| Middle School Matters For the Week of: 1.13.14
General Announcements: Study Skills: More test taking strategies.
February Hot Lunch Orders:Due by Jan 15
Geography Bee Information: Monday, 11am in Commons
Spelling Bee Information: Tuesday, 8:05am in Commons
Exploratory Week: All middle school students should have received a handout today listing their different classes for Exploratory Week. On the bottom of the handout there is a receipt for any costs that may be included to participate in these classes. This money needs to be turned in and collected by next Friday, January 17. Your student can put the money and receipt in an envelope and turn that into their homeroom teacher next week. Thanks so much!
Dessert Theatre: Link for general information is http://acsdesserttheatre.weebly.com/ We still need costume helpers! If interested, please contact Mrs. Weaver (You do not need to be an 8th grade parent ;)
Sixth Grade: Our sixth grade students did a wonderful job sharing the Real Meaning of Christmas at our Christmas Concert Thursday before break. If you missed it, click to watch it. Our part starts 60 minutes into the recording. 
Art: 6th grade student continue to work on drawing portraits. 6a students need to be completed with their Egyptian portrait by the end of class next week. 6b Egyptian portraits will be due the following week. Please check moodle for homework.
Band: What a great concert - - hooray!! Up next - scale quizzes and back to the basics in the books - - skill building, drill and practice.
Bible: Philippians 2: 1-11 due on Friday, January 17. We will continue to practice at school, but they will need to spend time reviewing at home too. Next week we will also be looking at the life of Noah, and most likely have a test on Thursday Jan 23 over our "In the Beginning" Unit (Purple Packet) of stories covering the first 10 chapters of the book of Genesis.
History: Continuing our unit on Mesopotamia. Final Project Instructions sheets were passed out and discussed this week. Parents signature due on MONDAY for your final approval of projects. We will spend some time in class working on the projects (about 3 class periods per week), but some work should be completed at home. Due dates will be determined next week for each of the projects. Check the Homework Calendar for exact dates.
Language arts: The sixth graders are continuing to read and learn from our short story unit. In addition they are reading for the Amazing Read. Three books and 1 project need to be completed by Monday, January 20.
**NEEDED: I am beginning to plan for the 6th grade World Fair Project. Our first unit in this project is learning about CULTURES and God's diversity. I love to bring in speakers to help the students understand life in another culture. They really enjoy having people/speakers they know. Do you know of someone who is from another country/culture that would be willing to speak to the 6th graders? PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP so I can begin to plan!!!! (bkoetje@adachristian.org) Thanks for your help in this. The students really remember this portion of the project and it excites them to continue to learn and appreciate God's world. -Bethany Koetje
Math: The timing couldn't be better with all our cold temperatures! We have starting working with numbers below zero in math (Integers). Will you help discuss adding positive and negative numbers with your children to help them understand how the two can "cancel" each other out as they are on opposite sides of zero on a numberline?
Orchestra: We played a few new songs and turned in lots of music from Christmas- be sure to check around at home and in backpacks and lockers for any extra music! Bring any extra music in on Monday! Thanks so much.
Science: We've been amazed by some cool color changes as we investigate acid/base neutralization reactions. Our study continues in the upcoming week.
Spanish: We are learning hair color, length and texture, along with eye color; plus, how to use the appropriate verbs/forms to form the expressions needed for describing ourselves and others.
Seventh Grade: Art: 7th graders are moving into a drawing project that will teaching them about working with pencils and how to add value and use shading. Please check moodle for homework.
Band: What a great concert - - hooray!! Up next - scale quizzes and back to the basics in the books - - skill building, drill and practice.
Bible: Sanderson: We're looking at the Israelites' journey with God through the book of Judges. Van Noord: We are working on the book of Micah. See Moodle for due dates, etc. Wanner: We are working on creating artwork based on jealousy something that King Saul struggled with immensely.
