Howards Grove Middle School
April Parent/Guardian Newsletter VOL. VIII
STUDENT SHOWCASE- FRIDAY, MAY 5TH 5-7 PM
Ever wonder… “What is my kid doing in school? What are they learning?” Come to the Middle School Student Showcase! This event is a display of student work, projects, demonstrations, videos, hands on activities, and much more! Feel free to attend this open house event anytime between 5 - 7 PM and walk through the galleries of student work. In addition, the Thai Express food truck will be at this event in case you come hungry!
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
UPCOMING SPRING MUSIC CONCERTS
Ms. Wasmer and Mr. Simon
INTERVENTION
Spring i-Ready Diagnostic Testing: Math May 8th-12th, Reading May 15th-19th. Please try not to schedule appointments during testing weeks.
Weekly i-Ready Expectation: By Friday, students should have two passed lessons in math and two lessons in reading on their personal instructional path on i-Ready. Students can work on this at home as well as at school. There is no i-Ready during the week of Forward Testing.
i-Ready Helpful Links for Families:
Fridge Tips for i-Ready Lessons at home
Understanding diagnostic results from i-Ready
i-Ready Central Resources | Family Center – Home
i-Ready Domains covered by Diagnostic
What can I do at home to help my child read? (Don’t forget to click on the links😉 )
Establish a reading time, even if it is only ten minutes a day. Why reading is important 🕰️
Read to your child no matter how old. Books to read with your middle schooler📚
Write notes to your school-age child; encourage written responses. Inspirational-quotes-for-teenagers ✍️
Ask your child to bring a library book home to read to a younger sibling or pet. Best Middle School Books 🐱🐶🐠👶
Establish one evening/one day a week with no screen time.
50 Things to Do instead of screen time🚵🧑🍳🤾🌳🎨
Listen to podcasts Best Podcasts for Kids 👂
Listen to audiobooks before bed or in the car. These are available on apps like Audible or free from our school & public library. Best Audiobooks for Middle Schoolers
Ask Questions: When your child reads, have them retell the story or information. If it’s a story, ask who it was about and what happened. If it’s an informational text, have your child explain what it was about and how it worked, or what its parts were. Questions to Ask ❓
Visit the library or Bookmobile as a family. Join the summer reading program together. Bookmobile Schedule 🚌
COUNSELOR'S CORNER
We are continuing to work hard on our State Forward Testing here at the Middle School! Student who missed days or sessions will start make up testing next week, with all testing being completed by next Friday, April 28.
Our students also continue to work through the Second Step Program as part of their Social Emotional Learning time. The SEL lessons as we move towards the end of the year focus a lot on emotions, social skills, and conflict resolution. Some of the key items in these lessons teach about perspective, accountability, and respectful communication. We will also be trying to incorporate some additional discussions across the grade levels on how these key points also pertain to the use of the internet and social media.
STUDENT COUNCIL
8TH GRADE
Students are diving into their Position Paper unit. To begin this unit, students were asked to read articles on violent video and role-playing games. After much research, students then decided if games like this are perilous or detrimental to our 8th grade students. To help develop their reasoning skills, students partook in short debates to prove their position. Once this process was finalized, students then began to search out a topic of interest that would fit a position paper. Currently, the 8th grade students are in the beginning stages of researching their chosen topic. Once Forward Testing is complete, students will begin the drafting and revising process on their position papers.
MATH
Students in eighth grade math recently completed a study of two-way tables. They learned how to construct and interpret data to determine whether there is an association between two variables. They discovered the difference between a frequency and relative frequency table and also how to use joint and marginal frequencies to find conditional relative frequencies. While the calendar now indicates were in sprint finish mode, and state testing is in our rear-view mirror, there continues to be a great deal of learning to still occur. All state standards were covered before the Forward Exam was administered, however in the coming days the students will learn more about Real Numbers and the Pythagorean Theorem as well as Exponents, Scientific Notation, and Volume.
