Science & Language Arts 2026-27
Semester 1: Chemistry of Life, Invertebrates, Cells
Semester 2: Genetics and Fungi /invertebrates continued
2027-28 is the study of Botany and Ecology. 2028-29 is the study Zoology. 2029-30 is the study of Human Anatomy and Physiology
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MATH
Math 8 + HPA & Math 7 both are on Tuesdays from Sept 1-Dec 8 (14 weeks)
Hybrid Math 7 1st Tuesdays (Sept 1, Oct 6, Nov 3, Dec 1)
Sci-LA is Sept 1/2-Nov 17/18 (12 weeks). Note SCI -LA ends the week before Thanksgiving unless we need a make up day, which we do.
The make up week is right after Thanksgiving: Dec 1 & 2.
Real Life Farm Science & Poetry Analysis happen Sept-October 22 (8 weeks). Make up week is October 29
Thanksgiving Break is the week of November 24.
Winter Break December 9-Monday January 4
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Here’s the PDF for the spring
DATES
14-week classes (math) are from January 5 – April 27
12-week classes (Sci-LA) are from January 5/6 – April 13/14
BREAKS
February Break is 2/15-19
Spring Break is two weeks: 2 weeks from March 22 through April 2.
MAKE-UP CLASSES
Sci-LA make-up day if needed is 4/20. Math make-ups if needed are double classes on 4/20 or 4/27 whichever is available: Math 8+HPA from 9 to 12:30 pm. Math 7 from 1:30 to 4:45.
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Bring shoes you can step in manure in. Rain boots or muck boots. You don’t have to wear them the entire time but you can change into them as needed.
Overcast weather = cold weather because damp air feels colder. To stay warm on overcast days bring: layers - hoodie, beanie, scarf, gloves, thicker socks and pants, thermos with warm liquid, a beach blanket (I’ll store that here for you!)
Hot weather:
Bring bug spray.
Bring a hat and a water bottle,
bandana for dipping in cool water and placing it around your neck.
Loose fitting breathable clothes.
Rain in the forecast: on any day with rain in the La Mesa forecast, Sci-LA students must have
rain boots,
a rain coat or rain poncho,
and spare set of socks.
Sci-LA Students without this essential gear will not be allowed to be dropped off because we will be doing farm work and projects in the rain, playing in the rain. Wet kids are cold kids who are not learning and certainly aren't having fun. Tips on rain gear are here on the supplies page.
(Rain gear is not as essential for math classes as you'll just get wet at recess IF you choose to play in the rain. )
Upcoming Due Dates
Week 9 - October 27/28 Personal Narrative Essay final draft due
Week 10 - November 3 /4 Invertebrate Oral Presentation due
WEEK 12 November 10/11 Essay version of Invertebrate presentation due
October 27, Week 9 of 13
Print the checklists.
Check in with your parents by showing them your work 2-3 times a week.
Then as you finish each piece, put it in your binder in your backpack.
The day before your class, check your binder and checklist with a parent to make sure you have everything IN YOUR BINDER, not on the printer or on your desk.
Biology HW checklist for week 9
English Language Arts HW week 9 check list (book club is embedded in this for this week only)
More details are on the book club and biology pages.
CLASSWORK SUMMARY for 10/27 and 28
Summer Birthdays!
Daily Observation + choosing hen names
Biology: Notetaking on biological or macro-molecules continued (this is advanced HS biology)
Writing/ELA - personal narrative:
Self-assess
Writing groups read each other’s work and give feedback
Writing/biology - invertebrate presentation — writing groups discuss rough drafts and give feedback— Final draft is due next week (Week 11)
Book Club-what is the difference between fantasy and sci-fi genres? what elements do they share? What are subgenres? How do we learn about a character’s traits? What’s the difference between a topic and a theme? Book club discussion
Farm Work- harvesting limes— how to tell if a lime is ripe, mulberry leaves, pineapple guavas and kale for cows, mulch for pens — wet weather prep, milking stanchion, training hens to come for food and let us touch them as a precursor to picking them up (we talked about desensitization last week), feeding rabbit
Writing Dates
Personal Narrative
R-BOSS timing (R is for read the prompt, B is for brainstorm/gather information, O is for organize, S is for start writing a rough draft, S is for see with new eyes i.e. revise.).
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt & brainstorming for personal narrative
Week 5 - September 29/30 Settle on one prompt, brainstorm, organize
Week 6 - Sci-LA cancelled due to extreme heat
Week 7 October 13/14 Start writing (rough draft) - email typed draft to Ms. Lisa by Monday 9 am
Week 8 - October 20/21 See with new eyes - (re-vision)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Final draft typed and turned in.
