10/30/20
TGIF…Twin Groves it’s Friday!
Please remember there is no school on Monday, November 2nd or Tuesday, November 3rd.
Classes will resume on Wednesday, November 4th.
During the week of November 2nd, please know that D96 schools and offices may be operating remotely. The Twin Groves Office Staff will be checking voicemails when we are not in the office.
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 leaders, role models, supportive peers, brave, and positive.
As part of this focus, the Twin Groves Staff would like to recognize the following students who consistently demonstrate these qualities.
Michael Davydov
Julian Perez
Rajan Sukhatme
Sadhvi Swaminathan
Hadley Thomas
Niranjan Uday
Joseph Wang
What’s happening at TG?
6th Grade
Language Arts and Language Arts Advanced: LA and Advanced LA classes have been very busy the past few weeks! Students took their first CFA (Common Formative Assessment) on Mood and Theme last week. Students were asked to determine the Mood and Theme of a fictional text, and to support their claims with evidence from the passage. This week, we started our Narrative Writing Unit focusing specifically on sensory details and dialogue. Also this week, we sent out permission slips for students to begin their Book Clubs! These book clubs will allow students to collaborate with one another by discussing engaging, thought-provoking novels that align with our current common-core standards.
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 supercontinent 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 atoms are the basic building blocks of all matter and they are EVERYWHERE!
SS: As we have worked on our migration unit, the students have begun to develop an understanding of how humans populated the world. After learning about the big ideas of how and why people migrated, we will now be focusing on some specific examples of this process. We will be learning about groups and individuals from different time periods, and exploring how the presence or absence of water and other resources has impacted our ability to live where we want.
Pre Algebra Survey: Pre-Algebra Survey classes are in the middle of their unit on rational numbers. The students are working with adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing positive and negative integers, fractions, and decimals, which can be a lot to take in! We are doing a lot of practice in class and the students are working hard to master these fundamentals.
Last month we talked about modeling with mathematics and being able to show work in different ways. The students were very successful in this! This month, please encourage your child to look for structure and use this to help them solve new problems. For example, can the numbers in this problem be manipulated to look more like something we’ve seen before? For this, great note-taking skills are a must, which includes lining up work in students’ notebooks and iPads carefully.
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.
IXL - 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.
Pre Algebra: Pre-Algebra classes are in the middle of their unit on rational numbers. The students are working with adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing positive and negative integers, fractions, and decimals, which can be a lot to take in! We are doing a lot of practice in class and the students are working hard to master these fundamentals.
Last month we talked about modeling with mathematics and being able to show work in different ways. The students were very successful in this! This month, please encourage your child to look for structure and use this to help them solve new problems. For example, can the numbers in this problem be manipulated to look more like something we’ve seen before? For this, great note-taking skills are a must, which includes lining up work in students’ notebooks and iPads carefully.
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.
IXL - 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.
7th Grade
Language Arts and Language Arts Advanced: Language Arts is currently finishing up a short unit where we revisited central idea. The students have been going back to look at their articles of the week and taking a deeper look at the central idea. After this unit, we will start our book clubs. The students will be responsible for reading a quarter of their book each week and then engaging in conversations with their classmates during bi-weekly meetings. We will focus on theme, perspective and irony while reading the novels.
Science: Students are learning about DNA and the protein synthesis process. Through this knowledge they will discover that mistakes often occur in the process. We will talk about how these mistakes in the DNA replication process may affect an organism in a harmful, beneficial, or neutral way. We have also been incorporating some STEM activities including building a roller coaster out of play doh!
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 questions to drive and focus our work and discussions. 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. How fun is it to think about historical themes and events and then determine your own point of view! We are currently examining the effects of the French and Indian War, which directly leads to a series of many events that will produce the causes of the Revolutionary War. This will help to establish the United States of America and the remarkable Declaration of Independence. Soon, we will be exploring the challenges of our new nation coming out of the Revolutionary War.
