Howards Grove Middle School
March Parent/Guardian Newsletter Vol. VII
Important Dates
March 23, 4 PM 7th/8th Volleyball vs Oostburg @ HG
March 24, End of Term 3
March 27-March 31, Spring Break
April 3, 4:30 PM PTO Meeting @ NV
April 7, No School
April 10, No School, Staff Development Day
April 11, 4:30 PM PTO Meeting @ NV
April 14, Education Foundation "Dueling Pianos" at Howards Grove Center for the Arts
SAVE THE DATE
Summer School - Important Dates
Summer School information and registration forms will be available online at the district website (www.hgtigers.org). You can find it in the top right hand corner labeled Summer School 2023.
April 6 – All summer school course descriptions and schedules available online. You may begin browsing and planning your child(ren)’s possible summer school class schedules and related costs.
April 12– Summer school registration opens online
April 26 – Registration closes
May 12 - Fees for applicable classes will be posted to the student's account
May 26 – All fees need to be paid
Session 1-June 12– June 30 Summer School classes in session Classes held Monday – Friday 8 am - 12 pm unless otherwise indicated
Session 2-July 31-August 11 Summer School classes in session Classes held Monday – Friday 8 am - 12 pm unless otherwise indicated
PLEASE NOTE – Swimming is held Monday-Thursday at 8 am and 10 am with a limit of 40 students in each time slot
Principal's Message
We are nearing the end of term three. Term three ends on March 24th, the day before Spring Break. Please encourage your student to finish strong and tie up any loose ends before break. I have included in this month's newsletter the 8th grade Recognition Night date of Monday, June 5th at 7 PM. This is always a wonderful evening to celebrate the success of our 8th graders. This event takes place at the Howards Grove Center for the Arts. You should have also seen the Skyward message about our State Testing Schedule. More information is below in the Counselor's Corner. If your student will not be in school during your grade level window for testing, please contact the homeroom teacher so we are able to make alternate arrangements within our testing window. As always, if there is anything that I can be of assistance, please feel to reach out. I hope you enjoy this edition of our Middle School Newsletter. I wish you a great day,
Angie Houston
Intervention
Read Across America Spirit Week
Monday, Feb. 27, through Friday, March 3, was Read Across America Week at Howards Grove Middle School. Our School had a spirit week to celebrate reading and each day consisted of a fun dress up day.
Monday:Fox in Socks Day: Wear your craziest socks
. “Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” — Malorie Blackman
Tuesday: Career Day: Dress in your future profession.
“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” – Margaret Fuller
Wednesday: Read My Shirt Day: Wear a shirt with words
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” — Joseph Addison
Thursday: Cat in the Hat: Wear your favorite hat or stripes to honor Dr. Seuss Birthday
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." -- Dr. Seuss.
Friday: PJ Day: Wear your PJs and bring a book for a whole school read-a-thon
A book is a dream that you hold in your hand. – Neil Gaiman
i-Ready Expectation: By Friday each week, students should have two passed lessons in math and two passed lessons in reading on their personal instructional path on i-Ready. Students can work on this at home as well as at school.
i-Ready Helpful Links for Families:
Fridge Tips for i-Ready Lessons at home
Understanding diagnostic results from i-Ready
Career Day
Read Across America - Hallway Reading
Read My Shirt
Counselor's Corner
Student Council
8th Grade
ELA
The 8th grade ELA class has finished up their journalism unit. Newspapers will be shared with families sometime during the week before Spring Break - stay tuned! In the last week, the 8th graders have started reading an 'oldie but a goodie', The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Not only is this a fun read, but it has many thought provoking themes. Students have paused several times to identify new themes that pop up as the story unfolds. At one point, the students were grouped together and had to form an argument, supported by evidence, as to why the theme they chose was the stronger theme presented in the novel. Students were well poised and articulate about their themes. Next up, we will take our argument skills to paper and write a position paper.MATH
Math students have recently completed a study of scatter plots. They've learned how to identify an association of bivariate data as being positive, negative, or no correlation. They've learned that scatter plots can be identified as strong or weak and may have clusters or outliers. They've also learned how to properly draw median-fit lines, write equations for these lines, and discovered how to use these lines and equations to make predictions. Next up for the eighth grade math students will be a study of two-way tables.
