TCA Times
Wayne Central Middle School Newsletter
December 4, 2016
Dear TCA Families,
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @WayneCentralMS to see some pictures and updates from around the school!
Sincerely,
Derek
Students of the Week and Class Acts
The following students have contributed positively to the climate of our middle school and have been nominated for Student of the Week:
Daxton Robbins was nominated by the Neptune team. Daxton demonstrates good character. He is focused in class and continues to work hard in school. Daxton is a positive leader.
Zach Lasher was nominated by the Pluto team. Zach is a focused, responsible student who regularly gives his best. He has a positive work ethic and a great attitude which impacts his peers.
Jasmine Cole was nominated by the Pluto team. Jasmine is a wonderful girl, whohas a strong desire to do well in school and please her teachers. She works diligently on her work and is great about getting her schoolwork done on time.
Ellie Wambold was nominated by the Jupiter team for being a positive influence who works hard in class.
Sarah Paige was nominated by the Saturn team. Sarah always comes to class prepared and is ready to work hard. She has great class participation and is a leader during small group work. Keep up the great job, Sarah!
Savannah Taylor was nominated by the Mercury team. Savannah is an incredibly hard worker and extremely welcoming and friendly to all. She is a kind student and always in a good mood! Bravo Savannah!
Melina Maioli was nominated by the Mars team. Melina has been doing an awesome job tutoring one of my students after school. She is extremely responsible, flexible, and patient. She does a great job asking questions, giving examples, and using games to help the student understand the concepts they may not understand. She is a positive role model for all students.
We would also like to recognize our Class Act recipients for their actions which exhibit positive character and leadership traits.
Jenna Dunham our 6th grade recipient is recognized for Service to Others and Responsibility. Jenna does a great job getting her work done. She has also taken notes for absent students and shared her binder with a student who needed extra help organizing.
Riley Simpson our 7th grade recipient is recognized for Achievement Motivation, School Engagement and Responsibility. Riley participated in class and was extremely engaged in learning!
Zachary Brown our 8th grade recipient is recognized for Caring, Integrity and Honesty. Zach turned in money to the Main Office that he found outside
Principals’ recipients for this week:
Alec Gilbert - Alec is a charismatic, outgoing, hard-working, vibrant young man. In his short time since joining the middle school he has made a positive impact and is a great role model for others. I look forward to seeing all of the great things Alec accomplishes in his future. Keep up the great work Alec!
Upcoming Events
TC Armstrong Middle School
Email: ddemass@waynecsd.org
Website: http://wayne.k12.ny.us/Middle.cfm?subpage=83211
Location: 6076 Ontario Center Road, Ontario, NY, United States
Phone: (315) 524-1080
Twitter: @WayneCentralMS
Sixth Grade Neptune & Pluto News
Although we have only had one substantial snowfall so far, winter is definitely coming to Wayne. Holiday decorations are beginning to take shape and students’ excitement is evident in everything they do!
With winter we should also remember that flu season is fast approaching and with it comes student absences. If your child needs to miss school, we highly recommend that he/she plan to stay after school to get help and instruction with the lessons they missed while they were ill. With many different subjects, any absense can cause anxiety and/or some struggling with content and skills. As always, 6th grade teams have a designated After School Room on M, T, Th, F. In addition, teachers are happy to provide additional help after school whenever their schedules allow.
It is also beneficial to remember that School Policy states:
Depending upon the reason for the absence and the length of time involved, the decision regarding what to send home, how much to send, and when it will be sent will be coordinated by the team. Students are expected to make up all work missed due to absence. Students who will be absent for an extended period of time due to illness (two days or more) may request homework assignments. Remember, many school activities (movies, science labs, library work, etc.) cannot be forwarded home. Requested homework will be available by 3:00 pm on the second day of absence in the main office. The request for homework must be made when you call your child’s absence in to the Nurse’s Office (before 9:00).
Once determined, work sent home is expected to be accomplished and returned to school for grading or correction.
Table Talk—
6th grade ELA students are completing their unit on Greek Mythology and The Lightning Thief. Students have spent time reading, thinking, talking, and writing about the myths alluded to in The Lightning Thief. They are working to develop skills related to determining the themes of myths and how those themes align with themes in the novel and connect with the real world. As always, reading comprehension and clear writing strategies and skills are a focus.
Math students have worked on skills to use rate and reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100 and solve problems involving finding the whole, given a part and the percent. Students have also learned skills and concepts related to division of fractions, divisibility rules, least common multiple, greatest common factor, and distributive property as it relates to GCF. Please ask your child to show you their binders. Students should have all notes organized with a Table of Contents. This way they can reference their notes while doing homework.
Science Students will be finishing up the unit on energy soon The unit test will be December 7th and 8th. Please encourage and help your child review and study for the unit test. Ask him/her question about notes in his/her IN or quiz your student on vocabulary! There are also review games on the W-drive for you to use at home! Happy studying!! Also this is a reminder to have your child bring in a shoe box for a lab we will be doing. A regular size shoe box is good. Please have the box in by December 12th.
Social Studies students continue to look at the unique characteristics that played a role in setting the foundation for the first civilizations. Students are actively taking notes in class and should be bringing these notes home to study and review regularly.
Seventh Grade News
Social Studies- Social studies is justi finishing up our unit on colonization. In this unit students looked at the causes of exploration and the impact of colonization on different social groups. Our next unit of study is the American Revolution. During this unit students will take a look at the causes of the American Revolution, strengths/weaknesses of the armies and significant battles of the war.