Bridge to Algebra 1: We will be finishing up our unit on Functions next week and we will begin our unit on Linear Functions. Students will be exposed to three different forms of equations that are used to represent linear functions. They will also be learning how to write them from words and graphs as well as graph them by hand. After we master this, we will begin to compare linear functions using key features (slope and y-intercept), using many real world situations.
Algebra 1:Our class just finished their unit on graphing and writing equations of lines. Our next unit, Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities, will expose students to three different ways in which they can solve a system. They will also be challenged to interpret key features of these solutions within the given context. Success in this unit will require a lot of prior knowledge from past units.
8th Grade
Language Arts and Language Arts Advanced: For the At Level Language Arts families, I want to thank all of you for coming to the school to pick up our next class novel, The Giver. We thankfully had every student pick up their books and we are now ready to begin reading. We will begin this novel next week and will use all the skills and strategies we have learned through short stories and apply it to a larger novel. For the Advance class, we will continue to expand on our reading skills and strategies through short stories, poetry, as well as informational texts. As we approach Trimester 2 we will be moving more into informational texts strategies. For now we will be introducing them.
Science: In science, 8th graders just finished learning about natural disasters. As we begin Unit 2, students will be looking at patterns in the fossil record and examining rock layers to compare modern and ancient organisms. Students will also learn about radioactivity and radiometric dating of rocks and fossils.
SS: In Social Studies, students are 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. Students will continue to fine tune their argument writing skills focusing on creating a claim and finding credible evidence to defend that claim.
Algebra 1: Parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and some lines that are neither has been our focus. We’re writing equations of lines in not 1, or 2, but 3 different forms. Our conversations around slope have been interesting. Ask your child how to walk up a wall? What’s the slope of that wall? What’s the difference in climbing up a steep hill vs a gentle rolling field? We’re finishing up our unit on Linear Equations with the benchmark this week.
Algebra 2: Polynomial equations benchmark is this week. Our factoring skills are getting so much better as well as understanding the relationship between zeros and factors. We have really put our skills to the test as we’ve learned to write our own equations from tables and graphs, understand end behavior, and regression models. Each class is packed with new notes and new information. It is so important that they practice each and every night/day.
STEM Opportunity for Middle School Students: Lake County Robotics Competition
The College of Lake County (CLC) Engineering Department invites students in grades 6–12 to participate in the virtual Lake County Robotics Competition.
Participants will work individually at home using robot kits and will upload a video of their robot in action for judging in Apr. 2021. Finals and awards will be presented in a public webinar on Tues., Apr. 13, 2021.
The challenge is to build and code a Tetrix (or similar, such as Vex) kit robot to do simple tasks with ping pong balls. CLC engineering students will provide mentoring and guidance as requested.
Any middle school student may participate and registration is free.
Book Bin for Returns at Twin Groves
There is a book bin outside the front doors of the main office at Twin for library books or books that need to be returned to the school.
Please feel free to drop books off at any time. We empty the bin each morning.
Meals Are Available for Drive-Up Pick-Up
Any KCSD96 family choosing to do so may pick up free breakfasts/lunches for their students weekdays from 11 AM–1 PM when District 96 students are in session. SEE DETAILS
ComEd Bill Payment Assistance Options
ComEd has provided bill payment assistance options for families experiencing financial hardship. Please find info HERE.
Halloween Participation Door Signs
School Resource Officer Essig and the Buffalo Grove Police Department have provided signs to download and print for display on your front door on Sat., Oct. 31. Choose according to the decision your family has made:
TRICK OR TREATERS ARE WELCOME HERE door sign
NOT PARTICIPATING IN TRICK OR TREAT door sign
If participating, please observe social distancing and wear a mask.
Daily Announcements
Please see Twin Groves website for up to date school announcements. The announcements let you know what exciting activities and clubs are going on at Twin Groves. Please click HERE to access the Daily Announcements.