Howards Grove Middle School

At Howards Grove Middle School We Believe In:

Respect

Responsibility

Integrity

Appreciation

10/17- 5th grade Field Trip to SteamFest at Lakeland University, GBB at Ozaukee

10/21- GBB Home Game vs. Kohler, Monthly School Board Meeting

10/22- Parent/Teacher Conferences

10/23- Student Council Meets

10/24- GBB at Cedar Grove

10/25- Northview's Fall Festival, End of Quarter One

10/28- GBB at Elkhart, Cub Scouts

10/29- Parent/Teacher Conferences

10/31- Halloween (Students may wear costumes. No weapons or full face masks.)

11/4- Cheerios Meeting

11/5- GBB at Random Lake

11/07- GBB at Random Lake

11/11-Teacher In-service, FFA Meeting, Cub Scouts

11/12- Veteran's Day Program, GBB Home game vs. Ozaukee

11/14- GBB at Kohler

11/18- Monthly School Board Meeting

Hello Howards Grove Families and Friends,

I hope this month's newsletter finds you well. The school year is moving fast as we near the end of the quarter and parent/teacher conferences are soon! If you have not already signed up for parent/teacher conferences please check your email for directions. Please feel free to call the office if you need assistance. Our staff look forward to the conversations at conferences to work together to support your student(s). All of our students have positive accomplishments we would like to share, in addition to areas of growth. These areas of growth and accomplishments could be behavioral, emotional, academic, or social. Our goal is to work in partnership with families for the greatest learning outcomes. If you would like to meet with me during conferences, please contact the office to schedule a time.

As we look to Halloween, students may wear costumes to school on October 31st. With school safety in mind, I ask that there are no costumes that include weapons of any sort as well as no face masks.

As always, if there is anything that I can do to provide assistance, please feel free to contact me at any time. Enjoy the fall.

Yours in education,

Angie Houston

i-Ready Helpful Links for Families:

Understanding diagnostic results from i-Ready

i-Ready Central Resources | Family Center – Home

i-Ready Family Video

i-Ready Family Guide

i-Ready Domains covered by Diagnostic

Dear 7th & 8th grade families! RE: Scholastic Book Orders

• SHOP OUR CLASS PAGE: https://orders.scholastic.com/KWG77

• SHOP FLYERS: https://clubs.scholastic.com/all-flyers

• Family Order Due Date: 10/25/2024

• This year, our class is reading with Scholastic Book Clubs! You’ll have access to expertly curated, affordable books that help boost your child’s reading skills, build your home library, and maybe even create moments of quality time you can share together. Plus, place an order of $25 or more and you can pick a FREE $5 book (use code READS at checkout).

Please contact Kerri Eilers HGMS Reading Teacher & i-Ready Leader with any questions or help with seeing your childs reports at keilers@hgtigers.com

Students are continuing to learn Social Emotional Skills through our Second Step Curriculum. Students in all grade levels are wrapping up their first unit on Mindset and Goal Setting. They have learned how to set short- and long-term goals, this includes making goals that are right for them, and monitoring their progress when facing different obstacles. In grades 6-8, students are starting their next unit which is focused on creating a positive sense of self, while students in grade 5 will move into their unit on empathy and kindness.

Student Council is in full swing! The Council put together and distributed “Welcome Bags” for all of our new students, handed out "Welcome back" treats to all students in the building. Coordinated some fun dress up days to celebrate Homecoming week. We recently held a clothing drive in collaboration with Mr. Dave Crow on behalf of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Sheboygan. As a school, we were able to collect enough clothing to fill two full vehicle loads to donate to the organization! Our next event will be a bake sale, followed by our first after school dance of the year, Fall themed! Keep an eye out for information coming soon!

Thank You!

• Thank you to everyone who joined us for our September and October Family Food Nights at Culvers and Log Cabin Inn! Your continued participation and generosity allow us to advance our mission of supporting our amazing students, teachers, and families.