Invertebrate Oral Presentation + Essay at end
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt and brainstorm/gather information - introduction to phylum diversity, gathering books and what’s a credible online source
Week 5 - September 1-23 Brainstorm/gather info: how to take notes from sources
Week 6 -October 6/7 cancelled due to extreme heat
Week 7 - October 13/14 Organize my information
Week 8 - October 20/21 Start writing/creating: Rough draft of presentation (poster? model with labels? puppet show? song with photos?)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Writing/creating in class. Practice delivering presentation (eye contact, body, voice)
Week 10 - November 3 /4 Deliver Invertebrate Presentation to class
Week 11 - November 10/11 Start turning presentation into short essay - write rough draft — email to Ms. Lisa
Week 12 - November 17/18 Revise in class. Type up in class (bring lap top to class.) Final draft due 11/17.
Week 13 - December 1 /2 (After Thanksgiving) Last class of semester - this is our make up class for week 6, Oct 6 & 7.
Possible bonus field trip to see the invertebrate collection at The Nat date to be determined.
*We skipped week 6 so we now have 13 weeks in our semester.
Helpful Forms & Handouts
GENERAL FORMS:
POETRY & LITERARY ANALYSIS:
Textual evidence chart: PDF version here,
WRITING & Vocab
https://www.mybib.com - version MLA9 to generate the works cited page,
Theme Paragraph Template/Outline,
Use the Dirty Dozen editing check list to edit and proofread your essay.
personal challenge essay rubric from PCA
Persuasive or Argumentative Position Poster or essay Essay Rubric (grading standards) is here (from PCA)
October 20, Week 8 of 13*
Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians or Steelheart for some students on Tuesday, the reading and vocabulary work is much easier and faster, but still interesting.
Biology HW check list for week 8. Focus is on getting a rough draft of invertebrate presentation/starting the actual visual component & macro-molecules or bio-molecules.
English Language Arts HW week 8 check list
Important: staple your rough draft, my printed feed back for it, the revision and editing checklist which I gave you in class on 10/20-21 to your FINAL DRAFT. I need to see all of these.
Book club discussion questions Alcatraz chp 1-4/
More details are on the book club and biology pages.
CLASSWORK SUMMARY
Daily Observation + meeting the Serama hens and the turtle
Biology: Notetaking on biological or macro-molecules
Writing - personal narrative:
reading more samples and discussing what make them effective narratives
Writing groups read each other’s work and give feedback
Revision Checklist for content and organization — working on revising (I emailed feedback to every student who turned in their essay by 9 am on Monday)
Book Club-Discussion of chp 6 of How we Got to Now
Farm Work- harvesting pineapple guavas and kale for cows, mulch for pens — wet weather prep
Writing Dates
Personal Narrative
R-BOSS timing (R is for read the prompt, B is for brainstorm/gather information, O is for organize, S is for start writing a rough draft, S is for see with new eyes i.e. revise.).
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt & brainstorming for personal narrative
Week 5 - September 29/30 Settle on one prompt, brainstorm, organize
Week 6 - Sci-LA cancelled due to extreme heat
Week 7 October 13/14 Start writing (rough draft) - email typed draft to Ms. Lisa by Monday 9 am
Week 8 - October 20/21 See with new eyes - (re-vision)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Final draft typed and turned in.
Invertebrate Oral Presentation + Essay at end
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt and brainstorm/gather information - introduction to phylum diversity, gathering books and what’s a credible online source
Week 5 - September 1-23 Brainstorm/gather info: how to take notes from sources
Week 6 -October 6/7 cancelled due to extreme heat
Week 7 - October 13/14 Organize my information
Week 8 - October 20/21 Start writing/creating: Rough draft of presentation (poster? model with labels? puppet show? song with photos?)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Writing/creating in class. Practice delivering presentation (eye contact, body, voice)
Week 10 - November 3 /4 Deliver Invertebrate Presentation to class
Week 11 - November 10/11 Start turning presentation into short essay - write rough draft — email to Ms. Lisa
Week 12 - November 17/18 Revise in class. Type up in class (bring lap top to class.) Final draft due 11/17.
Week 13 - December 1 /2 (After Thanksgiving) Last class of semester - this is our make up class for week 6, Oct 6 & 7.
Possible bonus field trip to see the invertebrate collection at The Nat date to be determined.
*We skipped week 6 so we now have 13 weeks in our semester.
Helpful Forms & Handouts
GENERAL FORMS:
POETRY & LITERARY ANALYSIS:
Textual evidence chart: PDF version here,
WRITING & Vocab
https://www.mybib.com - version MLA9 to generate the works cited page,
Theme Paragraph Template/Outline,
Use the Dirty Dozen editing check list to edit and proofread your essay.
personal challenge essay rubric from PCA
Persuasive or Argumentative Position Poster or essay Essay Rubric (grading standards) is here (from PCA)
October 13, Week 7 of 13 (we skipped week 6 so we now have 13 weeks in our semester)
Students may bring a charged laptop to class on week 8 for personal narrative revisions.