ALGEBRA
Algebra students have been diligently studying radical expressions. They've recently learned how to graph radical equations, identify common transformations involving radicals, and have simplified radical expressions. Soon they will begin using sine, cosine and tangent to use a triangle's angle measures to solve missing side lengths. They'll also discover how to use a triangle's side lengths to solve missing angles measures.
SCIENCE
Last week the students built their own solar cookers for a lab. It was great excitement as students saw their cooker’s at work creating and cooking their favorite snacks.We are currently studying energy and different types of use such as fossil fuels and alternative energy resources. We just today are doing an Alternative Energy Design Shark Tank project where staff will act as “Shark Tank investors” and will decide if the students' designs will move on for investment.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We just wrapped up our World War II unit and are now moving into talking about the Post-War Period before we get into the Vietnam War after Spring Break.
7th Grade
ELA
In Readers and Writers, the 7th graders finished their research and writing for their competitive sports argumentative essays. They learned how to study both sides of an issue and to formulate a strong claim based on the evidence they found. They were asked to support their claim with reasons and evidence from their research. We are now applying what we learned about argumentation and research into a project where students have been grouped in research groups to study a topic of their choice. They are compiling their research into infographics to teach others about what they have learned. To wrap up the unit, they will work within their groups to create a Video PSA or TED Talk as advocates for their topic/issue.
MATH
We celebrated Pi Day on March 14th!! Thank you to those students that brought in “Circle” goodies. The students have practiced solving a lot of equations. I think they can call themselves “Equation Masters.” We will be studying inequalities next and then moving to Geometry before the State test. April 17th and 18th, 7th grade students will be taking the Forward Exam in Math class.
ALGEBRA
Students are working hard Solving Multi-Step Equations. They are graphing the equations and interpreting the graphs. They are learning how to graph perpendicular and parallel lines to the given equation. We will be taking a break from Algebra next week to prepare for the Forward Exam, April 17th and 18th.
SCIENCE
The students just got done completing plant observations in class as the growth of their mustard plants comes to an end (annual plants). Each day they took observations about their plants like true scientists in a lab and wrote scientific conclusions about their findings. In addition they graphed measurements related to growth over time, flower production, and fruit production. We will use this information in the future to dive deeper into DNA, genes, cell production, and mutations. You can view some of these scientific reports, and view some plants at the Student Showcase on Friday, May 5 at HGMS (after school).
SOCIAL STUDIES
The students are at the tail-end of producing American Civil War battle documentaries. These will be on display at the Student Showcase on Friday, May 5 at HGMS (after school) along with other Civil War Art displays. We will soon be transitioning into the Reconstruction Era in American History (1861-1900). Did you know the first personal income tax in the United States of America was imposed to repay the government for the Civil War starting in 1861.
6th Grade
ELA
In Sixth Grade ELA class, students are currently in the process of creating their Nonfiction Book Report for Tapping the Power of Nonfiction Unit of Study. The research report began with asking what students would like to know more about? Then, I had them come up with a research question (for instance, What types of animals live in the desert, jungle, or rainforest? Why do people get viruses? Who are women in history? What are forms of government? How are pencil and paper made?). Students were encouraged to choose something that they are curious about and what they wanted to learn more about in their studies. Students were able to select a book for research from the library where they kept in mind their interests and reading ability. Students could also choose an article or two to read online from a valid source of information.
As students are currently in the process of composing their reports, they must follow the guide that was provided for them and include the following items in their book report. Students are asked to evaluate text features, text structure, author's purpose, main idea with supporting details, as well as vocabulary and interesting facts that they are learning along the way in their reading research. After students gather, analyze, and use text evidence to support their claims in their research report, they can add fun images and interesting details to enhance their report. In the end, all students will present their findings to the class and the class will walk away with a wealth of knowledge based on other students’ research reports.