Save the Date

• November - PTO Meeting: Join us for our monthly PTO Meeting at 5:00pm in the Northview Library. Everyone is welcome! Free babysitting is provided if requested within 72 hours of the meeting. Please contact hgpto@yahoo.com for more information. November’s meeting date will be finalized soon – check us out on Facebook for more details!
• Friday, October 25 - Fall Festival: Join us on Friday, October 25 for our annual Fall Festival at Northview Elementary. It will be a night of family fun featuring a costume party, dance, and book exchange!
• Friday, November 15 – Wisconsin Herd Night! Have you “Herd” the good news?! Family Night with the Wisconsin Herd is back on November 15 at 7:00pm, where a portion of all ticket sales will be donated back to the PTO. Here’s what you can expect:
• Special reserved section just for Howards Grove families.
• All children from Howards Grove will be invited to participate in the Jockey High Five Tunnel!
• All families will be invited on to the court post-game for a group photo and will have an opportunity to shoot free throws!
• Five children will be randomly selected to serve as Co-Captains for the game!
• Monthly - Family Food Nights! Join us at a variety of local restaurants throughout the school year, where a portion of all sales is donated back to the PTO.
• Monday, November 4: Log Cabin
• Tuesday, November 19: Tom’s Drive In
• Monday, December 2: Log Cabin
• December 7th & 8th – Winter Market! Join us for our 2nd Annual Winter Market at the Howards Grove High School. We will once again feature nearly 50 local vendors. Discover unique hand-made crafts and specialty items perfect for holiday gifts! Follow us on Facebook for more details as the event approaches.

Learn More About the PTO!

Take advantage of the opportunity to give back and support your school community by joining the PTO. Interested in learning more, reach out anytime via email or check us out on Facebook!

• Email: Reach out to Stacey Yager, PTO President, at hgpto@yahoo.com for any questions you may have.
• Facebook: Follow us on Facebook (Howards Grove PTO) for all the latest information!

ELA

8th graders are finishing up their Dystopian Book Club Unit. I am so impressed with how avidly they read in class. Many students have continued reading the rest of the series in their chosen dystopian series. They worked on a “One Pager” project where they combined their own analyses and images to produce a colorful display of their knowledge. Check out some of the awesome work of students!

We will be starting our writing unit soon where students will write literary essays. We will be reading short stories, discussing themes, and comparing short stories in our writing.

Algebra

Algebra students have now completed a review of material from last school year. These students will now begin studying exponents and exponential functions. Here students will learn a great deal about the properties of exponents. They'll work with rational number exponents and scientific notation. They will also graph exponential functions and learn about growth and decay formulas. They will finish with a discovery of geometric sequences as they relate to exponential functions.

Math

Students have now completed Unit 1 - Transformational Geometry. In order to celebrate how much students have learned regarding translations, reflections, rotations and dilations, a Chip ‘N Dip party was held on Friday, October 11. See attached photos.

Our next area of study will involve solving linear equations. This will be a vital topic for students to master as it's a critical component in high school algebra.

Science

In Science, we are continuing our "Space" unit with two of our most hands-on and exciting labs. First, "Star lab" where students got to go inside an indoor planetarium and got to see and learn about such Space items as "Solar System, Mystic Mountains, and Andromeda Galaxy". The students had a blast.

The other project we've been working on is the "Model Planet" lab where students pick a planet in the solar system or galaxy and do research to create a model of the planet where they paint and label both the surface and inner layers of the planets. Stay tuned for our "Bottle Rocket" launches coming soon next month.

Social Studies

We just wrapped up our World War I unit and are heading into learning about "The Great Depression" The students will be working on a "Family/Person research project" this unit where they will be exploring their own family history during the "Great Depression", so any family history or recipes that you know of please start to dig them out :)

ELA

In 7th grade we have been working hard on writing our own Realistic Fiction stories for our Writing unit. Students learned about how to write a plot of a story, add descriptive details, effectively use dialogue and more. In class we are gearing up to have our stories ready to share with the class, teachers, and parents. You can really see their creativity and hard work in their stories. Then we are going to be launching our Reading unit about investigating characters in book partnerships.

Accelerated Math

In accelerated math, students will be moving forward with the 8th grade curriculum in 2nd quarter. We will be moving from solving equations to Linear Equations and Understanding and Analyzing Functions.

Math

In math class we will be moving from working with rational numbers to working with multi-step equations and rational numbers.

Science

In science students will be learning about organization in Organisms, Plant Bodies as Systems, and Animal Bodies as Systems. Students will have a lot of hands-on experiences, which will be fun.

Social Studies

Students did a great job researching and presenting about different inventions and inventors that made an impact on the Industrial Revolution. We then talked about how these inventions and ideas impacted the people of that time and our world today. Currently we are learning about Abolitionism. We are learning about people and ideas that were against slavery before the start of the Civil War. In addition, students will also be doing research about different people who helped stop slavery.

