Principal's Message 11/22/19

11/22/19
TGIF…Twin Groves it’s Friday! 

Just a reminder....We have an early release on Monday, November 25th. Students will be dismissed at 1:30PM.
School will not be in session on Tuesday, November 26th through Sunday, December 1st. 
Students will return on December 2nd!

Just a reminder...There will be no Principal's Message or E-NEWS on Friday, November 29th. 
Enjoy the holiday break!

Staff News
It is with mixed emotions that I share this news.  Due to a recent family opportunity out of state, Mrs. Ellen Shapiro’s last day as the Twin Groves Secretary will be today.  We thank Mrs. Shapiro for all the hard work and dedication she has shown Twin Groves over the years. We will miss Mrs. Shapiro at Twin Groves and wish her well!  
We have hired a wonderful new addition to our Twin Groves family. Please help me welcome Mrs. Melissa Lundeen! Mrs. Lundeen will be joining the office staff at Twin Groves as the new secretary. When you are in the office, feel free to say hi and introduce yourself. 
 

Upstanders

In an effort to spread positivity, Twin Groves uses our 5 Traits to recognize exemplars of the following qualities: Responsible, Accountable, Respectful, Safe, and a Community. In addition to the 5 Traits, we are also recognizing students for being an Upstander.

As part of this focus, the Twin Groves Staff would like to recognize and reward students who consistently demonstrate these qualities each month. For this month’s recognitions, we are pleased to announce that the following students have been selected for displaying these characteristics.

Aiden Lee
Anushka Rotiwar
Ashmit Shithole
Nina Silet
Hannah Smith
Hadley Thomas

What’s Happening at TG?

6th Grade

Language Arts:  
It’s hard to believe the trimester is already over! We are enjoying these students so much. We have been working hard on inferencing the tone and/or mood of a text, and finding the theme in stories. As we head into trimester 2, students should continue to work on building their reading stamina and using the strategies they were given to help with their area of greatest need on the MAP test. When students say they don’t have homework, they could be reading!

Pre Algebra Survey: 
6th Grade Pre-Algebra Survey is continuing the unit on rational numbers. Rational numbers include all positive and negative integers, fractions, and decimals. This month we will be focused on multiplication and division of rational numbers and then applying all four operations while solving problems, following the order of operations. Last month we talked about encouraging students to look for structure. This has definitely shown up in class as the students worked. This month, we’d like for you to encourage the students to be precise in their work. This includes knowing definitions, like absolute value is the distance of a number from 0, including units in answers, and converting to different units as necessary. Thank you for all the help at home! 

The students have access to these apps that they should be using regularly:
Math Facts Ninja - For students who need extra practice with their math facts. 
Knowre - This app covers topics in line with the Common Core Curriculum which the students are covering this year. This program is designed to develop critical thinking skills. Each class has expectations for completing lessons in Knowre each week, and students are welcome to work ahead and extend their learning. 

Pre Algebra: 
Pre-Algebra started a unit on expressions following Thanksgiving and will continue this unit throughout December. Much of the focus on this short unit is using the mathematical properties to manipulate variable expressions and justify their reasoning. Last month we talked about encouraging students to look for structure. This has definitely shown up in class as the students worked. This month, we’d like for you to encourage the students to be precise in their work. This includes knowing definitions, like absolute value is the distance of a number from 0, including units in answers, and converting to different units as necessary. Thank you for all the help at home! 

The students have access to these apps that they should be using regularly:
Math Facts Ninja - For students who need extra practice with their math facts. 
Knowre - This app covers topics in line with the Common Core Curriculum which the students are covering this year. This program is designed to develop critical thinking skills. Each class has expectations for completing lessons in Knowre each week, and students are welcome to work ahead and extend their learning. 

SS:
In social studies this month, we will be focusing on how Mesopotamian leaders such as Sargon and Hammurabi helped organize society.  We will see how these early influential leaders helped shape the way that future civilizations deal with law, religion, government, and the military.  We will also have many opportunities to get hands-on experience as we see how everyday citizens completed their jobs, learned, and built their city!
 
Science:
We wrapped up the Introduction to Geoscience unit, learning about nonrenewable and renewable resources as well as the theory of continental drift and the super-continent Pangaea!  Trimester 2 brings us to our next unit, Introduction to Chemistry. Our first topic in chemistry includes atoms and their parts -  protons, neutrons, and electrons. We’ll learn that atoms are the basic building blocks of all matter and they are EVERYWHERE! 

7th Grade

Language Arts:
Students have just chosen their Book Club books which they will be reading during the next four weeks. Your student, as always, should be reading at home every day for at least 20 minutes, and if he/she reads on this schedule, there should be no problem meeting this requirement. If your student struggles to read at home, creating a schedule and a quiet, comfortable reading environment (especially if others are reading at the same time) will help to turn reading into an enjoyable experience. Students gain many benefits from independent reading that we highly recommend making it a priority in your home. Thank you for your support -- if your student falls far behind, it will be difficult for him/her to understand what is happening in class or to participate in the discussions and activities. Therefore, it is very important that your student reads at home.

