,000 plants of other species. Click above to read more about the monk's efforts, or click below to read more about how sunflowers reduce radiation levels.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace
• Wed., 9/21: Field trip to visit Anne Griffin's beehive in Florence and scout examples of Roman architecture along the way. We are leaving around 10:30 am and should be back by 2:30 pm. We will make arrangements for Blue House lunches, but otherwise make sure that you have food that doesn't require heating up.

Humanities:

• Due Fri., 9/16:
  • All: Sign Community Compact and return to school.
  • Lord of the Flies: Read Ch. 5 & 6 and complete reading log.
  • Girl Who Owned a City: Read Ch. 10 and complete reading log.
  • Come prepared to discuss.

Math:

• Due Thu., 9/15: Gr. 8:
  • Graph height/armspan data, acc. to Inc. 4.1.
  • Answer prob. #4.1 and 4.1 Follow-up.
  • Find mean, mode and range for the class height.
  • Download table of class height/arm span data (.pdf, 48kb)
  
  Gr. 7:
  • On p. 15 of Data About Us, complete #1 and 2. For #1, you do not need to make a table.

Science:

• Due Thurs., 9/15: Plant-based inventory at home (15 items).

Español:

Gr. 8
• Due Tue., 9/13:

Moment of Zen:

The Flowered Nest of the Loner Bee

Bees are commonly though of as the epitome of social animals—our idea of the "hive mind," indicating individuals working as separate bodies following a shared consciousness, borrows from bee terminology. Social hive bees account for the larger population of bees in the world and in popular understanding. But did you know that 75% of the over 20,000 identified bee species are solitary? This means that individual female bees build and provision nests for their eggs and larvae on their own, with no intervention from a collective hive. Seen above are a few of the nests of one of these species, Osmia avosetta, found in the Middle East. This species' nests, described in a recently released article, are largely constructed underground, of colorful flower petals and a thin mortar of mud. Each of the delicately constructed chambers seen above is built to house and feed a single bee larva.

• Osmia avosetta flower-nest gallery at National Geographic

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace

Humanities:

• Due Wed., 9/14:
  • All: If not done, finish double bubble about Roman Senate vs. US Government.
  • Lord of the Flies: Read Ch. 4 and complete reading log.
  • Girl Who Owned a City: Read Ch. 8 & 9 and complete reading log.
  • Come prepared to discuss.

Math:

• None

Español:

Gr. 8
• Due Tue., 9/13:

Moment of Zen:

Urban Honey: Boston's Tour de Hives

For this year's National Honey Bee Day (8/20), a group of about 30 cyclists visited a number of apiaries - all of them within the city of Boston. Interest in bees as pollinators and honey-makers has picked up even in urban locales, where people find that bees can make pretty good neighbors. Says one biology researcher/beekeeper, "It's like having 40,000 friends." Click above to read the Boston Globe's article about the Boston Tour de Hives and see a slideshow from the event.

Monday, September 12, 2011

General Announcements:

• If you ever notice something missing or wrong on the blog, comment to let me know about it - I don't always have the whole picture. -Grace

Humanities:

• Due Tue., 9/15: Bring in a white sheet, if possible.
• Due Wed., 9/14:
  • Lord of the Flies: Read Ch. 4 and complete reading log.
  • Girl Who Owned a City: Read Ch. 8 & 9 and complete reading log.
  • Come prepared to discuss.

Math:

• None

Español:

Gr. 8
• Due Tue., 9/13: Los paises hispanos - color & study map.

Moment of Zen:

"I couldn’t build a tree house for my son, so I built him a broccoli house instead."

—Brock Davis

Click above to see more of Davis's imaginings.