General Announcements
Spiritual Retreat: Permission slips were due today (Friday, Sept 11). If your student is participating in archery, they received a second permission slip from Camp O’Malley. Please return these to Heather Westrate before the retreat.
Prayer Support: Please participate with us in our Middle School’s Spiritual Retreat by praying with us for our school. We’re so thankful for such a supportive group of parents and friends who lift us up in prayer. Join us on Friday, Sept 18 as we set aside time to deepen our relationship with God and seek his leading for us this year as we focus on showing our godly ID.
Discovery Education Assessment:
Dear Parents,
With a few weeks under our belts, we are happy to report that the ebb and flow of our new school year is off to a great start. What a blessing to embark on another year of partnering with you to equip our students for service in God’s world.
At Ada Christian School, each and every teacher and staff member works to provide the best possible education for your child. Ada Christian teachers use daily work samples, quizzes, informal screening, and teacher-student conferencing to monitor student growth. In addition, we use a school-wide formal assessment called Discovery Education Assessment (DEA).
We will be using the DEA again this year as an informative tool to monitor student progress in the areas of Math and Reading. Unlike more traditional standardized tests that students take only once each year, the DEA is given three times per school year and allows teachers immediate access to the results. With the results readily available, teachers can identify both individual student needs and trends within their classroom. They utilize this information to guide instructional delivery that is geared toward your child’s individual needs.
Students will be participating on different days and at different times throughout the next three weeks. Your child’s teacher will be able to share the specific dates with you.
DEA scores for your student are sent home in June with their final report card.
If it is your desire to have your child NOT participate in this assessment process, please complete a form that is available in the office by Friday, Sept 11.
Your Partners in Christian Education,
Melissa Brower & Julie DeKoster
ACS Logo Wear: FREE SHIPPING on ACS logo wear from Sept 08-15. Some products are on display in our lobby.
5th Grade News
Art: 5th graders continue to work on their abstract landscape pictures. Hopefully 5h and 5b will be going outside this coming week to draw.
Band: Wow, wow, wow! We are off to such a great start! Next week band schedule AND the schedule for the future:
- Mondays: Brass and Percussion
- Tuesdays: Woodwinds
- Thursdays: Full Band
Hooray! Assignment for band – play every song on pages 4 and begin page 5 also – low brass may work on page 6 as well. Go Musical Team!
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.
Language Arts: The classes are reading The Sign of the Beaver. In Spelling, there is a packet that is due tomorrow, which will be the routine most Fridays. The 5th graders will also take their spelling test each Friday as well.
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.
PE: We will continue with our soccer unit in PE! Please make sure your student comes prepared with appropriate clothing and shoes on PE days.
Social Studies: There will be a map quiz next Tuesday in SS. This will include knowing the 50 states, which we have been working hard on in class.
Spanish: We continue learning all those numbers, 0 - 100. Ask your student(s) if they can remember the “Coca-cola Numbers Song.”
6th Grade News
Art: In class students continue to work on their part one of their first project. Please remind your student that sketchbook assignments are due at the beginning of class a week after the assignment is handed out. Please check the homework calendar the for exact due dates.
Band: Back on Track for Band assignment (pink paper) is due Sept 24. Parents need to sign and verify that the practicing took place. This should be fun to listen to!
Bible: Outside/Inside bags should be in production, they are due Sept 23. Bible memory is due on Thursday - Psalm 139:13-14.
History: This week we studied World Regions and different terms of Physical Geography.
Language Arts: We have been working through 5-a-day LA skills and learning the importance of knowing synonyms We are also reading Tuck Everlasting. Through this novel, we will study characterization, plot development, vocabulary, and figurative language (similes, metaphors, and personification). Next week the students will take the language arts portion of the DEA tests as well. We are busy!
Math: Next week we will be wrapping up our unit on decimals and measurement. We will be spending time reviewing our decimal computation skills and learning about scientific notation. Students were given a study guide today that will need to be completed by Wednesday. We plan to have our test on Thursday.
PE: We will continue with our soccer unit. We will go over the soccer review sheet on Moodle to prepare for the test the following week. Students should be prepared to go outside.
Science: Students have now become experts on safety and lab equipment in Room 406. Next up, metric measurement.
Spanish: Students are working hard on some pretty creative projects. They have a couple more in-class work days for recording and may want to bring in props from home.
