*NEW* I Have Lived a Thousand Years blog!

In reading class, we have been reading books in literature circles. After we finished our book, we were assigned to make a project together for the book. In my group with Erica, Ben, Carmen, Zach, Bryce, and Libby, we decided that we should make a scrapbook about the book, make an iMovie explaining the important events of the book, and finally, making a blog about the book, to help us plan for the iMovie project and the scrapbook! We will continue to keep you posted on this amazing project! MAke sure to visit our blog: http://ihavelivedathousandyears.blogspot.com/ :)

Our Claymation Project

In our eighth hour information technology class with Mrs. Miller we had an assignment to tell our story. A group of six students decided to make their story into a claymation. A claymation is a lot like a still motion project except with clay. Some claymations that you might have heard of is Wallace and Grommet. The claymation is about how they all meant and how they meet through school. In the library we set up a green screen for our project. When the Follett people (the people in the picture) came to video tape Mrs. Miller they also showed them all about how the lighting works so you don't have shadows. This project would not be possible without technology. With the laptops they were able to set a backdrop setting on the green screen so that way they can be in a different place while staying in the library. The claymation is not completed yet but as soon as it is we will post it to the blog!

Poem In Your Pocket

Yesterday, April 14, Van Meter Junior High participated in Poem in You Pocket Day! On this day, another very special educational holiday everyone in seventh and eighth grade chose a poem. We kept our poems in our pockets all day and when you saw people we would ask them, "What's the poem in your pocket." It was a day to celebrate and enjoy poetry. Our teachers even had poems and read them to us as we went from class to class.

Foreign Exchange Student

In geography class we just got finished studying the EU and because Germany is part of the EU we had our foreign exchange student visit our class(es). The foreign exchange student is a Junior, and has throughly enjoyed spending this past year at Van Meter. When Daniel, the foreign exchange student, came in and talked to us about Germany we had specific questions we wanted to ask his about how America and Germany differ. He also expressed how their culture, economy, school, and his personal teenage life differentiates from how we 'operate' here in the U.S. When Daniel was in the classroom he not only told us about his daily life, but we got to question him on the matters we wanted to know about. We learned that their school day ends around 1:30 and they only have 4 periods, compared to us getting out around 3:30 (at Van Meter at least) and having 8 periods. We also don't have 3-4 hours of homework like they do.

D.E.A.R. Day

Every April 12 schools all over the U.S. celebrate a educational holiday. A day meant for well, Dropping Everything And Reading. This date was selected because of Beverly Cleary's birthday. To promote this special holiday Beverly Cleary's book character Ramona Quimby promotes this day. All the junior high kids enjoyed a day of not as much instruction and more reading! We hope you enjoyed your day of reading! Check out the official website http://www.dropeverythingandread.com/

New Exercise In The Classroom!

Can these exercise balls help your posture and balance? Mr. Hyer, Reading teacher,  and Mr. Jones, P.E teacher at Van Meter, have teamed up to make the classroom a place of learning and exercise. The 7th graders are very excited to try this new activity in their everyday learning.

Language Arts: Making websites!

Today in our seventh hour language arts class, Mrs. Peterson assigned us a fun project! In the next couple of weeks, we will be making our own google sites on whatever topic we are interested in. This site will include a home page, a page on the history of our topic, a page about the current state of our topic, and a resource page. The seventh graders are very excited about making these websites! We will continue to let you know about our progress on these projects!

***The image shown above is an example of what the websites will look like!

Here are some photos of our debate with New Jersey!

New Jersey Debate Video

file:///Users/ellyon/Desktop/VID00007.MP4
In Mr. Hyer's reading class, we had a heated debate with a class from New Jersey about whether we should extend school. Watch the video to see what the students said about what we thought!

New Jersey Debate

This is Mr. Hyer's 3rd Hour seventh grade class. Today, we skyped with a class in Edison, New Jersey. We debated about having longer days of school. The Van Meter took on the challenge of taking the side that was against having longer days of school. We have skyped the school 3 times so far, and it has been quite a success! We will continue to keep you posted on this unique classroom activity!

New Jersey Debate

Tomorrow the seventh graders are skyping with another school from New Jersey. During this skype call we will be debating if longer school days is a good idea or not. Van Meter has to argue the side that it is not a good idea. We have been collaborating and debating with this class not only through skype, but also edmodo.

Why Did We Create This Blog?

The idea for this blog came from Ben T. We were sitting in our 8th hour information tech. class and Ben just said " We should create a blog for seventh grade news." Mrs. Miller, our teacher thought that it sounded like a good idea so we created this blog and a Twitter @VMsevvies.

Just wait until you see what comes from the Van Meter Sevvies!