Single Use Reducers: students are focusing their efforts on reducing the impact of single use plastic and Styrofoam items in landfills and oceans. They are encouraging no/paper straws, reusable bags/paper bags in grocery stores, reusable water bottles at LCMA, along with recycling paper around the school, and less plastic or recycling plastic from the lunchroom. They have designed a reusable water bottle with the school logo to raise money to purchase a water bottle filing fountain. Dark Knights: students are building bat small bat houses and a large bat house to help the endangered bats in our local neighborhood. Bats are an important part of our ecosystem, needed to control many insects, and their guano makes a terrific organic fertilizer. Their habitats, like habitats of so many of nature’s creatures, are being destroyed by industrialization. Stings and Wings: students are making hummingbird feeder from recycled water bottles, and spreading awareness of these beautiful and endangered insects, as well as the rapid demise of the honeybee. They will work with Global Tech classes to teach them about the endangered insects and help them to build a hummingbird feeder of their own. Manateam: students are working in the hydroponic garden to grow vegetables for sale in the farmer’s market, using proceeds to help manatees. They will visit Sea World and see first-hand their efforts to save the sea cows, and hopefully, they will grow lettuce in the hydroponic garden to feed the manatees. Monarch Maidens: students are reusing milk cartons from the bistro to grow milkweed. Monarchs need this weed to feed and reproduce. Many people are killing off native milk weed in their landscaped yards, destroying the food and habitats of monarchs. They are making a monarch garden here at LCMA. These students are going to Winston to share what they have learned about monarchs and give them milkweed to start their own butterfly garden. Algae Abolishers: students are experimenting with algae eating fish to help control the spread of algae caused by runoff fertilizers. They have researched the algae in our own Lake Wire, and will use their results to see if it can help with the red tide outbreak. They are visiting Science classes here at LCMA on September 14th to share their research. In addition, each team has created a tri-fold display to spread awareness of their environmental issue at Open House here at school, and at the Lake Festival and Cardboard Boat Race on October 6th. Some teams have bulletin board displays with links to their social media accounts for more information September: National Pediatric Cancer Awareness-https://secure.qgiv.com/event/account/667163/9/4/2018
Our first group of Science Field explorers went to Crystal Springs Preserve on Tuesday August 29, 2018 students from Mrs. Butler’s and Mr. Bartuska’s classes journeyed to Crystal Springs Preserve where they experienced looked for microscopic critters that are found in all the waters around us, they performed water chemistry on spring and river water and they also were caught on the wild side with a reptile encounter!
Here are the winners for the Summer Reading Project! It was a tough decision because so many of the pieces were well-done, but we wanted to make sure we rewarded more than one option.
Grade 6 – Heston Birkhold, shadow box for Restart Grade 7 – Anna Cheng, Map of Setting for Wing & Claw: Forest of Wonders Grade 8 – Skyler Hollinger, newspaper article for Restart After a week of getting to know each other and classroom expectations, the Creative Writing & Drama classes really took off this week!
6th Grade: All good writers need a strong foundation in grammar, so our sixth graders began a review of the parts of speech, figurative language terms, and word usage. Next up, the history of writing including hieroglyphics! 7th Grade: Using The Diary of Anne Frank as a model, students began working on an original journal/diary. They chose a time period (past, present, future) and began writing five entries. To complete the project, they will bind their writing in a creative cover. This assignment is due on Tuesday, September 4th. 8th Grade: For the third year in a row, LCMA’s 8th graders have been asked to write a script for Lakeland Community Theatre’s “Out of the Box” performers! This troupe with special physical and/or developmental abilities rehearses every Monday at the theatre. We are excited that ELEVEN of our students are volunteering as “TKs” (Typical Kids) with this group! They will assist during both rehearsals and performances which will take place in May, 2019. The “Out of the Box” director, Maureen McGowan, wrote: “Seriously, this is what it’s all about. I had parents of my special needs students come up yesterday saying how impressed they were with everyone…so welcoming and helpful. Your kids had hearts of gold. They were ready to give of themselves. Thank you for preparing them and sending them our way!” YOU’RE THE BEST, KNIGHTS (and your supportive parents). This week, LCMA was treated to a Gallery Walk for Summer Reading through the ELA Department and the work of its students! Students in each Language and Literature class were able to visit the other classrooms and see the work of their peers. There were some incredible projects this year, and students were able to attach “sticky notes of specific praise” to three projects of their choice. The students enjoyed the freedom of visiting each classroom and seeing the variety of projects at each grade level.
