Monocacy Middle School

With Term 1 ending, we look ahead to term 2 with all the excitement it brings. Report Cards will be sent home with students on November 8th. November 9th Mr. Gunter and other principals from FCPS will be participating in a charity basketball game featuring the Harlem Wizards at FCC. Then on November 22nd the PTA will be hosting a Mustang Bash, a night of fun activities!

The holiday season will soon be upon us and if anyone is in need of holiday assistance please reach out to our Community Liaison, Mrs. Puentes or Community Coordinator, Mrs. Watson and they will be able to direct you to community resources.

Since this will be the last newsletter before the Thanksgiving holiday, in the spirit of thankfulness, we want to share how appreciative we are for the support of the Monocacy community. From the volunteers who come in and make copies for staff, work in the library and donate items for our school incentives, to our PTA, who is always willing to support staff, there are so many things to be thankful for during this season. We are most thankful to be a part of this community.

https://aidenmatthewrippleeffect.org

In honor of Suicide Prevention Month, National Bullying Prevention Month and World Kindness Week this fall, the Counseling Office & Mustang Student Ambassadors will be running a fundraiser for the Aiden Matthew Ripple Effect Foundation. The Aiden Matthew Foundation was started in 2021 by Sara & Matthew Alexander to honor the life of their son, Aiden. Sara is an FCPS employee. The foundation is dedicated to saving lives, promoting awareness, and reducing the stigma surrounding mental health & suicide. The donations collected for the foundation will also benefit scholarships for local high school students. Our students will collect donations at the lunch periods during World Kindness Week November 11th-15th. Please consider making a donation. Thank you in advance!

The Advisory Council will be presenting information at the PTA meeting on November 12. Learn more about the Community School Strategy and plans moving forward. All are welcome!

They will be offering community resources, raffles, music, and more. There will also be a free turkey distribution. To receive a turkey, you must show a driver's license or other form of ID to prove you are a Frederick resident.

For questions, please call 301-600-1506 or email mgrogan@cityoffrederickmd.gov.

As the holiday season approaches, we are excited to share an opportunity to bring joy to children in our community through the Toys for Tots program.

Toys for Tots is dedicated to collecting and distributing new toys to children in need, ensuring that every child experiences the magic of the holidays. If you or someone you know could benefit from this program, we encourage you to apply.

How to Apply: Visit the official Toys for Tots website.

Follow the instructions to submit your application.

Applications are open on October 1st

If you have any questions or need assistance with the application process, please feel free to reach out. Let's come together to make this holiday season special for our children!

Calling all student writers, artists, musicians, photographers, and dancers!

Express your artistic self by participating in the PTA Reflections Program. Create a work that responds to this year's theme "Accepting Imperfection" and submit your work and an entry form to the MoMS front office by Tuesday, December 3rd. The top two entries in each category will move on to the county level of competition.

Share your voice with your community and start creating today! Questions? Email Elizabeth Midgette at epmidgette@gmail.com.

More information on the Reflections program can be found here: Reflections Arts Program | National PTA

24-25 Entry Form.pdf

24-25 Reflections Student Entry Form (ESP).pdf

Reflections Permission Slip.docx

• Our next PTA Meeting will be Tuesday, November 12th at 6:30 pm in the Media Center.
• The Mustang Bash is Friday, November 22nd from 6-8 pm. More info coming soon.

As we start the second quarter, we want to remind everyone about the items accumulating in our Lost and Found. We have a variety of clothing, lunch boxes, water bottles and personal belongings that have not yet been claimed.

If your child has lost an item, please encourage them to check the Lost and Found area located in the cafeteria.

Please note that any items not claimed by November 22nd will be donated to local charities. We appreciate your help in ensuring that your child retrieves their belongings!

Students will be focussing on self-awareness, core values, coping skills, organization, dealing with stress, and gratitude.

