Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016

7th and 8th Grade Newsletter! Religion--Mrs. Timmins It's hard to believe that the trimester has come to a close! The past two weeks we have been learning more about Apostles and parables. The students read many different parables and created one of their own. The used the message that Jesus was teaching but put it into an everyday story. They did a fantastic job and it was neat to see the creativity they used in their creations. We also finished the book, Tuesdays with Morrie. We will spend the next few days watching the movie. When we return from break the students will complete a short essay over Tuesdays with Morrie (their thoughts on the meaning of life...what is important to them.) We will be taking a quiz on Tuesday, November 29 over chapters 7 and 10. Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Language Arts--Ms. Hilton We've been doing a variety of writing in class. After finishing their mystery stories, 7th grade has been working on interviewing, researching, and writing about a topic of their choice. This informative writing assignment has also challenged them to organize their thoughts into an outline before drafting and editing their completed writing. Next, we are doing a short creative writing piece from the perspective of a turkey at Thanksgiving. I encouraging them to be as creative as possible with their ideas! Reading- Reading- With the end of the first trimester, we are done with logging reading minutes on bookmarks and are switching to something new! Your 7th grade reader received a BINGO card on Friday where they will be keeping track of their reading to earn BINGOs and rewards. Their new minimum requirement is to read at least 600 minutes each MONTH. Because November and December are shortened months for this trimester, we are combining them. Your child should read 600 minutes (or more) before Christmas break!

Social Studies--Mrs. Wallace The 7th graders finished up their study of the physical geography of Latin America.  We then examined the issues of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro and were able to take a virtual tour of the favelas through a web tour created by Google.  The 7th graders are now working through presentations, as city developers, on how they can solve some of the current issues of the favelas. We will then focus in on the various forms of government throughout the world.  The students will have a short quiz over the governments the week after Thanksgiving. For our final study of Latin America, we will finish with the discussion of the natural resources of the Amazon Rainforest and deforestization.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families!

Science--Mrs. Mistry The 7th graders have finished up with genetics and did a great job on their most recent test.Please remind your child to turn in test evidence on the day of the test if they wish to be considered for a retake. The students have made so much progress this trimester! It is really fun to see their success as they master science concepts. Our next area of study will be geologic time. We will be learning about Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution based on natural selection. This week we did an activity that demonstrated how natural selection works using (pretend) mice. The students also viewed video and photos of the animals that live in the Galapagos Islands. Planning our next field trip.... In the next couple of weeks we will be constructing a classroom size timeline showing examples of life forms in each era, learning about how fossils are formed and creating plaster fossil models.I am enjoying working with your children and wish you all a very blessed Thanksgiving holiday.

Math--Ms. Cline  Sections 7B and 7C have finished their study of solving inequalities and are now working on rates, ratios, and proportions. We will be building upon concepts learned in sixth grade to solve problems involving similar figures, maps, and scale models. Section 7A is beginning to solve inequalities and graph their solutions on a number line.

8th Grade

Important 8th grade dates:

Thursday, May 8th: 8th grade to Drake basketball game

Friday, May 5th: St. Francis Dance

Tuesday, May 30th: 8th grade graduation.  Class picture at 6:30 pm. Graduation Mass in Church at 7:00pm.  Reception following Mass in Parish Hall.

Religion--Mrs. Timmins The students have completed one trimester and I couldn't be more proud of them! They have done an amazing job so far and I know that they are only going to continue doing so. The past two weeks the students have been working hard learning the Nicene Creed. We are focusing on the four marks of the Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. We have worked on One and Holy...they just submitted a slide presentation over the Gifts of the Spirit (Holy) and are going to present when we return from break. We also finished up the book, Tuesdays with Morrie and are going to watch the movie the days before Thanksgiving break. We will be taking a test over the Marks of the Church in early December. Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Language Arts--Mrs. Callaghan Reading: Hello All! I can't believe the first trimester is done already. This year is going so fast! We have completed The Outsiders and have moved on to an amazing book called Mergers. My goal is to have this book wrapped up by Christmas time so we can come back and do a Readers Theater Unit. I am sure your kids will come home and tell you over the next month their thoughts on the books. It is filled with great questions revolving around equality, friendship, individuality and much, much more.                 Language Arts: We continue to do our DLR, weekly vocabulary and prefixes, suffixes and roots but our main focus has moved onto a Poetry Unit. So far we have watched the World Champion Poetry Slam winner present a few of his winning poems, compared music lyrics to the classic writer Robert Burns, and analyzed "Oh me! Oh life!" by Walt Whitman. My goal is to show that poetry does not fit in a box. It isn't perfect and can be done by anyone...anywhere! Dates to remember: Vocabulary Quizzes Friday. Prefix, Suffix, Roots are every other Wednesday. The next quiz will be December 7th. I am hoping to have t-shirts back the first week in December.

Social Studies--Mrs. Wallace The students are continuing to study the events leading up to the American Revolution.  This week, they started a crime scene investigation of the Boston Massacre in which they will have to decide if the British soldiers are guilty.  We will then finish up with the discussions of the Boston Tea Party and Lexington and Concord.  We will end up testing over Chapter 5 after we return from Thanksgiving.  Tentatively, I have Friday, December 2nd as our testing date for Chapter 2.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your families!

Science--Mrs. Mistry The 8th graders are continuing their study of animals. This week we will be focusing on invertebrates, especially marine invertebrates. We have been comparing and contrasting nervous systems and movement in various animals and then will move on to the circulatory and respiratory systems, beginning with invertebrates and ending with mammals. The students finished up their ecosystem unit and all of our goldfish have found homes. This was a fun and educational unit for the students. Thanks to all of you who are “hosting” the fish. This week, with just a couple of days of class, we will be doing some lab activities and an introduction to our dissection labs which will begin after Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and many blessings to you and your families!

Math--Ms. Cline   All eighth graders have begun studying linear functions. We have been finding the slope of a line and graphing lines using various strategies. We are applying this knowledge to real world situations, noticing that slope is really the rate of change and the y-intercept is the initial value of a function. I hope everyone has a relaxing Thanksgiving break!