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. Our School-wide Advent Mission is off to a great start!
Thank you to everyone who so generously donated on our December 7thAdvent Mission Dress Down Day. As a school we raised nearly $2,600! These generous donations go a long way in our task of bringing Hope, Peace, Joy and Love to the five refugee families we have the privilege of serving this Advent season!
2. The school will host our End of Advent Prayer Service on Friday, December 21stat 9am.
3. Thank you to all those who have volunteered to donate cake and ice cream cups for our Pope Francis Celebration next Friday! A special thanks to Price Chopper for donating bottles of water for this event!
4. 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 just took a quiz over chapters 1-3 in the novel Where the Red Fern Grows. In addition to that quiz, they also just completed a vocabulary quiz. They will be reading chapters 4-5 over the next several weeks, and we will continue working on “constructed response” writing as they apply these skills to writing tasks associated with our novel.
7th Grade- The seventh graders have just taken a quiz over chapter 1 in The Outsiders. They will have a vocabulary quiz early next week over the words for chapter 1. In the next several weeks, seventh grade will be working on chapters 2 and 3 in the Outsidersand will continue their study and practice of “constructed response” writing as they apply these skills to writing tasks associated with ou novel.
I wish you all a wonderful and safe Christmas break.
Mrs. Bartscher
6-8 Math with Mrs. Gipple
6th Grade Math
We have finished our chapter on Number Theory and Fractions. Students took their 2nd quiz yesterday, those scores can be viewed in Powerschool. We will review the whole chapter and take the posttest next week. After break we will work on fraction operations.
7th Grade Math
We are working on a short chapter graphing chapter where we explore rate of change, slope and direct variation. We are also learning how to interpret graphs and create a graph from a situation. We will only take one test for this chapter, next Thurs, Dec. 20th.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra
Today this class took their posttest over Factors, Fractions and Exponents. Next week we will go over these tests, as well as begin chapter 5 Rational Number Operations. We will continue with this chapter after break.
8th Grade Pre-Algebra
This class has been working with rates, ratios, proportions and similar figures. Next week we will finish up this chapter with creating similar figures by learning to dilate using a scale factor. The test over these concepts will be Thurs, Dec. 21st.
8th Grade Algebra
We have been spending this week reviewing for the mid-year final. Today students will take a practice test and they will take the final next Tuesday and Wednesday. These scores will be shared with Dowling to be used along with their Iowa Assessment scores and the Dowling Placement test scores to determine what math class they qualify for in high school.
Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.
Mrs. Gipple
6-8 Religion with Mr. Tallman
6th grade:
Our 6thgrade classes are doing an amazing job with their Fleece Tie Blankets! We started work on these this week and will continue with our efforts into next week! A big Thank You to Mrs. Kleppe and Mrs. Ricke for their help making this project possible by organizing the Annual Omelete Breakfast. We’d also like to extend a big Thank You to Mrs. Flyr for her help in purchasing the fleece material and for teaching us how to make these great blankets!
7th grade:
The 7th grade class is has really enjoyed watching the vocation video “God or the Girl!” As we finish up this unit of study, we plan to have a test over vocations and discernment next Thursday, December 20th!
8th grade:
The 8thgrade has been preparing to write 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 end to the Advent season and a blessed Christmas break with your families!
Peace,
Mr. Tallman
6-8 Science with Mrs. Erickson
6th Grade: We just finished up our unit on Earth’s interior. We are starting our look at how Earth’s surface is changed because of what we witnessed occurring in Earth’s interior. We are also going to be discussing how scientists know the Earth’s continents have been moving, different types of plate boundaries, and how volcanoes are able to sometimes form. I had hoped to fit this whole unit in before Christmas, but now am looking at the test being the first full week back after break (1/7-1/11).
7th Grade: We are finished up our unit on DNA, Genes, and Proteins. We are now discussing bacteria and viruses. This is a very short unit with just two learning targets on identifying the characteristics of bacteria and viruses, knowing how they are different, and looking at how viruses reproduce with differences with the lytic and lysogenic cycles. We will have our test on Dec 20.
8th Grade: We started a new unit on static electricity. We have been experimenting with how static is affected by time, distance, and materials. Next week we will discuss what is happening at a atomic level and how static affects our daily lives, especially this time of year. Our test for this mini unit will be Dec 20.
Mrs. Jaci Erickson
6-8 Social Studies with Mr. Klein
6th Grade:
The students did a great job on their Timeline projects that we had been working on. Starting next week, we will begin to look at Latin America. The focus for next week is the geography of Latin America, followed by the history of the varying cultures of the region.
7th Grade:
We have started looking at India Today. The next several weeks will be spent learning about India and their neighbors. The will be a short assessment this coming Thursday. When we get back from break, we will begin looking at some contemporary issues of the region.
8th Grade:
In 8th grade, starting next week, we will begin working on an essay about the United States Constitution. We will be going through the initial researching steps before break. After break, we will begin writing the essay.
Mr. Klein
7T & 8th grade Language Arts with Mrs. Pedersen
Hello Parents,
Thank you so much for the generous Christmas gift. I am so thankful to work at a school with such caring and giving families. I hope you all enjoy the holidays with your families. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This week in both seventh and eighth grade classes we had a conversation about the first AR due date which is January 11. That seems far away, but after we come back from Christmas vacation, students will have a week and a half to make their goal. We talked about trying to take a test before Christmas vacation if they haven't already taken a test. Please check in with your child to see how they are doing.
7th Grade - Students are continuing to read The Outsiders. We have read and taken a quiz over chapter one. Students are also using the RACE strategy they learned to help them answer constructed response questions over the chapters in The Outsiders. We will begin reading chapter 2 on Monday.
8th Grade - We read the play "The Gift of the Magi" in Scope magazine. It has a great theme about gift giving, sacrifice, and love. We have been working on the skills of making inferences, mood, theme, characterization, and vocabulary. Next week there will be an open magazine quiz, and on Wednesday there will be a vocabulary quiz. We are continuing to work on verb tenses in grammar.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Pedersen
Thank You for reading the SPX Middle School Blog!
Our next blog post isn’t scheduled until January of 2019 –
Until then, we’re wishing you a very blessed Christmas and a happy New Year!
