Grade 7

Click here to see an overview of the curriculum of this grade.
Click here to view the School Handbook (general policies for grades K through 8)
Click here to see photos from 7th Grade.
Click here to see the classroom news for 7th grade.

2010 Summer Reading List

Required: Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

Select and read two books from the following list:

• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
• Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
• Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea or Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
• Boston Jane (any book in series) by Jennifer Holm
• Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
• Homecoming by Cynthia Voight
• The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E. L. Konigsburg
• Summer Ball or Travel Team by Mike Lupica
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
• My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulson
• The Breadwinner or Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis
• The Bomb by Theodore Taylor

Parent Information

Overview of the School Year

Students in Grade 7 will find a very busy and important year ahead. We have come back from a full week at Nature's Classroom and are ready to begin schoolwork.

It is imperative that your child keeps track of assignments, completes all homework, and studies for tests and quizzes. All work should be done neatly and carefully. Presentation is an important part of a grade. Assignments can be checked in the homework notebook in the back of the classroom whenever a child is absent of has forgotten what was assigned for the night.

There will be service projects to be done during the year. We share some of them with Grade 8. We have the Holly Ball in December and the Grade 8 Farewell Luncheon in June. There will be two class treasurers who will collect dues to be used to fund these events. The remaining funds will go toward the class trip in June and if any money is left it goes into the Grade 8 account in September.

It is important, that the young men and women of St. Mary Grade 7 continue to respect each other for who they are and what they bring to the class and the school. They do not need to be best friends with everyone in the class, but they must be kind to each other.

If at any time you have concerns, please call me. With your continued support this year will be the best!

Mr. Ferdella

Some hints on how to help your child succeed in science

Science is perhaps the most dynamic subject that a middle school student will study. It is forever changing as new information and understanding displaces the outdated and unknown.

With this in mind, St. Mary School replaced all of the science texts last year with the most up to date middle school books that Prentice Hall offered. These texts are a system that will take the student from grade five to grade eight using a similar format. The texts not only provide current scientific information, but they also contain information on how to learn science.

Every chapter begins with a title page that includes the publishers web site (www.phschool.com) that has activities related to the material in the text, and a list of other activities that the students can do. Some of these I incorporate into the classes, others can be done at home. The Discover activities that begin each section are nice into to the subject being studied and can often be done out side of the class. Some of the “Try This” activities are specifically designed to be done at home and involve the family. These activities can be a great tool for understanding the important ideas of the section.

Each section begins with Guide for Reading which is two to three questions, that when answered, are the essence of the section. There are also checkpoint questions mixed into the text that the students should be able to answer before they move on.

Each chapter includes a study guide at the end of the chapter, as well as a practice test that has questions similar to the type that will be found on their quizzes and tests. I encourage the students to take these practices and correct them because it is better they discover what they don’t know before the quiz, then I discover what they don’t know during the quiz.

Every text has a skills handbook near the end. These are the science skills that the students will be developing as they study science. They are not a separate block of instruction in the curriculum; these skills are part of all the activities related to science. As such, they will be continually part of the curriculum. As their teacher I am continually assessing the students on their strengths in these skills and adjusting the curriculum when a greater emphasis is needed on a given topic. The individual students should be referring to these sections as needed.

Lastly, I strongly encourage all students to have an appropriate dictionary available in their study area at home. Although the text provides a glossary for the key vocabulary included in the book, there will be times when they will be presented with an unfamiliar term.

I will continually encourage students to understand the importance of critical thinking and understanding in science so they will be better positioned to deal with the new information as it arrives.

Thank you,
Michael T. Moakley

Curriculum Night

Homeroom Time: The students begin to file in from the patio at 7:50 am and are considered tardy if not in their homeroom by 8:00am. The time from 8:00 – 8:15 is used for class planning time and meeting time. Each morning, the class receives math related Before School Work that I expect them to work on during homeroom time. It is to be passed in when completed and credit is given for correct answers and incorrect attempted answers. A running tally is kept and a winner will be recognized at the end of each quarter. At no time during homeroom is a student to leave without letting me know.

Prayer Time: Every day we start and end our day with prayer. At 8:10 and 2:25 a bell rings to signal prayer time. Students are expected to stop whatever else they are doing and participate or stand respectfully during prayer. At the conclusion of Morning Prayer, the seventh grade files into the office to lead the school in a patriotic song.

Homework Board and Student Assignment Books: All students have a planner which they are expected to carry with them to each class. This is part of a concerted effort to teach the students good organizational habits and help students develop personal responsibility for their work. In our homeroom, we keep a class homework board so that the students can double check their assignments when packing up to go home, or if they have been absent.

