SPX Middle School Blog
Friday, November 22nd, 2019
Welcome to the Saint Pius X Middle School Blog!
The Middle School Team would like to extend our heartfelt Thanks to to each and every one of our students, their parents and families as we approach Thanksgiving next week! We are truly blessed to have you here at St. Pius X School and can't thank you enough for your support and partnership as we work to raise the next generation of holy saints!
Have a Blessed Thanksgiving Break!
-The Middle School Team
General Middle School Updates
1. The end of the First Trimester of the Academic Year is today, November 22nd, 2019. Final grades will be posted by 3pm on Tuesday, November 26th.
2. Please join us as the middle school kicks off the Advent season by hosting our All-School Mass on December 4th, 2019. This Mass will be hosted by Mrs. Erickson’s 6th grade homeroom!
3. The St. Pius X School is excited to announce that our school-wide Advent Mission Project in which our school students will be working together this Advent to purchase gift baskets for five refugee families from Burma, Congo and Afghanistan. This Advent Mission Project will kickoff with a Prayer Service on December 2nd and conclude with a Prayer Service on December 20th. Please watch as information regarding our Advent Mission Project is shared over the next week!
3. The St. Pius X School is excited to announce that our school-wide Advent Mission Project in which our school students will be working together this Advent to purchase gift baskets for five refugee families from Burma, Congo and Afghanistan. This Advent Mission Project will kickoff with a Prayer Service on December 2nd and conclude with a Prayer Service on December 20th. Please watch as information regarding our Advent Mission Project is shared over the next week!
4. Have you heard about the Middle School Virtual Planner?
Each day every middle school teacher posts homework on our virtual planner at https://sites.google.com/stpiusxschool.org/middleschool
Each day every middle school teacher posts homework on our virtual planner at https://sites.google.com/stpiusxschool.org/middleschool
This is a great way for students double-check the assignments recorded in their student planners! We encourage parents to check the virtual planner as well to assist their student as they complete their homework and prepare for assessments!
5. Pius Academy is available every Tuesday afternoon – take advantage of this great opportunity to get one-on-one assistance for any subject!
Pius Academy is offered on Tuesday afternoons from 3:00-3:45pm.
Pick-up takes place outside the front entrance of the school (West doors) at 3:45pm.
We look forward to working with your children during Pius Academy!
Teacher Updates
Middle School Science with Mrs. Erickson:
As always, be sure to check the homework page for updated test, project, and due dates: https://sites.google.com/
6th Grade: We are finishing up our unit on Earth’s Interior. We will have a test Monday, November 26th over this material. From the interior we will then begin our discussion of plate tectonics. We will start by making a puzzle from pieces of Earth’s crust. Students will then design their own planets that have been affected by plate tectonics. Our unit will end with an assessment in the middle to end of December.
7th Grade: We are finishing up our discussion of DNA, genes, proteins, and mutations! We are making posters to help showcase our understanding of these topics as well as having an assessment on Tuesday, November 26th. Our unit after this will focus on diversity and evolution. This builds on our understanding of genetic mutations and changes in organisms. We will look at how diversity happens in organisms and what happens when organisms change over time.
8th Grade: We are finishing our unit on physical and chemical characteristics. Students have been testing five “mystery” powders to determine their physical and chemical characteristics. We tried to identify our unknown powders on Thursday, November 21 and will be wrapping up our lab report over this information. There will not be a test over chemical and physical characteristics. Knowledge of these topics will be showcased within their lab reports. Our next unit, Chemistry, will build on these characteristics. We will start by looking at what exactly is an atom and how have scientists gained this knowledge. We will also be discussing how atoms interact with each other to form molecules! Our assessment for this unit won’t be until the middle to end of December before we leave for Christmas Break.
Happy Thanksgiving! Have a safe and blessed holiday!
Mrs. Erickson
6th grade and 7B Language Arts with Ms. Fannon:
6E & 6K - I can’t believe the first trimester is over! The sixth graders have worked so hard. In writing, students are still learning about different parts of speech. They just finished a unit on pronouns and took a test over them. Now, students are learning about verbs. In reading, they are learning about types of conflict. They are reading a short story called “Water” by Helen Keller which shows internal conflict. The parts of speech and types of conflict units will continue on into the second trimester.
Today AR goals are due!