We are almost finished with the hardest part of the entire year! Once we start our next book club book Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians or Steelheart for some students on Tuesday, the reading and vocabulary work is much easier and faster, but still interesting.
Biology HW check list week 7 focus on organizing your invertebrate presentation
English Language Arts HW week 7 check list - this list mistakenly says “Time” instead of “Light” chapter - we are finishing the book. AND I’ve invited students to do something by candlelight— eat dinner perhaps- this week to really grasp how phenomenal the switch from candles and oil lamps to gas and electricity was.
Book club discussion questions chp 6: Light & the afterward actual book club page.
Below is an explanation of what’s on the check lists ;) More details are on the book club page and biology page.
Type up your rough draft of the personal narrative which you wrote by hand in class.
You can add to it at home before you type it up if you didn’t have a chance to write it all in class.
Formatting: 12 pt font, 1 inch margins, double spaced. I am NOT looking at grammar, punctuation etc, just your ideas and organization.
Email the rough draft to Ms. Lisa by Monday morning at 9 am. Lisa.Clark.Burnell@gmail.com. The subject line should be your name: personal narrative rough draft.
Get your next book club book. We’ll start reading it WEEK 8.
for TUESDAY Sci-LA the book club options are Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians OR Steelheart for my four students who studied Alcatraz with me long ago! Both sci-fi novels are by Brandon Sanderson.
for WEDNESDAY, we are just reading Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians.
Word Work: make flashcards for the remaining 15 words of the 30 words from How We Got to Now which we voted on. Then quiz yourself on them— that’s the point of flashcards. ( HERE is the blank list we worked on in class and HERE is the list with definitions and sentences.) You probably already have some of these 30 words in your personalized deck of vocabulary and stems already. Re-use those existing flash cards if you have them.
10 CLASS STEMS: spectare, chron, mono, auto, astro, therm, sub, micro, terra, trans
20 CLASS VOCABULARY WORDS: dire, versatile, transformative, inaugurate, censorious, unorthodox, penchant, magnitude, reverberation, amplify, ethereal, multifarious, idiosyncrasy, tumult, abate, miasma, leviathan, empirical, encumbered, incontrovertible
Biology: Week 7 Visit our Biology Week 7-8 page for details.
ORGANIZE: Examine your invertebrate notes. Which ones are important to use? What order should the go in?
Decide on how you want to present: poster? poem? song? puppet show? skit? diorama? There needs to be both a visual and oral (you speaking or singing) component.
Book Club: How We Got to Now Chp 6 Questions are due next week, Oct20/21 PDF OF BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS chp 6
CLASSWORK SUMMARY
Daily Observation
Biology:
experiments demonstrating capillary action and expansion when in a solid state.
Directed notetaking on traits of creatures in the phylum Mollusca continued
Writing - personal narrative:
rough draft
Adding dialogue to make it interesting — reading student samples
How to punctuate dialogue - deriving punctuation for dialogue rules
Quick writing conference with Ms. Lisa— next week
Book Club - preview of chp 6. Discussion of chp 5
Farm Work- preparing farm habitats for bantam chickens from Morgan!
Writing Dates
Personal Narrative
R-BOSS timing (R is for read the prompt, B is for brainstorm/gather information, O is for organize, S is for start writing a rough draft, S is for see with new eyes i.e. revise.).
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt & brainstorming for personal narrative
Week 5 - September 29/30 Settle on one prompt, brainstorm, organize
Week 6 - Sci-LA cancelled due to extreme heat
Week 7 October 13/14 Start writing (rough draft) - email typed draft to Ms. Lisa by Monday 9 am
Week 8 - October 20/21 See with new eyes - (re-vision)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Final draft typed and turned in.
Invertebrate Oral Presentation + Essay at end
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt and brainstorm/gather information - introduction to phylum diversity, gathering books and what’s a credible online source
Week 5 - September 1-23 Brainstorm/gather info: how to take notes from sources
Week 6 -October 6/7 cancelled due to extreme heat
Week 7 - October 13/14 Organize my information
Week 8 - October 20/21 Start writing/creating: Rough draft of presentation (poster? model with labels? puppet show? song with photos?)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Writing/creating in class. Practice delivering presentation (eye contact, body, voice)
Week 10 - November 3 /4 Deliver Invertebrate Presentation to class
Week 11 - November 10/11 Start turning presentation into short essay - write rough draft — email to Ms. Lisa
Week 12 - November 17/18 Revise in class. Type up in class (bring lap top to class.) Final draft due 11/17.
Week 13 - December 1 /2 (After Thanksgiving) Last class of semester - this is our make up class for week 6, Oct 6 & 7.
Possible bonus field trip to see the invertebrate collection at The Nat date to be determined.
