Knightly News
First Quarter Newsletter
8th Grade Science
8th grade Science – During the second quarter, students will learn about microbiology and the structures and functions of living organisms! What are the basic units of life? What are organelles? What are the different cellular processes that cells undergo? How do cells reproduce? What are the basic characteristics of viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites? What is the difference between an epidemic and pandemic as it relates to the spread, treatment and prevention of disease? Learn all of this and more during the second quarter! Parents, your child should be working on the Study Island program. They have certain sections that are supposed to be completed every quarter. This counts as a test grade. Please remind your child of the importance of getting this done. Contact Mr. Byers or Mr. Adams if you need more information.
7th Grade Science
7th Grade Science--The second quarter will cover motion, forces, energy and simple machines. What is the speed of that moving object? Do you know what simple machine a can opener is? Can you explain how to figure the distance an object travels mathematically? Exactly what is force? We will tackle all those question plus lots more during this unit. Students should be able to explain the differences between balanced and unbalanced forces, how to interpret distance versus time on a graph, illustrate the motion of an object on a graph, identify and work with friction, inertia, velocity, net force and build simple machines. We will even build a roller coaster in class.
6th Grade Science
It has been an exciting start to the year as we dove into the world of biology. We studied how plants reproduce and make their own food, then used what we learned about plants to review biomes and ecosystems around the world. This 2nd nine weeks sixth grade Science is diving into the astounding world of matter. Students will have lots of hands on learning opportunities in order to find the volume, mass, and density of various objects as well as identifying what makes mater either a solid, liquid, or gas. We will continue to use our science notebooks to practice notetaking, graphic organizers, and writing. After Matter, students will explore energy in sound and light waves. Please remember to check our wikis for homework assignments & tests, current topics being studied, and websites/games to go along with them!
Ms. Carroll: kcarrollwwms.pbworks.com
Mrs. Morrison: morrisonh.pbworks.com
7th Grade Language Arts
Seventh Grade Language Arts: Do you Edgar Poepalooza? Students have spent a great deal of time studying and analyzing various pieces of literature written by the infamous Edgar Allan Poe. After reading “The Tell-Tale Heart,” students participated in our Edgar Poepalooza celebration. Students created their very own Victorian-era, Steampunk-inspired top hats while also having an opportunity to enjoy light snacks and read a reader’s theatre version of “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Everyone was so excited to get crafty during this unit. We’ve had a “poerrific” time!
6th Grade Language Arts
Language Arts during the second nine weeks focuses on non- fiction texts including biographies and autobiographies. .Students will be taken to the library and self select an autobiography or biography. . We will continue with close reading examples in class, This modeled strategy will require students to interact by re-reading the text. Finally, students will read Zlata's Diary or Boy. They will once again apply these close reading strategies to their novel. Students will complete a variety of projects and menu options including Resume Writer on Read Write and Think. Please continue to read your RC books each night for thirty minutes. Please use your Signposts while reading. Stop. Notice. and Note. Remember 50 points by the end of the 2nd nine weeks. Parents, please remember your child can practice Compass learning at home. Your child knows how to log in , and they can access this tutorial at anytime at home.
7th Grade Social Studies
The Dragons and Griffons began second quarter with the ever popular Scientific Revolution. Extensive debates and exciting discoveries followed great scientists such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton into the 1600s. It was an adventurous time in history that changed the way people viewed the world.
In weeks to come 7th graders will have the opportunity to further their understanding of how great societies experienced upheaval and uncertainty as we study the Age of Enlightenment. Students will analyze historic documents and ideas that influenced our modern governments of today.
Finally, 7th graders will embark on early revolutions across the globe. We will learn about revolutionary movements in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America that destroyed and rebuild nations based on citizens’ political and economic demands. Students will compare and contrast historic and current day failures and successes. There is no doubt about it, 7th grade Social Studies is going to be controversial.
