OVER THE MOON

Hello everyone,

It was so wonderful to meet several of you at Back to School Night! Thank you for taking the time to come out and connect. If you were unable to make it or missed any of the information we shared, you can review our Back to School Night Handout and view our presentation Slides at your convenience.   

Where We Were

We recently wrapped up activities related to day, night, and seasons. From there, we dove straight into exploring moon phases! To bring the concepts to life, students modeled the exact moon phase we were currently seeing in the night sky. Students have been recording their observations of the moon each night in their ongoing moon logs. We also did our Moon Phase Lab using "moon pops" to give everyone a fun, hands-on visual of how we see the phases of the moon from Earth.

Images from the Moon Phase Lab:

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Where We Are

As we move forward, we are continuing our focus on the Moon while taking a closer look at syzygy. Syzygy is the straight-line alignment of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. Understanding this spatial alignment will lead us right into how solar and lunar eclipses occur. This week is all about eclipses! By the end of the week, we'll explore how light interacts with the Earth's atmosphere and why this is important for viewing some of the astronomical phenomena we observe from the ground.

Where We Are Going

Looking ahead, we will venture beyond our immediate Sun-Earth-Moon system to explore the solar system, our galaxy, and the universe as a whole! This includes space exploration, orbits and gravity, and includes a lot of fun demos, station rotations, and a solar system design project.

If you have any questions or want to connect further, feel free to reach out at curtis_catwood@conestogavalley.org. You can also follow our classroom adventures on Instagram at @classwithcatwood, where I share updates and snapshots of what we are learning!   

P.S. Don't forget to order your student's yearbook now! It is currently at the lowest price ($22) it will be all year. You can grab yours today on the Jostens Yearbook Site. As the Yearbook Advisor for GHMS, please let me know if you have any questions at all. Students and families can also follow our @ghmsybk Instagram account for updates!

Stay Gold,

Mr. Catwood

DAY, NIGHT, & SEASONS

Hello everyone!

I hope your September is off to a wonderful start! I want to extend a warm invitation to all of our families for Back to School Night on Thursday, September 24th. It is going to be a fantastic event with food trucks available from 4:30 to 6:00 PM, followed by the main program starting at 6:00 PM. Throughout the evening, you will have the chance to meet us (8 Gold teachers), attend grade-level counselor sessions, enjoy a band and orchestra performance, and visit the Community Resource Fair in the main lobby. For 8th graders, we'll touch base on expectations for High School and Course Selection when you see the 8 Gold team. We cannot wait to see you there!

Where We Were

We kicked off our Astronomy exploration by diving into our driving phenomenon: Manhattanhenge! Students worked on modeling different sky patterns to figure out what is happening during this alignment. We also took time to look at how various cultures around the world observe the sky to better understand our place in the universe.

Where We Are

Right now, we are focused on exploring sun angles, day, night, and the changing seasons. Students are analyzing both visual and numerical data to see how Earth's rotation creates day and night. They are also discovering how Earth's tilt and orbit work together to cause the varying seasons we experience throughout the year.

Where We Are Going

Looking ahead, we will continue our investigation into day, night, and seasons through hands-on lab activities. We'll also have a quiz next Thursday, September 17th, our Explaining Seasons Assessment. From there, we will transition into exploring the phases of the Moon and students will log what they see with the moon each night for a week in addition to modeling and exploring why phase changes occur.

If you have any questions or want to connect further, feel free to reach out at curtis_catwood@conestogavalley.org. You can also follow our classroom adventures on Instagram at @classwithcatwood, where I share updates and snapshots of what we are learning!

P.S. Don't forget to order your student's yearbook now! It is currently at the lowest price ($22) it will be all year. You can grab yours today on the Jostens Yearbook Site. As the Yearbook Advisor for GHMS, please let me know if you have any questions at all. Students and families can also follow our @ghmsybk Instagram account for updates!

Stay Gold,

Mr. Catwood

WELCOME BACK!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to our very first blog post of the school year. I like to send these updates out bi-weekly to keep you in the loop on all the exciting things happening in our classroom. While life gets busy and I might occasionally miss a week here and there, you can generally expect a post every two weeks sent directly to your email and posted through MyPowerHub, our new contact portal with PowerSchool. I’m thrilled to have your students in class this year, so let’s dive right into what we’ve been up to!

Where We Were

We kicked off the year by establishing our classroom expectations to set ourselves up for success. Right away, the students were put to the test as science detectives to solve the mystery of who stole my Groot pen! Using their keen observation and inference skills to analyze the "crime scene," most cracked the case: it was Mrs. Knox all along.

We also completed our "Picture Perfect Procedure" activity. Students practiced writing detailed procedures and reflected on how important clear communication is in the world of science. See the results on my class Instagram page: @classwithcatwood. We also got familiar with all the exciting Earth science topics we will be exploring together this year in our Hexagonal Thinking Activity.

Images from the Crime Scene Investigation & the Hexagonal Thinking Activity:

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Where We Are

Right now, we are wrapping up our introductory Earth science "mini" unit and officially moving into Astronomy this week! We are jumping right into the fascinating phenomenon of Manhattanhenge. Students will be observing, discussing, and building their initial models to figure out how and why this unique event occurs. They'll learn how this driving phenomenon can tie into nearly every other topic that we study in Astronomy!

Where We Are Going

Looking ahead, we will continue diving deeper into our Astronomy unit, starting with Day, Night, and Seasons. Students will explore these concepts through hands-on activities, lab experiments, and analyzing different data sets. Once we’ve thoroughly explored these topics, students will show what they've learned through a Performance Task (what most students may just end up calling a quiz).

If you have any questions or want to connect further, feel free to reach out at curtis_catwood@conestogavalley.org. You can also follow our classroom adventures on Instagram at @classwithcatwood, where I share updates and snapshots of what we are learning!

P.S. Don't forget to order your student's yearbook now! It is currently at the lowest price ($22) it will be all year. You can grab yours today on the Jostens Yearbook Site. If there's any questions about the Yearbook, please let me know! I"m the Yearbook Advisor for GHMS. Students and families can follow the @ghmsybk Instagram account.

Stay Gold,

Mr. Catwood