Helpful Forms & Handouts
GENERAL FORMS:
POETRY & LITERARY ANALYSIS:
Textual evidence chart: PDF version here,
WRITING & Vocab
https://www.mybib.com - version MLA9 to generate the works cited page,
Theme Paragraph Template/Outline,
Use the Dirty Dozen editing check list to edit and proofread your essay.
personal challenge essay rubric from PCA
Persuasive or Argumentative Position Poster or essay Essay Rubric (grading standards) is here (from PCA)
September 29 & 30, Week 5 of 12
We cancelled Week 6 due to extreme heat for non-math classes. Thus all this work is due week 7, October 13/14.
Biology HW check list week 5 focus on special properties of water
English Language Arts HW wk 5 check list
Book club discussion questions chp 5 If you got ahead last week and already did these you can take a break or tackle the last chapter, chp 6 and those discussion questions which are listed on our actual book club page.
Below is an explanation of what’s on the check lists ;) More details are on the book club page and biology page.
Get your nextbook club book. We’ll start reading it WEEK 7.
for TUESDAY Sci-LA the book club options are Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians OR Steelheart for my three students who studied Alcatraz with me long ago! Both sci-fi novels are by Brandon Sanderson.
for WEDNESDAY, we are just reading Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians.
Word Work: we voted on 30 words and stems from weeks 1-3 to focus on as a class for the last weeks of this book. We are creating a flashcard deck for all 30 words. This week make flashcards for 15 words. Then quiz yourself on them. We will have started that in class. ( HERE is the blank list we worked on in class and HERE is the list with definitions and sentences.) You probably already have some of these 30 words in your personalized deck of vocabulary and stems already. Re-use those existing flash cards if you have them.
10 CLASS STEMS: spectare, chron, mono, auto, astro, therm, sub, micro, terra, trans
20 CLASS VOCABULARY WORDS: dire, versatile, transformative, inaugurate, censorious, unorthodox, penchant, magnitude, reverberation, amplify, ethereal, multifarious, idiosyncrasy, tumult, abate, miasma, leviathan, empirical, encumbered, incontrovertible
Biology: Week 5 Focus on special properties of water PDF HW 5 biology Checklist Visit our Biology Week 4-5 page for details.
IF YOU WANT TO USE my NOTETAKING FORM to organize your INVERTEBRATE NOTES it’s here underlined or go to the ACTUAL BIOLOGY WEEK 4-5 PAGE to get the form (I can’t link a pdf, which is what the HW check list is, to another pdf, which is also what the notetaking form is. The check list is copied and pasted from the Biology page so that link dies when I copy it….)
Book Club: How We Got to Now Chp 5 Questions are due next week, Oct 6/7. PDF OF BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS chp 5
CLASSWORK SUMMARY
Community building- celebrating August and mid-September birthdays
Word Analysis: Latin and Greek Stems - working together to create quick definitions for our 30 whole-class words.
Drop Everything and Write (DEW) - last three brainstorming prompts for the personal narrative
Biology: special properties of water. One of two experiments demonstrating capillary action and expansion when in a solid state. Second experiment will happen next week
Writing - personal narrative — , brainstorm, organize- quick writing conference with Ms. Lisa
Book Club - preview of chp 6. Discussion of chp 5 will happen next week. We just read ½ of Chp 5 this week.
Farm Work- preparing farm habitats for rain and for bantam chickens!
Writing Dates
Personal Narrative
R-BOSS timing (R is for read the prompt, B is for brainstorm/gather information, O is for organize, S is for start writing a rough draft, S is for see with new eyes i.e. revise.).
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt & brainstorming for personal narrative
Week 5 - September 29/30 Settle on one prompt, brainstorm, organize
Week 6 - Sci-LA cancelled due to extreme heat
Week 7 October 13/14 Start writing (rough draft)
Week 8 - October 20/21 See with new eyes - (re-vision)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Final draft typed and turned in.
Invertebrate Oral Presentation + Essay at end
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt and brainstorm/gather information - introduction to phylum diversity, gathering books and what’s a credible online source
Week 5 - September 1-23 Brainstorm/gather info: how to take notes from sources
Week 6 -October 6/7 cancelled due to extreme heat
Week 7 - October 13/14 Organize my information
Week 8 - October 20/21 Start writing/creating: Rough draft of presentation (poster? model with labels? puppet show? song with photos?)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Writing/creating in class. Practice delivering presentation (eye contact, body, voice)
Week 10 - November 3 /4 Deliver Invertebrate Presentation to class
Week 11 - November 10/11 Start turning presentation into short essay - write rough draft — email to Ms. Lisa
Week 12 - November 17/18 Revise in class. Type up in class (bring lap top to class.) Final draft due 11/17.
Week 13 - December 1 /2 (After Thanksgiving) Last class of semester - this is our make up class for week 6, Oct 6 & 7.
Possible bonus field trip to see the invertebrate collection at The Nat date to be determined.