6th Grade Social Studies
As we venture into the Second Quarter, students will begin with a week long unit on the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were a coastal civilization in present-day Lebanon. During their study, they will complete four different stations designed to help them understand how the Phoenicians influenced the ancient world and our world. Upon the completion of our study, we will have a Geo Lab that provide students with insight on the Phoenician purple dye-making process. Additionally, we will study ancient Egypt and Israel in this quarter. We will continue to focus on geography and culture for each of these civilizations. We will also study the history of three Egyptian time periods and make papyrus (Egyptian paper) in a lab. Students will take a Social Studies Benchmark on November 20th.
7th Grade Math
Seventh grade students have been working hard with integers, algebraic expressions, and algebraic equations. Students used various real world applications to explore the meaning of integers and the operations for integers. Students also learned how to combine like terms and used the distributive property to simplify algebraic expressions. As we made our way to solving algebraic equations students used Hands-On-Equations to “see” how to solve equations. Real world equations have also been integrated to show students that they know and use algebra daily.
Our next unit of study will be Inequalities and then Ratios and Proportions with many real world applications.
6th Grade Math
Math
Collecting, interpreting, and displaying data was the focus for 6th grade math students during our unit on Statistics. Students used surveys to collect data and learned how to display the data in several types of graphs such as dot plots, histograms, and box plots. Interpreting box plots and finding the 5number summary was our primary objective within this unit. Students utilized divisibility rules to determine whether a number was divisible by another number without having to actually multiply. This was helpful when students were asked to find the greatest common factor or the least common multiple of 2 or more numbers. Deciding between factors or multiples proved to be a challenge when students were asked such questions as “How many packs of paper plates would you need in order for 24 people to have an equal number if there were 40 plates per pack?” Our unit on Rational Numbers involved working with fractions, decimals, and integers. Integers were used to describe situations such as a “deposit of $25” or “130 feet below sea level”. Students were able to change between fractions and decimals in order to compare two different types of numbers. Finally, students used estimation and number sense to place all types of rational numbers on a number line in ascending or descending order. As you have read over some of our standards 6th graders have been expected to learn thus far in math you can understand how important it is for your child to be studying outside of class. We encourage students to use our wikis to watch tutorials, practice skills, or even play games to reinforce these concepts. We are also trying to help students become more fluent with their multiplication facts. Being able to multiply quickly and efficiently is helpful in almost everything we do. Weekly quizzes each Friday are sparking a friendly competition between the two teams and encouraging students to practice those multiplication facts. We appreciate and thank you for your support. Ms. Yount & Ms. Flora
Physical Education
Students have just completed the Fitnessgram (fitness tests) and are currently participating in a Basketball Sports Unit which will include the annual Elks Lodge Hoop Shoot Contest. West Wilkes Middle School will be hosting the contest this school year in January.
Health Education
All students have created a poster or a brochure on nutrition or physical activity. The students had the option of working with others or individually on the project. We will be having guest speakers coming up in November.
6th: Students completed a public service announcement on Asthma and Asthma attacks. The students could create a magazine advertisement on google drawing, or a script for a tv commercial.
7th: Students completed a project where they researched different fad diets, and another project on health fraud. The students will be able to pitch their health product (that is guilty of health fraud) to the class. If they are able to convince me to “buy” the project then they win a prize.
8th: Students have been working hard on all different aspects of nutrition and physical activity, from fat and water soluble vitamins, to the different eating disorders.
Mr. Dimmette's Class
Social Studies : The First 9 weeks have simply disappeared. We have gotten of to a wonderful start in Social Studies. We spent a few weeks learning basic geography including; continents, oceans, and directional skills. As an extension to the geography skills learned in class students used google maps to find there way home from school. Currently students are exploring the 13 colonies learning everything from who settled the colonies to why they were settled.
Science: Students began the year learning about plants. Students experimented with growing conditions changing soil, water, and amounts of sunlight given to plants. Many students were surprised by the results. Currently student are exploring ecosystems.