Textbooks, notebooks, folders and binders: Textbooks must remain covered all year for protection of the book and for easy identification if the book is left behind in any classroom. Each student has a cubby space for storing belongings. All of the students’ belongings should be marked with their first and last name.

Snack and Water Bottles: Snack time for the upper grades is 9:45am, which is usually the beginning of third period. Snacks are permitted as long as they are neat, quick, and do not interfere with the class. All students are encouraged to bring a water bottle to school to help cut down on the number of trips to the water fountain.

Bathroom Breaks: One student at a time is allowed to use the restroom provided they sign out in the class bathroom book when they leave and when they return.

Dismissal Procedures and Notes: The walkers and students attending the after school program are dismissed at the conclusion of prayer, usually no later than 2:30. The bus riders are dismissed at 2:30 and car riders after that. If a student is to be dismissed in a matter different than usual, she or he must bring a note with written permission. In order for a student to be dismissed early, a parent or guardian must go to the office to sign the student out.

Service Projects: The seventh grade does a number of service projects during the course of the school year. The first project, which is done in conjunction with the eighth grade, is the Coat Drive for Saint Ann’s. In addition, the class assists Father Mike with Parish mailings, and replaces the missals and song books in Church as needed. If anyone has any ideas for other projects the seventh grade can participate in, please let me know.

Class Events:

• The seventh grade has first grade buddies and will periodically meet with them throughout the course of the year.
• The Holly Ball is a seventh and eighth grade lunch and dance that is currently scheduled for December 22. Traditionally, this is the seventh and eighth grade Christmas party and a separate classroom party is not held.
• The seventh grade is scheduled to be on retreat on January 16th.
• The seventh grade hosts a luncheon for the graduating eighth graders in school on May 28th.
• Finals are currently scheduled for May 29 – June 5th. This means our class trip will most likely be during the last week of school, either the 8th or the 11th.

The best way to contact me about any questions or concerns is via email. I typically do not have time during the school day to make phone calls, but I do check my email periodically throughout the day.

Jeannie MacDonough (macdonoughj@stmarysparish.org)

Classroom News - Summer 2010

Algebra with Miss Lordan

Graphing linear equations in a variety of ways has been keeping the SEVENTH GRADERS in line this term! We are able to identify lines that have positive, negative, zero, and no slope. The concepts of ratios, rates, and unit rates are easily applied to solving proportions and creating scale drawings. We have explored the relationship between rate and the slope of a line. Students are learning to become wise consumers by determining which item among several is the best buy. We are using our knowledge of percents and our equation solving skills to answer questions about discounts, markups, sales tax, and tips.

Enjoy a fun-filled summer as you look forward to eighth grade and the study of algebra!

Math with Mrs. MacDonough

The seventh grade math class has worked hard to master many of the pre-algebra topics that were introduced during second and third quarter this year. A thorough study of ratios, proportions and percents was completed in third quarter and the students also learned how to use a protractor to measure angles and create circle graphs. Many of the concepts that we do in seventh grade serves as a building block to the Algebra curriculum they will have in grade eight. In addition to those algebra fundamentals, the seventh grade spends a lot of time working through a continuation of the Geometry that they originally learned during the second half of grade six. Types of angles and their relationships, as well as different types of polygons and their angle measures are studied. Transformations of figures in the coordinated plane and symmetry are two new topics that we have discussed during fourth quarter. The students are quick to master new topics and are always excited to be learning something new. We have just begun a mini unit on radicals which will lead us into the Pythagorean Theorem and finding the area and perimeter of parallelograms, trapezoids and circles. If time allows, we will finish up the year with surface area and volume. The students have always been excited to learn and have made it a pleasure to teach them math!

Classroom News - Spring 2010

Math with Mrs. MacDonough

Since switching classes in late January, the students have worked very hard to cover a lot of ground in their Math curriculum. We have completed the chapter on solving linear equations. They are able to solve both multi step equations and inequalities. We have begun to review some basic concepts like ratio, rate, and unit rate and introduced some new concepts such as slope. In the coming chapters, we will look at proportions and percents, and then do a mini unit on geometry. The students always work hard, always are ready to learn, and are a pleasure to teach! Recently, the seventh grade participated in the New England Math League Competition. Congratulations to our seventh grade high scorer, Jeremy Canfield!

