Middle School Monthly Updates

DEAR MIDDLE SCHOOL PARENTS  

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DEAR 7TH GRADE PARENTS

Welcome to a new month: FEBRUARY! Well, we made it through January: many rainy days, the wind storms, the middle school schedule, New Years, and all the wonderful things we are learning about your child’s 7th grade year.  So hopefully, you may now take a few quick breaths, and prepare for another busy month ahead, as well as a few important items below, you may wish to add to your February calendar:

  • Jan. 30-Feb. 3–CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK
  • Feb. 14-Valentines\’s Day Lunch
  • Feb. 20-24–Winter Break

FUTURE DATES: 

  • Mar. 9–2nd Trimester ends
  • Mar. 10-No School/Teacher In-Service
  • Mar. 13–3rd Trimester begins

For further dates and information on class activities, assignments, and projects, please check the calendar link on my home page.   **Power School will be updated at  the end of each week in Math(G1 & H), Social Studies(6), Religion(8), and World Language (6/7/8), so please make sure that you and your child log in to keep yourself current with their progress!

For Information regarding Room Parent Volunteer Commitments or Opportunities, please contact Pam Garand, our Room Parent. Call the school office for contact information.

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS TO NOTE

  1. Your child needs to be bringing to class each day a quiet reading book to read during our silent reading time in class each day.
    If your child misses a day of school, he/she has 2 days for every day they missed to complete the absent work. For example: if Bob is absent on Monday and returns Wednesday, his missed work is due the following Monday in class.  Also, as our school policy states, if a need arises to contact your child during the school day, whether it be to pick them up for an appointment, leave a message, bring a lunch or another item from home, please leave these items at the school office and the office will notify me. I will make sure that these important items are brought to my room the same day to deliver to your child.  All absent work can also be picked up that same day, by 3:00—–and will be brought either to the school office for you to pick up, or sent home with a sibling or another student. Just let me know what works best for your schedule.
  2. Please make sure your child is using their student planner during the week to copy from the class white board their daily assignments. This organizational tool is key to their future success in their middle school classes.
  3. Progress Reports are always on line to view each week with your child. Please use these grading periods as a time to discuss with your child areas of strengths and improvements to use as a gauge for the rest of the trimester.
  4. Please make sure your child has all their supplies updated on a regular basis, including, markers, notebook paper, folders, glue sticks, pens(blue or black and red), pencils, colored pencils, calculators, etc. **All of their teachers will thank them, and you!!

Be sure to check my “Middle School Homework” link on my website homepage for project dates and other activities each month!

CURRICULUM UPDATE

The following will give you a brief update of what is happening for each subject that I teach during the month of February. For additional information, please check the St. Madeleine’s Website for each teacher’s subject area.

RELIGION  8

We began our regular lessons in our Religion Text, Faith First, which discusses the revelation of God’s love for us through Scripture and the Gospels, as we will also continue our learning about the life of Jesus.
We will focus on learning the vocabulary and theme presented in each chapter.

This trimester, we will focus lessons on learning about our 7 Themes of Catholic Social Teaching and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We will discover the similarities and differences of each, and use our critical thinking skills to see how it fits into our daily lives as well as, how we can use them to make a positive change in the world.

We also will be preparing for Lent, as Ash Wed.begins on Mar. 1.

This month, the 8th graders will be continuing their 2nd Step Program , which is a  course on building positive relationships, making good decisions, problem solving, learning skills to have a voice and support each other, and learning ways to communicate effectively.  **We will also have a required 2 day program for all 8th graders in the Archdiocese, entitled, “Called to Protect”, which helps instill in our 8th graders ways to prevent, recognize, and report any form of abuse they see or experience.  One day was offered in October, and the other day in March.

Each Trimester, all 8th graders are required to earn 5 Service Hours. These Hours may be earned outside of class, making sure the hours are volunteer hours, and not paid hours. Some examples are: helping neighbors with chores, helping the elderly, babysitting, yard work, helping at a nursing home, etc. Also, hours may be earned through the Service Elective at school, Car pool duty, and Altar Serving.  Service Hours for each trimester will be due a week before the trimester ends.

SOCIAL STUDIES 6  

We finished our unit on the Ancient India; Chapter 4.  Next, we will move on to Ch. 5, Ancient China.

MATH G1   

We began our year with our “A Week of Inspirational Math, as we did last year.  This is an on-line course from Stanford University Mathematics Department, and the directors name is Jo Boaler.

**We also finished our unit on Inequalities, Ch. 4, and are now studying Ratios and Proportions–Ch. 5.

MATH H

We began our year with our “A Week of Inspirational Math, as we did last year.  This is an on-line course from Stanford University Mathematics Department, and the directors name is Jo Boaler.

**We also finished our unit on Expressions and Equations, Ch. 3, and are now studying Inequalities–Ch. 4.

 

WORLD LANGUAGE 6/7/8    

Students will be logging on to the Star Assessment program for a review of Math and Reading skills for the year.  We are also working on the Rosetta Stone program.

Here’s to a positive and most productive year together. I wish to thank you for all that you do for your child’s educational journey. Since you are their primary teachers, I’m honored to be on the same team!

Blessings to all of you, and may 2017 continue to be filled with much health, happiness, and peace.

Take care,
Di Shepp 🙂

****GO WSU COUGS!!!!!!!