Language Arts: Students have been reading some great selections of short fiction such as “The Lottery,” “Charles,” “After Twenty Years,” and more. These stories have interesting plot twists that led to some very thought provoking moments! In addition to plot twists, students also reviewed the elements of fiction that include exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. We are now reading Hatchet, a survival story.
Math:Sometimes they’re positive and sometimes they’re negative...numbers, I mean! Students have focused on all operations with integers, writing algebraic expressions, order of operations and are now on one-step equations.
Social Studies: We have been studying North Carolina as well as parts of American history. The students have performed well and seem very interested in this area of History.
Science: In Science we have been mainly studying the Universe and Planets and the Solar System and how each Planet relates to each other in many different forms .
Coach Broome's Literacy Block
Coach Broome's Lit Block read "Secrets in the Shadows" and created Mosaic Character Collages
STEM
The STEM Exploratory classes have been creating everything from medieval trebuchets to magnetic levitation vehicles to hot air balloons and much more. The students are focusing on technical skills as well as soft skills such as presenting in front of a group. The students are also learning the process of taking ideas and turning them into something useful. All of the classes have been practicing the US Customary measurement system in order to help them correctly read measurements. Also within the mathematics area the students have been working with tessellations and the physics/forces required in proper packaging. The STEM Exploratory Classes also received a Bright Ideas grant from Blue Ridge Electric Membership. The grant is called. STEMCycle: Riding into the Future. This grant will allow the students to participate in building an electric bicycle. The Technology Student Association has diligently been working towards completing their competitive event projects. Their first competition will be the Northwest Regional Competition to be held at Appalachian State University on February 26, 2016 and the State Conference will be held April 14-16, 2016.
Chorus
Chorus has been busy preparing music for their upcoming winter events. The 8th grade chorus will be performing at the Veteran’s Day assembly on November 5 during school. All 6th, 7th, and 8th grade chorus students will be performing for the Christmas concert on December 15 at 7:00pm at Millers Creek United Methodist Church. All students will also perform at the school Christmas assembly. We are also completing a unit now on tempo and dynamics. Students have been busy learning and using these terms to describe choral music. It is a busy time in chorus class!
West Wilkes Middle School will present the play Peter Pan on March 18 and 19, 2016. Please watch for upcoming announcements about this special production!
Art
6th grade art students began the year studying Art history. We learned about art from the beginning of time until the Mid-renaissance. At the end of the unit, students painted a scale drawing of a painting that they had studied. They left a hole where the face should have been and then stood behind the painting, placing their face through the hole and had their photograph made.
Students are now beginning a unit on drawing skills and working on making their art more realistic. They are working on a silhouette with winter trees.
The students will be creating a digital portfolio where they will photograph their artwork and upload the picture to an online file.
7th grade art students began the year by studying art history from the Renaissance to Modern Art. They painted a board in the style of Jackson Pollock. Next they studied 3 dimensional art and learned to draw a house using 2 vanishing points. They will create a digital portfolio and upload a photo of all of their artwork to this portfolio.
8th grade
In 8th grade art, students are in a Digital Photography class. Several years ago we were the recipients of a grant from Lowes’ Companies and we were able to buy several digital SLR cameras. Students are learning to use a camera and take better photos. We have learned how the elements of art and the principles of design effect their photography. They have also learned editing techniques which improve their shots. Many of the photos that students take are featured in this newsletter and many of their photos will be in our yearbook.
The Kneeling Knight of Westminster
(Photo by Lucas and Micah )
Egyptian Princess
(Photo by Lucas and Micah)
Egyptian Mummy
(Photo by Lucas and Micah)
Mona Lisa
(Photo by Lucas and Micah)
The Sphinx
(Photo by Lucas and Micah)
Gargoyle
(Photo by Lucas and Micah)
Jackson Pollack
Photo by Colton
Jackson Pollack
Photo by Colton
8th Grade Photography Class
West Wilkes Middle School
Email: huffmanp@wilkes.k12.nc.us
Website: wwms.wilkescountyschools.org
Location: 1677 N NC Highway 16
Phone: (336) 651-4381