News update from the 7th grade team.

Language Arts

March 17th marked the beginning of our Romeo and Juliet unit in 7th grade language arts. This unit was launched with a two-day classroom workshop with director, playwright, and performer, Genevieve Aichele, from Portsmouth’s own West End Theater. As one student said in the Rye Ripple, “It was amazing how much she could teach the whole 7th grade in only two days! She did it in fun ways, too.” Since then, we’ve continued studying this classic play with a focus on performance reading. We have also been examining figurative language and analyzing literary devises used to bring this play alive. (For more information, read the student articles in the Rye Ripple school newspaper. Our scheduled homeroom delivery is Friday, May 8th.)

Many thanks to The Rye Foundation for sponsoring the two-day workshop and an evening with the authors! Also, a special thanks goes to eighth grade language arts teacher, Kerry Ridolfi for writing the grant proposal for the artist-in-residence events at all grade levels!

Local authors, Katherine Towler and Genevieve Aichele, visit classes and then hit the stage for an evening of Writers on the Rye Stage.

7th Grade Writing Club

The 7th grade writing club has recently added a second group during the school day to accommodate the 25 students who want to participate. In these groups, students have been responding to creative writing prompts connected to current units. Writer’s workshops have been taking place in one of the groups as well. This is when a student seeks input on a piece of writing by presenting it to all the members of the group. The student hands out a draft, a week in advance, and the following week, his or her piece is “workshopped” by the group.

Math – The students have started Module 4 in their textbook. In this module, they will review multiplication and division with fractions, decimals, and integers. They will change fractions to terminating or repeating decimals. After learning about pi, they will use pi to find the circumference of a circle. The Geometry connection in Module 4 explores patterns by describing rotations, reflections, and translations. The stock market unit continues. Students check their stocks every Friday and update their spreadsheets to keep track of gains or losses.

Social Studies - The students are finishing up their study of Ancient Rome with a look at the fascinating, but gruesome world of gladiators. The students are researching about the topic using pre-selected websites; they are using this information to create a historically accurate journal of a fictional Roman gladiator. In class, we are moving on to our study of the Middle Ages. The unit focuses on the political/economic system known as feudalism and the religious conflicts of the Crusades and Reformation. The highlight of the unit is our annual trip to the Higgins Armory Museum in Worchester Mass. The Higgins Museum has the largest collections of medieval arms & armor in the western hemisphere and is always a fun and interesting experience for the students.

Science – We are gearing up for 2 projects in science. The first is on Earth Day, April 22, 2011. We will be participating in a global webcast during the day. Our school will be the webcasting host and expect to help other schools share and celebrate Earth Day. The schedule will be posted on the RJH homepage, along with the webcast URL. You may listen and join the chat room. We will be broadcasting from Earthbridges at http://earthbridges.net/live.

Have you seen roadkill in Rye or New Castle? If so, it should be recorded on our tally sheet. A high number of roadkill indicates a large population of that animal. After vacation, we will end our data collection period for the roadkill project. What will the data indicate this year? Our jobs will be to analyze and interpret the data.

Music - Students are studying how music developed through the ages. We are learning about the strict form and structure of music from the Classical Age and specifically about the genius that was Wolfgang Mozart. Students also continue to play drums, guitars and learn new body percussion patterns.

World Languages – World Language Week at the Rye Junior High will be held April 18 – 22. Each day will be celebrated in a special way. All students are invited to participate!

Monday/Lundi/Lunes: Cinema Day: In their world language classes, students will choose from a variety of movies en francais or espanol! (“Toy Story”, “The Incredibles”, “Madeline”, “Finding Nemo”, “Shrek”…)

Tuesday/Mardi/Martes: Cuisine Day: All 7th and 8th graders may sign up below to bring in a foreign dish. The buffets will be held in the cafeteria: 7th grade at 9:45, 8th grade at 1:00. Students must contribute in order to participate.

Wednesday/Mercredi/Miercoles: Costume Day: Students are encouraged to dress up in any foreign costume. Prizes will be given to the top 3 costumes in each grade. Let’s be creative!

Thursday/Jeudi/Jueves: Crepes/Churros/Day: A variety of dessert crepes and Spanish churros will be sold at all lunches.

Friday/Vendredi/Viernes: Sports Day: An international soccer tournament with homerooms representing different countries will be held in the afternoon. We will have an Olympic style parade in front of the school before the games begin! (12:45)

In addition:

·The weather will be announced in a different language each morning.

·The cafeteria will serve international meals all week.

·There will be a “Nationality Contest” located in the hall by the language rooms