In addition, all students in the Language and Literature classes participated in a letter-writing activity. The ELA teachers wrote letters to their students, and the students wrote letters to their teachers in response. The purpose of the activity was two-fold; it gave the students and teachers a way of getting to know each other, and it also gave each teacher an idea of each student’s individual writing style. 8th grade American History students have started their study of American History thinking about their own lives by completing “3-2-1 What’s your history?” reflections. Civics students have been learning what it means to be a good citizen! We are going to have an awesome year learning about our government! 6th graders in Language and Literature have completed job applications and will be working in the classroom to build responsibility. They also are writing their first informative practice essay for the school year and having fun talking about our summer reading, Framed. Pre Algebra students are exploring transformations and angle relationships. We will be creating art and a city map by the end of the first nine weeks. Geometry students learned to rate quadrilaterals by their “squareness.” They have been studying midpoint and distance as well. Algebra students are exploring polynomials and already preparing for their first quiz next week. After all the news of lead in the water, even at schools, the Environmental Symposium students were concerned for the quality of water at LCMA. Good news! You can rest easy! They have tested the water in drinking fountains in Building 1 and the Gym, with no trace of lead or other toxins! And much more........ The ELA Department wants you to know that we’ll be conducting a Gallery Walk for Summer Reading during all periods (except 5th) on Thursday. The students’ Summer Reading Projects will be on display in each ELA classroom, and during the first part of each period, students will be moving in and out of those classrooms to observe the work of their peers and to provide positive feedback in the form of handwritten praise on sticky notes. Please feel free to come up if you have a chance! We’ll be showing off some incredible work! We may even give you a sticky note if you’d like to participate.
We are all so proud of our students for their committment to reading and participating so vigorously in their chosen projects! The addition of choice this year has enriched the process so much! Thanks parents for your buy in and assistance. We appreciate you as well. Below is just a small sample of over 650 individual projects. All were unique and amazing! Lavelle’s 8th-graders have been studying the ways in which traditional stories, such as those from mythology or the Bible, shape contemporary literature. The students studied various Native American myths and wrote their own original myths that established universal themes relevant to contemporary society and explained natural occurrences. Currently, the students have been looking at the way the idea of “turning the other cheek” has informed other works of literature, such as Thoreau’s On the Duty of Civil Disobedience and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, The American Dream. Students are working to find connections in both language and technique between the works, and will attempt to apply their understanding to additional pieces, including Robert Hayden’s poem, “Runagate Runagate” and an excerpt from Colson Whitehead’s 2016 novel, The Underground Railroad.
Lavelle’s 7th-graders have been looking closely at the way literature incorporates history into its meaning. They studied the combination of fact and fiction in mythology, and then wrote their own myths that established a balance between the two. Currently, they are reading the work of Julia Alvarez, a writer from the Dominican Republic who fled the country during the brutal regime of the dictator Rafael Trujillo. They are comparing and contrasting historical documents concerning Trujillo with Alvarez’s portrayal of Trujillo in her personalized account. Creative Writing/Drama/Lit & Film: 6th Grade: completed watching the classic play, “Driving Miss Daisy,” and attributed qualities of the IB learner profile to each character. They then began a “quick write” on a narrative prompt. 7th Grade: completed watching the classic musical, “Oklahoma!” On May 3rd, our original script written for Highlands Grove Elementary’s Drama Club was performed on their campus. We were asked by the principal to write their Christmas script, so we’ve begun working on that project this week! 8th Grade: due to testing, they also completed watching “Oklahoma!” On May 9th & 10th our original script written for “Out of the Box,” a troupe with special needs, was presented at Lakeland Community Theatre. This is the second year our students have been asked to write for this amazing group of actors. We expect this collaboration to continue next year as well. In addition, we’re writing our final script of the year…for each other! Lit & Film: completed watching “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” and compared it to the novel. We’ve now begun reading the classic play, “Cyrano de Bergerac” to finish out the year. Remember, “You are the author of your own life story. Make it a good one.” Mr Coombs's students In Science, we are cutting through our living things units in preparation for frog dissections next week! Regular 7th grade math students are working in groups to design a lesson plan and presentation. They will take turns over the next couple of weeks teaching the class the topic that they have become an expert on. They are having a great time creating and exploring different activities to share with the class…Kahoot seems to be a favorite amongst them. Advanced 7th grade math students are finishing up creating a stained glass using equations of lines and graphing using slope and y-intercept and beginning solving systems of equations by graphing. They have become pros at graphing but find the challenge in solving equations for y. They will continue to explore 8th grade standards over the next couple of weeks of school. Civics students took part in campaigning for the presidency! The wrote and gave speeches, including the issues they feel are most important, and created campaign posters and campaign buttons! It was a great rally! We are now eagerly anticipating the EOC scheduled for next week. The students (and teachers) have been working hard all year and we know they will rock this test! In Gibson’s science classes students have successfully navigated the State Science Assessment and now we are focusing on wrapping up an Interdiscilpinary activity for Apollo 13. Next on the agenda is for everyone to build a model of themselves with a legacy thought bubble to welcome rising 7th grade students. We will also be exploring some overarching bioethics questions in our final few days. The Gifted elective classes have used their critical thinking skills to escape the Escape Room in Lakeland! After a unit on Forensics, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office visited our 6th grade class to give the students a first-hand look at how forensic science is used to solve crimes in our area. While reading “The Diary of Anne Frank,” students in Mrs. Davis’ language and literature class identified both the internal and external motivation and conflict of the characters portrayed in the play. After creating open-minded portraits that described the characters in detail, students then chose the IB learner profile that best fits the character they chose to examine and then justified their choice with evidence and proof. The final summative will be motivated from each one of the student’s personal craft. The students were given choices to present their findings of the impact of the Holocaust. Students will hone in on their own strengths by choosing a way to present their findings and research. Mr. Bartuska's science students are being introduced to Measurement Science through Differential Leveling. Students from the Environmental Symposium class will be at the Green Celebration at Lake Mirror TODAY, April 20th, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Stop by and see the amazing things they have done to make a difference throughout the year in our community! There will be live music, food, displays from many area schools, and a chance to show your support for positive changes in our environment!