ALGEBRA
Algebra students are nearing the end of their curriculum. They too have reached sprint finish mode. Next fall these students will begin their high school math journey in Geometry. Until then, these math minds will be laser focused on learning about Radical Functions and Geometry. They've already learned how to graph square root functions, simplify radical expressions, solve radical equations, use the Pythagorean Theorem to find missing sides of right triangles, and use trigonometric ratios to solve triangles. They will complete this school year with a study of Rational Functions and Equations as well as taking a more in-depth look at Statistics and Probability.
SCIENCE
We are currently studying and learning about Atoms and the Periodic Table. One of the projects we are doing in this unit is called the “Element SuperHero/Villain Project.” Students pick one of the elements on the periodic table and after research develop either a superhero or villain based off of that element. Students will present their final work next Monday 4/17 and afterwards we will be wrapping up the final two lessons in this unit before we move on to talking about interactions with matter.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We are learning about the causes and effects of The Vietnam War. We are just at the beginning of this unit, but we have a lot planned and in store as it goes on. Students have just wrapped up learning the basis of how Americans got involved with the war through “The Domino Theory”, which stated if one country would fall to communism the other countries surrounding it would also fall. We have worked on mapping out and the understanding of Vietnam and the countries surrounding it as well as understanding of strategies used by both sides to get into each other's heads to win the war through attrition strategies.
7TH GRADE
ELA
In Readers and Writers, students have spent the last couple of weeks working in a research group to research and study a topic of their choice. They gathered evidence for both sides of their issue, found reliable sources, and created infographics to teach others about their topic. They hosted a gallery walk where students had the chance to look at the different infographics and provide some feedback. To wrap up this unit, research groups took on activist roles to create TED talk videos to create an awareness for their issue and persuade others to take action to be a part of the solution to the problem. They worked together to write scripts, collect images, and create TED Talk videos to teach the audience about their topic in an engaging way. They not only focused on the content of their videos, but they also worked on presentation skills such as pacing, voice quality, and planned gestures and transitions. Last Thursday and Friday students celebrated by sharing their videos in class. Some of these items will be shared at the Student Showcase on May 5th. Come check out these amazing projects.
MATH/ALGEBRA - Students have switched gears from studying Algebra concepts to studying a unit on Geometry. Students are learning how to find the area and perimeter/circumference of a circle, square, rhombus. They are also beginning to look at 3 -D objects in manipulating them by “slicing” the object to discover the shape inside of the figure. Later in the week we will find volume and surface area of the 3-D figure. The Forward Exam for Math is April 17th and 18th. Please try not to schedule any appointments on those days. Get lots of rest, bring a snack, and wired earbuds.
SCIENCE
In science we are learning about cell division, body systems and heredity by making scientific observations about chicken eggs. On a daily basis the students have been candling chicken eggs and watching the changes as they go through each stage of development. The students have been keeping specific data on the eggs in relation to temperature, humidity, and changes in their surroundings much like a biologist in a formal lab setting. **You can see any chicks that hatch at the “Student Project Showcase” Friday, May 5 from 5-7.**
SOCIAL STUDIES
The students are currently working in groups to research Reconstruction and Progressive Eras after the CIvil War. They will be working on putting together physical projects that represent these time periods. Topics of emphasis include: child labor, immigration, segregation, and more. **These projects will be on display at the “Student Project Showcase” Friday, May 5 from 5-7.**
6TH GRADE
In 6th Grade ELA we are exploring the topic of social issues. The lens for reading in this unit is a topic that matters greatly to the young humans who enter our classrooms every day. In middle school, many kinds of issues start to weigh more heavily on students: relationship issues, school issues, and a growing awareness of larger societal pressures. There can be serious consequences to the spiraling troubles that surround middle schoolers. A driving force in this unit is the power of reading to transform how we see others.
