Ellsworth MS Newsletter
Here's what's happening in MS this week!
September 17, 2018
Dear parents,
If you haven't had a chance to check power school, have your student show you how they can access their grades online.
ENGLISH
6th Grade: Students completed their NWEA testing for Language, and next week Thursday and Friday will be completing the Reading portion. During any extra time on these days, students are completing work on IXL, a technological learning platform that supports the standards we are working on in the ELA classroom. Please feel free to have students log in at home and practice. Next week we will be reading mentor texts to help support our narrative writing unit. Writer’s Notebooks will be used to implement the strategies learned from the mentor texts. Finally, the students will continue reading (inside and outside of class) the books that they have checked out from the MS/HS library or the classroom library.
7th Grade: We have completed our first two CommonLit articles online. Ask your student to log in and show you the program so you can see the progress they are making. We are currently working on writing effective sentences and word choice.
8th Grade: We are off to a great start in 8th grade! Students read about Jackie Robinson this week and worked on writing effective sentences and word choice. We will talk about parallel structure, revising sentences, and using formal and informal language next week.
SOCIAL STUDIES
6th Grade: We have been discussing tools historians use such as maps. We are having a quiz Thursday using a US map to identify states. Most students have been practicing through the link I provided in Google Classroom. We will be looking at primary and secondary sources this week along with timelines as important tools to study history. Students also have a reading assignment posted in Google Classroom (Ch. 1 Section 3) which they should have read by Tuesday.
7th Grade: We have been discussing tools historians use such as maps. We are having a quiz Thursday using a US map to identify states. Most students have been practicing through the link I provided in Google Classroom. We will be looking at primary and secondary sources this week along with timelines as important tools to study history. Students also have a reading assignment posted in Google Classroom (Ch. 1 Section 3) which they should have read by Tuesday.
8th Grade History: On Monday we will complete our reading of the major people groups prior to the arrival of Europeans in America. Some students have volunteered to cook a traditional Native American recipe for the class to taste! Next, we will begin our unit on early European settlers.
MATH
6th Grade: Students will be taking the NWEA test on Monday. This past week, we had a quiz on integers and their opposites. This week we will finish our unit on absolute value and have a test at the end of the week. Last week, we learned how to access power school to check grades, so please have your child show you.
7th Grade: Students will be taking the NWEA test on Monday. This past week we had a quiz on adding and subtracting integers. We will finish our unit this week and have a test at the end of the week.
8th Grade: Students will be taking the NWEA test on Monday. This past week we had a quiz on finding square and cube roots. We will have a chapter test on Wednesday. Next we begin studying scientific notation and exponents.
SCIENCE
6th Grade: We have been practicing making observations and will be practicing science safety skills with our first lab this week. We will continue to practice science process skills as we learn about the scientific method.
7th Grade: We have been learning about what makes weather and have been recording weather observations in our science notebooks/journals. Please remind your student to always have this in class. We have some students who are having difficulty keeping track of it which means a lower grade for science journal entries. We will be continuing our study of weather with specific factors that affect it.
8th Grade: This past week, we did the NWEA test on Tuesday, which gives Mr. Faivor an idea of what units to focus on and cover this year. We had a quiz over the Nature of Science on Friday, and we will start our unit on Rocks Monday!
ART
6th Grade: This week the 6th Grade will be working on a color unit. We will be learning the difference in color and light. We will learn how natural light and color in science, is different than light and color in art. The 6th graders will be starting the week with a color wheel.
SINCERELY,
The Middle School Team
7 & 8 English: Amanda Terryberry aterryberry@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6&7th Sci, 6-7th SS: Sue Goslee sgoslee@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6 Eng, 8th SS: Olivia Speicher ospeicher@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
6-8 Math: Erica Stuck estuck@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
8th Science: Clayton Faivor cfaivor@ellsworth.k12.mi.us
Art: Kurt Zimmerle kzimmerle@ellsworth.k12.mi.us