Middle School Matters – Jan 11, 2019

General Announcements

6-8th Grade Exploratory Week: During Jan 29 - Feb 01, all 6th-8th grade students will be participating in Exploratory Week. In order to make this great week happen, we do need a few parent chaperones and drivers throughout the week. Please consider taking some time to be with our students and to explore with them. Sign-up to help!

6-8 Mini Camp: If you have a passion for skiing and always wanted to try to ski like they do in the Olympics, this Mini-camp is the one for you. The GRC High School Ski team is putting on a camp for those looking to ski better and learn more about the world of ski racing. To be clear, this is not ski club, but a mini-camp where middle schoolers can learn how to ski race and get instruction from Former Racers and current HS Athletes. See the attached flyer. If you want to be on the email list, sign up here. If you have any questions, you can contact the Middle School coach, Jim Muir, at moc.liamg@wmij.rium.

Jasmine's Closet: New this year! Do you have a gently used girl’s dress or shoes from past Daddy-Daughter Dances that you would like to donate to our ACS family? If so, please consider bringing them to Jasmine’s Closet over the next two weeks. There is a rack set up in the back conference room of the front office for anyone to donate. For those needing a dress for this year’s dance, please stop by and select a dress before the big night! Questions? Call Amy Leonard 317.439.3677

Geography Bee

Do you know in which country you would be in if you visited the city of Khartoum? Which US state capital is further south--Florida or Texas? On Tues, Jan 08, ACS students were quizzed on questions like these as they competed in the annual National Geographic GeoBee. Twenty-four students qualified for this competition by taking a quiz in their history class back in December. After eleven grueling rounds of questions and a championship round, Isaac Stewart finished in 1st place and will go on to participate in the next round of the state competition. Max O'Grady finished in 2nd place, while Andrew Yeh finished in 3rd. Great job middle school students!

Spelling Bee

This week the Ada Christian community gathered together on a chilly morning for a heated competition. The 2019 ACS Spelling Bee was held in the Commons on Wed, Jan 09. Teachers, students and parents alike watched the 24 Middle School competitors impressively spell words of all sorts, ranging from “fun” to “auf Wiedersehen”. The competitors were comprised of the top six spellers from each grade, who had all earned their spot in the competition based on their performance in their classroom spelling bees. After several rounds of skillful spelling, the competition was narrowed down to two of the youngest competitors! Both students performed admirably, and our community cheered as Paige Ferwerda (6th grade) was announced runner-up champion, and George Miner (5th grade) was lauded as the 2019 spelling champion. George’s champion word was “angora” (noun; a yarn of the hair of a long-haired, usually white rabbit used especially for knitting).

Fifth Grade:

PowerSchool Grade Access: On Thursday, Jan 17, all 5th grade students will learn about how to view grades in real time on PowerSchool. Please read this important parent letter before Jan 17.

Christmas Potluck: We enjoyed celebrating Christ’s birth with you! Thank you for your help! If you are missing items (dishes, bags, spoons, etc.) from the event, please email your child’s’ homeroom teacher. There were some items left behind.

SEED Market: Please keep working with your child on SEED market projects. The market is Feb 13 from 2:00-4:00pm. Here is a copy of the information sheet that was sent home and signed. SEED money and approval information was sent home with your child today - please check their binder! Thank you for your support in this project. Please direct questions to Anika Slauer or Jessica Reidsma.

Art: 5th grade will be learning about and working in the style of artist Amedo Modigliani.

Band: We are working on p. 17 and beyond! We will have some playing quizzes as we work on our skills and technique.

Bible: This week we hit the ground running with our Jesus Project! We learned about the importance of baptism and discussed the differences in baptism within different churches. Next week we will be talk about the 12 disciples and begin the book Pilgrim’s Progress.

Language Arts: B.O.B., B.O.B., B.O.B! The 5th graders are very motivated to read. This is awesome! Weekly progress reports will come home every Thursday. Some students forgot to bring in reading tickets this past Thursday. No worries; they can submit them next Thursday. Thanks for your encouragement of this program. We will also continue to read and and finish The Breadwinner in class.

Math: This week in math we began Chapter 7 Expressions and Equations. We focused on reviewing the Order of Operations! Next week we will be taking the MAPS test and continue our chapter with problem solving.

Orchestra: Practice pages 29 and 30. Numbers 89- 97.

PE: We will continue our unit on basketball. There will be a basketball test on Jan 25.

Science: After refreshing our memory about what scientific models are, what they do, and how they are made, we will develop a model for solutions as special types of mixtures this coming week.

Social Studies: We have begun learning about the first colonies. We will doing an on-going class colony project, to help us understand what it would have been like to start a colony.

Sixth Grade:

SEED Market: Please keep working with your child on SEED market projects. The market is Feb 13 from 2:00-4:00pm.Here is a copy of the information sheet that was sent home and signed. SEED money and approval information was sent home with your child today - please check their binder! Thank you for your support in this project. Please direct questions to Anika Slauer or Jessica Reidsma.

Exploratory Money: Money was due today.

Art: 6th grade student have due next Tues, Jan 15 the portrait project and both side of the green watercolor video notes page. Videos and extra notes sheets are available on the 6th grade art moodle page. Please check the homework page for project and homework due dates.

Band: We are working on fundamentals and skills...p 13 in the book and beyond! Regular practice should be happening at your house.

