Ellsworth MS Newsletter
Here's what's happening in MS this week!
October 29, 2018
Dear parents,
Reminder: the MS Student Council trip to the Royal Farms Corn Maze is Wednesday after-school. For those who signed up to go with Mrs. Goslee, please remember to turn in your permission slip and money by Wednesday morning. We should be back to school between 4-4:15 pm, so there’s plenty of time to still go trick or treating!
ENGLISH
6th Grade: We will be finalizing our narrative writing unit this week, by focusing on a one-page fictional writing. Students will be utilizing teacher feedback from previous narratives, student-led discussion, and narrative examples in order to improve the writing of this week’s narratives. Information on literary devices and elements, punctuation, and capitalization will also be reinforced.
7th Grade: In grammar we are working on parts of speech with a focus on nouns and pronouns. We are working hard on essays and this week we will focus on using quotations to strengthen our body paragraphs.
8th Grade: My Michigan Hero essays are in the editing and revision process and will be finalized and submitted to competition the second week of November. We will continue our grammar studies with parts of speech. Emphasis will be on nouns and pronouns.
SOCIAL STUDIES
6th Grade: We have begun to study about the early river valley civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China. Our first focus is Mesopotamia. Also I will be awarding prizes soon for October IXL practice for social studies and science. Reminder there won’t be school on Thursday Nov. 1st for students.
7th Grade: We have begun to study about the early river valley civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China. Our first focus is Mesopotamia. Also I will be awarding prizes soon for October IXL practice for social studies and science. Reminder there won’t be school on Thursday Nov. 1st for students.
8th U.S. History: We are finalizing our information on the early colonies and will be moving into a new unit
MATH
6th Grade: We had a test last week to finish our unit on rational numbers. Please encourage your child to make corrections and retake their test if all homework has been turned in. This week we will put our skills from the first three chapters to use by learning how to divide fractions and mixed numbers.
7th Grade: We had a test last week to finish our unit on fractions and decimals. Please encourage your child to make corrections and retake their test if all homework has been turned in. This week we begin talking about unit rates. You can talk about rates as you go grocery shopping and look at how much items cost per ounce or pound.
8th Grade: We had a test last week to finish our unit on proportional situations. Please encourage your child to make corrections and retake their test if all homework has been turned in. We will continue this week talking about non proportional situations and how to find their slope from graphs and tables.
SCIENCE
6th Grade: Students are sharing their ecosystem research presentations. We should wrap up this week. We will be continuing our exploration of ecosystems by discussing the benefits of ecosystems.
7th Grade: We have been learning about factors that affect air quality and will be discussing the effects of pollution on people and the environment.
8th Grade: We will be finishing our energy unit on Tuesday with a quiz on renewable energy. Then each group will be presenting on the different roles involved in climate change response such as energy expert, climate scientist, policy analyst, urban planner, and financial analyst.
ART
7th Grade: Welcome 7th graders to art!! We will start with shading practice and work to cubes and cylinders. When that all comes together we should be drawing our shoes by Friday.
SINCERELY,
The Middle School Team
7&8 English: Amanda Terryberry aterryberry@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6&7th Sci, 6-7th SS: Sue Goslee sgoslee@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6th ELA, 8th History Olivia Speicher ospeicher@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6-8 Math: Erica Stuck estuck@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
8th Science: Clayton Faivor cfaivor@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
Art: Kurt Zimmerle kzimmerle@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
Music: Ashley Ford aford@ellsworth.k12.mi.us