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. The First Sunday of Advent is upon us!
A blessed Advent to you and your family!
Here in the Middle School, the 8thgrade will be helping to lead our Advent Mission – Supporting those being served by Catholic Charities Refugee Services.
You’ll be hearing about this mission throughout the season of Advent.
Our kickoff Prayer Service will be Monday, December 3rdat 1:15pm in the Church!
Please note SPX School will host a Mission Awareness Dress Down Day on Friday, December 7th. All monetary donations on this day will go towards our Advent Mission!
Thank you for your support and generosity!
2. 6E will host our first Advent Mass on Wednesday, December 5th– we hope you can join us for this 8:10am Mass!
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).
Teacher Updates
6thgrade & 7B Language Arts with Mrs. Bartscher
6th Grade- The sixth graders spent the beginning of this week taking the MAP tests. During the rest of the week, they prepared for the vocabulary test coming up on Monday, December 1, and worked on pre-reading activities for the novel Where the Red Fern Grows, which we will begin reading next week. The sixth grade will also continue working on “constructed response” writing as they apply these skills to writing tasks associated with our our novel.
Students have their AR goals for second trimester. The first due date (halfway point) is Friday, January 11. Please continue to encourage your child to read his/he AR book.
7th Grade- The seventh graders spent much of their time in class this week taking the MAP tests. Next week we will continue to work on strategies for "constructed response." Students will also begin pre-reading for the class novel The Outsiders.
Students have their AR goals for second trimester. The first due date (halfway point) is Friday, January 11. Please continue to encourage your child to read his/he AR book.
Mrs. Bartscher
6-8 Math with Mrs. Gipple
6th Grade Math
The 6th grade have been working with factors & prime factorization and then using these to find the greatest common factor (GCF) of 2 or more numbers. Then we spent a few days exploring ways to write a sum or difference in different forms, eventually leading to a form where the GCF is factored out of a problem and a sum or difference is left. The quiz over these concepts will be Monday, Dec. 3rd.
Then we will work on comparing numbers in fraction and decimal form, creating equivalent fractions, and numbers in mixed number and improper fraction forms.
7th Grade Math
This week we have been working with similar figures, proportions, scale models, scale drawings and how to find and use a scale factor. The quiz over these concepts will be next Tues, Dec. 4th. Then we will review the whole chapter, finish up Accelerated Math for chapter 4, and take the posttest next Fri, Dec. 7th.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra
This class has been working with fractions and mixed numbers and rules of exponents. Next week we will work with negative and zero exponents as well as scientific notation. The quiz over these concepts will be Tues, Dec. 11th.
8th Grade Pre-Algebra
This week we finished up our chapter on Exponents and Square Roots. The ch. posttest scores will be in Powerschool today. Next week we will begin working with ratios, rates, proportions, similar figures, scale factors and dilations. This is a pretty short chapter that we will finish up before Christmas break.
8th Grade Algebra
This week we worked with 2 more forms of Linear Equations, point-slope form and standard form. We also explored linear equations that are parallel and perpendicular to each other. The quiz over these concepts will be next Tues, Dec. 4th
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about how your child is doing or what we are covering in class.
Thank you,
Mrs. Gipple
6-8 Religion with Mr. Tallman
6th grade:
Our 6thgrade classes have been busy learning about the amazing stories of the Saints…Padre Pio could bilocate, Joseph of Cupertino could levitate, Francis of Assisi had the stigmata, and newly canonized Jacinta Marto’s body was discovered to be incorrupt!
We’ve had some fun discussions about why God would allow these miracles…or as we call them, “Holy Super Powers!”
7th grade:
The 7th grade class is really enjoying seeing Dan, Joe, Mike and Steve discern their vocational callings in the documentary reality series “God or the Girl.”
We’re eager to see where God leads these young men…and they are great examples of how to discern our own vocational callings!
