Storyteller Visits AMS

Charlotte Blake-Alston, a storyteller from Philadelphia, entertained English ELP students on Wednesday, September 15th. Her melodic voice told stories common to many traditions. She used a Kora, a 21 stringed instrument made out of a large gourd, to enhance her work.  According to Ms. Blake-Alston, the instrument has been played by storytellers in Senegal for 800 years.

Ms. Blake-Alston's visit was made possible by the Story City StoryTelling Festival committee. Students and families interested in hearing more of Ms. Blake Alston's work can visit  Story! Festival,  September 16-19,  2010, in Story City, Iowa.

Interested in Writing? Check This Opportunity Out!

Scholastic Kids 

Press Corps Openings

The Scholastic Kids Press Corps, a group of over 50 student reporters from around the country, has covered everything from the 2008 election to the 2010 Olympics and they are looking for reporters from Iowa. 

Scholastic Kid Reporters deliver news for kids by kids. They report on current events, breaking news, entertainment stories, and sporting events from their hometowns. 

Applicants must be 10-14 years old. Applicants submit an article about what makes their community special, as well as a short essay and story ideas. The SKPC editors select the 2010-2011 Kids Press Corps.  Information about the application process can be found at <www.scholastic.com/kidspress>.  

Nationally Recognized StoryTeller Visits AMS

Charlotte Blake Alston, a Philadelphia-based storyteller, narrator and singer will give a presentation to 7-8 ELP Humanities students on Wednesday, September 15th during second period. 


A former teacher,  Charlotte presents traditional and contemporary stories from  African and African American oral and cultural traditions. Her performances are often enhanced with instruments such as djembe, berimbau, nkoning, mbira, shekere, or the 21-stringed kora.


Ms. Blake Alston is participating in STORY! Celebrating the  Art of Storytelling  from September 16-19th in Story City, Iowa.  Additional information about the festival can be found at < www.STORYfestival.net>. 

September Learning @ Lunch Seminar

Wednesday, September 14, 2010

The Heart of Performance - Building a Better Pump

 Dr. Warren Franke, ISU Kinesiology Department, will talk about what happens to your cardiovascular system (heart, lungs, blood vessels) when you exercise and why, without a better pump, you'll never get faster.  

Bring a hot or cold lunch to the ELP room (E109) during 7th or 8th grade lunch period.  Feel free to bring a friend!

September ELP Lunches

Optical Illusions: 

                                   Visual Trickery

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

7M Team and 8th Grade

Thursday, September 2, 2010

7 S Team and 8th Grade

Join us to explore all types of Optical Illusions! Bring your lunch or pick up hot lunch and join us in room E109. Stop by the ELP Room before lunch and pick up an ELP Lunch pass to speed up the hot lunch process. See you there! 

Words of the Week: August 30, 2010

alacrity  [uh-lak-ri-tee] noun

1. cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness 

2. liveliness; briskness

We accepted the invitation with alacrity.

abscond  [ab-skond] verb

to depart in a sudden and secret manner, esp. to avoid capture and legal prosecution

The cashier absconded with the money.

quotidian   [kwoh-tid-ee-uhn]     adjective

1. daily

2. usual or customary; everyday

3. ordinary; commonplace

Ambika’s quotidian routines include drinking two cups of coffee each morning. 

Back To School Night

You are invited to learn more about the 7-8 Extended Learning Program at 5:30-6:00 on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 prior to 
Back To School Night. Please meet in the Media Center. 
We are looking forward to seeing  you! 

Welcome to the 2010-2011 School Year!

Welcome! We are preparing for the first days of school and excited to begin another school year. We are looking forward to working with all of you.

The 7-8 ELP Collaborative model allows the ELP teachers to work hand in hand with classroom teachers to provide an enriching, challenging learning environment for high ability students. Each year brings different learning needs and many new activities. Rather than a set pull out schedule or curriculum, students rotate in and out of the ELP classroom throughout the year based on classroom performance and learning goals. ELP teachers also spend time in the regular classroom, team teaching with or assisting the regular classroom teacher in differentiated activities. All ELP students begin the year by establishing academic and social goals for the year.

