SPX Middle School Blog #3 - Friday, October 5th, 2018
Welcome to the Middle School Blog! Every other week the Middle School Team will post a classroom update in this space to help parents stay connected to the ongoing learning happening in the middle school hallway.
God Bless,
The Middle School Team
General Updates
1. Parent-Teacher Conferences fill be held next Tuesday, Oct. 9thand Thursday, Oct. 11th. The middle school conferences are scheduled in 25 minute blocks, allowing parents time with each middle school teacher. Conferences will be hosted in Mrs. Pedersen’s classroom, found down the middle school hallway.
2. The 6thgrade class would like to invite all our Middle School Families to the Annual 6thgrade Omelet Breakfast on Sunday, October 21st – after the 7am and 9am Masses! All donations from this fundraiser will go towards the 6thgrade class Fleece Blanket Service Project!
3. Remember to check the Middle School Homework Site @ https://sites.google.com/stpiusxschool.org/middleschool
Daily assignments will be update by teachers each afternoon by 4pm!
4. We continue to have great participation in the Pius Academy program so far this year! Thank you to those who have been taking advantage of this great program!
For those interested in attending Pius Academy in the future, it’s offered on Tuesday afternoons from 3:00-3:45pm. Pick up takes place outside the main doors of the school (west doors).
Please note, there will be not Pius Academy on Tuesday, October 9thdue to Parent-Teacher Conferences.
Teacher Updates
6thgrade & 7B Language Arts with Mrs. Bartscher
Today was the halfway point of the trimester and a due date for Accelerated Reader. I will have information on your child’s progress at conferences.
6th Grade- Over the last two weeks, the sixth grade students have been learning about commas with interrupters and introductory words and phrases. We will turn our focus to commas in dates and addresses early next week, and will have a quiz over commas on Wednesday, October 10th. After that quiz, we will begin working on quotation marks in direct quotations and titles. In addition, we are continuing our short stories unit. Through this unit, the students will have the opportunity to read and study a wide variety of short stories. We are currently working on an excerpt “The Fun They Had” and will be taking a selection quiz over it on Tuesday, October 16th.
7th Grade- Students will continue with the myth unit over the next couple of weeks. They are enjoying the myths and analyzing them to find the lesson or natural occurrences the myth explains. Students will also continue with punctuation. We are currently working on quotation marks and will be writing some dialogue for practice.
Mrs. Bartscher
6th Grade Math
This week we finished up our Introduction to Algebra by working with 1-step multiplication and division equations. Students will take a quiz over sections 2.4-2.8 today. They have also been getting extra practice over the concepts in this chapter through Accelerated Math. Next week we will go over their quizzes, review the whole chapter, have one more Accelerated Math day on Tuesday, and then take the Ch. 2 Posttest next Wednesday, October 10th. Students should have all their Accel Math for ch. 2 completed by Wed.
7th Grade Math
This class took a quiz over 2.6 Equivalent Fractions & Decimals and 2.7 Comparing & Ordering Rational Numbers today. We will go over these quizzes on Monday, have a chapter review, then spend one more class day on Ch. 2 Accelerated Math. Then we will take the Ch. 2 Posttest over Integers and Rational Numbers on Wednesday, Oct. 10th.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra
This class will take their 2nd quiz for this chapter today over sections 2.5-2.7 which includes the Commutative, Associative and Distributive Properties, as well as the Coordinate Plane. We will go over these quizzes on Monday and review the whole chapter focusing on integer operations. The Ch. 2 Posttest will be Tuesday, Oct. 9th.
8th Grade Pre-Algebra
This week we finished up our work with Graphs and Functions with a chapter review yesterday and a final Accelerated Math day today. The Ch. 2 Posttest is Monday, Oct. 8th. Next up, we will focus on exponents, scientific notation, squares and square roots, real numbers and the Pythagorean theorem.
8th Grade Algebra
Yesterday this class took a quiz over rates, ratios, conversions, proportions and percents. We will go over those quizzes today and have a ch. 2 review. The Ch. 2 Posttest will be Monday, Oct. 8th.