Please enjoy some students’ comments about how they perceive the research report:
"I enjoy doing this nonfiction book research because it helps me and my classmates learn about different people, cultures, and traditions. Another thing I like about this is some people are doing the same topic, so we get to see what different information they got." ~ Emerson Bartz
"I enjoy doing nonfiction book reports because you can learn about something that you never knew. It can also expand your knowledge of a topic you are interested in. In general, nonfiction book reports are beneficial and expand your knowledge on a certain topic." ~ Demi Talbot
"I like doing the book report because it puts the learning in our hands and we can teach the class about what we learned." ~ Isaac Pritzl
"I liked doing this nonfiction research project because it gave me an opportunity to research a topic that I wanted to research. It is a lot more interesting and fun when you get to choose what you are going to research. I myself was researching the Holocaust and really enjoyed it. Not all of the sad things that happened during the time, but the learning aspect from it. It was very interesting learning what happened." ~ Marc Winter
MATH
It was an exciting week in 6th grade Math! On Tuesday, March 14, we celebrated Pi Day (3.14), by eating circular treats while we practiced finding the circumference and area of circles. Thank you to all of the volunteers who sent in treats and supplies. The kids loved it all!
Currently in Math, we are all moving into our Geometry and Measurement and Data Units. These lessons will be covered for the next 5 weeks. We will be learning about finding the Area of a variety of shapes, including parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids, and composite figures. This knowledge will help us find the Surface Area of 3-dimensional figures. We also will touch on the concept of finding the Volume of 3-dimensional figures. Students will learn the formulas that go along with each shape and apply their knowledge of algebraic equations to help solve the problems. After learning about geometric figures, we will explore data collection and displays of data such as dot plots, frequency tables, and histograms. We will also find the measures-of-center (mean, median, mode) with a set of data and learn how to display that data in a box-and-whisker plot. We will be busy, busy, busy in 6th grade Math!
SCIENCE
In science class, we are continuing to talk about the spheres of planet Earth. Your student should easily be able to tell you about the 4 main spheres of planet Earth. Of those, we have focused on the geosphere, discussing plate tectonics and the rock cycle. Next up, we are going to begin to learn about the atmosphere and hydrosphere. Specifically, we are going to dive into the water cycle, which will lead us nicely into learning about weather and climate.
SOCIAL STUDIES
In social studies, we are continuing to progress through early American history. We started with the American Revolution, and we have made it to west.ward expansion. Pioneers in the 1800s chose to start moving west for a variety of reasons. It was a dangerous journal, but was made easier by many inventions during this time. We will be discussing the journey west and much more in the coming weeks during social studies.
5th Grade
ELA
In Grammar we are working on verb “tense” this unit. Students are learning how to use appropriate verb tense in their writings. They are also learning when to use a hyphen in a sentence. The students have taken these tools and inserted them into their own sentences and writings.
The class has also written their first assessment in the fantasy unit we are working on. I am so impressed with their creative stories! I can’t wait to see them use everything we have learned to write their final paper!
We have started a Fantasy Unit this term and have been reading The City of Ember. We are all enjoying the novel and learning about character traits, charting problems the characters face, suspending judgment on characters, and using all the tools that will soon lead us to what we believe is the theme of the story. The kids and I have really enjoyed this journey of fantasy so far.
MATH
Once we celebrate delicious PI (pie) Day, we will be back to work finishing multiplying with decimals and will be assessing student’s understanding soon. After that we will be starting to work on dividing with multiple digits and decimals.
SCIENCE
Since learning how sound travels and how we can change the pitch, amplitude and many more ideas. We look at our own body’s ability to process and produce sound. We will be assessing our understanding of the SOUND. The second half of the month we will be studying LIGHT.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We are wrapping up our unit on the Age of Exploration and timelines. After we finish that unit’s assessment, US First Settlements become our new focus. We will start to understand the social impact of the European settlers on the natives and what led to building our first colonies.
Howards Grove Education Foundation
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