ELP applications are available at the AMS Open House on Friday, August 13th and Monday, August 16th, 2010, Back To School Night on Tuesday, August 31, 2010, and in the Student Services Office, or the ELP Room. Students already participating in the program do NOT need to reapply. New students or students that have NOT participated in the program are welcome to fill out an application.

We will update the blog regularly with what is happening in ELP. Check back often!

Learning @ Lunch Panel Discussion

A panel of ninth grade ELP students from Ames High School will discuss life at Ames High School. Join us for lunch to hear what they have to say about transitioning to high school, classes and extracurricular opportunities.

Thursday, May 13, 2010
8th Grade Lunch
7-8 ELP Room

Summer Opportunity!

Foreign Language Summer Institute

6-8 graders

Studying Chinese language and culture

Two week residential program (July 4-16)

$1,000 summer scholarship

Financial aid is available

http://www.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/old/summer/programs/6-8/flsi/

May Learning @ Lunch Seminar

May ELP Lunch

May ELP Lunch

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

7-8 ELP Room

7-8 ELP Lunch periods

How well can YOU think on your feet?

Come play Charades at the May ELP Lunch and find out!

Charades, a word guessing game, requires creative and analytical thinking along with the ability to act out words.

Guaranteed to make you laugh. Join us for some fun.

Worth Pondering

April ELP Lunch

Calling all poets! Come celebrate National Poetry Month and Poem In Your Pocket Day with the ELP Poetry Slam!

The ELP room will be transformed into a coffeehouse for the 7-8 Lunch periods. Costumes and mood lighting will set the tone for the literary adventure. Bring a poem you would like to share or read one of ours. Musicians welcome!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

7-8 Lunch periods

7-8 ELP Room

8th WordMasters Schedule

Welcome to the final WordMaster session!

Assignments and important dates are listed below. Remember to review your words for a few minutes every day. Compare and contrast the words. Which words have similar meanings? Which words have opposite meanings? Which words are about the same topic? Positive words? Negative words?

Assignments:

Thursday, April 1, 2010: Introduction and Pretest

Thursday, April 8, 2010: Cards 1-12 due

Thursday, April 15, 2010: All 25 cards due

Monday, April 19, 2010: Review Session

Thursday, April 22, 2010: TEST!

7th Grade WordMasters Schedule

We have begun the final session of WordMasters. Students will meet in the ELP room on the days lifted below. Check out the assignments for due dates. Don't forget to bring your WordMaster folders and word cards to class!

Wednesday, March 31: Introduction and pretest

Monday, April 4, 2010: Cards 1-12 due. Compare and contrast first 62 words using clickers

Tuesday, April 13, 2010: Cards 1-25 due. Analogy games and vocabulary review

Wednesday, April 21, 2010: Review for test

Thursday, April 22, 2010: Final WordMaster Test!

7th Grade WordMasters-Blue Division-Final List

The third and final 7th Grade WordMaster list is posted below. Create word cards for each word with the word on one side and the part of speech and definition on the other. Have these ready for class. Review the words a little bit each day. Spend some time comparing and contrasting the words. How would you use these words in analogies?

keystone

absolve

cheeky

retort

waive

cogent

harbinger

filch

predatory

criterion

engender

blatant

censure

infringe

flagrant

scruple

chide

deplorable

accoutrement

remunerate

abhorrent

condiment

sire

ostensible

plunder

8th WordMasters- Gold Division-Third List

Here is the third and final WordMaster List. Create word cards for each word to prepare for class. Compare and contrast meanings. Which words are similar? Which are antonyms?

dogma

rejuvenate

ebullient

peccadillo

impend

crepuscular

maverick

enervate

pedantic

turncoat

forge

delectable

bombast

cosset

rhetorical

qualm

prevaricate

somnolent

maxim

relegate

imminent

convention

dissemble

ostentatious

contrivance

March ELP Lunch - Rubic's Cube Championship

Tuesday, March 23rd

7th and 8th grade lunch

Can YOU solve the cube? Come see if you can earn the title of AMS Rubic's Cube Champion at the March ELP Lunch Rubic's Cube competition or just come and watch the fun! Bring your lunch or pick up hot lunch and meet in the 7-8 ELP room ( E109).