Mrs. Davis’ class is completing a unit that encourages students to look at the heroes among us. The students also examined literature that shared the sacrifices of yesterday’s heroes and the importance of their influence on today’s society. Students wrote letters of appreciation to veterans and also wrote an autobiographical essay recognizing their personal hero. The next unit will build knowledge and explore the similarities and differences among us. Students will be guided to read historical documents, narrative texts and complete the unit with a summative that will be self-designed. Congratulations to Grace Knox and Kim-Tien Vo for their surreal art being accepted into The Dali Museum Student Exhibit. The exhibit is May 19-August 26, 2018 Grace- Through the Touch of Society Kim-Tien-The Tainted Throne of Gold Sixth grade art classes made Spring Haiku Illustrations 6th grade U.S. History students learned what it might be like to work on an assembly line. Their finished products were inline skates (made out of paper), We discussed the idea of mass production and compared it to the "Craftsman" way of creating products. We discussed quality vs. quantity? With the EoC approaching, Algebra and Geometry students are trying to review concepts from earlier in the year as well as continue with our current curriculum. Geometry is wrapping up the circles unit and will be beginning 3-D shapes. Algebra students have just finished statistics and will begin Polynomial functions next week. 6th Grade Math is Reviewing for FSA!!! - Not sure if that is blog worthy :) These kids are working hard and are eager to prove it this year! 6th grade Language and Literature classes have been learning about fables, myths, and legends and how these stories connect us a part of a community. Great discussions have taken place about what makes a community. Also, we have reviewed our Emergenetics Profiles by analyzing book characters for traits that give us insight into what their profiles would look like. Finally, we have been completing final preparations for our FSA Reading test next week by working individually and in teams on fun activities to review. They are ready to rock the FSA! In 7th grade Language & Literature and in differentiated groups we reviewed the State Standards for FSA Testing. Your students were well-prepared! In addition, we began Unit #5 with the Big Question, “community or individual-which is more important? While each individual has unique qualities and beliefs, an individual may also be a part of a family or group that shares common cultural beliefs, traditions, or customs. Students listened and read aloud a variety of myths, legends, folk tales, and fables, in order to discover universal themes. These themes give insights into human nature and explore the struggle of good against evil. We analyzed questions such as: How do characters in the story show what is important to them? What is the result of the characters’ actions? In these selection, do communities or individuals seem more important? Students deepened their understanding of the text through collaborative discussion and synthesized their thoughts while writing responses to the text, supporting their ideas with evidence. Creative Writing/Drama/Lit & Film: 6th Graders: have been learning how to write detailed step-by-step instructions after an “interesting” attempt at making a PB&J sandwich. 7th Graders: are incredible actors! After testing, they have been performing their final acts of “Thief” and “Girls and Boys.” 8th Graders: are mystery writers! After watching Agatha Christie’s classic, “And Then There Were None,” students worked independently, in a pair, or in a group to write their own mystery outline. Can you say PLOT TWIST??!! Lit & Film: we completed our study of Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, and recently began our journey through C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Theatre News: “The Bridges of Madison County” will be performed at Lakeland Community Theatre on April 27, 28, 29 and May 4, 5, 6. Tickets are available at their website. “A Wolf’s Tale” – an original play written by our 7th graders – will be presented at Highlands Grove Elementary at 7:00PM on May 3rd. Admission is FREE. “I Can Do It” – original scenes written by our 8th graders – will be presented at Lakeland Community Theatre at 7:30PM on May 9 & 10. This is our second year writing scripts for this troupe with special needs. Admission is FREE, but donations for the program will be accepted following the show. LIVE THEATRE MATTERS!! Gardeners of the Galaxy, Lexus Eco Challenge winners, went to Lincoln Academy to participate in their Farmers Market. They sold vegetables and herbs grown organically in their hydroponic garden! Mrs. Blend’s 6th grade Gifted students have become experts in one area of Forensic Science, and they are teaching the other students. They have researched their topic thoroughly and planned a lesson, complete with activities to engage the class! Civics students are gearing up for the EOC on May 14-15! Many connections are being made! They are working on evaluating candidates and beginning next week, will be building a campaign for an election. 