Students will continue to work through evaluating and writing effective arguments. They will explore various texts to support their writing. Additionally, students will continue to work through their personalized iReady pathway weekly.

6th grade math is starting Module 3. This module will focus on the following skills: long division, dividing fractions, adding decimals, subtracting decimals, multiplying decimals and dividing decimals.

7th Grade Language Arts has started Unit 2 called “Take Control.” Students will read, analyze, and discuss a variety of texts focused on our essential question; “How do our actions define us?” They will conclude the unit by writing an informative essay. In addition to that, students are working on their i-ready pathway weekly.

Math 7 students will be learning about positive and negative numbers. They will understand the methods used to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with these signed integers.

Students will begin Unit 2: The Thrill of Horror. Texts will relate to the essential question: Why do we sometimes like to feel frightened? Students will focus on analyzing how and why authors reveal points of view in literary and informational texts.

In 8th Grade Science, we will be starting our next unit, “Inheritance”. We will spend November learning about how genes are passed from parent to offspring, and analyzing the structure and function of DNA through various activities like building a “candy” model of DNA!

Welcome to Term 2! For those students coming to PE for the first time this year, please make sure you bring proper PE shoes every day, and a lock for your PE locker.

During Term 2 we will begin new units which will include Swatball, Ping Pong, and Weight Room rotations.

Welcome to second term! For those now in health, we will begin with our mental and emotional health unit for all three grades. We will also be discussing bullying prevention. Once that is done, we will begin our alcohol, tobacco and other drugs unit, which will take us to Thanksgiving break and through the end of November!

Students have been learning about the Roman Empire, the spread of which led to the development of the Romance languages, such as Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

In Theatre Arts, students have rehearsed and performed their first quick skits. The topic was penguins at a chorus concert. Ask them how it went!

Students have learned about positive self-talk and how it can help in other areas of life. Students will begin work in groups to create a scene/skit about: group work, theatre audience etiquette, or feedback.

We continue to work on all of our concert music for the December concerts. Your student should be practicing regularly at home. A great activity to help your student prepare is to have your student play portions of their concert music so you can hear the progress they are making. Concert information will be coming home soon with reminders for the dates and what students should be wearing. We are making great progress and I look forward to the student performances in December!

Artists just finished an intensive observational drawing unit, including studying observational shapes, values, lines, and depth. We even added an imaginative element for an Observation-Imagination-Combination. All our practice has prepared us for a self portrait unit at the start of Term 2. We are also hard at work creating murals for the cafeteria to express Monocacy P.R.I.D.E.

Artwork below by Kelvin K (7th Grade) and Israel A (8th Grade)

6th and 7th grade classes have practiced drawing with graphite, drawing from life, and using the Grid Technique during the month of October. As the month draws to a close, we have begun finishing up a Candy Still Life in the spirit of Halloween. Artist’s have been working hard on this unit, and will soon move on to studying color and watercolor painting in the upcoming term.

Hello Monocacy families! This month’s newsletter will address the skill: Decoding. Decoding is applying learned letter-sound relationships correctly in order to “break the code” of the written language. In the OG+ curriculum, decoding is addressed with word lists and sentences that focus on the targeted sound. Some multi-sensory materials are used to provide extra support in this area, such as slinkies or scrunchies. These are used as tools to provide students the visual of stretching out sounds until they blend into each other to create an entire word. Current class progress: Period 2 is working on Lesson 34, Period 3 is working on Lesson 12, and Period 6 is working on Lesson 47.