Bible: The 6th grade detectives are investigating characteristics of Christ this month. They have been looking at specific evidence that shows us Jesus’ compassion this week.

History: We have been learning about Ancient Egypt. Next week, we will begin a simulation of this ancient civilization.

Language Arts: Students have a new spelling “my words” list. The first spelling activity with these words (Special “K”) is due on Fri Jan 11. Test date is set for Tues Jan 22. We started Tuck Everlasting. Through this novel, we will study characterization, plot development, vocabulary, figurative language (similes, metaphors, and personification), and so much more. Students are reading a biography book on their own. The book response due Jan 25.

Math: We have been working with variables. Our Expression Test will be Tues, Jan 15. Students are reviewing with a study guide and practice test which are both due Mon, Jan 14.

PE: We will continue our unit on basketball. There will be a basketball test on Jan 25.

Orchestra: We are working on 16th and 8th note rhythms and variations. New pieces are Treasure Quest and Moonlight Tango.

Science: We are wrapping up the second of the four parts of our unit on electromagnetic force this week. Our small test over magnets will take place on Wednesday. A review sheet was handed out to students this past week and is also linked on moodle.

Seventh Grade:

Algebra (7th): We are working on exponent rules and exponential functions.

Art: 7th grade students will start a project based on proportions and value on Monday. Organism painted signs will be due Jan 21. Please check the homework page for project and homework due dates.

Band: We are having some band quizzes - first on #91 - Blow Away the Morning Dew, then #93 - Procession of the Nobles. Soon we will be having a song 100 party - almost there!

Bible Huttenga: We’ve switched sections! Huttenga is now teaching 7B. We’ve begun our unit on sermons and have discussed 2 of the 4 qualities to consider: Biblical and Authentic. Next week we will discuss what it means for a sermon to be Contextual and Life-Changing. On Fri, Jan 18, students will take a quiz on the 4 terms. We will begin our study of the first sermon in our series, “The New You” from Ada Bible Church. Parents, please see the email that was sent to you on Thur, Jan 10 for more information on this unit.

Bible Holtrop: We’ve switched sections! Holtrop is now teaching 7A. We have begun our unit on prayer! Students will have their first quiz next week Friday about a few concepts we have discussed.

History: We have been reviewing our East Asia unit the past few days to get ready for our test next Tuesday. Our next unit will cover Africa, south of the Sahara desert.

Language Arts: 7th graders will continue the classroom reading of Gary Schmidt’s novel Trouble. We will also be doing some more language study, and dive a little deeper into parts of speech, primarily focusing on all manner of nouns (common vs. proper, concrete vs. abstract). Students have a “Independent Reading Habits/Inventory” chart due Mon, Jan 14, that will require a parent/guardian signature and a spelling quiz on Thur, Jan 17. We also will begin the MAP Reading test on Mon, Jan 14

Math (Holtrop): We are beginning a new chapter about equations and inequalities.

Orchestra: Work on page 8 , shifting technique and page 44, spiccato bowing. Also go through pages 42 and 43 for vibrato workouts.

PE: We will continue our unit on basketball. There will be a basketball test on Jan 24.

Pre-Algebra: There is so much we had practiced with percent: tip, tax, mark-up, discount, interest, etc. Our test on Percent will be Wed, Jan 16. We will check our overall progress this year with the Winter MAP test on Thursday and Friday.

Science:We continue to look at particle spacing. We will have a test next week Thursday.

Eighth Grade:

Algebra: We are working through chapter 7 on systems of equations. We will also take the math MAP test again next week Thursday and Friday during class to see what progress we have made this year.

Art: 8th grade students continue working on building their family shape projects. Next week students will learn about plastering and work to cover their shape project with plaster strips. Please check the homework page for project and homework due dates.

Band: We are having some regular quizzes and working on key signatures, theory and music fundamentals. We are about to begin a new book too.

Bible (Huttenga): Students will continue working on their Reformed/Narnia projects. Due to scheduling logistics, it has been decided that we will spend one class period doing the MAP Language test in Bible - this will occur on Wed, Jan 16. Once we are done with Narnia, we will begin a unit on the book The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel.

Bible(Van Noord): We are finishing Matthew. We will celebrate passover sort of how Jesus did.

Geometry: We are beginning a new unit. We will review area formulas and learn more about the Pythagorean Theorem and special case right triangles.

History: We are hitting some topics quickly in U.S. history. We just finished a quick overview of Andrew Jackson’s presidency and the impact it had. Next week we will jump into a study of how the North and South headed in different directions in the early 1800s--one focused on industrialization, and the other on agriculture.

Language Arts: Students will be receiving NHD feedback on Mon, Jan 14. Shortly after the due date for the final draft will be announced. In the meantime, students have been working on the first entry for the long-term creative nonfiction project known as “The Book of Memories”. The first entry is titled with the prompt “Who Am I?” and 8th graders have been focusing on three concepts that are making a wonderful impact on their writing: anecdotes, sensory details and vivid voice. Next week we will begin more language study and begin working on parts of speech. Students will begin the MAP reading test on Mon, Jan 14. They have an independent reading assignment due that day that will require a parent signature. 8th graders will also have a spelling quiz on Thur, Jan 17.

Orchestra: Enjoy worky Blessed Christmas!

PE: We will continue our unit on basketball. There will be a basketball test on Jan 24.

Science: We are investigating how visible light acts like a wave in various ways. We will look further into the electromagnetic spectrum next week.