Middle School Matters - Aug 26, 2016

General Announcements:

Middle School Matters: Welcome to the first release of Middle School Matters! This information will come to your inbox once weekly with important news especially for our Middle School families. MSM is also on the ACS Website.

Ada Connection: Please check your email’s spam folder for the Ada Connection. If you find it there, make sure you mark that it is not spam so that you can continue to receive important updates about our ACS family.

Grades 6-8 Spiritual Retreat Sep 09: An information letter (244 KB PDF) was sent home on Fri Aug 26. Please send the signed permission slip back to school by Wed Aug 31. Join us in prayer as we anticipate this exciting and meaningful event for our middle school community.

Fifth Grade:

Art: 5th grade will be learning about and working to create abstract artwork.

Band: Monday, Aug 29 - Woodwinds only (flute, clarinet, saxes, bassoon, oboe, bass clar). Tuesday and Thursday, Aug 30 and Sep 01 - Everyone!

Bible: We start the year with a review of the stories from the Pentateuch.

Language Arts: We’ve already started our first writing based on the picture book “Who is Melvin Bubble.” This is a fun way to get to know each student! We’ll have the finished copy available at first conferences in a class book for you to read! We will start our Survival unit in reading on Monday.

PE: The 5th graders will be kicking off PE with a soccer unit! Students should come prepared with appropriate clothing and shoes on days that they have PE.

Spanish: Mrs. Weaver had surgery just prior to school beginning. We look forward to her return soon! In the meantime, you may email Mrs. Weaver if you have any questions. Mrs. Wierenga is teaching Spanish these first weeks of school.

Sixth Grade:

Please ask your child for “Parent Homework.”

Art: The 6th grade needs to make sure to complete their first sketchbook assignment by next week Friday. In class we will be thinking about and then create artwork that visually displays how the artist see Gods hand in their life.

Band: Band meets every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. We are excited to begin!

Bible: As a sixth grade class, we will begin our year by understanding how we fit into God’s story. Look for information on Outside/Inside bags coming home soon.

History: The supply list this year was missing a few things that we need for our class this year. Your child will need one - 100 page college rule spiral notebook for class this year. We will also need a lot of glue sticks. You can bring in the glue sticks anytime, and they will need the spiral notebook by Sept. 06. We start out History this year with a unit on geography and look at the amazing world that God created.

Language Arts: We are learning a lot about each other, how to organize our binders, daily schedules, and classroom expectations. Next week we will begin using our computers to create an Auto-Bio Poem and begin reading our first novel,Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit.

Math: For the next two weeks we will be working with Measurement, Area, & Perimeter. We will also refresh our computation skills with decimals.

PE: We are kicking off PE with a soccer unit! Students should come prepared with appropriate clothing and shoes for PE to be held either indoors or outdoors depending on the weather.

Science: We’re starting off well in 6th grade science! I love the enthusiasm that I see. Keep your eyes open for a safety contract that will come home soon. Look it over with your student and send it back to school with them by Tues 08/30. We will start our year by learning about lab tools, measurement, and how to do lab investigations safely.

Seventh Grade:

Algebra (7th): This coming week we will be continuing chapter 1 on variables and expressions as well as having a “long quiz” on chapter one. This quiz will be held on Thursday and cover all of chapter 1, it will be 15-20 questions long.

Art: 7th grade is learning about the art element and principles. Please check the homework calendar for the due date of the first sketchbook assignment.

Band: Band meets every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. We are excited to begin! Band is great for brain development - Students taking courses in music performance and music appreciation scored higher in the SAT than students with no arts participation. Music performance students scored 53 points higher on the verbal and 39 points higher on the math. (Source: 1999 College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers, The College Entrance Examination Board, Princeton, New Jersey) So - - Let’s Play!

Bible Wanner: 7th graders need to come to class Monday with their written response to the Bible Beginning Thoughts. Students will also need to bring a spiral notebook with at least 70 pages for their daily devotions.

Bible Huttenga: 7th graders need to come to class Monday with their written response to the Bible Beginning Thoughts and Bible Class Inventory sheet. Students will also need to bring a spiral notebook with at least 70 pages for their daily devotions.

History: This year in 7th grade history we will be focusing on World Geography. We start the year making sure that we understand what geography really means and why it is important to study geography. We will be covering some skills and learning some vocabulary too.

Language Arts: This year we will be focusing on the importance of interpersonal communication - how we communicate with one another can either promote God’s Kingdom or harm it. We will be exploring this by beginning the year studying conflict in literature and observing how conflict is resolved (every story has conflict and a resolution). We’ll begin this exploration by reading through several short stories.

PE: We are kicking off PE with a soccer unit! Students should come prepared with appropriate clothing and shoes for PE to be held either indoors or outdoors depending on the weather.

Math (Holtrop): We will be reviewing integers and the properties of numbers to help us get a great foundation for the rest of the year.

Pre-Algebra (Kiser): We will refresh our skills with variables, expressions and properties of numbers.

Science: We are studying diversity of life in which we will be investigating the question “How do you know if something is living?”

Eighth Grade:

Algebra: We are working quickly through Chapter 1 this week as we refresh some skills from last year. I am excited to teach another year of Algebra and I am looking forward to helping your student grow in their knowledge and confidence in mathematics.

Art: 8th graders will be working on printmaking in this first project. Please check the homework calendar for due dates on the first sketchbook assignment.

Bible (Westrate): We’re beginning the year with a study of the Gospels.

Bible (Huttenga): We will begin the year by studying the birth of the church, as well as a novel study.

Geometry: We begin by studying points, lines and other important terms in geometry.

History: This year in 8th grade we will be studying U.S. History. We are picking up where we left off last spring by looking at the events that sparked the American Revolution.

Language Arts: The National History Day project will be the primary focus of the beginning of the year. Parents, you will receive much more detailed information in a separate email.

PE: We are kicking off PE with a soccer unit! Students should come prepared with appropriate clothing and shoes for PE to be held either indoors or outdoors depending on the weather.

Pre-Algebra Enhanced: We will refresh our skills with variables, expressions and properties of numbers.

Science: We will begin the year by exploring the wonders of our creator both here on Earth and throughout the universe in a study of planetary science.