English/Language Arts- As we return from break, students will be delving into Part II of Touching Spirit Bear. At the close of Part I, we are beginning to feel cautiously optimistic that the protagonist, Cole, has finally started to see the world differently. This section marks a crucial point in the story, as the Circle Justice determines if Cole should be given a second chance on the island or not. Ask you son or daughter if he/she feels that Cole has actually changed and if he should be granted the second chance or not.
Additionally, as part of an effort to tie our book and its topics to the real world, we will be having an expert on restorative justice join ELA classes in mid-December. Students will have the opportunity to share and reflect on themselves as individuals within “circles” during these activities. We look forward to sharing this experience with students!
Spanish 7 - 7th grade Spanish students finished the family unit and quiz this month. Those students who were well prepared and used the suggested test taking strategies performed quite well. Please check Schooltool for information about grades.
Since that quiz, we have been focusing on the house unit. Students have been learning the parts of the house and using the vocabulary in context. We will also be learning primary colors, room names, verbs, and the names of many household objects. It would be very beneficial if students, using their green packets, labeled the rooms and objects at home in Spanish with post its. Seeing the words every day at home will help them learn the vocabulary much more easily. Our goal is to finish the house unit prior to the holiday break.
Life Science (VanOrman/Wolanski)- Students in 7th grade Life Science are exploring how each body system work together to maintain homeostasis. Students began with learning how the Nervous System and Endocrine System work together to coordinate and control the functions in the body. Next week, students will discover how the Skeletal System and Muscular System work together to allow our body to move. Students will create a working hand model to demonstrate how all four systems work together.
Accelerated Science (Becker/ VanOrman) - Students in Mrs. Becker’s class have spent November exploring the density of various materials, and how density relates to buoyancy and Archimedes’ Principle. Ask your child to explain our lab activities including the Cheese Lab, Dancing Raisins, CO2 Fire Extinguishers, breaking yardsticks with air pressure, and Lava Lamps. In December, we will be investigating the nature of solids, liquids, gases, and plasma, as well as subsequent phase changes like melting, freezing, vaporizing, and sublimation.
Math 7 - Students just completed their final assessment in the Number Systems unit and will get them back before Thanksgiving. All students are expected to make corrections to the assessment and have those turned back in by Thursday, December 1st.
On a side note, many of our Math 7 students have lost and/or misplaced their pencils, erasers, colored pencils, and TI-30X calculators, so these useful items would make great holiday gifts.
Math 7 Accelerated - We are starting to wind down on our Number Systems unit, so students should expect to have a unit test on Tuesday, December 6th. This test will cover working with all types of Rational and Irrational numbers, along with the ability to identify and apply the Properties of Real numbers. If students would like to get ahead on studying we suggest they review all of their notes and work on memorizing the Properties.
Eighth Grade News
Biology (Mrs. Wolanski and Miss Cornnell): Biology students have finished their Cells, Photosynthesis, and Respiration Unit and have moved onto the Simple Living Things Unit, in which they will learn about bacteria and viruses. Students completed their first NYS Lab - Diffusion Through a Membrane. These labs are very important because they will be included in Part D of the Regents Exam in June. Please encourage your child to review the concepts from the state labs throughout the year. During the Simple Living Things Unit, students will work with a partner to make a presentation about a type of bacteria that is helpful or harmful. They will also be making a virus model and will learn about antibiotic resistance and the spread of disease.
Physical Science (Miss Cornnell and Mrs. Becker)
Physical Science students have just finished several weeks worth of investigating density, buoyancy, pressure, and Archimedes Principle. Ask your child to teach you the science behind the dancing raisins, the cheese lab, using air pressure to break yardsticks, or how hot air balloons work. We have also learned about matter’s property of inertia --- watch out for those tablecloth & dishes demonstrations! In December, students will be learning about the four main phases of matter --- solid, liquid, gas, and plasma --- and subsequent phase changes such as melting, freezing, sublimation, and vaporization. Be prepared to hear about the Melting & Boiling lab, the Ice Cream Lab, and the Dry Ice lab, as well as why ice is sprinkled on icy roads, and how to make Oobleck.
ELA
In ELA, we have been reading To Kill a Mockingbird! We learned about the mysterious man, Boo Radley. He left many “gifts” in a tree for the children. Is he a bad person? Or is he just misunderstood? The students will find out as they continue to read the novel!
Also, we will be having a discussion about the language in Harper Lee’s book. Why does she use the words that she does? We will be watching a 60 Minutes clip where experts weigh in on the language of the time period and why it’s important to show both sides of why that language is in this text.
Social Studies:
Spanish
This month we finished up our pastimes unit and started the food unit. This tends to be a highly engaging unit for students! We will explore culture behind food in different Spanish speaking countries. We will also explore vocabulary used to shop for food and go to a restaurant.
Math 8
https://sites.google.com/a/waynecsd.org/wcsdmath8/
Our classroom website provides students with everything that they need for math class. Please encourage your child to use the website regularly. Every concept quiz can be retaken until a student demonstrates mastery. In addition, students can complete a concept project for a bonus of +5% on their exam. Please encourage your child to take advantage of these opportunities.
Algebra
Algebra students recently finished their first unit and their exam has been returned to them. The class average was 84%. Students can perform corrections by scheduling a 1-1 session with me. The goal of corrections is to learn from our errors and to identify the type of errors that are common for each individual child. We have began our second unit on Functions.