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 Middle School Team would like to sincerely Thank all the parents and students of SPX Catholic School for a wonderful Catholic Schools Week! You and your families are such a blessing to us here at SPX!
Thank You!
2. 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!
3. 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).
4. There’s still time…SPX Gala Service Hour Opportunity:
The SPX Gala could use help with setup and cleanup of the annual school auction!
Setup will take place Friday, Feb, 1stfrom 4:30-6pm and Cleanup will take place Sunday, Feb. 3rdfrom 9-11am.
Thank you for your help!
Teacher Updates
6thgrade & 7B Language Arts with Mrs. Bartscher
6th Grade- The sixth graders have just finished chapter 12 in Where the Red Fern Grows, and we will have a quiz over chapters 9-12 early next week. In grammar, we are continuing our studying of nouns. We have also begun a study of persuasive writing that will continue through the next two weeks. Please continue to encourage your child to read his/her AR book at home.
7th Grade- The seventh grade students have finished reading through chapter 9 in The Outsiders. We will continue to work on literary skills and vocabulary, and there will be a quiz next week over chapters 7-9. There will also be a noun quiz on Monday, Feb. 4. Students have begun and will be continuing to writing a persuasive piece using a five paragraph essay format. Please continue to encourage your child to read his/her AR book at home.
Mrs. Bartscher
6-8 Math with Mrs. Gipple
6th Grade Math
We have finished up our work with fraction operations and will take our 2nd quiz today over multiplying & dividing fractions and mixed numbers as well as fraction equations. The Ch. 5 Posttest will be next Tuesday, Feb. 5th. Please be sure to check in with your child to make sure they are completing their Accelerated Math practices.
Next up we will explore different ways of gathering, organizing, and analyzing data.
7th Grade Math
Today is our final class day to work on Accelerated Math for ch. 6. The Ch. 6 Posttest will be Monday, Feb. 4th over percents.
Following this chapter we will work on collecting, organizing and analyzing data by working with several different types of data displays.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra
Today students will finish up their ch. 5 Posttests over rational number operations. Then we will take the pre-test over multi-step equations and inequalities. In this chapter we will learn how to solve 2 step equations, equations with variables on both sides of the equal sign, equations that contain fractions and decimals, equations with circumference, and then multi-step inequalities. This will be a challenging chapter and the extra practice from Accelerated Math will be very helpful.
8th Grade Pre-Algebra
We are working our way through ch. 5 Geometric Relationships. This week we have been working with different types of transformations: translations, reflections, and rotations. Next week will learn how to combine some of these transformations together. The next quiz for this chapter will be next Friday, Feb. 8th.
8th Grade Algebra
We have completed our work with systems of equations and inequalities. The posttest over all of these concepts and methods will be Monday, Feb. 4th.
The next chapter we will start next week will be Exponents and Exponential Functions. We will cover zero and negative exponents, methods for multiplying and dividing powers as well as different properties of exponents.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
God bless!
Mrs. Gipple
6-8 Religion with Mr. Tallman
@MrTallmansClass Twitter account is up to 64 followers! Are you one of them? If not, don’t worry – it’s free and worth the effort…you’ll get daily tweets from all middle school religion classes, plus the very popular Religion Question of the Day (RQD) – You don’t want to miss this!
6th, 7th, & 8thgrade:
All middle school classes will begin Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body program by Ascension Press on Monday! Watch for regular emails about our progress as we begin this program!
We’re excited to have Ms. Samantha Blaser, the new Director of Middle School Religious Education for Saint Pius X Parish, join us next week as she becomes more familiar with TOB and how it can work for our Religious Education Program!
Have a blessed weekend!
Peace,
Mr. Tallman
6-8 Science with Mrs. Erickson
6th Grade: We are in the middle of our earthquakes unit. I have add in some small vocabulary quizzes to encourage everyone to be studying throughout the unit and not just the day before the test. Check the homework spreadsheet for more detailed and up-to-date information about what sections and when each quiz will be. Our earthquake unit is always a fun unit (along with volcanoes) because it ties together a lot of the information we have been learning about plate tectonics and Earth’s interior. Our test for this unit will be around February 7th of next week. From there we'll start our similarly sized volcano unit, again pulling together information from our previous units.
7th Grade: We have started our unit on types of plants and what makes each group of plants unique. I have add in some small vocabulary quizzes to encourage everyone to be studying throughout the unit and not just the day before the test. Check the homework spreadsheet for more detailed and up-to-date information about what sections and when each quiz will be. Throughout our plant unit students should be thinking about a flowering plant they want to research and do a small project on. For this project they will need to apply their understanding of plants, plant types, and plant structures and functions to the flowering plant of their choice. This project will be due the same day of their test as it will add as a study tool throughout the unit. Students will have 1 in-class workday to bring their project together the day before the test. Our test and project due date is February 11. Our next unit we will discuss processes that occur within the plant and help a plant maintain homeostasis.
8th Grade: We are finishing up our latest mini unit on Newton’s Laws of Motion and Force. Our test will be Monday, February 4th. From there we will begin looking at the difference between work and power and how machines can change the amount of work humans have to do. This unit will culminate in not only a test, but a small complex machine project due at the end. Students will receive more information as we get closer. Be sure to check the homework spreadsheet to stay up-to-date on homework, in class happenings, and dates for tests and projects.
Mrs. Jaci Erickson
6-8 Social Studies with Mr. Klein
6th Grade:
We have finished up our American civilization unit this past week and will be starting the Ancient Egyptians on Monday.
7th Grade:
The 7th grade will continue learning about East Asia, with a test on Monday February 4th.
8th Grade:
We will be starting a new unit on Monday that will cover Thomas Jefferson's presidency all the way to Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal.
Mr. Klein
7T & 8th grade Language Arts with Mrs. Pedersen
7 Tallman - Students have finished reading through chapter 9 in The Outsiders. We will continue to work on literary skills and vocabulary. There will be a quiz next week over chapters 7-9. There will be a noun quiz on Monday, Feb. 4. Students will begin writing a persuasive piece using a five paragraph essay format. Please continue to encourage your child to read his/her AR book at home. The last day to take an AR test is Friday, March 1.
8th Grade - Students took a quiz today over chapters 1-3 in To Kill A Mockingbird. We have talked a lot about the exposition - character development, background, and setting. We will continue to read the novel in sections and take quizzes and discuss important details and literary devices. Next week students will begin the process of writing a research paper. It will take us a while because we will be breaking down each step in the process. Please continue to encourage your child to read at home. Check to see if your child has read his/her biography or autobiography for this trimester. The last day to take an AR test is Friday, March1.
I hope you all have been able to stay warm and safe!
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Pedersen
Middle School Spanish with Mrs. Schoessler
Eighth grade is currently learning vocabulary words and phrases over health and body parts. We are also introducing preterite (past)tense verb endings. By the end of this unit, the students should be able to create a dialogue using the new vocabulary and form sentences in the past tense.
Seventh grade is finishing up a dialogue that they have written with partners and will present them in class ... that is, unless we have more snow days (ugh)! Once all of the dialogues have been presented, we will move on to the family unit. By the end of that chapter, they will create a slideshow and present their family to class.
Sixth grade is starting a new unit on animals- which is a topic that most students wrote down as a topic of high interest in the beginning of the year. By the end of this unit, they should be able to describe their favorite animal... where it lives, what it does and what it looks like.
-Mrs. Schoessler
Thank You for reading the SPX Middle School Blog!
Our next blog post is scheduled for Friday, February 22nd, 2019
