Welcome to the final Middle School Blog of the 2018-2019 school year!
It has been an honor to work with your children and your families this year.
Thank you for allowing us to partner with you as we strive to raise great and holy saints!
God Bless,
The Middle School Team
General Updates
1. The 8thgrade Day of Service will be on Thursday, May 23rd.
2. The 8thgrade Class Trip to Adventureland on Tuesday, May 28th
3. The 8thgrades Awards Ceremony will be hosted on Wednesday May 29that 2pm in the Church. All parents and families are welcome to join us!
4. The 8thgrade Graduation Mass will be Wednesday, May 29that 7pm in the Church.
5. Please join us for the last School Mass of the Year on Thursday, May 30that 8:10am.
6. The 5th– 7thgrade Award Ceremony will follow the school Mass on May 30thin the Martha and Mary Fellowship Hall. All parents are welcome to join us!
7. School will dismiss at Noon on Thursday, May 30th– the last day of school!
Teacher Updates
6thgrade & 7B Language Arts with Mrs. Bartscher
As the year is quickly coming to a close, I want to let you know that I have truly enjoyed teaching the sixth and seventh grade students this year. It has been such a pleasure working with each and every one of them. I wish you all a wonderful and safe summer break.
6th Grade- The sixth grade students have concluded their study of nonfiction. In these last couple weeks of school, the sixth grade will be reading and discussing the play “Into the Deep” from the Scopemagazine. In addition, the students are ending the year with a review of grammar.
Today was the last day to take an A.R. test for third trimester.
7th Grade- The seventh grade students will finish reading an adapted version of Romeo and Juliet this week and will have a quiz over Acts four and five late next week. In addition to the study of Romeo and Juliet, the seventh grade will end the year with a review of grammar.
Today was the last day to take an A.R. test for third trimester.
Mrs. Bartscher
6-8 Math with Mrs. Gipple
6th Grade Math
The 6th graders have officially been introduced to Integers! They did a great job working with negative numbers and applying them into real world situations. Then they learned how negatives work as points on a coordinate plane and also how to use them to transform figures by reflecting, translating and rotating polygons.
We will finish up the year with some work with functions.
This is a wonderful group of kids and I have really enjoyed working with them and getting to know them! I am excited to get to work with them again next year!!!
7th Grade Math
This class finished their work with Probability and took the posttest this week. Those scores can be viewed on Powerschool today.
We will finish up the year by working with multi-step pre-algebraic equations and inequalities. This will be a nice lead-in to what we will concentrate on quite a bit next year in pre-algebra.
This class has worked hard and been a lot of fun to work with throughout the year! I hope they all have a relaxing summer break and I look forward to working with them again next year as 8th graders!!!
7th Grade Pre-Algebra
We are continuing with our Geometry unit as we explore real numbers and right triangles. Students are working with radicals as we solve for missing side lengths of right triangles by applying the Pythagorean theorem. Next we will work with different formulas as we find volume and surface area of 3 dimensional figures.
This class has been fun to work with and up for each challenge and I am looking forward to working with this group in Algebra next year!
8th Grade Pre-Algebra/ 8th Grade Algebra
We have been working on review packets all week to prepare for their final exam which is next Monday for Algebra and Tuesday for Pre-Algebra. All math assignments, quizzes, tests and retakes need to be completed and turned in by next Wednesday.
These kids have been so much fun to work with over the past 3 years! I will miss them very much!
Please let me know if you have any questions. Try to stay dry this weekend!
Mrs. Gipple
6-8 Religion with Mr. Tallman
The 8thgrade will have their religion final on Wednesday, May 22nd.
The 7thgrade will host the Annual Mock Conclave on Wednesday, May 29th.
The 6thgrade is wrapping up their study of the Communion of Saints this next week.
Thank you all for a wonderful school year!
Peace,
Mr. Tallman
6-8 Science with Mrs. Erickson
6th Grade: We are currently working on the History of Life on Earth. We are making a timeline of Earth’s history and plotting out when different lifeforms appear. This activity is so shocking due to the amount of time on our timelines with nothing living on Earth, as well as how recently modern humans appeared. We will wrap up this unit on the 23rd, next week with one last short test. We will cover how fossils form and are used, the divisions of Earth’s history, how Earth has changed since its creation to allow for life to flourish, and how organisms have changed over that time.
7th Grade: We are talking about taxonomy! How are organisms named, compared, and sorted. This is a mixture of brand new and prior knowledge. We are building cladograms to organize organisms and learning what these diagrams mean about the species and their relationships. This will be followed with a look into the seven levels of classification and a recap of the six kingdoms all living things fall into.
8th Grade: We have made it to finals! These five units all blend together with concepts that are present throughout. Students should be finished/finishing up their climate project and working on their final study preparations. For science the final will be a compilation of information we have learned this last trimester: Energy, Heat, Atmosphere, Weather, and Climate. In Google Classroom there are two different documents to aid studying. A study guide with an outline of the topics we covered this year and major concepts they should know at this point. Again, the final will only be over the last five of these units, but concepts we learned in September have followed us all year and play a role in their understanding of these most recent concepts. There is also a review. This review has 80+ sample questions about all the information we have covered this year and are similar to what students will see on the final. Again I have included things from the whole year, but we will concentrate on the last trimester of information (starts with question #43). I have reminded students that although the first 42 questions are from earlier this year and won’t be on the final they are still good to review as concepts have overlapped and built on earlier concepts. A great example of this is density, one of our very first units. Energy, Heat, Atmosphere, Weather, and Climate all require an understanding of density. The science final will be on Wednesday, May 22. We will be studying every day until then.
Mrs. Jaci Erickson
6-8 Social Studies with Mr. Klein
Our final is on Monday, May 20th. After that we will finish up the week doing an End of Year Activity
7th Grade:
We have started to work on our Trimester 3 project. The projects are due on May 23rd.
6th Grade:
For 6th grade, we are working on a European project. Students are researching a European country of their choice and will present on their findings on the 23rd.
Mr. Klein
7T & 8th grade Language Arts with Mrs. Pedersen
Our final is on Monday, May 20th. After that we will finish up the week doing an End of Year Activity
7th Grade:
We have started to work on our Trimester 3 project. The projects are due on May 23rd.
6th Grade:
For 6th grade, we are working on a European project. Students are researching a European country of their choice and will present on their findings on the 23rd.
Have a great weekend.
Mrs. Pedersen
Thank You for reading the SPX Middle School Blog this year!