ELA

In our reading unit, Deep Study of Character Bend 2, students are investigating how the setting shapes characters. Students are reading the book Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. The book is about 11-year-old Parvana and the risks she takes to help provide for her family after the Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. Because she is the only family member able to pass as male, she cuts her hair short and dresses as a boy so she can work and make money for the family. Students can analyze their work and reflect on their challenges and growth. For vocabulary, students are being taught more than just a word's definition. In Vocabulary.com, it teaches students words by systematically exposing them to a wide array of question types and activities that helps them understand all the meanings and variations of every word they’re learning. For grammar, students are able to recognize the differences and identify common and proper nouns in sentences. We proceeded on with learning about verb types. Students are able to categorize the difference between an action verb, linking verb, and helping verb. Both these units brought us to identifying the subject and predicate in sentences which is what we are currently learning.

Math

The 6th graders are just finishing their unit on Rational Numbers. They learned how to plot rational numbers, convert fractions to decimals and decimals to fractions, and find the GCF and LCM of two or more numbers to help solve real world problems. Next, we will be moving into a fraction unit that primarily focuses on dividing fractions, whole numbers, and mixed numbers. Addition, subtraction and multiplication of fractions will also be reviewed. Along with fraction operations, 6th graders are going to review graphing ordered pairs on a coordinate plane to create fall themed pictures. Now that they are 6th graders and understand how negative numbers exist on the number line, they will be working with 4 quadrants instead of just one. Once we finish our fraction unit, we will be moving on to our Decimal Operations unit.

Science

Over the past few weeks, our 6th-grade scientists have been busy with new and exciting learning experiences. They have been studying the connections between engineering, society, and the environment. They also had an unforgettable field trip to the Kiel Marsh, where they tested water quality by collecting macroinvertebrates, discovered local biodiversity, and even got a little muddy while exploring the Rhine Bog! They continue to show enthusiasm as they apply what they’ve learned in real-world contexts.

Social Studies

On 10/18 the Blocks are having their first Social Studies debate on the Rosenberg Case of the Cold War. They are practicing skills such as how to research and use the information they find to prepare for a position on an issue which they will use facts to argue the points of. Following this they will study the Loyalist vs Patriot dynamic of the Revolutionary War era.

ELA

We have completed our first bend in Readers Workshop, and we are currently working on bend II: Raising the Level of Writing and Talking about Literature. We are learning how to read well and interpret texts. We continue to read aloud daily from the short, yet powerful book, Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate, where reading strategies are modeled. Book Club groups are well underway, and club discussion has been meaningful and insightful! To facilitate literary conversation at home, ask your child what book they are reading and what they are discussing with their book club group.

Math

Math Facts are improving! Thank you, families, for practicing. We are practicing daily in class too.
We have been practicing multiplying as well. The students are improving every day!

Currently, the grade is now thinking inversely, Division!

Even though the students were taught how to do long division, the chapter begins with learning how to write a multiplication and division equation, estimate the quotient, and then long division. This will take us time to master. We will be spending a lot of time practicing long division in the next weeks. Something we all may remember from our youth?

Students for the most part are completing their homework on time. Thank you! This is very helpful because this allows your son/daughter the opportunity to self-reflect and evaluate their level of understanding of the material. This can't happen if the practice doesn't occur.

Looking forward to seeing you all at Parent-Teacher conferences!

Science

Over the past few weeks, our 5th grade scientists have been busy with new and exciting learning experiences. We have been exploring how math and science are essential in engineering by investigating the Hubble Telescope as an anchoring phenomenon. They’ve also been testing their own designs in hands-on activities, like the "straw beams" lab, to model how math and science work together in engineering. They continue to show enthusiasm as they apply what they’ve learned in real-world contexts.

The class has learned a great deal about maps and has practiced finding locations with latitude & longitude recently. They have enjoyed practicing their vocabulary for the unit with the "Around the World" game. They have started a Create-Your-Own-Map activity to review the skills we've practiced since school began.

Howards Grove Middle School

506 Kennedy Avenue

Howards Grove, WI 53083

(920) 565-4452

The School District of Howards Grove does not discriminate in the employment of staff on the basis of any characteristic protected under State or Federal law including, but not limited to, race, color, age, sex, creed or religion, handicap or disability, marital status, genetic information, citizenship status, veteran status, military service (as defined in 111.32, Wis. Stats.), sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, arrest record, conviction record, use or non-use of lawful products off the District’s premises during non-working hours, or any other characteristic protected by law in its employment practices. (Board Policy 4122)