All students have been continuing to work really hard to complete daily lessons. I appreciate their effort and positive attitude:) Period 1 is currently on lesson 31, which includes learning to code, read, and spell 2 syllable words containing 2 consonants (rabbit, muffin, coffin, tractor, grammar). Period 2 is currently on lesson 68, which includes learning to code, read, and spell 2 syllable words with the sound of long i (iris, bridal, Irish, item, spider, trifle). Period 3 is on lesson 96,, which continues the review of the half-long vowels, in addition to learning to code, read, and spell, words containing the vowel team “oa” (boat, foamy, roam, throat, goal). Period 7 is currently on lesson 77, which includes learning how to code, read, and spell 2 syllable words containing the combination “or” (doctor, donor, captor, tractor), and the combination “ar” (dollar, hangar, pillar, grammar, buzzard). Please make sure to have your student click on their profile picture in Schoology to show you how many badges they have earned in LF. All students have earned 20 or more badges:) As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

All students have completed their first Interim Assessment which assesses the skills they have worked through in the workbook section of the class. All students have also completed their first writing task from information they have been reading in class. Students continue to need to read an independent Read 180 book and complete a quiz on comprehension--at least one book and quiz is necessary for each interim period. Additionally, students should be working to complete at least 1 segment each interim in the Read 180 or CODE app.

6th Grade is reading narrative nonfiction and their first interview text. Students will work on summarizing text, key idea and making inferences through their workbook texts.

7th Grade is continuing to read Dystopian literature and will work on making inferences, text structure and analyzing genre through their workbook texts.

8th Grade is continuing to read about contagious diseases and will read and work on analyzing plot, making inferences, using different text features to provide meaning in the text and analyzing text structure through workbook texts.

Each week students have been making progress on ALEKS. Here is some additional information to help you and your student access the program from home. This helps students with skills they need to be successful in their Math class. Students are encouraged to continue the ALEKS path at home.

A great way to stay involved in what your student is learning in their math class is to ask them to teach you what they are learning. They can show you an example and show you how to work through the example. Is your student struggling to give you an example? Have them show you their course in Schoology and find an example already posted there. A fun twist to add to this is for you to try to complete an example and make a mistake. Having your student find the mistake helps them to think about common errors and pay attention as they are doing the work themselves.

We are so excited to partner with you in helping your child succeed with the i-Ready Reading Diagnostic and Personalized Pathway. This tool helps us understand exactly where they are on their reading journey, identifying both strengths and areas to grow. To support them at home, we’re sharing a link with free, downloadable resources designed to encourage and motivate your child as they build essential reading skills.

These resources include engaging activities, tips for setting up a positive study environment, and ideas to celebrate their reading progress! By using these at home, you’re adding extra support to help your child become a more confident, skilled reader. Thank you for being a part of this journey—together, we can make reading success a reality!

i-Ready Family Center Resources

All students will receive MCAP reports with their report cards on Friday, November 8th. Please review these reports to see how your child performed last Spring on the 2023/2024 MCAP state standardized test. Please contact Monocacy Middle with any questions you may have.

After reviewing student English Language Arts data from the beginning of the year, we determined that some students need additional reading support and will be placed into our Read 180 Course starting on Tuesday, October 29th. If your child needs to switch classes, you should have already received a phone call and email with details on 10/24/24.

With Term 1 coming to a close, special education case managers and service providers will be working on completing progress reporting on IEP goals for the Term. Here are some important things to know:

• The progress report will be sent home to you in your preferred form (the same way you receive meeting notes - email, mail, or with student)

• Progress reports will be completed and sent home by November 8 (same day as report cards)

• If your student has a transition plan, progress on transition activities will be completed as well.

If you have questions about progress reporting, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your student’s case manager, or to sarah.lafferty@fcps.org

Many Multilingual Learners receive accommodations to help them successfully participate in class and complete their work. A document listing your child’s accommodations was sent home in late-September. If you haven’t returned it yet, please review this document, sign it, and ask your child to return it to their teacher. If you have any questions about your child’s accommodations, please let us know.

Students who are actively identified as Multilingual learners have access to an after school tutoring service offered by the FCPS Multilingual Education Program. If your student would like to request a tutor, please have them ask their ML case manager, ME program teacher, or complete this form: tinyurl.com/FreeMLTutoring

Please call the ME Program office at 240-586-7753 if you have any questions!