Helpful Forms & Handouts
GENERAL FORMS: Table of Contents
POETRY & LITERARY ANALYSIS:
Textual evidence chart: PDF version here,
WRITING & Vocab
https://www.mybib.com - version MLA9 to generate the works cited page,
Theme Paragraph Template/Outline,
Use the Dirty Dozen editing check list to edit and proofread your essay.
personal challenge essay rubric from PCA
Persuasive or Argumentative Position Poster or essay Essay Rubric (grading standards) is here (from PCA)
September 22 & 23, Week 4 of 12
Word Work: we voted on 30 words and stems from weeks 1-3 to focus on as a class for the last weeks of this book. This week, study your personal set of vocabulary and stems flash cards. Next week we’ll start working on adding these to you flash card deck.
10 CLASS STEMS: spectare, chron, mono, auto, astro, therm, sub, micro, terra, trans
20 CLASS VOCABULARY WORDS: dire, versatile, transformative, inaugurate, censorious, unorthodox, penchant, magnitude, reverberation, amplify, ethereal, multifarious, idiosyncrasy, tumult, abate, miasma, leviathan, empirical, encumbered, incontrovertible
Biology: Week 4 Focus on Mollusks! PDF HW 4 biology Checklist Visit our Biology Week 4 page for details.
IF YOU WANT TO USE my NOTETAKING FORM to organize your INVERTEBRATE NOTES it’s here underlined or go to the ACTUAL BIOLOGY WEEK4-5 PAGE to get the form (I can’t link a pdf, which is what the HW check list is, to another pdf, which is also what the notetaking form is. The check list is copied from the Biology page and that link dies when I copy it….)
Book Club: How We Got to Now Start working on Chp 5 Questions, but they aren’t due until Week 6 as we are taking 2 weeks to read this chapter. PDF OF BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS chp 5
Cool El Nino resources from Scripps if you are curious about this weather pattern and its impact on our region and ocean
CLASSWORK SUMMARY
Community building- celebrating August and mid-September birthdays
Word Analysis: Latin and Greek Stems - selecting words for next three 3 weeks - voting
Daily Observation
Biology: REVIEW: shared crossword puzzles or model of chemical bonding for review. NEW: Phylum Mollusca directed notetaking
Writing - personal narrative — Examining the writing prompt via R-BOSS (read, brainstorm, organize, start writing, see with new eyes.) Analyzing (read) prompt and brainstorming.
Book Club - discussed our written discussion questions for chp 3 or 4 How We Got To Now: clean or sound. What makes a good hook? A good transition? Shared our diagrams of the author’s cause and effect claims as well as our research if we explored a topic from the book as one of our questions.
Farm Work- preparing farm habitats for rain: cattle corral levelling to prevent water pooling which can contribute to hoof rot, breeding sites for flies and mosquitoes, and smell.
Writing Dates
Personal Narrative
R-BOSS timing (R is for read the prompt, B is for brainstorm/gather information, O is for organize, S is for start writing a rough draft, S is for see with new eyes i.e. revise.).
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt & brainstorming for personal narrative
Week 5 - September 29/30 Settle on one prompt, brainstorm, organize
Week 6 - October 6/7 Start writing (rough draft)
Week 7 - October 13/14 See with new eyes - (re-vision)
Week 8 - October 20/21 Final draft typed and turned in.
Invertebrate Oral Presentation + Essay at end
Weeks 1-4 September 1-23 Read the prompt and brainstorm/gather information - introduction to phylum diversity, gathering books and what’s a credible online source
Week 5 - September 1-23 Brainstorm/gather info: how to take notes from sources
Week 6 -October 6/7 Organize my information
Week 7 - October 13/14 Start writing/creating: Rough draft of presentation (poster? model with labels? puppet show? song with photos?) 1
Week 8 - October 20/21 Writing/creating in class. Practice delivering presentation (eye contact, body, voice)
Week 9 - October 27/28 Deliver Invertebrate Presentation to class
Week 10 - November 3 /4 Start turning presentation into short essay - write rough draft — email to Ms. Lisa
Week 11 - November 10/11 Revise in class. Type up in class (bring lap top to class.) Final draft due 11/17.
Week 12 - November 17/18 Last class of semester.
Possible bonus field trip to see the invertebrate collection at The Nat date to be determined
Helpful Forms & Handouts
GENERAL FORMS: Table of Contents
POETRY & LITERARY ANALYSIS:
Textual evidence chart: PDF version here,
WRITING & Vocab
https://www.mybib.com - version MLA9 to generate the works cited page,
Theme Paragraph Template/Outline,
Use the Dirty Dozen editing check list to edit and proofread your essay.
personal challenge essay rubric from PCA
Persuasive or Argumentative Position Poster or essay Essay Rubric (grading standards) is here (from PCA)
September 15 & 16, Week 3 of 12
Tip: print the book club and biology HW check lists.
Word Work: To simplify HW, we are switching to just working on stems and vocabulary from our book club book. We will save our alphabetical stems for spring semester. See Book Club page and PDF for vocabulary assignment.