6th and 8th Period Emerging Technology students are working on various projects this last nine weeks; from stringing nail art to creating online games using Sploder, to sewing costumes for the next Comicon convention or creating screencasts for their favorite websites. 7th Period students are using Ozobots and Sphero robots to learn coding! It’s just a whirlwind of activity in our classes Congratulations to Grace Knox and Kim-Tien Vo for their surreal art being accepted into The Dali Museum Student Exhibit. The exhibit is May 19-August 26, 2018 Grace- Through the Touch of Society Kim-Tien-The Tainted Throne of Gold Mr Rutledge's 8th graders: Students understand the causes of the growth of industry in 19th century U.S. by going to work, utilizing factory-style means of mass production! Civics students are working to analyze media and political communications by viewing campaign ads used in the past. They are identifying evidence of propaganda techniques being used to persuade voters. They are learning to evaluate candidates so they can make informed decisions when they get the chance to vote. 8th graders are coding and creating small business websites. They are also learning about Raspberry Pi computers. 6th graders are installing and booting Operating Systems for the Raspberry Pis. We have had outside fun in our latest design challenges: bubbles, botte fipping, and fidget spinners. 6th grade P.E. students are working on aesthetic movement routines. The routines are set to music and will be performed in class. Students are working on improving interpersonal skills to enhance their group performance. 7th/8th graders are learning basic skills for flag football. They are working on passing/receiving and learning offensive positions. Geometry students showcased their creativity and technical savvy through their n-gon projects. We learned about polygons in the dance studio, at Disney and at school. We laughed at video spoofs titled, “Polyganji,” “Shape Wars,” and “The Fault in our Polygons.” We played Jeopardy, Kahoot and Quizlet Live. The projects ranged from intense and mysterious videos to a children’s story worthy of publication! Algebra students are extending their knowledge to statistics with analysis of data using measures of center and spread. Variability, standard deviation and the inter-quartile range are currently our “hot topics.” 6th grade U.S. History students have been packing their wagons to go west. We had to decide what to take, when to leave, and even if it was worth the trip? Many of us didn’t make it on the Oregon trail. L http://www.theledger.com/entertainmentlife/20180408/young-entrepreneurs-awarded-start-up-funds
Young entrepreneurs awarded start-up funds www.theledger.com LAKELAND — Eight budding entrepreneurs are well on their way to success after wowing local investors with their business ideas. Creative Writing/Drama/Film Classes: 6th Grade – is back to drama as we work on the stage performing scenes from the script, “Ten/Two.” 7th Grade – is writing a 200-word short story based on perspective (detailed photo of sunken pirate ship). 8th Grade – is learning how to write a mystery by watching Agatha Christie’s classic “And Then There Were None” for inspiration. Lit & Film – reading/watching Hatchet comparing the book to the film.
Advanced Chorus - https://youtu.be/B4Hg7fuf864
Mixed Chorus - https://youtu.be/yFrLQOQx-JU Playlist of Both - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaQUgVEMBjvBESkfcu8XLtOjaxeY0V35s Creative Writing/Drama/Lit & Film Studies:
6th Grade – finished writing “fake news” based on a nursery rhyme or fairy tale and are now learning how to write formal and informal letters. 7th Grade – completed their original tall tales and are now converting either their fable or tall tale into a children’s story that will be shared with local 3rd grade classes. 8th Grade – recently completed writing either an original monologue or scene based on a photograph provided. Their creativity continues to amaze and inspire! Film Studies – finished reading the classic Where the Red Fern Grows, and students are now making comparisons to the film version. CONGRATULATIONS to SEVEN 8th graders who were selected to enter the Creative Writing program at Harrison School for Arts! Harrison only accepted a total of 12 students from around the county for this program, so we’re very proud that our Knights took seven of them. We also had one student selected for Musical Theatre, two for Theatre Tech, two for Theatre, and one for Motion Picture Arts! Way to go, Knights!! |
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