General Announcements:

Retreat Follow-Up: 6th-8th grade parents, are you looking for conversation points to connect with your child about his or her experience at the Spiritual Retreat? Perhaps ask them what they learned from our speaker about “how small we are,” “how loved we are,” and “how called we are.” Ask them how they were affirmed, challenged and inspired by our small group times and what they did during their initiatives and activity periods.

Refugee Family: A group of ACS families are co-sponsoring a Congolese refugee family who will arrive mid-September. There will be opportunities for many ACS families to be involved. If you want to learn more or are interested in helping, please contact Jill Anderson, Lauri Hanenburg, Amy Leonard, Tricia Nelson or Melissa VanderLeek.

Fifth Grade:

Band: We are off and playing! Students should practice pages 6-8, begin page 9, and write all practice times down on their practice calendars. We are doing a great job! Interested in lessons? Email Mrs. VN - there is a group that might like to have a group lesson on Thursday or Friday right after school. Let Mrs. VN know if you are interested! I also can share a list of private instructors as well - - private lessons are a huge musical advantage.

Bible: The Pentateuch – digging deeper into the first five books of the Bible, the themes that are present, and how God’s covenants to the Patriarchs reign true today. The first Bible memory work of the year is due this coming Friday (Sept. 16): Psalm 8:1-4.

Language Arts: We began the first unit of our new curriculum this week by looking at topics we can write about. We also reviewed parts of comprehension and fluency in our reading. We continue to read Survival books.

Math: We are studying the relationship between whole numbers and decimals – including addition and subtraction of decimals, rounding, and expressing decimals in standard and expanded form.  

Orchestra:  We are playing out of 2 of our books and have a great sense of keeping a steady beat. Practice pages 15 and 16 in All for Strings and pages 4 and 5 in Measures of Success!  If you are interested in lessons there are a few spots right after school on Monday and Tuesdays- right here at school.  Let Mrs. Kladder know if you are interested. Private lessons are an enormous musical advantage.

PE: We will continue our soccer unit with more game play in the next few PE classes. Students should come prepared with appropriate clothing and shoes to run around in.

Science: We are beginning our study of LIVING SYSTEMS using our new FOSS SCIENCE program.  This week we’ve investigated the Earth’s 4 main systems: Atmosphere, Geosphere, Hydrosphere and Biosphere.  We’ll especially focus on the Biosphere and it’s subsystems:  Food Chains, Food Webs, Food Pyramids, Energy Flow, Predator-Prey, Consumer-Producers……

Social Studies:  We are wrapping our first mini-unit on MAPS.  Students map assignments will be due next Tuesday (most will finish in class) and we will have a 100 point quiz on Tuesday as well.  Students need to know their 50 states and 7 continents for this quiz.  We’ve work daily on this but many students will need some home memory time to get those states down.

Spanish: We are learning foods, food groups, and even portion recommendations (USDA.)  A quiz on the foods is coming up soon, and a review sheet will be coming home next week.

Sixth Grade:

Art: Next week we will continuing our look at pattern and how to visually represent how the artist see God in their life. Make sure to check the homework calendar and complete the 2 assignments that are due for next week.  

Band: Practice calendars are out - we are doing hymn tunes and quizzes and other songs too. Ask for a concert!

Bible: We continue to examine our place in God’s story. Outside/Inside Bag presentations will be on Tues, Sep 20.

History: Geography bumper stickers are due on Monday. Make sure they are colored and no pencil lines showing. We will continue to look at maps and globes this week.

Language Arts: We continue to read and enjoy Tuck Everlasting.

Math: We continue to study measurement and how to calculate with decimals.

PE: We will continue our soccer unit with more and more game play. Students should come prepared with a change of clothes and shoes that they can wear outside. There will be a test at the end of the unit. We will work through the review sheet that is posted on Moodle.

Orchestra: We are playing 3 different hymns now and several pieces of sheet music. Practice should happen about 20 minutes per day to keep up with new pieces.

Science: We are studying measurement. This includes learning about tools for scientific measurement, the metric system, and how to be accurate when doing measurements in science.

Spanish: Holidays and our awesome Spiritual Retreat have taken up our class times (Mondays and Fridays,) but next week we will be full steam ahead with learning how to describe with a variety of adjectives.  

Seventh Grade:

Algebra (7th): We have been working with real numbers. On Thursday 09.15 we will have a test on Chapter 2.

Art: In class we continue to work on our project that get each artist to work on displaying an art element and principle in on work of art. Please check the homework calendar for sketchbook due dates.  

Band: We are off and playing! Can you help your student get out to hear a band play at a football game? :) Not required, but super fun.

Bible (Wanner):  Next week will will complete our work on the school spiritual theme banner and then we will be exploring and experiencing the spiritual discipline of daily devotions for the next unit of study.   

Bible (Huttenga):  Next week will will complete our work on the school spiritual theme banner and then we will be exploring and experiencing the spiritual discipline of daily devotions for the next unit of study.   

History: Next week we will be finishing up our introduction to Geography.  We will be aiming to take a test by the end of the week.  

Language Arts: Next week we will be reading our fourth and final short story of the unit. We will move from there by wrapping up discussion of plot structure and important elements such as perspective, mood and suspense. Students will begin drafting their own short story incorporating what we’ve learned. Students should also have a novel to be reading for an independent study, which will be elaborated in an email sent home to parents this weekend.

PE: We will continue our soccer unit with more and more game play. Students should come prepared with a change of clothes and shoes that they can wear outside. There will be a test at the end of the unit. We will work through the review sheet that is posted on Moodle.

Math: Students are finishing up their chapter on integers today and next week we will begin studying ratios and rates.

Orchestra: We are playing 3 different hymns and many pieces of sheet music. Practice is very important so plan on about 20 minutes per day.

Science: We will continue investigation 2 with a study on the microscope. Students will have the opportunity to each work with a microscope and prepare slides to investigate under the microscope.

Spanish: 7th graders are learning to talk about rooms inside and areas outside of our homes.  They drew some great illustrations of their homes or their dream homes, then described them in Spanish with small groups.  Next week, we will play a special Spanish version of the game, “Clue.”

Eighth Grade:

Algebra: We will be taking a test on Chapter 1 on Tuesday.  

Art: In class we are working on designing, transferring the design to the block, and cutting the design out. Please check the homework calendar for sketchbook due dates.  

Band: We are working on songs from Bach to Journey. Genres! Yay.

Bible (Westrate): We will study the early life and ministry of Jesus.

Bible (Huttenga): We will continue our allegorical study of The Last Battle.

Geometry: Students will be taking their first test this coming Tuesday.

History: Next week we will be taking a quiz on Chapter 5 on Wednesday.  We will also continue our study of the American Revolution.

Language Arts: 8th graders will continue researching and get prepped for the outline portion of the National History Day project. Parents, be on the lookout for an informative work calendar to help stay up-to-date on your student’s work.

PE: We will continue our soccer unit with more and more game play. Students should come prepared with a change of clothes and shoes that they can wear outside. There will be a test at the end of the unit. We will work through the review sheet that is posted on Moodle.

Orchestra: We are playing 3 different hymns and sight reading lots of new pieces. We will select 3 or 4 to learn for Festival in Nov.

Science: We will have a quiz over investigations 1 and 2 in the coming week.

Spanish: 8th graders worked together to create skits about shopping for clothes.  This is partial review from 5th grade, with emphasis on additional vocabulary and much more grammar and sentence/conversation building.  We will review next week, and there is a test scheduled for 09.20.