Biology: Week 3 PDF HW 3 biology Checklist Visit our Biology page for details.
Shorter reading modification for students who need a modified reading assignment: ACE Chp 5 page 44-53. This reviews what we did in class today.
Book Club: How We Got to Now PDF OF BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS HERE Visit our book club page for details
Bonus: create an ocean box/diorama for your anemone and future invertebrate ocean clay creatures
CLASSWORK SUMMARY
Community building, class culture expectations and what actions we need to take to achieve those
Word Analysis: Latin and Greek Stems —TUESDAY: review teams game using last week’s homework flash cards WEDNESDAY: worked on 4 stems chosen in class by students
Daily Observation
Biology: NEW: Atoms and molecules directed notetaking and model building
Writing - personal narrative — Examining the writing prompt via R-BOSS (read, brainstorm, organize, start writing, see with new eyes.) Responding to another possible prompt. Next week we’ll choose a topic for our personal narrative essay.
Book Club - discussed our written discussion questions for chp 2 How We Got To Now: COLD. Shared our diagrams of the the author’s cause and effect claims. PARENTS: you are welcome partner read this book with your students! Or get an audio book.
Farm Work
Helpful Forms & Handouts
GENERAL FORMS: Table of Contents
POETRY & LITERARY ANALYSIS:
Textual evidence chart: PDF version here,
WRITING & Vocab
https://www.mybib.com - version MLA9 to generate the works cited page,
Theme Paragraph Template/Outline,
Use the Dirty Dozen editing check list to edit and proofread your essay.
personal challenge essay rubric from PCA
Persuasive or Argumentative Position Poster or essay Essay Rubric (grading standards) is here (from PCA)
September 8 & 9, Week 2 of 12
Tip: print the book club, stems, and biology check lists for a general Sci-LA HW checklist.
YOU’LL BE ABLE TO SHOW ME BONUS WORK FOR WEEK 1 & 2 NEXT WEEK FOR EXCELLENT LEARNING HABITS TICKETS if you didn’t get a chance to do so today
Word Work: on even weeks we work on our alphabetical Latin and Greek stems. THERE IS NO PRE-MADE CHECK LIST FOR THE STEMS BUT YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN BY CUTTING AND PASTING FROM OUR STEMS WEBPAGE— SEE BELOW.
Week 2 - Set 1: A’s on this STEMS page Print out the week’s flash card set. Cut the flash cards out OR make your own. (Note: hand writing something makes you much more likely to remember it. If you don’t choose to make the card yourself, you should color it. In class we’ll make the front of the card together. Note: Sets 1-3 include some review for veteran Farm Schoolers.
Biology: Week 2 PDF HW biology Checklist Visit our Biology page for details.
Book Club: How We Got to Now PDF OF BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS HERE Visit our book club page for details
Bonus: create an ocean box/diorama for your anemone and future invertebrate ocean clay creatures
CLASSWORK SUMMARY
Community building, class culture expectations
Word Analysis: Latin and Greek Stems —review game using last week’s homework flash cards, preview new alphabetical cards
Daily Observation / Drop Everything and Write (D.O./D.E.W.) - — another personal narrative set of writing prompts to prepare us to start writing our personal narratives next week.
Biology:
REVIEW: Bingo from HW Ace chp 3 & SONG– “All Living Things”
NEW Classification DKPCOBFGS - handout, create own memory trick
NEW: Introduction to these invertebrates
NEW: Cnidarians - (sponges, corals, anemones, jellies, starfish, urchins, sand dollars, sea cucumbers) with a focus on sea anemones. Activities: directed note taking and created a clay anemone or stinging cell.
Farm Work - learning animal husbandry and harvesting while socializing — we work in teams— we did this super fast as it was HOT.
Writing - personal narrative — responding to one of three writing prompts to brainstorm ideas about possible topic for a personal narrative essay
Book Club - discussed our written discussion questiosn & previewed chp 2 Glass of How We Got To Now: COLD. PARENTS: you are welcome partner read this book with your students! Or get an audio book.
Helpful Forms & Handouts
GENERAL FORMS: Table of Contents
POETRY & LITERARY ANALYSIS:
Textual evidence chart: PDF version here,
WRITING & Vocab
https://www.mybib.com - version MLA9 to generate the works cited page,
Theme Paragraph Template/Outline,
Use the Dirty Dozen editing check list to edit and proofread your essay.
personal challenge essay rubric from PCA
Persuasive or Argumentative Position Poster or essay Essay Rubric (grading standards) is here (from PCA)
9/9 Wednesday Sci-LA classes will start at 9 am to avoid heat stress.
9-1 pm Sci -LA
1-2 pm for 2nd Wednesday Math Support
September 1st & 2nd, Week 1 of 12
Tip: Copy and paste this then print it out to make a simple checklist.
You’ll need to refer back to the Book Club page and Biology page for additional details like word lists, or print the pdf which has word lists, but this will give you a general checklist.