Algebra with Miss Lordan

The second half of the seventh grade curriculum is setting the stage for the study of algebra. It is a pleasure to have many of the students who started sixth grade in the math room back again this year as SEVENTH GRADERS. The concepts of pre-algebra challenge us to learn vocabulary, show steps leading to solutions, and justify conclusions. We began the term by reviewing the distributive property, graphing points in the coordinate plane, and translating verbal phrases and sentences into variable expressions and equations. Then we applied our knowledge to simplifying expressions and solving one and two step equations using the four operations and properties of equality. The efforts put into equation solving are paying dividends as we move forward to finding solutions of inequalities. As the term draws to a close, students will be representing functions using equations, tables, and graphs.

Classroom News - Winter (from a previous year)

Math with Ms. Lordan

SEVENTH GRADERS zealously ventured into the field of number patterns by finding the GCF and LCM of two or more numbers in a variety of ways. Factor trees assisted us in writing the prime factorization of real numbers. Converting among fractions, decimals, mixed numbers, and percents followed. The skills of ordering and comparing all types of number have been mastered. Our knowledge of fractions was tested by the application of measuring in customary units.

In our discussion of number sense, we drew Venn Diagrams and used umbrella charts to place integers and rationals into the scheme of real numbers. As we performed the four operations with each set of numbers, the question of what numbers would not be classified as real surfaced. Ask any one of these math stars and they will share their knowledge.

Classroom News - Fall 2009

Pre-Algebra with Mrs. MacDonough

The seventh grade class began their year with an exciting trip to Nature’s Classroom and the students returned with tons of energy and motivation for a great first quarter. We have quickly navigated through some review material in the beginning of their textbook including rounding and ordering decimals, number operations, exponents, and multiplying and dividing decimals. New topics such as scientific notation will soon be introduced and the students are anxious to get into the pre algebra topics that await them – prime factorization, integer operations, and solving equations and inequalities. Additional resources related to our text can be found at www.classzone.com.

Math with Ms. Lordan

Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students enter the math room each day eager to begin our time together by writing the date and objectives of the day in their notebooks. Next they contemplate the RAP question(s) of the day. This activity is designed to involve everyone in the study of mathematics immediately upon entering our classroom. RAP is an acronym for Review and Preview. The questions posed often assess students understanding of the objectives from previous lessons or preview their knowledge of the next topic.

SEVENTH GRADE students, many of whom I had the pleasure of having in class last year, are embracing the challenges of the pre-algebra curriculum. Our first unit, number sense, patterns, and algebraic thinking, found us engaged us in performing the four operations with whole numbers, recognizing and extending patterns, performing the order of operations, using mental math and estimation to assess the reasonableness of an answer, finding area and perimeter of rectangles, and applying a four-step plan to solve a variety of problems. Unit two included the study of decimal operations and the ability to compare, order, round, and perform the four operations with decimals. Metric measure and conversion among units completed this unit. As the term ends, we are learning about number theory. Class members enjoy challenging questions and impress me with their desire to solve word problems.

Literature with Ms. Seraichick

The 7th grade began the year by analyzing the plot, theme and characters from their summer readings. As a group we discussed all books and most agreed that Petey and Where the Redfern Grows were their favorites.

During the past week the 7th grade has moved on the first unit in our new anthology Elements of Literature – First Edition. This first unit will include a sampling of prose styles, both fiction and non-fiction. Our first reading was a short autobiographical piece by Amy Tan called Fish Cheeks. In this very brief work Ms. Tan explores the differences between cultures and the cultural pride that she develops through appreciation of her own culture’s richness.

Throughout this unit we will explore literary terms and techniques. Our class will often work in small groups to analyze and discuss our readings in greater detail. Writing assignments and homework on key topics will be given throughout the unit.

Grammar with Ms. Seraichick

In our grammar lessons we have been covering nouns and pronouns. The types of pronouns that we are discussing are personal, relative, demonstrative, and interrogative. Following this unit an assessment test on nouns and pronouns will be given.

Spelling and Vocabulary with Ms. Seraichick

Spelling and vocabulary are important components of the seventh grade curriculum. Vocabulary tests will include definitions as well as using the words in sentences. Word usages testing will be included. The vocabulary words will increasingly come from our literature series as well as from standard PSAT word lists.

Music with Mr. Gannon

The seventh and eighth graders have been discussing “Music and the Media.” We have talked about radio, record companies, and music and television. The class is moving into discussing and producing their very own music video. The project will involve discussing the various roles in producing a video, and they will also compose and perform their own music for the project. This is always a fun, rewarding, and challenging project for both the students and me.

The 7th and 8th Grade Ensemble is off to a great start. We have nine students participating this year on piano, drums, saxophone, and vocals. I am very excited about this year’s group. We will be working towards our first big performance coming in 2010!