MS Newsletter
Here's what's happening in MS this week!
December 4, 2017
Dear parents,
The end of the 2nd quarter is fast approaching! All late work and retakes must be turned in by December 15th.
ENGLISH
6th Grade: Students have a spelling test on Thursday! We will expand our work with apostrophes this week with a quiz over both contractions and possessives on Friday. This week, we will learn about elements of a story and apply our knowledge to The Graveyard Book.
7th Grade: Students will present their Touching Spirit Bear final projects on Monday. Once finished, students will complete a write-up of their projects. The novel exam will be this Friday, with a spelling test on Thursday.
8th Grade: Students have been working hard on their readers theater performances. The first class performance is Wednesday and the second one is Thursday. Students are responsible for all props and costumes and they will need to have them on the day of their performance. As the semester ends, we will also be preparing to take the NWEA for the second time.
SOCIAL STUDIES
6th Grade: We have been studying Mesoamerica and its civilizations. We learned about an Aztec game called patolli on Friday. We will be researching more about the Aztec people and will be comparing them to the Incas and the Mayas.
7th Grade: We have been studying Mesoamerica and its civilizations. We learned about an Aztec game called patolli on Friday. We will be researching more about the Aztec people and will be comparing them to the Incas and the Mayas.
8th Grade: This week we learned about the Slave Trade act of 1794 and what it means for the institution of slavery in the coming years. Today I gave the students a summary of their grades so far so they may work on turning in any missing or incomplete work. As you may have read above, all missing and late work is due on the 15th so I’m trying to help the students by keeping on top of their grades. Next week we investigate the beginning of the end for the Native Americans, treaties with foreign nations and Washington’s Farewell.
MATH
6th Grade: We had a chapter test Friday. Grades are updated in power school and retakes can be taken if all prior homework has been turned in. All middle schoolers have been emailed a report on their NWEA scores and we spent a day learning how to practice skills on IXL to help improve their NWEA scores. If you have questions about this, please email me. This week we will begin exploring percents and how they relate to fractions.
7th Grade: We had a chapter test last Thursday. Grades are updated in power school and retakes can be taken if all prior homework has been turned in. All middle schoolers have been emailed a report on their NWEA scores and we spent a day learning how to practice skills on IXL to help improve their NWEA scores. If you have questions about this, please email me.This week we will begin learning about percent increase and decrease.
8th Grade: We had a chapter test last Thursday. Grades are updated in power school and retakes can be taken if all prior homework has been turned in. All middle schoolers have been emailed a report on their NWEA scores and we spent a day learning how to practice skills on IXL to help improve their NWEA scores. If you have questions about this, please email me. This week we begin to explore linear equations in real life and how to write linear equations in slope-intercept form.
SCIENCE
6th Grade: We have been discussing endangered, threatened, and invasive species in Michigan. Students are researching and creating a presentation about a specific species. All presentations will be shared by Thursday December 7th. The description and scoring rubric for this project is posted in Google Classroom, Science 6. Students have access to this through their school email.
7th Grade: Students have been presenting their Adopt-an-Element projects to their classmates. It is exciting to learn about all the different properties the different elements have. All quiz corrections and retakes should be completed prior to December 15th. 7th graders will have a quiz next week on Tuesday or Wednesday over 3.3 Changes in Matter. On Friday, the students watched Mr. Faivor do a demonstration on the formation of compounds and how the properties change when a compound is formed. Ask your students about this: Fe + S = FeS.
8th Grade: We have been learning how to interpret Climagraphs (aka climographs aka climate graphs) which is a combination line graph and bar graph showing yearly temperatures and precipitation for a location. Students will be researching a city and creating a climagraph for it.
SINCERELY,
The Middle School Team
6-7th English: Nic Dziadosz ndziadosz@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
8 English: Amanda Terryberry aterryberry@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6&8th Sci, 6-7th SS: Sue Goslee sgoslee@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
8th SS: Michele Hinkle mhinkle@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6-8 Math: Erica Stuck estuck@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
7th Science: Clayton Faivor cfaivor@ellsworth.k12.mi.us