Book Club: How We Got to Nowpdf of questions and word work hereVisit our book club page for details
Week 1 Reading = Intro and Chp 1 Glass
Response to reading (Discussion Questions)
Word work (stems and vocab)
Biology: Week 1pdf of quick checklist of this biology homework here. Visit our Biology page for details.
Reading Biology Foundations Workbook chp 1.2 “Science in Context: Lesson Summary” — you do NOT need to fill out the chart. You are simply reading pages 4-6 in our soft cover workbook.
Study Week 1 concepts by reading HS: Everything You Need to Ace Biology chp 3 (nicknamed “Ace”). (The middle school version is chp 28 )
Create 5x5 IS IT ALIVE? Bingo Board using these vocabulary from HS: Everything You Need to Ace Biology (ACE) chp 3 include a FREE SPACE: cells, stimuli, life functions, growth, reproduction, asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction, nutrients, autotrophs, heterotrophs, metabolism, digestion, cellular respiration, circulation, synthesis, excretion, regulation, homeostasis, adaption. (We will add a few more words to this board next week Any size paper is fine as long as you have room to write super short definitions.)
Watch Amoeba Sisters: Characteristics of Life BONUS- take notes for additional Excellent Learning Habits Tickets. If you watched this last week (when I had the wrong video linked, watch Claims, Evidence, Reason instead
Watch this 2 minute video “Diversity of Invertebrates” to pique your interest in different invertebrates. Decide which invertebrate you want to learn more about.
List three invertebrates you find interesting. Go to your local library website (https://www.sdcl.org/newchapter/) and search to see what books are available on one or two of the invertebrates you are interested in. Put a hold on some books. Plan a trip to the library for next week.
Preview for next week: prepare your brain to learn about invertebrates next week- watch Amoeba Sisters: Tour of 9 phyla
CLASSWORK SUMMARY
Community building, class overview, safety, class culture expectations
Word Analysis: Latin and Greek Stems — how to make flash cards (making a few together). Where to find this week’s stems and vocabulary list (on the book club page)
Daily Observation / Drop Everything and Write (D.O./D.E.W.) - why we do daily observation time— quiet time to reflect, listen, smell, touch, sketch, measure, observe, write: never in history has our world been so loud, so frenetic, and urbanized. This 10-15 minutes of quiet time to be fully present in the moment and observe the natural world around us or just hear our own thoughts is a rare gift I give to our students. The benefits of such reflective time in nature are well studied. Such time yields cognitive, emotional, and physical benefits, including increased self -regulation, improved cognition and attention, increased generousity, happiness & positive social interactions, decreased anxiety, stress, and incidence of mental illness. Time to be still enables us to think deeply.
Biology:
What is science and how is it done? Question, Hypothesis, Test (mimicry study of coral snake and king snake)-) Experimental Design variables and controls, applying CER (claim, evidence, reason).
What are the characteristics of life?
Team: Activity: Going to Mars: how will you identify life? & Introduction: SONG – All Living things.
Lecture & directed note taking in our Biology Foundations Workbook 1.3 “Patterns of Life” pg 7”
Farm Work - learning animal husbandry and harvesting while socializing — we work in teams.
Writing - personal narrative — responding to one of three writing prompts to brainstorm ideas about possible topic for a personal narrative essay
Book Club - preview of introduction & chp 1 Glass of How We Got To Now: humming bird effect, building prior knowledge about the Renaissance (concept of individualism arises whereas Western communities were previously more community, church, family centered.) How to find the HW for the book club and how to manage one’s time during the week to get this done. PARENTS: you are welcome partner read this book with your students! Or get an audio book.
Helpful Forms & Handouts
GENERAL FORMS: Table of Contents
POETRY & LITERARY ANALYSIS:
Textual evidence chart: PDF version here,
WRITING & Vocab
https://www.mybib.com - version MLA9 to generate the works cited page,
Theme Paragraph Template/Outline,
Use the Dirty Dozen editing check list to edit and proofread your essay.
personal challenge essay rubric from PCA
Persuasive or Argumentative Position Poster or essay Essay Rubric (grading standards) is here (from PCA)
Welcome to Science and Language Arts, 2026-27!
The results for last year’s student survey are in and here’s what students want more of this year.
More opportunities to do oral presentations
Farm Work every day
More whole class book discussions (vs smaller groups discussing the book)
More DO/DEW - Daily Observation time and Drop Everything and Write
We will do just that. We’re starting off with research then oral presentations on invertebrates. We’ll make sure we have more whole class book club discussions. We’ll fold Farm Work and DO/DEW into a steady weekly rhythm. Students appreciate farm work time because it also doubles as social time as we work in small teams to care for the plants and animals in the Farm School eco-system and because it is satisfying to get meaningful work done together. Our D.O./DEW time is quiet and individual. In a loud, tech-forward world, it is soothing and restorative to have a few moments to oneself to listen to the wind in the trees, to write and think deeply about important questions.