7th Grade News
Algebra (7th): Chapter 1 test on Tuesday. Students have been given a practice test that is laid out just like the actual test. Your child should use this to help him/her prepare for the actual test. On Wednesday, your child will be taking their first DEA test which is explained above.
Art: In class for the next few weeks students will be engaging in creating artwork that displays three art elements or art principles that the has selected to work with. Please check the homework calendar for sketchbook due dates.
Band: Back on Track for Band assignment (pink paper) is due Sept 24. Parents need to sign and verify that the practicing took place. This should be fun to listen to!
Bible: Open note test on Unit 1 is Thursday. It will cover our quick review of the events from the Garden of Eden to the reign of King David.
History: We are wrapping up our studies of our first unit: Introduction to Geography. Our goal is to be prepared to take a test on this information on Thursday. Students can practice learning the 50 geography terms this weekend by using the flashcards that are up on Moodle. This will make studying for the rest of the test fairly easy. Thanks.
Language Arts: We have finished our first short story, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling. Now the 7th graders will be using their reviewed knowledge of literary conflict and the elements of plot to plan out and write their first short story of the year. As they continue to master these concepts and rules, we will also learn how to manipulate and break those rules altogether to create more interesting stories. We will continue reading short stories next week, using A Boy and a Man as a scaffold for this.
On Friday, Sept 11, 7th graders were also introduced to their first independent reading assignment - more information on this will follow very soon.
PE: We will continue with our soccer unit. We will go over the soccer review sheet on Moodle to prepare for the test the following week. Students should be prepared to go outside.
Pre-Algebra (Kiser): Today we took our test on Chapter 1. Next week we will work with absolute value and integers.
Pre-Algebra (Holtrop): Next week we will be finishing up Chapter 1 and reviewing what we have learned. The test will be Wednesday or possibly Thursday.
Science: We are continuing our study of plants on our school campus. So far we have already studied 6 different species.
Spanish: 7B has presented in Spanish their fabulous “Fake Family” Photo Albums! Looking forward to seeing 7W and 7H’s next week.
8th Grade News
Algebra (Witte): We are reviewing for our Chapter 1 test on Tuesday.
Algebra (8th): Students have a practice test and are encouraged to complete pages 55-58 in their textbook as an additional review. Our Chapter 1 test will be on Tuesday.
Art: In class students are continuing to work through creating a personal name chop and now many students are beginning to cut out the design of the print block. Please check Moodle for sketchbook due dates.
Band: Back on Track for Band assignment (pink paper) is due Sept 24. Parents need to sign and verify that the practicing took place. This should be fun to listen to!
Bible: We studied the books of Matthew and Mark this week. Next week we will continue our study of the Gospels by studying Luke and John. Bible memory is due Sept 30 - Philippians 4: 6-8.
Geometry: Students will be taking a test this coming Monday. We’ll be spending the rest of next week jumping into Chapter 2!
History: We are reviewing in class for our quiz on the American Revolution. The quiz will be on Tuesday. After that, we will start looking at the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
Language Arts: 8th graders will continue to use most of their time for research, as previously stated in an earlier email. As we progress closer to the due dates of the outlines, we will begin using more of our class time for writing workshops in which students will explore essay organization techniques, review thesis statements and topic sentences, and then segue into more advanced research-writing techniques.
PE: We will continue with our soccer unit. We will go over the soccer review sheet on Moodle to prepare for the test the following week. Students should be prepared to go outside.
Science: We’re still getting into the swing of things with our new FOSS curriculum. A quiz will take place on Monday over our first 4 focus questions. We’ll continue studying air and weather in the coming weeks.
Spanish: 8th graders are doing online assignments again through Quia. Please refer to the Moodle calendar for due dates. As in years past, they have the opportunity to do the assignments as many times as they wish and their best score will be recorded! We are focusing on new verbs and vocabulary that relate to clothing at this time.
Wildcats Athletics
Winter basketball – Sign-ups for grades 5-8 are now open. You can find the registration form on the ACS 5-8 Athletic website under Winter Sports.
The fee per student to play basketball this winter is $50.00. The deadline for sign-ups will be Sept 24.
If you have any questions regarding your son or daughters sport season please contact:
5th & 6th Grade Athletics – Carly Prins (gro.naitsirhcada@snirpc)
7th & 8th Grade Athletics – Angela Van Duyn (gro.naitsirhcada@nyudnava)