Algebra 1

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Pre-Algebra

REMINDERS:

All assignments are posted daily on Google Classroom. Unit vocabulary can also be found in the materials section.  Students should be studying 5-10 minutes a night EVERY night.   Also, assignments with a 💻 emoji at the start are the only ones that are required to be turned in on Google Classroom.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. 

We have begun To Kill a Mockingbird. There will be vocabulary for every chapter, and we will extensively be exploring themes. The first summative will be after chapter 12. The full text is posted in PDF format in Classroom, and I post audio files by chapter as well. 

The first literary analysis essay is due November 6. All the information needed for this assignment is in Google Classroom.

Note: Assignments in Classroom with stars will be graded.

Chemical Reactions and Matter

This unit begins with an everyday mystery: what happens when a bath bomb is dropped into water? Students watch as it fizzes, breaks apart, and releases gas bubbles. They share and compare their ideas about where the gas comes from—some think it was trapped inside the bath bomb, others think it must have formed during the reaction. These initial ideas set the stage for a series of investigations that help students test their explanations and refine their models.

Next, students measure changes in mass in both closed and open systems to see if the gas was already in the bath bomb or made during the process. Once they establish that the gas must come from changes to the substances themselves, they turn to the ingredients of a bath bomb, testing each one in water. None produce bubbles alone, so students begin combining them in different ways to see what happens. When only certain mixtures create gas, students realize that something new may be forming. They then collect data on the properties of the gas—such as whether it rises or sinks, and whether it puts out or feeds a flame—to narrow down what kind of gas it could be.

In the next stage, students apply what they’ve learned to another reaction called Elephant’s Toothpaste, analyzing how properties can reveal when a new substance is produced. They then take stock of all their evidence so far, revising their class model to show how matter that goes into a system can differ from what comes out. This raises a new question: if something new was made, where did its particles come from?

Students move to a smaller scale, exploring whether new particles can actually be made from old ones. They test this by adding energy to water in two ways—first through heat, then through electricity—and compare what happens. These experiments lead to a discussion of early atomic models and how scientists represented the rearrangement of atoms in chemical reactions. Students use this historical context to refine their own explanations for how new substances can form while the total amount of matter stays the same.

Finally, students use all of their investigations to build a complete explanation for what happens when substances interact, drawing on evidence about mass, properties, and particle behavior. In the closing lessons, they explore how substances have unique odors based on their molecular structures, linking back to how we detect and identify different materials in everyday life. By the end of the unit, students have developed a complete picture of how matter can change form and structure—producing something new without creating or destroying what was there to begin with.

The final exam will be November 6th

Ellis music comes to our school on Tuesdays for deliveries and to pick up and drop off repairs. If you have questions please see our website or send me an email!

Hopkinton Music Website

Bienvenue 2027/28 !

This year is the continuity of French 7 and students got to start with a review based an adventure story.

Next week, student are going to learn about a famous French Group of young singer "Kids United". They combined musical talent with a powerful charitable missions.  Another highlight of next week will be about creating a story together.

Please note that in Google Classroom, students have weekly vocabulary homework. It is important that students practice vocabulary 5 to 15 minutes each day. 

If your student is absent, they need to contact me or come during Hawk Time to catch up on what they missed. Hawk Time is in 207 from 2:15 to 2:50. I'm always available to help students and this year we also have 2 wonderful students helper from level 4/5. 

Hallo Deutsch 8!

We are working on wrapping up our unit on Food and Food Culture in Germany. Students have been looking at German supermarkets and we have seen some commercials from Edeka and Aldi. 

They have been using the verbs brauchen, kaufen, nehmen, essen to talk about the foods we need, buy, take and eat. We are still reviewing the different measurements in the Metric system, such as Kilo, Gramm, and Liters. 

Students just had a reading assessment, and will be working on writing and performing their own commercials for their German Winter meals they have been researching!

Next week, we will have a pause for spooky season: We will watch the 1972 version of Nosferatu, by German director Werner Herzog. This is a follow-up to our silent film we watched last year. We review spooky vocabulary and descriptions of scenes.

Students should be reviewing new and old vocabulary 10-15 minutes per day.

REMINDER: If your student is absent from school, please ask them to reach out to me via E-Mail so that we can get them caught up. It is a great habit to get into before high school so that they are in charge of their own learning. If students are absent, I often ask them to come down during HawkTime.

In January, we discussed current events in Venezuela, and students read a Venezuelan teenager's description of her life in Venezuela. They compared their lives in Hopkinton to her life in Venezuela. A specifial emphasis was placed on possessive adjectives  ("mi escuela" vs. "su escuela").

In February, we will dive into one of our favorite units. It centers around a very unique collaborative activity in Cataluña, Spain that UNESCO has identified as an "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity." To kick off this unit, we divided students into small teams and presented them with this challenge: Which team can build the tallest tower out of playing cards? Which team can build the tallest tower out of plastic cups?  Then, students tried to put the world's tallest towers (i.e. La Torre Eiffel) in order, from shortest to tallest. Most of the world's tallest towers are made of stone, cement, steel, or glass.  But, in Tarragona, Spain, there are towers made of humans! This month, we will study los castells de Tarragona. Check out this National Geographic mini-documentary to learn more! 

To get ready for Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance, we studied his use of the sapo concho (a Puerto Rican toad) and two empty plastic white chairs on his album cover. What could these chairs and this animal symbolize?