Middle School Matters – Mar 06, 2020

General Announcements

T2 Report Cards: Today, Mar 06, report cards will be sent home digitally via email and posted to your PowerSchool parent portal. Your child will also come home today with a form for you to sign and return by Mon, Mar 09 confirming you reviewed the report card.

MS Recess Duty - Teacher Appreciation Week (Mar 16 - Mar 20): Please help us bless our Middle School teachers by helping out with recess duty! We are looking for 3 parents each day to supervise our 5th - 8th grade kids. Please sign-up if you are willing to help.

Calling All Dads: We are still in need of several dads to volunteer at our Mother Son Event next Friday night. Available to help? Sign up today!

Dates to know:

Mar 26 & 27 - Dessert Theatre Shows - 7th grade serves desserts and performs at dessert portion, 8th grade performs the musical both nights

April 02 - Spring Break Begins

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

Mar 13 - SG 09
Mar 20 - SG 10
Mar 27 - Chapel (Guest Kevin DeVries)

Fifth Grade:

Paper Towels: We are still in need of paper towels in 5th grade. Would you be willing to send in a roll next week? Thank you in advance.

Reproductive Education: As you have some extra time with your child over the coming months, please find an opportunity to discuss Reproductive Health. At the end of May, after Spring Camp, the 5th grade team plans to begin a short unit on Reproductive Education. Mrs. Gerig and Mrs. Reidsma will meet with the girls while Mr. Stepanek will meet with the boys. In addition to going over the physical aspects of puberty, we plan to include discussions on God’s design for our bodies and reproduction, as well as treating our bodies with dignity and respect. Please have a conversation with your child before we have this conversation at school. If any parent would like more information, let one of us know and we would be happy to talk with you. More detailed information will be sent out in the coming months.

Art: 5th graders are working on creating self-portraits inspired by the artist Amedo Modigiliani and we are looking forward to finishing portraits next week.

Bible: This week we looked at the beatitudes. Students created Apple Clip videos for each beatitude, demonstrating the “attitudes” we are called to take on. Matthew 3-12 is due Fri., Mar. 13.

History: Students have been learning about the events leading to the Revolutionary War. This week, they learned about the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1763, the Sugar Act and Stamp Act.

Language Arts: We continue to work through the writing process of our persuasive letters. Students have a new spelling list. The test will be in a few weeks.

Math: The 5th graders have been doing a great job at adding and subtracting like and unlike fractions. We will have a quiz next Monday.

Music - Band: Accidentals, Key Signatures, Counting and Time Signatures, and more notes - extending our range! Try to practice every day that ends in Y.

Music - Choir: We will begin a composer project next, and also a project about our instruments.

PE: After taking a week off for exploratories, we had a guest professional frisbee player come in to teach us some ultimate frisbee skills. We will continue to focus on ultimate frisbee next week.

Science: We’re learning how to accurately use some tools that will help us explore our unit on mixtures and solutions.

Sixth Grade:

Art: 6th graders are working to create a torn landscape out of their watercolor experiments. Students have 2 classes to complete these artworks. Students will be writing artist statements about these artworks as a sketchbook assignment in a couple of weeks. Please check the homework calendar for sketchbook and project due dates

Bible: This week we began looking at Paul’s second missionary journey. Why did Barnabas and Paul split up? What were the advantages and disadvantages? How did Paul determine where to go next? Philippians 4:4-7 is due Fri, Mar 13.

History: We spent our week researching for World Fair! Ask to see your student’s research packet, and have them share a few items they’ve learned so far!

Language Arts: We are working hard on our culture poems. First drafts will be due on Wed Mar 11.

Math: We are learning about functions right now in 6th grade math. The students are doing a great job! We worked through one function table that talked about the world record for eating Peeps! (Ask your 6th grader how many were eaten in 5 minutes!)

Music - Band: We are doing great work in both of our books. Practice remains essential - - the more we work, the better we get.

Music - Choir: We are almost done with our Sound of Music Unit. Go us!