Parents, do you want second semester to be geology focused?
It’s been a few years since I’ve offered that and I’m willing to pivot to teach the geology standards within middle school Earth Science curriculum in spring semester OR to offer a course on Thursdays after RLFS OR do an intensive workshop in April and May for three weeks during the same time slot as Sci-LA. Mull that over and I’ll send out a poll after everyone has a few weeks of school under their belt. Or keep everything the way it is. I’m flexible and I want to help your students meet their science curriculum needs when the topic is in my wheelhouse.
Week 0 Preparatory Homework
Tip: Copy and paste this and the work on the Book Club and Biology pages then print it out to make a simple checklist
Do the WEEK O Biology Preparatory Homework(HW)- You need to follow that link to the Biology page. Most weeks this will be some reading, some science vocab work, and possibly a video which in total will take you about an hour or two for the week. However, this week it is just two videos — (No reading, no science vocab work this week— so your HW is MUCH shorter.
Do you have all your supplies? Copy and paste this list into a word document and check off ALL the supplies so you are ready to go on September 1st. Read up on appropriate Farm School clothing — visit the SUPPLIES page…. Farm School clothes protect your skin from scrapes, scratches, and are easy to work in and can get dirty. You can run, jump, climb, and work with animals and tools in them.
Do you have your books for Sci-AL? (These are also listed on the supplies page)
Fall 2026 Book Club Books:
NON-FICTION:How We Got To Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson
SCIENCE FICTION: Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson (book 1 of the series)
Everything You Need to Ace Biology in One Big Fat Notebook: The Complete High School Study Guide (Big Fat Notebooks) ISBN-10 0761160957 $11-12.
I will provide students with a consumable copy of Miller and Levine Biology Foundations: Reading and Study Guide Workbook
Set up your three-ring binder. Do you have the following in it?
Lined paper
Two tabs (one for work/handouts, one for lined paper)
Put your name on the binder
Science and Language Arts Students in Action
last year’s Week 1 - for reference
***Remember your gardening gloves and colored pencils— we will be using these nearly every week!***
Book Club: — See Book Club button Once you get to the book club page, click on Tom Sawyer). Scroll to Week 1 reading & discussion question assignments.
Bingo: Create a 5 x 5 grid for a Literary Terms Bingo (We’ll add terms in class from our literary terms and definitions each week. You’re simply getting the bingo grid ready. I recommend graph paper so you can easily draw the boxes. Or lined paper with a ruler. Make the boxes big so you can have room to write the term and a key phrase or example.)
Print out and bring to class
If you forgot to print out the Analogies Set D from WordMaster page last week, do that now.
You’re earning Excellent Learning Habits Tickets by doing this homework.
Classwork Summary
Get to know you & introductions: What are you good at or into and who else shares that apptitude or interest. We have lots of musicians and artists in our midst!
Basic FS procedures — Excellent Learning Habits tickets for homework + safety procedures Including showing them a picture of worm parasites on pig feces, the eggs of which lie dormant in any soil that has had livestock on it and which can get into humans if we fail to WASH OUR HANDS before we eat or stick our fingers in our mouth. You’re welcome, moms.
Biology- c
Farm Work: New Farm School students paired up with FS veterans to learn how to care for the living organisms that call Farm School home. Students worked together to feed rabbits, harvest live invertebrates from the vermiculture/compost bed to feed the fish, feed those same invertebrates, feed the chickens, trim gazanias to widen the central path, shovel mulch as bedding for the chicken coop, harvest macadamia nuts.
Book Club: The Elephant Whisperer
Students choose a poem to memorize for this week from a two page handout. Each week students memorize a poem and most weeks I give them a new handout with poem options for memorizing. We’ll also analyze many of these poems over the course of the year. Discussed techniques for memorizing including: reading, reciting in chunks, writing it down, quizzing self later in the day, singing it to a tune, adding actions to the words. We’ll recite this poem in class next week.
Latin and Greek Stems: Students made flash cards for common “A” Latin and Greek roots and prefixes: auto, a/an, aster. These flash cards include mnemonic devices they created to help them memorize the meaning of each stem. Students will use these flashcards to quiz themselves.
Handouts: Literary Terms Definitions, Poems for Memorizing pages 1 & 8, Stems Flash Cards Set #1 A-D & worksheet for A-D
Coming Up in the next two weeks:
Science:
Intro to chemistry for biology— everything is made of matter, elements, mixtures vs. compounds, subatomic particles, elements predominant in living organisms.
Intro to waterfowl anatomy and physiology and raising from day old ducklings— we’ll be selecting duckling breeds
Writing: Interviewing and writing a short biograph of a classmate then delivering that bio as a speech to introduce them to the rest of the class.
Poetry: metaphor and simile
Book club: plot map and discussion of Using textual evidence to support claims.