8th grade:
The 8thgrade has been learning about saintly relics – First, Second, and Third Class relics. Did you know the Church has Saint Thomas’ finger – yes, the one that he put into the wounds of Christ?! The Church also has the incorrupt face of Saint John the Baptist – which is venerated in a platter-shaped gold reliquary (the 8thgrade thought this was pretty cool)! An if you were to travel to Padua, you could see Saint Anthony’s incorrupt jaw and tongue, which has been venerated by faithful Catholics there for generations!
Our next step is to begin writing letters to various postulators (those in charge of promoting individual saint causes) requesting second and third class relics for our classroom reliquary! We’ll let you know what we hear form them!
Have a blessed beginning to your Advent!
Peace,
Mr. Tallman
6-8 Science with Mrs. Erickson
6th Grade: We just finished up our unit on states of matter and energy with a test today (11/30). Monday we will begin a new unit by diving into the interior of Earth! We will discuss and learn about what layers make up Earth’s interior before going on a Journey to the Center of the Earth. Our Journey will be a simulated journey thanks to BBC(Click BBC for a preview!). While on our journey we will take note of what minerals and elements are around us, the depth, states of matter, and temperature. Once we resurface we will create a scale model out of paper to help us remember what we learned while we were below the surface. We will end with a short test around December 10. We will then look at how Earth’s surface is changed because of what we witnessed occurring in Earth’s interior. Our plate tectonics unit will also include a poster before taking a test towards the end of the week before leaving for Christmas break!
7th Grade: We are finishing up our unit on DNA, Genes, and Proteins. We will create a poster including paper models of DNA, explanations of DNA replication and creating Proteins, and how mutations affect DNA. Our test for this unit will be on Thursday, Dec. 6. We will then build on our knowledge so far this year to begin looking at different organisms. The first group of organisms we will discuss will be bacteria and protists (tiny, single-celled organisms). Hopefully we can work through this unit just in time to leave for Christmas Break!
8th Grade: We started a new unit today building on our understanding of elements and chemistry. Our new unit will be over Conservation of Mass and be very short. We will complete a lab Monday to see first hand how chemicals are affected by chemical reactions. We will then look at how chemists write chemical reactions in the form of chemical equations. We will learn how to make sure our equations are balanced with the same number of reactants and products. This short unit will wrap up towards the end of next week with a short test on Thursday (12/6) or Friday (12/7). We will then begin taking a closer look at electrons and static electricity. Our static electricity unit should end right as we leave for Christmas Break!
Mrs. Jaci Erickson
6-8 Social Studies with Mr. Klein
6th Grade:
We will continue to research timelines before we begin learning about the history of Latin America.
7th Grade:
Students will continue to learn about the origins of Hinduism and Buddhism, and how these two religions shaped ancient Indian civilizations.
8th Grade:
In 8th grade, we will be finishing up the Articles of Confederation and comparing them to the Constitution. There will be a test on Friday December 7th.
Mr. Klein
7T & 8th grade Language Arts with Mrs. Pedersen
7 Tallman - The seventh graders spent much of their time in class this week taking the MAP tests. Next week we will continue to work on strategies for "constructed response." Students will also begin pre-reading for the class novel, The Outsiders.
Students have their AR goals for second trimester. The first due date (halfway point) is Friday, January 11. Please continue to encourage your child to read his/he AR book.
8th Grade - The eighth graders spent time in class on Monday and Tuesday of this week on the MAP tests. Students are finishing up the poetry unit. Right now they are working on writing some more poems with a particular format. They are also working on the study guide for the set of poems we just studied. The study guide and poems are due Tuesday (12-4). The poetry test is Thursday (12-6). We will continue to conjugate verbs.
Students have their AR goals for second trimester. The first due date (halfway point) is Friday, January 11. Please continue to encourage your child to read his/he AR book.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Pedersen
Thank You for reading the SPX Middle School Blog!
Our next blog post is scheduled for Friday, December 14th, 2018