Next up will spend several weeks working with inequalities.
I look forward to visiting with all of you next week at parent/teacher conferences!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Gipple
6-8 Religion with Mr. Tallman
6th grade: The sixth grade did a wonderful job our their Books of the Old Testament Test and Religion Vocabulary Test! I was very impressed with their scores! Well done!
We are now beginning a study of scriptures, specifically looking at the five major covenants of the Old Testament: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David.
Please mark your calendars for the Annual 6thgrade Omelet Breakfast planned for Sunday October 21st! We need your help to make this project a success! Please sign up to donate food items or to volunteer your time at the breakfast – check our sign-up for this project at http://signup.com/go/PXREtovto help (6th grade families only-Thank You)!
7th grade: The seventh grade class hosted our Annual Saint Draft this Wednesday! And we had a blast! We are currently researching our saints in class and will begin working on our Saint Presentation Boards next Tuesday. Your 7thgrade child should be talking to you about their plans for the presentation boards this weekend!
8th grade: The eighth grade experienced the Skittle Game this week. We’ve followed up in class with some wonderful discussions. Next week we’ll be learning how the Skittle Game is our starting point to learn about Catholic Social Teaching, as we begin reading about how the Church guides us in our call to live the Great Commandment and serve others.
At conferences I’ll be sharing with parents our plans for the Social Justice Project taking place in October and November.
Have a blessed weekend with your families!
Peace,
Mr. Tallman
6-8 Science with Mrs. Erickson
6th Grade: We are going to be working through the steps of doing an experiment the next few days. We will be completing a lab report over our findings in lab to showcase our knowledge of parts of a lab. We will then move on to discussing the importance of measurements, accuracy, and precision. We will have a lab where students will have to display their understanding of how to make various measurements around October 25th.
Once again, notes, handouts, study guides, etc. can be found online: https://sites.google.com/view/
7th Grade: We finished up discussing what a cell is with a cell comparison project due today. We will now be moving on to how cells move things into and out of the cell. We will have a short assessment around Oct. 17th.
Once again, notes, handouts, study guides, etc. can be found online: https://sites.google.com/view/
8th Grade: We just finished up discussing density and are moving onto pressure. Pressure will build on concepts we discussed with density as well as adding new information. We will have a short assessment around Oct 18th about pressure.
Once again, notes, handouts, study guides, etc. can be found online:https://sites.google.com/view/
Thank you!
Mrs. Jaci Erickson
6-8 Social Studies with Mr. Klein
6th Grade:
We are looking at the World climates and resources the next two weeks, with the students completing a Climate Book project at the end.
7th Grade:
Moving on from learning about the early people in Mesopotamia, we will be looking at the Byzantine Empire and how it affected the region.
8th Grade:
We will be finishing up the Thirteen Colonies, test scheduled for October 18th.
Mr. Klein
7T & 8th grade Language Arts with Mrs. Pedersen
Hello Parents,
Today was the halfway point of the trimester and a due date for Accelerated Reader. I will have information on your child's progress at conferences. Next week your child and I will meet to set the goal for the second half of the trimester.
7 Tallman - Students will continue with the myth unit. Students are enjoying the myths and analyzing them to find the lesson or natural occurrence the myth explains. Students will continue with punctuation. We are working on quotation marks and will be writing some dialogue for practice.
8th Grade - Students are working on a nonfiction piece in Scope magazine about cell phone use and whether or not people can be addicted to their phones. We have had some great discussions about this topic! There will be a vocabulary quiz over the words from the article on Tuesday, Oct. 9. Students will take an open magazine quiz next week. That will assess comprehension of the article and use of text evidence. Students will continue with punctuation. There will tentatively be a punctuation quiz the week after conferences.
I look forward to seeing you next week at conferences.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Pedersen
Thank You for reading the SPX Middle School Blog!
Our next blog post is scheduled for Friday, October 19th, 2018
