Middle School Matters - Mar 22, 2018

General Announcements:

Dates for your calendar:

Mar 22 & 23 Dessert Theatre performances
Mar 28 - Last day of school before Spring Break
Apr 09 - School resumes
Apr 26 - Fine Arts Night and World Fair 6:30-8:00pm
May 04 - Grand Friends Day
May 07 - No School - Prof. Dev Day
May 17 - 5-8 Spring Concert
May 23-25 - 5th Grade Spring Camp
May 30-Jun 01 8th Grade Class Trip
Jun 07 - 6th Grade Class Trip
Jun 07 - 8th Grade Graduation at Thornapple Covenant Church
Jun 08 - Last day of school (half day)

High School Sports Physicals: Current 8th graders planning to play high school sports in 2018-19 school year need to have an MHSAA physical form on file with the high school athletic office before they are allowed to participate. A valid physical for 2018-19 must be completed anytime after April 15, 2018. You can print out a physical form here. This form must be completed with all signatures in order to participate in sports in high school. You may attach your doctor's office physical form for the doctor portion of this form but the parent portion and signatures need to be completed on this form.

Spring Break Approaches: This is your last MSM before Spring Break - have a wonderful break next week! Next MSM 04.12.18

Fifth Grade:

Goat Care - 5th grade families will be in charge of goat care only. There won’t be a need to coordinate with another family on time, but you’re welcome to do so if you’d like! We really need your help to fill the spaces during Spring Break. If you’re around, consider a visit or two to the animals! Please click here to sign up. Revised instructions are linked here and also on the sign up. Thanks to all of you for your help!

PowerSchool: During the final trimester of 5th grade, students and parents have access to student grades on PowerSchool. Click this link for instructions and more information.

Art: 5th grade is working to complete their George Seurat pointillism still life paintings.

Band: Students can earn up to 30 auction points for 30 extra minutes beyond our usual 45.

Bible: 20 points of Bible memory are due before spring break. We are wrapping up our Jesus project with talking about Holy Week and writing a project reflection.

Language Arts: This week we spent more time researching books and databases for our biographies. We will start to write our essay next week. We also continue to review pronouns. Next week we start a new reading unit. Look for information being sent home tomorrow. It will focus on self-selected chapter books (Sigh of relief from all the 5th graders)!

Math: There is a Chapter 10 test on Multiplying and Dividing Fractions on Tues Mar 27. Practice test are due Mon Mar 26. Encourage your child to show their work and include units for every problem on homework assignments.

Orchestra: New music includes All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name, Stringchant and Happy Blues. Ask for a concert ! Continue the great practice records- 60 minutes per week. This group is going to have so many auction points for practice records and super classroom focus!

PE: We will wrap up our badminton unit before leaving for Spring Break. The students have really come a long way with their badminton skills!

Science: This week we began our unit on the nervous system! We have been having a great time testing our senses and reaction times and learning how our bodies are able to respond to stimulus.

Spanish: 5th grade will have a quiz on Episode 2 next week Monday or Tuesday. Vocabulary and practice can be found on Moodle.

Sixth Grade:

Chicken Checkup - 6th grade families will be in charge of chickens only. Please take a look and see what you can do. There won’t be a need to coordinate with another family on time, but you’re welcome to do so if you’d like! We really need your help to fill the spaces during Spring Break. If you’re around, consider a visit or two to the animals! Please click here to sign up. Revised instructions are linked here and also on the sign up. Thanks to all of you for your help!

Devotions: Please sign up to lead our class in devotions on a Wednesday this year. There are still a couple of dates available. Click this link for details and an opportunity to sign up.

Art: This week students began a ceramic project through learning about Native American Animal effigy bowls. Students will need to work on coming up with design ideas to present in class for future construction out of clay. Please check the homework calendar for project due dates and homework.

Band: Auction points may be earned for practice minutes - - go team!