A solution guide to the world famous puzzle is available at rubic'scube.com. The site also has videos to watch that show step by step how to solve the puzzle.

Science Fair Update

Twenty AMS students are conducting research in a wide variety of science fields and preparing to present their findings at the Science Fair of Iowa on March 26 and March 27 at Hilton Coliseum. The twelve research topics range from educational psychology to electrical engineering. A sampling of the questions:

Food Science: Can fiber be added to chocolate chip cookies without changing the flavor?

Electrical Engineering: Is it possible to make an ion lifter that works at low voltages?

Psychology: How does background music (Mozart, hip-hop, and rock) affect short-term memory?

Horticulture: Does gray water inhibit or help the growth of plants?

Aerospace Engineering: How does airfoil shape affect the lift-to-drag ratio?

Important note for participants:

You will find useful information about the fair at http://www.sciencefairofiowa.org/students.html

In particular, see "Writing an ABSTRACT" and "Project Board Design" (pdf version)

We will have a practice session for the Science Fair on March 22 during homeroom in the Media Center. Homerooms will be invited to come see the projects and ask questions about them.

You must be registered online by Monday, March 1 so that the paperwork can be delivered to the Science Fair Director on March 2. Please record your registration number on the SSTFI permission form and turn this form in to Mrs. Dixon.

Research Paper (OPTIONAL)

It should have 6 sections:

1. Introduction: describe your question and why it is interesting.

2. Literature review: background information about your topic that you learned in your reading.

3. Procedure: a complete description of the experiment you designed to answer your question. An explanation of how you analyzed your data.

4. Your conclusions. Do the data support your hypothesis or refute it? Did you find any interesting or unexpected results? Are there new avenues of investigation that you would pursue as a result of your findings? How do your results connect with the larger picture, for instance your research field, society, or the planet?

5. Bibliography. There are binders in the MC with format information.

6. Acknowledgements. Thank the people who have helped you to conduct the research, particularly if you have had outside help (eg. from ISU students and staff) or unusual help within the school.

Attention Science Fair Participants

The March 1, 2010 deadline is fast approaching!

Please turn the following information into

Mrs. Dixon (or Mrs. Dixon's mailbox) as soon as possible.

1. All paperwork(forms)

2. Research Plan (must be typed and follow the format)

A. Questions

B. Hypothesis

C. Procedure and Data Analysis

D. Bibliography

3. Research paper (optional but needed if you want to give a seminar)

8th Grade Second Trimester Goal Session-AHS Registration

Eighth grade students will meet with Mrs. Dixon or Mrs. Staniforth on Wednesday, February 24th and Thursday, February 25th to discuss ELP at Ames High School, Honors and AP classes and acceleration procedures.

Acceleration applications are to be turned in to the 7-8 ELP mailboxes or teachers by Tuesday, March 2, 2010. Honors class applications should be turned in with their high school registration materials.

WordMaster Test!

Just a reminder that the WordMaster test for 7th and 8th grade students will be held on Tuesday, February 23rd in the Media Center.

There are many effective methods for studying for this test. Need some ideas? Try one of the methods below one day and another the next. Remember that frequent review, rather than one long study session, will help store the words in your long-term memory.

1. Use your word cards and have someone quiz you on the definitions.

2. Group the words. Which words go together? Do they have similar meanings? Opposite meanings? How can they connect?

3. Review the analogy patterns that WordMasters uses. Can you make analogies using the 50 words?

4. Tired of review? Visit the Wordles website to create word art with the word and words connected to the definition. This may help you to remember words.