Language Arts Advanced:
We are reading Day of Tears in LA ADV right now in class and working on understanding the various perspectives of the individuals involved in the biggest sale of slaves in US history. Students are also engaging in brief writing activities to explore different styles of writing and to discover their own perspectives on the types of situations the characters are describing through this dialogue-based novel. Since Day of Tears is brief and is being read during class, the expectation is that additional independent reading at home needs to continue, daily. Although some students are motivated self-starters who continually seek out and read good quality books and articles, others are waiting for their teachers to discover that they are wasting time during the FLEX reading period and don’t even have a book in their possession at all. Since we have 100 students to check in with, it is challenging to ask each one of them often enough to catch those who are fake-reading. If you can help us with this problem by asking your own child what he or she is reading and what is happening in the book on a regular basis, we would really appreciate your support! 

Bridge to Algebra 1: 
In Bridge to Algebra 1, we have been working hard to understand the key features found in equations written in slope-intercept form and standard form and how they relate to the context of word problems.  Soon, we will be comparing functions by analyzing their key features in relation to one another.

Algebra 1: 
In Algebra 1, we have just taken our unit test on Linear Regression.  The students were eager to use their calculators and boy did they get a lot of practice with them in this unit!  They were able to generate regression equations to make predictions, as well as graph scatter plots with regression equations.  They looked at correlation coefficients, scatter plots and residual plots to determine if linear models were appropriate.

SS: 
The inquiry model of teaching and learning about history and social studies is not the kind of learning you probably experienced years ago as a student in history or social studies classes! Now, students are challenged to investigate and develop essential questions and focusing questions to learn our content. Essential questions are those questions which do not have one easy defined answer. They are arguable, debatable, with many points of view. Focusing questions relate to, and help answer essential questions. Focusing questions are more narrow and easily defined or answered with a variety of facts, definitions, or figures. Some recent questions include:  What characteristics best defined the Patriots and Loyalists?  Which British action was the most damaging or punishing to the colonists? Which colonial response was most effective? We continue to examine the Revolutionary years in what will be the United States including the remarkable Declaration of Independence. Soon, we will be exploring the challenges of our new nation coming out of the Revolutionary War.

Science:
As we head into our second trimester, students have just finished working on epigenetics and discovering how our environments and life choices shape who we are. We looked at the animal community in particular and discovered how various organisms are impacted at a genetic level from their surroundings. Continuing in our study of environmental impacts on organisms, we will begin working on how animal behaviors and animal structures impact their probability to successfully reproduce. Students have already completed a lab where they portrayed the behaviors of a fictitious bird acquiring food in the wild as a type of courtship behavior. As we dive into the weeks ahead leading into winter break, students will continue this investigation with plant structures, having the opportunity to 3-D print model seeds with specific structures that allow them to have the best odds for future growth. 

8th Grade
Language Arts/ Language Arts Advanced:  
We just wrapped up a busy first trimester in Language Arts! Everyone has been working hard on strengthening their reading skills and improving their written responses to literature.  In Language Arts we have been preparing to start our first whole class novel, The Giver, while in Advanced Language Arts we are ready to dive into Great Expectations.  We will continue to work on analytical as well as narrative writing in trimester two and will also continue to look at how author's structure stories and articles. 

Algebra 1: 
In Algebra 1, we are starting off the week with a team project demonstrating understanding of our Statistical Model of Linear Functions unit by gathering data, creating linear regression models, and making predictions based on a “barbie bungee jump” project. At this point, students will feel very confident in using their TI-84+ graphing calculator. This will be a great way to start the week after Thanksgiving break! We will then move into unit 5: Transformations and Nonlinear Function Notation which will be extremely beneficial to be exposed to this prior to Algebra 2.

Algebra 2: 
In Algebra 2, we will be starting off the week with our Radical Functions unit. The students will apply their knowledge from Algebra 1 to take it a step further into our Algebra 2 unit on radical functions. The students will explore how to graph radical functions with transformations, write equations of radical functions based on key characteristics, solve radical functions with square roots and cube roots, and find inverses of radical functions. 

SS: 
Students in 8th Grade Social Studies just completed their first “DBQ”, argumentative writing piece of the school year. The students had to analyze primary sources, working to find evidence that supported their claim to the prompt: “Who’s to blame for World War I?”  Students will continue to improve upon their ability to match two pieces of evidence to one specific reason that they argue throughout their essay. Students have been focused on learning about the innovations and products created throughout the 1920’s that made life easier and connected more and more people over greater distances. The “Roaring 20’s” was truly a “Boom to Bust” decade and students will begin work on understanding the social and economic factors that lead to the Great Depression.  

Science: 
8th grade Science is completing the second unit studying relationships between ancient and modern organisms.  In December, we will begin to investigate the effect of genetic variation on an individual organism’s probability of surviving.  We will look at both classic examples of natural selection including peppered moths during the Industrial Revolution.  Students will also study current events such as increase of antibiotic resistant nightmare bacteria.

Twin Groves Gives Back
TG gives back during the holiday season! As many families are unable to provide their own families with holiday gifts, Colt's Council is sponsoring two local families through the Vernon Township's Sponsor-A-Family Gift Giving program. Families 20 and 21 are looking to celebrate and provide gifts for their young children. Please consider taking a tag off the gift board in the office and providing these families with the same holiday cheer we enjoy! The last day to drop off wrapped gifts is Monday, December 9th! Please remember to include a gift receipt!