Bible: Memory Work due Monday: Romans 8:38-39. We will wrap up our discussion of the Passover week with Seder feast samples next week. We will also share Psalm 8 with our 2nd grade buddies and do an activity with them on Wednesday.

History: This week we talked about Greek mythology: what are myths, why were they created, what questions do they answer, who are the characters, how have they impacted parts of our culture today? Mr. Hoo, Mrs. Boerman, and Professor Kuyvenhoven (from Calvin College) came to tell stories to the class. To review the various gods and goddesses we will be playing a game of Greek Mythology War with trading cards the students are in the process of creating.

Language Arts: BUSY! World Fair Display Board information is in your child’s World Fair Binder. We will do much of the “prep” work for this at school, but you will be responsible for purchasing the board. Next week, we will use class time to create the binder cover page, type “Fast Facts” and “Did You Know?” information, as well as search for more pictures to use on the display board. Also, final copies of the Location/Land paragraph will be due on Monday along with all of the parts of the writing process. We will continue researching the government, economy, and people in our country.

Math: We are continuing with our geometry unit and have begun studying the area and perimeter of shapes.

PE: We will wrap up our badminton unit before leaving for Spring Break. The students have really come a long way with their badminton skills!

Orchestra: Remember to write down practice minutes! 60 minutes per week but additional minutes equals more auction points.

Science: This week we wrapped up our unit on convection and began studying heat transfer. We will continue this unit up to and after spring break.

Spanish: 6K has their test moved to March 26th.

Seventh Grade:

Algebra(7th): We will continue problem solving with factoring.

Art: In class we have begun learning in depth about negative and positive space in a work of art. Please check the homework calendar for project due dates and homework.

Band: Our dessert theatre performances are this week - great work everyone, here we go!

Bible(Huttenga): Students continue to learn about sanctification and express their ideas in the form of poetry.

Bible(Wanner): This week we have been looking at prayers and mediation.

History: We are reviewing for our test on Latin America. Our test will be on Tuesday for 7A and Wednesday for 7B.

Language Arts: 7th graders will be completely wrapping up the unit on The Westing Game. Students will have a quiz/test on the book on Monday, March 26. They will have a written critique of the book completed by the end of class on Wednesday, March 28. When we return from Spring Break, the students will focus on finalizing their organism monologues by doing an audio recording. These will be accessible during Fine Arts week.

PE: We will wrap up our badminton unit before leaving for Spring Break. The students have become quite impressive badminton players!

Math: We are studying area and surface area next week.

Orchestra: Thanks for all of your encouragement as we learned our Dessert Theatre music. We are looking forward to performing for you.

Science: We will continue investigating the Earth, rocks, weathering and erosion.

Spanish: We are starting a novel!

Eighth Grade:

Algebra: We are working through Chapter 10 in algebra. No tests next week.

Art: This week 8th graders started investigating the street art movement in preparation for the next project they will be working on. Please check the homework calendar for project due dates and homework.

Band: We are learning music from a variety of genres. Practice records are still due every Thu. Go team!

Bible(Huttenga/Van Noord): Verse selection is over and research regarding our plumb bob verses has begun.

Geometry: We will begin unit 12!

History: We are continuing our study of the U.S. Civil War next week.

Language Arts: 8th graders will wrap up their unit on The Giver. They will have a test on the novel on Mon, Mar 26. For the remainder of the week, they will be focused on continuing their work with the Book of Memories project.

PE: We will wrap up our badminton unit before leaving for Spring Break. The students have become quite impressive badminton players!

Orchestra: We are learning new music so quickly but there are a few tricky spots so focus on those measures.

Science: We will be working through an engineering challenge where students will be presented with a “problem” and work through the steps discussed in class to solve that problem. This will include some research and designing a prototype.

Spanish: The novel continues!

Athletics:

Uniforms: Please turn in all basketball uniforms to Mrs. O’Brien as soon as possible.

Spring sport games will begin after Spring Break. The schedules will be posted to the Wildcats Athletics website as soon as they are finalized.