This week in Mr. Houck’s class we started the Great American Book Return, worked on our object stories, watched The Energy Gamble, and shared our disease research projects.

This week The Great American Book Return has begun. Last year the winner returned 48 books! So if you see any books with a teacher’s name written on the top make sure to get them back in class, and maybe get a prize.

We have also been working on our object stories, a story about a special item that has a special meaning in your life. On Monday, May 14^th we will be sharing some cool stories.

The Energy Gamble was a movie that talked mostly about all the little things that people in California could do to save energy. During the movie some people fell asleep, so Mr. Houck put on the chicken mask and touched one of their feet, which woke them up with screaming ear to ear. The whole class burst out in laughter.

We also finished researching our diseases, and shared them this week, getting information from each disease to be ready for our jeopardy review, and then the final test next week.

Geography:  Prepare for your review presentation tomorrow.  Show me your organized work folder if you haven’t already.  The  AP exam will be on the morning of Friday, May 18.

APES:  Complete corrections/make-up work for any tests that you want to raise to 70% or missing homework.

Friday, May 25 is the last day that I will accept late work or test corrections.

This week in Mr. Houck’s class we just started our first drafts of object stories! We’re all excited to do it.

Throughout the week each one of us had to memorize a poem, and also we finished our last couple of art talks.  And on Tuesday we started learning about smallpox, malaria, viruses and bacteria. Then, my favorite part, was when we got to pick our diseases to learn about. Somehow my ball from the bingo spinner was lost so I got what was left, but I still like the disease I’m learning about.

On Wednesday we did a fun comparison and competition to share our energy comic books. And we watched an interesting video about viruses.

On Thursday we watched another video about bacteria, and turned in our cool poem visuals. The poem was written by an amazing poet named Emily Dickinson. It was the same poem we had to memorize.

This week was the best I think.  Some of the 8^th grade speeches were great and we also started a new read-aloud book called ‘Cold Cereal.’ I honestly think it’s better than ‘Ender’s Game.’

This week in Mr. Houck’s class we did these posters called Metaphor Models, where you had to pick something you could buy and compare it to the three civilizations we have studied this year: Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Ancient China. I really enjoyed doing these, because you got to pick your own topic to compare each one too.

We also started to revise our art talk speeches, because we had to turn in our rough drafts to Mr. Houck by Thursday. Thank goodness he gave us time to work on them in class, because I might not have gotten mine done in time, but I did, so I’m good.

Mr. Houck also introduced us to a new topic, called Newton’s Toy Box. That’s where we get to do these different lab tests with a wooden ball. So far that seems to be fun, so I’m looking forward to what’s coming up next.

We also started to talk a little about energy. This was pretty fun to learn about, because I’ve never really learned about energy.

Also, last week we started the first part of a movie called ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel,’ so we got to finish the second part of that movie, which was interesting.

My Father’s House is a family shelter that serves 30 families at a time who are trying to turn their lives around.

My name is Jake Gradwohl. I am an 8^th grader in Mr. Houck’s class, and I am doing a service project for My Father’s House, called Socks for a Second Chance. I am collecting new socks and underwear for the homeless families currently living at My Father’s House. I will be in the Middle School front entrance every school day from April 9, 2012 to April 21, 2012, from 7:40 to 7:50, collecting donations. The top three donators each get a $15.00 iTunes gift card. Thank you for your support!

This week in Mr. Houck’s class the Cardinal Call, the Corbett middle school newspaper, came out, so we took the newspaper quiz on all the stories in the newspaper. It was written by C.M.S. students about our school.

8^th grade speeches continued this week, with many great speeches. They all did a fantastic job telling about their time in middle school and giving valuable advice.

We finished our ancient civilization unit by watching a short video called Guns, Germs, and Steel, about how civilizations are made and destroyed.

We also made posters, using metaphors to describe something we learned from each of the three ancient civilizations: China, Egypt and Mesopotamia. In my poster I compared carrots, stacks of apples, and coconuts to describe tombs, pyramids, and city walls. I think it was a fun way to end the unit.

We started art talks this week, too. We each selected a piece of literature, a song, and a painting. We will write a speech about how these pieces are connected.

This week we also continued to read Ender’s Game. I’m enjoying the book so far and can’t wait to see how it ends. We got new enrichments this week, including language hunters, P.E. and gardening. I’m still in band for 6^th period, and am doing P.E. for 7^th period.

I think we had a good week, and I’m ready for next week!

Corbett Middle School is hosting Ancient Civilization Night next Tuesday, March 20th from 3:45-6:00 P.M.  Each classroom will open their doors to family and friends, inviting them to walk through their student constructed museum of the ancient civilization that they have been studying for weeks.  Room 6 has nicknamed this particular night as “Romans Rule! Night.”

Come join us on this exciting journey back in time!

This week in Mr. Houck’s class we accomplished our goal of Doink Day! Walking through all of the booths in Marblandia showed me how much effort people had put into this, and also some people who fell a bit behind. My group, ‘The Grid,’ had to rush at the end, and surprisingly, our marble land made it through the day, and was visited by many students.

Our current read aloud book is ‘Ender’s Game,’ which I finished reading just last week.

On Tuesday this week, we started the first A.M. block with two and a half hours of math. I got a math test done, but I thought the extra time was a little excessive.  In the afternoon, we had a nice long break of free read, during which I got to go through nearly half of my book ‘Speaker For the Dead’ of the Ender’s Game series, which I enjoyed. Some people had troubles going through to the end of free read, judging by all the voices I heard while reading my book.

On Wednesday, we started making Chinese kites, where we use wooden skewers and tape to create the frame of the kite. My partner Kurt and I have gotten most of ours completed.  Now we just need to attach the string and tail. Making the kites is a seven-step process. Kurt and I just painted ours purple, and Mr. Houck broke his on his first flight. Today we continued with the kites, and most people are finished with painting and are nearly ready to fly their kites.

In 7^th period, there will be a teachers vs. students basketball game. I am thinking the teachers are going to win, like last year’s students vs. teachers basketball game. If I see Mr. Houck get a slam dunk, I will put the last few dollars I have into the pizza party jar.

This week in Mr. Houck’s class we got to write Found Poems, using the materials that we wanted to use. We worked on Marblandia, doing commercials, radio ads, and basic construction.

We also shared speeches! Even though everybody was nervous, it was amazing finding the differences between these speeches and the ones from the beginning of the year! Everyone was more confident, spoke louder, and stood a bit taller. There were a lot of interesting things to be learned, like Chinese culture, famous people in China, and more.

The seventh and eighth graders played a game to see who knew Mr. Houck’s class better. Seventh grade had Devon and Tristen, eighth had Isaac and Kadyn, and seventh grade won. Then the class got to test Mr. Houck, and he knew almost all the answers!

We took a super quiz, and made silly Chinese dragon faces to turn them in (even thought some of them looked like fish).

On Friday Mr. Long was not at school, so we listened to a new song at morning meeting…it was an interesting song, but I don’t think we should listen to it again. We also got four new books from Scholastic!