CDS Middle School

From the Director

Dear CDS Community,

We've had another excellent week at CDS Middle School! Teachers are doing such an incredible job creating impactful learning experiences for our students. I hope you can find the time to read through the highlights they've shared within this week's newsletter. I also want express my sincere gratitude for our Middle School assistant Ms. Lee who collects these moments each week and organizes them here for our whole Community to enjoy.

In other news, the Student Council did a wonderful job building school spirit and Community through this year's Spirt Week. It was so much fun to see students (and teachers) express themselves with each day's theme!

Term 3 is quickly coming to an end, so time management is going to be important for students as they complete their projects and portfolio work. Students---please make sure you're getting plenty of rest each night and asking your teachers for help when you need it!

Have a great weekend!

Benjamin Scoville

Director of Middle School

Student Council - Bake Sale

The Student Council collaborated and worked hard to prepare a bake sale on Tuesday, February 19th during lab time. They sold Oreos, Kit Kats, Brownies, Pocari Sweat, Welch's, and a new crowd favorite, quesadillas with salsa! The profits from the bake sale will go towards future events organized by the Student Council.

P.E class with Mr. Monette

This week in physical education class, we started our basketball unit. Currently, we are learning how to dribble the basketball with both hands, manipulating the basketball and trying to be aware of where the basketball is at all times without actually looking at the ball.

We will soon be getting into passing, shooting and games. It is one of the favorite units for many of the middle school students. It's also my favorite sport as well!!!

- Mr. Monette

Social Studies with Mr. Thach

As our culminating project for term 3, students in both 5th and 7th grade were given a wide array of choices to demonstrate their learning and explore topics of interest in a deeper way. Some students chose to create Instagram or Facebook accounts of a historical person of study. Others opted for video reenactments of historical events, while some went out of their way to create original pieces that married their own interest with the learning content.

- Mr. Thach

Art with Mrs. Koetje

This term in Art the 6th graders have been studying the different components of printmaking and were finally able to reap the benefits through the creation of their own prints! 6th graders have been learning about positive and negative space and reductive printmaking. Reductive printmaking requires tedious planning for what area needs to carved away and determining which color will overlap previous colors they printed.

Each class period requires students to be prepared, attentive to wet ink, carving tools, and completing their projects carefully. The 6th graders have done an excellent job of working together to complete their prints and helping each other clean up all the printmaking materials!

- Mrs. Koetje

Math with Mrs. Hinds

The sixth graders showed what they knew about one-step equations in a project called the Two by Two Project. They had the opportunity to choose two different methods to show their knowledge. They got to choose from creating a poster, writing a story, making a comic strip, making a skit or a song, creating a game, or they could pick making a podcast or video. The picture shows just a small sampling of some of their choices. I feel they did a wonderful job and it is always so much fun to see the creativity of our students.

- Mrs. Hinds

Science with Mr. Howell

For the past few weeks 7th grade Life Science students have been studying the ins and outs of protists, fungi, and plants. In order to get some hands-on experience with these organisms we have spent considerable time observing them under the microscope. Students learned how to properly manipulate the various parts of the microscope in order to optimize their observations. We discovered many interesting and unexpected things in the process and expanded our knowledge of these fascinating creatures. I hope this experience will instill students with a greater appreciation for the complexities of organic life.

- Mr. Howell

Science with Mr. Keel

8th Grade students are investigating how atoms in different states can transfer thermal energy. This week students performed a dry ice experiment where they looked at how different temperature water would accelerate the solid to gas transformation of solid carbon dioxide. This process, called sublimation, is something to behold and brought out the enthusiasm in both 8th grade classes. Students recorded how the rate of sublimation changed in each situation and will be completing a detailed lab report to document their results. This weeks science class was definitely sublime!

- Mr. Keel