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Middle School Matters – Jan 10, 2020 January 10th, 2020

General Announcements

Dates for your calendar:

Upcoming Chapels/Small Groups for 6-8 (Chapel meets 8:15-8:45 in the Commons)

Jan 17 - Small Groups

Jan 24 - MS Chapel

MAP Assessment

Every teacher and staff member at ACS works to provide the best possible education for your child. Ada Christian teachers use daily work samples, quizzes, informal screening, and teacher-student conferencing to monitor student growth. They utilize this information to guide instructional delivery that is geared toward your child’s individual needs.

ACS also uses a school-wide formal assessment called MAP Growth. These tests not only determine your child’s instructional level, but also measure academic growth throughout the school year (and from year to year) in Math, Reading, and Language Usage. 

MAP Growth tests are unique in that they are adaptive tests. As your child works through the assessment, the questions become more challenging with each correctly answered question. And, when your child answers a question incorrectly, the assessment becomes easier. Ultimately, targeting your child’s specific learning level. 

Students will be completing the winter MAP test during their Math, LA, & Social Studies class on different days and at different times throughout the next several weeks.

Planning for Exploratory Week 

Do you know anyone who runs a restaurant, loves to cook, or loves to bake that may be interested in teaching a group of 12 students for a couple of hours?  

Do you know someone who loves to sew, or other crafting activities, and may be interested in teaching a small group of MS students? 

Mr. Witte is looking for some connections in these areas to help finalize some activities for Exploratory Week in February. If you can help, please email Mr. Witte () with a name and contact information. Thank you!

Fifth Grade: 

PowerSchool Grade Access: On Wed, Jan 15, all 5th grade students will learn about how to view grades in real time on PowerSchool. Please read this important parent letter before Jan 15. 

SEED Market: SEED is next week Fri, Jan 17, from 2:00-4:00pm in the North Gym. The final SEED update was sent home this week. Students, make sure your products are ready. Parents, come out and support our businesses! We need your help! If you have extra plastic bags laying around the house, please send them in with your child anytime before SEED. Thanks!

Well Donation: The 5th grade raised $526 towards clean water for South Sudan. Just before Christmas break we donated the money to an organization called “Water for South Sudan.” The 5th graders read A Long Walk to Water in November, which is based on Salva’s story of being a “Lost Boy.” Salva later started the organization “Water for South Sudan” - how cool that we can support his mission!

Bible: This week we talked about baptism - the importance, differences amongst denominations, the symbolism...Students had the opportunity to share about their own baptisms and are working on drawing an image of Jesus’ baptism. Next up - the disciples!

History: This week we wrote voyage stories! Next week, students will be taking the Reading MAP Test on Tues, Jan 14 and Wed, Jan 15.  

Language Arts: The 5th graders started Bring on the Books (B.O.B.) which is a reading incentive program. These students are motivated! Every Thursday students will be able to turn in (signed) reading tickets and enter them into a drawing. 

Math: Students are finishing up their unit up on multiplying and dividing decimals. We will be having a test next week Wednesday. Look for a review sheet on Monday. 

Music - Band: Dec practice was due, we are hard at work in our method books making very good progress, and reviewing components of theory at the same time.

Music - Choir: We are making artwork for the GR symphony concert we will attend, we are also learning some John Denver songs. :)

Sixth Grade:

SEED Market: SEED is next week Fri, Jan 17, from 2:00-4:00pm in the North Gym. The final SEED update was sent home this week. Students, make sure your products are ready. Parents, come out and support our businesses! We need your help! If you have extra plastic bags laying around the house, please send them in with your child anytime before SEED. Thanks!

Bible: This week we looked at what happened to the disciples after Jesus’ ascension. What did they do? What were the consequences? Why is this important to us? Students also spent time praying for nations who experience Christian persecution or have large numbers of unreached people groups. The next Bible memory, Matthew 5:14-16, is due Fri, Jan 31.

History: We started our unit on Ancient Egypt! Next week, students will be taking the Reading MAP Test on Tue, Jan 14 and Wed, Jan 15.   

Language Arts: We are reviewing the following skills: main idea, theme, in/formal language, tone, and author’s purpose. Students will practice some of these skills through IXLs. This tool (IXL) gives immediate feedback and provides an explanation when students answer incorrectly.

Math: The students did a great job at graphing the past few days! Hopefully you were able to see one of their graphs that formed a picture! We will now be focusing on integers for the next week. 

Music - Band: Dec practice was due, we are hard at work in our method books making very good progress, and reviewing components of theory at the same time.

Music - Choir: We are beginning a unit on The Sound of Music this week.

Seventh Grade:

Bible Huttenga: The 7th graders will be switching Bible teachers. This coming week, students with Huttenga will be introduced to a study of sermons and how to better understand them

History: Next week we will start a unit learning about different government systems and looking at the role of governments.  

Language Arts: We will take the MAP Language assessment on Wednesday and Friday, Jan 15 & 17. Students will continue to study The Westing Game and if we have enough time in the week they will be introduced to a research-writing project - ProCon 2020. 

Math - 7th Math: We are solving equations. Students did so well with one step equations this past week. Next week we will practice, practice, practice solving multi-step equations. 

Math - Algebra: We are getting right back into Algebra with chapter 5- linear systems. We will be taking our Winter MAPs assessment on Thur, Jan 16 and Tues, Jan 21.

Math - Pre-Algebra: Wednesday we will take a Chapter 6 test on percents.

Music - Band: Dec practice was due, we are hard at work in our method books making very good progress, and reviewing components of theory at the same time. We are also going to begin to get ready to entertain at Dessert Theatre.

Music - Choir: We are beginning a unit on Musicals, specifically Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Science: We will have our first Chemical Interactions test on Thursday on properties of solids, liquids, and gases.

Eighth Grade:

On Thurs, Feb 06 Lowell High School will have an orientation meeting for prospective high school students. The meeting will be held in the Lowell Performing Arts Center from 7:00-8:30pm. If you have questions please contact Nicole Deckrow ()

BibleHutt: 8th graders are working on a poster project that integrates the events of The Last Battle with what they’ve learned about the Reformed Worldview.

BibleVN: 10 Takeaways for the book of Matthew...what are your spiritual and academic SMART goals for yourself, what is Jesus communicating in Matt 23? Lots to think about and ponder.

History: Next week we will continue to look at a variety of key political events from 1790 - 1840 including the War of 1812, and we will honor George Washington with our annual Ode to George Day next Friday.  

Language Arts: We will take the MAP Language assessment on Wednesday and Friday, Jan 15 & 17. While they await feedback for NHD, students will continue to study Lois Lowry’s The Giver and will be introduced to the Book of Memories project.

Math - Algebra: We are getting right back into Algebra with chapter 5- linear systems. We will be taking our Winter MAPs assessment on Thur, Jan 16 and Tues, Jan 21.

Math - Geometry: There are so many relationships inside triangles that we studies this past week: angle bisectors and incenter, perpendicular bisectors and circumcenter, altitude and orthocenter, midpoints and centroid, and mid-segments.  Next week we review these concepts and have a Chapter 6 test on Thursday. 

Math - Pre-Algebra: We are planning to take a test on Percents on Wednesday morning.

Music - Band: Dec practice was due, we are hard at work in our method books making very good progress, and reviewing components of theory at the same time. We had a review quiz on the Chromatic Scale this past week as well.

Music - Choir: We are working on all sorts of things in the realm of musicals, and more specifically, ours. :)

Science: We have been investigating the electromagnetic spectrum through light boxes. We will be looking at additive and subtractive colors this upcoming week