As a class, we are reading Jerry Spinelli's book, Maniac Magee. This is an important young adult novel that addresses issues of racism, homelessness, and illiteracy. Legends surround Maniac Magee. He can run fast, defeat monsters, defy gravity. The truth: eleven year old Jeffrey Lionel Magee was orphaned at three and sent to live with his feuding aunt and uncle. When he couldn’t stand the fighting anymore, he ran away. Right to the town of Two Mills, where he stirred up trouble by challenging everybody’s notions of home, family, and racial boundaries. Spinelli narrates Maniac Magee in a humorous, kid friendly style. The story has something for everyone: sports, a bully named after a chocolate bar, a hero, and a spunky girl who loves her books so much that she carries them with her to school each day in a suitcase.
Why read Maniac Magee? Reading social issue books can be a great way to increase your knowledge about injustices around you. Sometimes you may not be aware of what's happening unless you seek out resources to stay informed. In Maniac Magee the book teaches us how the character, Jeffery, helps to show the town of Two Mills the theme that people of different races have to get along, respect each other, and live together.
After our group read, the students will be working in their own Social Issues Book Clubs. These book clubs will meet to discuss a book(s) that they are reading and express their opinions, likes, dislikes, etc. Students are currently researching which books they would like to read for these book clubs.
MATH
In 6th grade math, we just finished up our Geometry unit and are currently in our Data and Statistics unit. Students have been busy organizing data and displaying it in either a dot plot, frequency table, histogram, or box plot. Students also have been working on finding the measures of center with data sets, such as mean, median, mode, and mean absolute deviation.
After the state test, students will be moving into units reviewing ratios and proportions, percentages, and integer operations. We also have our financial literacy unit coming up in May. Students will be working to apply their knowledge of decimal operations and finding percentages to solve real world money related problems. We will be using a program called Banzai to work through real life examples as well.
SCIENCE
In science class, we are continuing to focus on the specific spheres of planet Earth. We first learned about the four main spheres of planet Earth, then we focused on the geosphere. Currently, we are talking about the atmosphere and hydrosphere. Our main focus is the water cycle and learning about how water cycles throughout our planet. This will transition nicely into our final unit, which is weather and climate!
SOCIAL STUDIES
We have come so far in American history! We started by learning about rising tensions between the colonies and Great Britain. We learned about the American Revolution, the creation of our new nation and government, and we are moving onto our expansion out west. Students learned about the many territory acquisitions that made our country the size it is today. Next up, we will learn about the reasons, costs, and benefits of pioneers who chose to move west to "the new land".
5TH GRADE
ELA
In our Writing Workshop, we have begun to write our Literary Essay based on the theme of a fantasy book we just finished in class. The students have shown so much growth in their writing the past few weeks and we are excited to showcase their essays! Now that we wrapped up the fantasy unit and reading, we will be starting new book clubs this month. The students will be entering a research based argumentative unit in reading and writing.
MATH
We are tackling divisions. Our skills at the conclusion of this unit will include dividing with single and double digits, learning what the remainders mean, and dividing decimals. We are also learning some geometry vocabulary.
SCIENCE
We have begun our LIGHT unit. We will learn about the characteristics of light and the EM Spectrum. Once we understand how it works, this knowledge will help us to see how some of our technologies came to be developed. Maybe we will be the next engineers to improve our current technologies.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Students are learning about the Early Colonies in the U.S. We are distinguishing the 3 different cultures that formed based on the geographical, economical, and colonists origins. We are also recognizing that culture during that era influenced the decisions the competing European countries made. Their decisions, which looking back were not respectful, would be hopefully totally different if confronted in today’s culture. We hope to be forming a more respectful way of thinking.
(SEL) SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING-
During SEL time Mrs. Luecke is working with students on our Bullying Unit. We have taken the information from our lessons on individualism, labels, stereotypes, and rumors/gossip, and are using those foundations to dig into the differences between unkindness, bullying, and harassment. We will be emphasizing the use of social media and the internet with this topic as well in our upcoming SEL times, along with an in depth discussion on social media and internet safety.
HOWARDS GROVE MIDDLE SCHOOL
Email: ahouston@hgsd.k12.wi.us
Website: www.hgtigers.com
Location: 506 Kennedy Avenue, Howards Grove, WI, USA
Phone: (920) 565-4452