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Middle School Matters – May 17, 2019 May 17th, 2019

General Announcements

Cheerleading: Attention all girls interested in learning and improving cheerleading skills in grades 5-12. There will be four weeks, 8 sessions of summer cheer clinics at Grand Rapids Christian High School this summer. They will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays of the last two weeks in June and the last two weeks in July. Questions? Contact Jacquie DeJonge, 616.949.7516

Fifth Grade: 

Spring Camp: We are heading to Camp Tall Turf May 22-24 for Spring Camp. Packets went home this week. Please be sure to read the packet carefully. Medical form and $25 due Monday. Box of snacks, dessert treat, and sack lunch needs to be brought Wednesday (see packet for details).

Reproductive Education: A parent letter was sent home this week with more information on the topic. Reproductive education is taking place May 29-31.

Gospel Theatre & End of Year Celebration: Join us June 05 at 12:45pm for theatre experience followed by a 5th grade celebration.

Art: Students will work on completing their Wayne Thiebaud cupcake compositions and then be learning about another 20th century artist. 

Band: We need to have a party - we have conquered way more than 100 songs. Watch for an email regarding this soon. Plan on full band Tue May 28.

Bible: This week we continued practicing for Gospel Theatre! Students are plugging away at the Jesus Project. We have had lots of in class work time, but some students may need to spend time at home to catch up on some pieces to the project. Upcoming due dates are as follows: another verse is due Fri, May 31; Parable of the Sower recordings due Tues, May 21. All of these writings should be located in your child’s Google Drive (login is ) if they would like to access them at home.

Language Arts: Now that MAP testing is mostly completed, we have turned are attention to reading our biographies. I am hoping that students will finish reading the book by Tues May 21.

Math: We finished our final chapter and MAPS tests this week! Be sure to celebrate at home.

Science: We witnessed many chemical reactions at Calvin College yesterday! We will wrap up the year with studying the human digestive, circulatory and nervous systems

Social Studies: We will be learning about various people who lived during the time of the Revolutionary War.  

Sixth Grade:

Preparing for Adolescence: Ada Christian School is committed to nurturing the whole child - mind, body and soul - in Christian community. To support this mission, the sixth grade curriculum includes an intentional focus on preparing for the physical, social and emotional changes that occur when students reach adolescence. During the week of May 20, we will take some time to think carefully about changes that students can expect as they reach adolescence. Please read this letter describing the Preparing for Adolescence curriculum. A book came home with your child on Fri May 10. Please take time to read chapters 1 and 2 together. Return the book to school on Mon May 20.

Missing Work: Many students are collecting quite a number of missing assignments. Please ask your child to show you on PowerSchool whether or not they have missing work. Many would benefit from extra help at home to find time to complete these assignments.

Chicken Checker & Got Yolk: Mr. Hoo has assigned each family to chicken chores for 1 weekend between now and the end of the school year. This includes cleaning the coop, feeding the chickens and picking up eggs. Please look  at which weekend you have been assigned to be sure you are available. If you are not, please work with another family to make a switch. Questions? Talk to Mr. Hoo. We are counting on you!

Devotion Sign-up: All of our Thursday morning 6th grade devotion slots are full! Thanks to all who signed up and shared with us this year. We are blessed by you!

Art:  Students have completed building their ceramic animal effigy bowls. If the piece can dry and go through the firing process we will be glazing on Tuesday. Please check the homework calendar for due date and sketchbook assignments.

Band: We need to have a party - we have conquered way more than 100 songs. Watch for an email regarding this soon.

Bible: We continue to reflect on our spiritual growth this year. We’ll be presenting our projects soon.

History: We will continue to study Ancient Rome together!

Language Arts: We will work to complete our persuasive papers next week.

Math: We continue to use our perimeter, area, and volume skills to construct a 3D city. 

Science: Students are learning about water vapor and cloud formation. We will have a test over investigations 5-8 on Fri, May 24.

Seventh Grade:

Class Trip: Remember, the class trip will be taking place May 30-31 (Thursday-Friday). Several forms for the trip need to be completed and handed in by May 22. Several pieces of specific information have already been handed out and email, but one more form will be coming soon.