5. Use the VisuWord website to reinforce definitions and see how words are connected.

Iowa Governor's Institute on Leadership-Summer Opportunity

The Iowa Governor's Institute for the Gifted and Talented (IGI) is a one-week residential program at the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa for 36 of the top 7th-8th grade students in Iowa. "Leadership for Students that Want to Make a Difference"is the focus of the week study.

Students nominate themselves for the Institute. Application forms are available at the Belin Blank Center website . Students fill out an application form, write an essay, and get two teacher recommendations. Applications must be postmarked by March 18th. Notice that the deadline is during spring break. Please ask for teacher recommendations before conference week.

Please see Mrs. Staniforth or Mrs. Dixon if you have any questions.

website for application and information: http://www.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/old/summer/programs/6-8/igi/

ELP

8th Grade WordMaster Words for Session II-Gold Division

penance
denounce
tenuous
entreaty
divine
resplendent
paroxysm
redolent
jargon
retrench
prepossessing
exculpate
milieu
vitiate
fetid
reprobate
extol
obsequious
libel
pontificate
winsome
retrospect
vilify
banal
sycophant
entreat
fetor
banality
denunciation
retrenchment
pontification
libelous
vilification
divination
sycophancy
exculpatory

8th Grade WordMasters-Session II Due Dates

8th WordMasters Session II Due Dates

PHYSICAL: ENVIRONMENT :: SOCIAL : _____________________________________________
a. cloister b. jargon c. interstice d. milieu e. bastion

The second session of 8th grade WordMasters begins on Tuesday, February 2,2010.

Due dates for Session II are as follows:

Tuesday, February 9, 2010:
Word cards for words 1-12 due at the beginning of class
Tuesday, February 16, 2010:
Word Cards for words 13-25 due at the beginning of class
February 23, 2010:TEST
Test over all 50 words (first and second list)

7th WordMaster Words-Sesion II

raiment
transgress
ardent
mediator
insinuate
benign
minutiae
atone
incensed
hovel
rail
surreptitious
nomad
discharge
rapacious
subterfuge
encroach
itinerant
miser
attest
salutary
vestige
defray
blasé
feint

7th WordsMaster- Session II

7th grade ELP students begin the second session of WordMasters on Thursday, January 28th. They earned a team score (the top ten scores become our school score) of 168/200 points. The median score nationally was 101. Nearly 27,000 students from 289 schools competed in the event.

The 7th grade WordMaster schedule is as follows:
Thursday, January 28th: Introduction to next 25 words
Thursday, February 4th: First 12 word cards due
Thursday, February 11th: All 25 word cards due
Thursday, February 23th: WordMaster Test in Media Center

February ELP Lunch: Can YOU Solve the Rubik's Cube?

Ever wanted to know how to solve the Rubik's Cube? Join us for the February ELP Lunch to learn more about the famous puzzle. Bring your own cube (label it with your name please!) or use one of ours.
Date: February 4: 7th grade
February 2: 8th Grade

Archive-It/ Library of Congress Project

Thirteen AMS 8th grade students were selected to archive websites for Archive-It and the Library of Congress. Students meet during homeroom once a week to select sites to archive. The project creates a snapshot of websites typically used by adolescents for school or for fun. All archived sites will be stored at Archive-It and the Library of Congress forever. The sites they have archived and additional information about the project, can be viewed at the Archive-It web site http://archive-it.org/k12/.

December ELP Lunch

Students created three dimesional geometric shapes out of paper plates.

National Geographic Bee @ AMS

Seventh and eighth grade students have participated in the class portion of the National Geographic Bee in Social Studies class in December and early January. The team bees will be held on Wednesday, January 20th. Students should meet in the 7-8 ELP room at the beginning of the period. Teachers have been notified of the contest participants.

Welcome to the AMS-ELP Blog for grades 7 and 8!

Welcome!
Visit the 7-8 ELP Blog to learn what is happening each month in ELP. Information about class activities, ELP Lunches, Learning @ Lunch presentations, and contests will be updated regularly. Check back often!