7F - I can’t believe the first trimester is over! The seventh graders have worked so hard. In writing, students just took a quiz on prepositional phrases and are now learning about verb phrases. They will be quizzed on Monday over verb phrases. In reading, students are finishing the unit on science fiction. They have received a study guide and will be tested over the unit on Monday.
Today AR goals are due!
6th and 7T Language Arts with Mrs. Pedersen:
7 Tallman - After Thanksgiving break, students will finish up the Ray Bradbury science fiction unit with a test. Students are also finishing up with the final draft of the five paragraph essay. Next week, I will conference with students about their AR goal for second trimester. In reading, our next unit will be a poetry unit.
8th Grade - Students are continuing with the poetry unit. We will read a few more poems and then finish up the unit before Christmas. Students finished the subject complements unit and will move on to a verb unit. We are also continuing to work on the writing process with the five paragraph essay. Next week, I will conference with students about their AR goal for second trimester. Have a great weekend.I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving.Mrs. PedersenEarlier this week we finished up our work with decimals by taking the Ch. 3 Posttest on Tuesday. Those scores have been added into their grades on PowerSchool. Also, Ch. 3 Accelerated Math was due on Tuesday. Those scores have also been added into their grades and anyone that did not complete those by today will not be able to complete them because today is the last day of the trimester. I explained this to students multiple times and encouraged them to work on their practices from home if they were behind. Hopefully anyone who didn't finish will work on making this a priority next trimester so they can complete all their assigned work.We have now begun our work with number theory and fractions where we will explore prime and composite numbers, factors, prime factorization, greatest common factors, least common multiples, divisibility rules, etc. 7th Grade Math This week this class began working with rates, ratios, unit rates and proportions. They will have a quiz over these concepts next Tuesday, Nov. 26th. Then after Thanksgiving break we will work with similar and proportional figures, scale models and scale drawings. 7th Grade Pre-AlgebraThis class has been working on factors, prime factorization, GCF & LCM. They will have a quiz over these concepts next Tuesday, Nov. 26th. After break we will work on rules of exponents and numbers in scientific notation.
8th Grade Pre-AlgebraThis class has been working squares and square roots as well as real number subsets. This week we also applied these concepts as we began working with Pythagorean Theorem. The quiz over these concepts will be the week after Thanksgiving break.8th Grade AlgebraThis class was introduced to 3 different ways to graph linear equations: X - Y tables, by using the intercepts, and with slope-intercept form of an equation. Students are finishing up their quiz on these concepts today and next week we will begin working with point-slope form and standard form of linear equations.
Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family!!!Mrs. GippleWe have finished up the American Revolution unit and will be focusing the next month on the newly created nation of the United States and all the challenges the country faced early on.7th GradeIn 7th grade, we are wrapping up our Population/Migration unit. The students will be working on their review after Thanksgiving. Test will be December 6th.6th GradeAs we finish up Canada, we are going to be learning about Primary and Secondary sources and the benefits of using sources in our work.
Math with Mrs. Gipple:
6th Grade Math
Religion with Mr. Tallman:
I would like to share with each of your families my sincere appreciation and thanks for you all! It is a great joy to be here at SPX and work with your children and families! I am certainly keeping you all in my prayers of thanks this Thanksgiving!
6th grade: Sixth grade is in the midst of learning about the many miracles of the saints, focusing on bilocation, levitation and the stigmata. After Thanksgiving break we'll be working on making Saint Trading Cards!
6th grade: Sixth grade is in the midst of learning about the many miracles of the saints, focusing on bilocation, levitation and the stigmata. After Thanksgiving break we'll be working on making Saint Trading Cards!
7th grade: The Seventh grade is really enjoying the discernment video "God or the Girl"! As we finish the video after Thanksgiving, our conversations will focus on the need to Pray, Seek Guidance, and Sacrifice as we discern our own vocational calling!
8th grade: The Eighth grade has been busy preparing for our School Advent Mission Project. Their lead in this project has been appreciated and inspiring! Make sure to ask them at home about their role in leading our school this Advent!
I pray that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Peace,
Mr. Tallman
Social Studies with Mr. Klein:
8th Grade
We have finished up the American Revolution unit and will be focusing the next month on the newly created nation of the United States and all the challenges the country faced early on.
7th Grade
In 7th grade, we are wrapping up our Population/Migration unit. The students will be working on their review after Thanksgiving. Test will be December 6th.
6th Grade
As we finish up Canada, we are going to be learning about Primary and Secondary sources and the benefits of using sources in our work.