Science: We’re focusing on air pressure and movement this week.

Seventh Grade:

Art: 7th graders continue to work on their Lego portraits. Please check the homework calendar for sketchbook and project due dates

Bible Meyaard: We are learning about different types of ways to format a prayer to help make sure that we include the important components of prayer. We recently learned what a A.C.T.S prayer is. We will be working on writing our own A.C.T.S prayers next week.

History: This coming Tuesday we will take a quiz on our notes from South Asia. Student have access to a set of Quizlet flashcards to help them review.

Math - 7th Math: Next week we will be working with circumference and area of circles as well as other compound shapes. Friday will be a great day to celebrate PI Day. I will be asking students to sign-up to bring in Pie for our Pi Day Party.

Math - Algebra: In chapter 7 students are learning to FOIL and Factor now- so fun!

Music - Band: We have a special guest conductor on Tuesday. We are continuing to work through our method book and are almost ready for another one, this is extremely cool. :)

Music - Choir: Who Will Be A Witness? Ancient Words. Come to the Water. Irish Songs. We are singing!

Science: As we continue to investigate Chemical Interactions, students are learning the Law of Conservation of Matter, how to balance equations and endothermic/exothermic reactions. We will continue looking into each of these skills next week.

Eighth Grade:

Dear Parent of a soon-to-be ACS graduate,

In less than three months your student will graduate from Ada Christian School! It doesn’t seem possible that the young child you brought to kindergarten a few years ago is almost ready to move on to high school. God has been faithful in equipping our students for service in God’s world. Thank you for entrusting your child to us during these formative years.

Our eighth grade graduation is scheduled for Thur, June 04, at Ada Christian School. Some students are already beginning to talk about this special day. When you are looking for clothing for graduation, we ask that you consider appropriate apparel that can be flexible enough for your young person to wear to church or on another family occasion. Girls should not wear formal or strapless wear; a nice dress that can be worn to a concert or similar event is best. Boys should wear a collared shirt and tie with dress pants and dress shoes (no shorts please). Sometimes our students want to dress up in prom attire, but we ask that you resist those requests and look for more simple options that are modest in nature. Our goal is to honor Christ with apparel, and we trust that we will be able to do this appropriately.

At this time you are most likely looking carefully at the high school options. If your student chooses to visit a high school for a day, please let our office know and also choose a day on which we do not have scheduled tests.

If you have any questions about the transitions to high school, feel free to call us or speak with the middle school teachers. We are eager to work with you to help your students have a successful end to their eighth grade year and then a smooth transition to the next adventure.

Working together,
Melissa S. Brower
Principal

Art: 8th graders are transitioning to painting their family shape portraits. Painting needs to be completed before spring break. Please check the homework calendar for sketchbook and project due dates

BibleHutt/VN: We have begun the Plumb bob project. All assignments and information will be available to all students online. Please pray for this to be a meaningful and special project for us.

History: We are taking a test on Monday on the Industrial Revolution and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom. Students have access to flashcards and a review sheet to guide them in their review on moodle. Next up: Western Expansion.

Math - Algebra: In chapter 7 students are learning to FOIL and Factor now- so fun!

Math - Geometry: We are finishing up our very short chapter 8: Similarity. We will have a test on Wednesday. Friday next week we will celebrate Pi Day. I will be asking students to sign-up to bring in Pie for our Pi Day Party.

Music - Band: We are beginning a great work by Gustave Holst. Participation points will count extra in the month of March.

Music - Choir: We are working on singing in groups/parts/solos/etc.

Science: We are finishing up our unit of Gravity and Kinetic Energy studying the relationship between potential energy and kinetic energy by making marble ramps and calculating the value of gravitational potential energy needed for the marble to make it fully through the loop the loop.

Athletics:

All 5th, 6th, and 7th graders must have a Physical Examination Clearance Form before they can participate in sports for the 2020-2021 school year. Your student came home with the forms this week. If you have any questions, please contact Angela VanDuyn at gro.naitsirhcada@nyudnava.