Ellsworth MS Newsletter
Here's what's happening in MS this week!
February 23, 2020
Dear parents,
We are nearing the end of the 3rd quarter. All late work and retakes need to be completed by Friday, February 28.
ENGLISH
6th Grade: Vocabulary test will be on Friday the 28th. The words are in Google classroom and students can use their notes for a maximum grade of 85%. We are currently digging deep into our narratives and those will be due, published, by March 6th.
7th Grade: Narratives are due Monday. Students have been working hard in class to get their stories completed. They have a rubric for their requirements, and they also need to have it peer reviewed before publishing and turning it in on Monday. With our next two units, students will be focusing on reading and writing informational text based on historical events. The first unit focuses on reading for information and the second unit requires students to research a historical event and write a paper on the event.
8th Grade: Essay rough drafts are due Monday. We will spend some time on Monday creating our works cited page. We will be moving on to chapter 9 in our grammar book. The focus for chapter 10 will be adjectives and adverbs.
SOCIAL STUDIES
6th Grade: We will be wrapping up sharing our US state or world country research presentations on Monday. We will be continuing our discussion of how cultural ideas have spread (diffused) among different places. There will be a vocabulary quiz on Wednesday before we begin to look at how trade affects people in different places. There will be another set of vocabulary posted on Wednesday.
7th Grade: We will be continuing our discussion of how cultural ideas have spread (diffused) among different places. There will be a vocabulary quiz on Wednesday before we begin to look at how trade affects people in different places. There will be another set of vocabulary posted on Wednesday.
8th Grade: We are looking at Manifest Destiny. On Friday we did a Manifest Destiny gallery art walk to look at 4 pictures during that time period. The students were able to look at art in a very specific way. We also went last Monday and will go again tomorrow to read/play with the pre-K students. Everyone seemed to have a great time building into those little ones.
MATH
6th Grade: 6th graders finished up our study of the coordinate plane last week. This week we turn our focus to learning how to write numerical expressions using exponents. They will have a quiz over this lesson on Friday. Keep up the great work with iReady! 45 minutes every week. Those with 10 or more completed lessons since the holiday break will have a pizza party on Wednesday!
7th Grade: 7th graders have been practicing writing equations, sometimes with unknown amounts where they need to use variables. They will have a quiz on Tuesday over this lesson. Keep up the great work with iReady! 45 minutes every week. Those with 10 or more completed lessons since the holiday break will have a pizza party on Wednesday!
8th Grade: 8th graders began solving systems of equations algebraically last week and they will have a quiz on Friday! Keep up the great work with iReady! 45 minutes every week. Those with 10 or more completed lessons since the holiday break will have a pizza party on Wednesday!
SCIENCE
6th Grade: We have been using our science time to wrap up working with Lego Ev3 Mindstorms. We will be disassembling and sorting our parts early in the week. We will be looking at some other forms of energy for the rest of the week as well as learning how to code for Sphero robots.
7th Grade: We had a quiz Friday on Photosynthesis. Quiz retakes and corrections are always an option for students. They have a project on Photosynthesis due Monday. We will begin our study of cell division investigating what happens to our body as we grow: Do our cells get bigger or does something else happen?
8th Grade: Mrs. Kroon has been in to present the Willing2Wait class to the students. They are learning how to make good choices with their emotional and sexual health. She will be in next Tuesday through Friday as well. Because of the snow day, our photosynthesis unit got interrupted right at the end. The students have their project due on Tuesday and will have a quiz the following Monday.
ART
7th Grade: We have started a new unit working on mixing and creating different values of blue, being inspired by Picasso's Blue Period. We are struggling to get our clay done so we can fire them and hopefully have a day to glaz them at the end of this week.
MUSIC
Band festival is this Saturday in Elk Rapids. For those students participating, it is a required event. Hope to see friends and family there!
PE
8th Grade: This week students will participate in team fitness and skills challenges. They will also play 2 invasion games (defending and creating space, advancing the ball in attempt to score, stopping the ball/preventing a score, spacing, and ball movement to an open teammate). Warm-up activities will focus on health related physical fitness development/improvement (cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility).
SINCERELY,
The Middle School Team
8th English: Amanda Terryberry aterryberry@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6th and 7th English Michele Hinkle mhinkle@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6th Sci, 6-7th SS: Sue Goslee sgoslee@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6-8 Math: Erica Stuck estuck@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
7-8th Science: Clayton Faivor cfaivor@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
8th SS: Laurie Yost lyost@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
Art: Kurt Zimmerle kzimmerle@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
Music: Ashley Ford aford@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
PE: Mark Drenth mdrenth@ellsworth.k12.mi.us