Algebra: We will have a test early next week on rational expressions and then begin our final chapter of the year- introductions to geometry.

Art: 7th graders continue to work on their layers of life project. Please check the homework calendar for due date and sketchbook assignments.

Band: We started to learn some jazz, some jazz licks and 2 new pieces along with more things in the book as well. They learn so quickly. Thank you for your help with their band party this spring - so nice!

Bible: Service continues! We will be having a memory quiz on Monday, May 20. On Tuesday, Mr Bill will be coming as a guest speaker.

History: We will be wrapping up Chapter 3 next week and preparing for a test at the end of the week.

Language Arts: We are wrapping up with the ProCon project soon! Parents, stay tuned for a checklist to help your child ensure they have everything they need. With time we have left over in the year, we will have some fun with creative writing exercises and get acquainted with the memoir genre of writing that they will be using frequently next year.

Pre-Algebra: Next week: Line and angle relationships, polygons, and transformations. 

Science: We have a test next week Tuesday covering sedimentary and igneous rocks. We will be continuing by looking at tectonic plates, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Eighth Grade:

Important Upcoming Dates:

All Missing Work is due NOW! Please help your student to finish strong.

May 23 & 24 - Exams - half days (done at 11:30)

May 23: 8A - Math and History, 8B - Math and LA

May 24: 8A - Science and LA, 8B - History and Science

May 27 - Memorial Day - No School

May 29-31 - Class Trip (Cedar Point and all!!!) :) back to school by 3:00pm Friday

June 03-04 - School - all day :)

June 05 - half day (done at 11:30)

June 06 - Graduation (no school during the day) Pictures at 6:15pm at ACS

The Graduation Party for the 8th grade class will be hosted by the Tiede family - plans are underway and more information will come home soon.

Graduation Ceremony Thurs, June 06: After much discussion and thought, we've decided to hold graduation at ACS this year instead of Thornapple Covenant Church. 
There were several important factors that led to this decision, the most important being seating capacity. Last year, we had standing room only! We want to ensure we have room for everyone attending to have a seat. Two, ACS has the ability to live stream graduation. This is a wonderful option to include those who aren't able to travel or attend in person. Three, we have the space to accommodate receiving lines and refreshments in the event of inclement weather. Four, we don't have to transport kids (or risers) off campus for graduation practice. The list continues, not the least of which is we have a beautiful facility and campus with which to make graduation a really special event for our kids and families. 
Class Trip: Thanks to the many of you who have already turned in the forms and money for the upcoming class trip. If you still need to turn it in, please try to get that back to Mr. Witte or Mrs. VanNoord sometime next week. Thanks!

Algebra: Thursday will be the day for our Algebra exam. Students will be working with me in class on a review sheet and working on review problems throughout the week. On Monday, we will also need to take some time to finish up our math MAP test in class.

Art: 8th grade students will be coming home with a bag of artwork next week Wed. 5/22 and it might be a good idea to pick up your student that day. In class student will be working on a visual image tied to their plum by verse. Finally, 8th grade students will have street art projects to install in their selected locations next week as well. Please check the homework calendar for due date and sketchbook assignments.

Band: The last day 8th grade plays is May 28 - then instruments go home. Do you have any ACS band books at your house? We need them back to school soon if possible. Thank you for sharing your amazing students with us at ACS. :) They are a blessing.

Bible: 8th graders are working on their exam, which is a reflection of the Plumb-Bob project. This will be included in their finalized Book of Memories. They are also working on artwork to go along with their verse.

History: This coming week we will take our history exam. This exam will cover chapters 13, 14, and 15. On moodle students can find some review materials and flash cards to help them prepare. We will spend our time next week reviewing a chapter a day and playing different review games in class. We will also spend some time discussing how to study for an exam at home.

Language Arts: We are working hard to prepare for the LA exam! 8B will be having the exam on Thursday, 8A will have the exam Friday. In the meantime, students will be doing some revising of BOM essays before we do our final print and binding.

Pre-Algebra: We will continue to review for our exam which is on Thursday.

Science: We will have our final test on heredity and genetics on Tuesday. The rest of the week we will spend time reviewing for our science exam on Friday.