History: This coming week in history we will continue our study of Africa. We will be focusing on learning about the overall history of Africa and then looking at some more recent history including civil wars in Africa, the Lost Boys of Sudan, and the policy of apartheid in South Africa.
Language arts: We have completed Charles' Dickens classic Christmas tale "A Christmas Carol". Even though we were cut off from completing the unit before Christmas Break (due to weather), the message of the story is just as applicable after the holidays. As we closed our study, we pondered Scrooge's promise to "honor Christmas in [his] heart and try to keep it all the year". We discussed what this statement might mean for Christians; ask your students what they think! Next week, we will focus on two things: continuing our study of verbs and introducing ourselves to the Paideia project. We will also prepare for a brief "Christmas Carol" quiz that will take place either at the end of this week or the beginning of the next.
Pre-Algebra (Sanderson): We are making good progress on our unit involving algebraic expressions and variables. We'll continue this week with a quiz tentatively scheduled for Friday.
Pre-Algebra (Kiser): Our topic currently is algebraic expression. We distributed and simplified linear expressions this past week and will continue next week. Our test is tentatively scheduled for Friday.
Orchestra: We are playing a few new songs and are also revisiting our books. We turned in all of our music so if there are any orchestra pieces found at home be sure to send them in on Monday! Call me if you need any tuning advice or lessons on tuning during this cold.
Science: Bird feeder should be set up at home with your child identifying and observing the bird's behavior. Your child should also be working on their bird project which is due January 24. On February 7 your child has their bird identification test
Spanish: We are moving on to -ER ending verbs! (Wow...They're just like -AR verbs, but all the "a's" are replaced with "e's". Nice!!) There are online flashcards to be found on Moodle so they can start learning the meanings of the verbs, too.
Eighth Grade: High School Informational Meetings: -
Please join NorthPointe Christian High School on January 21st, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the ACS Commons for an informal information meeting with our superintendent, principals, and NorthPointe families. For questions, please contact our admissions counselor at 616.942.0350 x276 or johnsonb@npchristian.org. Visit www.npchristian.org to learn more about our school.
Dessert Theatre: All cast members should PLAN on being available every Wednesday and Friday for rehearsal (unless previously discussed). If not called for a particular day (specific schedules will be posted on a regular basis,) consider it an unexpected break. :) Your link to the website: http://acsdesserttheatre.weebly.com/
Algebra: Witte: Next week we will continue to work through chapter 6 on solving inequalities.
Art: 8th graders are working on creating their invasion. 8b has to complete their invasion piece by next week Thursday. Please check moodle for homework.
Band: What a great concert - - hooray!! Up next - scale quizzes and back to the basics in the books - - skill building, drill and practice.
Bible: Huttenga: This week we discussed Paul in Ephesus. Next week, we will continue with Romans and begin gearing up for a quiz and some memory work. Witte: We are wrapping up our study of the Passion Week. Students will be working on their journal projects next week.
Geometry: We are finishing chapter 7 on congruent triangles and will have a test on Wednesday, January 15. We will be beginning a focus on area and perimeter in Chapter 8.
History: We will continue our study of the United States during the 1800 to 1850's. An email was sent to all students during our snow days with a list of new timeline cards to be added to our growing stack from chapter 10. These cards will be due on January 17. The following week each student will be using all the cards in a large timeline to help them understand the major events of this time period. We will also have a unit 4 test (chapter 8, 9, and 10) on Friday, January 24. weather permitting (:
Language arts: We are officially done with rewriting fairy tales from a different perspective. Ask your students about their performance of their chosen fable. Next week, we begin a duel unit. Eighth graders will begin working on their "Book of Memories" project. To go along with the theme of preserving memories, we will also begin a study of Lois Lowry's novel The Giver. Students should have read the first two chapters of the book for Monday.
Orchestra: We worked on the Kanon by Pachelbel- and turned in lots of music from Christmas!
Science: Continuing our study of earthquakes. Planning on a test January 23.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment