Friday, January 20th, 2017

7th Grade In 7th grade, we completed our Sacrament Unit.  The students turned in their Sacrament book as and took their test over the Sacraments. We began a new unit over the Parts of the Mass and the LIturgical Calendar. We have a wonderful opportunity to have a Seminarian come visit the students. Hopefully, he will be coming to talk with them next week about priesthood, discernment and faith in general. Religion--Mrs. Timmins

Language Arts--Mrs. McFarland This week in language arts we joined the "Great Mail Race". Each 7th grader chose a school in the United States to write to about the state of Iowa. Hopefully, we will hear back from some of their schools in the next few months and learn about how people in other states live and learn every day.  Reading We have started our literature circles, and 7th grade is doing a great job assigning themselves reading and discussing with their group of 4-5 each day about their reading. Each group is reading either The Giver, Gathering Blue, or Messenger, all written by Lois Lowry. 7th grade has learned a lot about the author, as they just finished researching Lois Lowry and writing a biography about her. In the coming weeks, they will be working together to complete a final project about their book.

Social Studies--Mrs. Wallace In 7th grade, we have continued with our study of the political and physical geography of Europe.  The students took their first quiz over the European countries and, overall, did very well!  Their next quiz, over countries #24-46, will be on Wednesday, January 25th.  We will be reviewing each day in class leading up to the quiz.  Remind your students to use the provided Quizlet and review games posted within Google Classroom and they are very helpful with review!  In class, the 7th graders also made their salt-dough models of their selected European country.  They were very creative as they marked the major cities and landforms.   A BIG thank you as well to our 7th grade Junior Achievement volunteers this year; Shonda Smith, Walt Long, Bob Larson, and Brian Ringwalski! The students have really enjoyed their lessons so far related to the world economy.  They have been wonderful to have with us each week!

Science--Mrs. Mistry  The 7th graders are finishing up their weather unit, focusing this week on weather prediction and patterns.  Our recent ice storm providing some interesting subject matter for our class this week!  We have been learning about different types of fronts, storms such as tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms.and snowstorms.  Next Tuesday the students will have an open note test on Chapter 3, Weather Patterns.   Following the completion of the weather unit, we will have a mini-unit on Electricity and Magnetism.  This unit will last about a week.  Each day the students will complete a lab activity focusing on Electricity and Magnetism.  They will not be using a textbook for this unit.  I will be providing them with materials each day in class.  They will have a test over these concepts at the end of the unit.. Our final area of study will be Human Body Systems.  Thanks to assistance from Home and School we will again be using the Pearson Realize online materials.  We will be studying all of the human body systems in detail.  This is a really fun unit for the students as they are learning about themselves!  The students are doing a great job of participating in class and show a lot of enthusiasm for learning about science.

Math--Ms. Cline  Students in 7A have been working on their scale drawing projects. They are turning out to look great! Although some claim to not be "artists," their math and measurement abilities helped them create wonderful, proportional works of art! They will be taking the test over chapter 4 on Tuesday, January 24th. Students in 7B and 7C have been solving percent problems with proportions and equations. Most students have a strategy preference, but I challenged them to become comfortable in using both ways to solve these problems. We will continue using these strategies to solve application problems, where students will now get to use their choice.

8th Grade

Important 8th grade dates:

Friday, May 5th: St. Francis Dance
Saturday,May 20th: 8th grade dance at St. Theresa's
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.

Dates TBA Soon: 8th grade service day (May) & 8th grade auction breakfast

Religion--Mrs. Timmins In 8th grade, we finished up our Four Marks of the Church Unit. It was a very long and detailed unit and I am so proud of the students. We took the Unit test and overall, they did a fantastic job. We are beginning a new unit: The History of the Church. This is also a very long and detailed unit. We will be breaking this one down into chapters and taking shorter quizzes over each chapter. We have a wonderful opportunity to have a Seminarian come visit the students. Hopefully, he will be coming to talk with them next week about priesthood, discernment and faith in general.

Language Arts--Mrs. Callaghan Hello All!!! The 8th Grade has officially chosen their class motto that I have posted above. I am in the process of having posters made to hang in or rooms so they can see it for the rest of the year. As far as how classes are going, here is the breakdown: Reading: We have almost completed the book MERGERS and we will wrap it up with a project, debate and test. It will be interesting to see whether the students lean toward a merged society as being good or bad. Have them explain to you what the merger is and I am sure it will lead to an interesting conversation! Language Arts: In the last couple of weeks we have covered ellipsis and dashes, summarized and evaluated 10 Supreme Court Cases All Teens Should Know and now they are beginning thesis statements for their research paper revolving around either a Constitutional Amendment or one of the court cases. They will have next week to work on them and the paper is tentatively due on January 23rd. Dates to remember: Mondays and Fridays: Vocabulary pre-quiz and quiz Catholic Schools Week = January 30th- February 3rd Monday 30th:Catholic Schools: Celebrating Our Community with Gratitude 8th Grade students wear clothing 8th representing Camp Dodge/Military. Tuesday 31st= Catholic Schools: Celebrating Our Students with Gratitude 8th Grade will go bowling. Wednesday 1st= Catholic Schools: Celebrating Our Nation with Gratitude Dress Up for Jesus!! K-8 Thursday 2nd= ​Catholic Schools: Celebrating Vocations with Gratitude Hats off to Vocations Friday 3rd= ​Catholic Schools: Celebrating Faculty, Staff, and Volunteers with Gratitude Pajama Day & need to have a reading book with them all day for random read times.

Social Studies--Mrs. Wallace We have jumped into our study of the US Constitution in 8th grade!  First, we discussed the first governing document of the United States; the Articles of Confederation.  We will now jump ahead to a study related to the Supreme Court of the United States.  In preparation for a fieldtrip on February 6th for a tour of the Iowa Supreme Court.  We will also be conducting a mock Supreme Court trial in class related to the First Amendment right of freedom of speech.  Nine of the 8th grade students in each class will be the "justices" in each class while the remaining students will be the lawyers presenting their case to the justices.  I am really looking to this experience with the 8th graders! A BIG thank you as well to our 8th grade Junior Achievement volunteers this year; Amy Calvert, Terri McIlhon, and Jen Brauch. The students have really enjoyed their lessons so far related to the financial planning  They have been wonderful to have with us each week!

Science--Mrs. Mistry he 8th Graders are finishing up their study of animals.  This last unit focuses on Animal Behavior and Reproduction.  We were also able to complete our last dissection lab, which was starfish. The students have done a fantastic job in their dissection labs!   This week the students have learned about animal intelligence, characteristics of intelligence and behaviors of various species of animals.  We are just beginning this final chapter. Our next area of study will be Chemistry.  We will again be using Pearson Realize (our online science program), thanks to a grant from Home and School which allowed us to purchase an additional unit).  We will be studying Chemistry and other physical science concepts for most of the final trimester.  This is the unit that former students have often said is especially helpful in their preparation for high school. The students will participate in several labs and hopefully develop a strong background in chemistry

Math--Ms. Cline  Students in 8A have been learning exponent rules and working with numbers in scientific notation. They will be taking their first quiz of the chapter on Tuesday, January 24th. Students in 8B and 8C have been reviewing inequalities and are beginning to solve compound inequalities, absolute value equations, and absolute value inequalities. As these are new and different concepts, they are finding it helpful to create visual representations of their solutions with number lines and checking their solutions to make sure they make sense.

Friday, January 6th

Religion--Mrs. Timmins Happy New Year! I am very excited to see the students next week. This week and next week we are finishing up our unit on the Sacraments. The students have been working very hard creating their Sacrament Books. We will finish our last sacrament (Marriage) on Monday and the entire book will be due Wednesday. We will be taking our unit test over all of the sacraments on Thursday. We will use Wednesday as our study day to prepare for the test.

Language Arts--Mrs. McFarland Welcome back! To start off the new year, we are writing raps to "wrap" up 2016. 7th grade is really enjoying looking back on the news and fads from the year and putting into rap form! Watch the inspiration for their project here: Reading We will be starting literature circles next week. Students were assigned groups and have chosen one of the following books to read: The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger (all by Lois Lowry). They will be in charge of planning their assignments and projects throughout the next month and will read and discuss in their small groups each day. I am excited to share three of my favorite books with your children!

Social Studies--Mrs. Wallace Welcome back!  This month, the 7th grade students will be studying the political and physical geography of Europe.  They will have a quiz over European countries #1-23 on Wednesday, January 18th and then another quiz over countries #24-46 on Wednesday, January 25th.  We will also be doing a salt dough map project over a country within Europe throughout January. I am sending a separate email with the salt dough recipe.  The students will need to bring in a bag or two of salt dough on Friday, January 13th.  I will remind them in class throughout the week as well.  We will be building 3D maps of a European nation over the next week.

Science--Mrs. Mistry The 7th Graders are working on a mini unit on Weather.  They currently are using a red book, called Weather and Climate.  We will not be using the Pearson Realize curriculum for this unit.  They will have a test on Chapter 2, which we started before Christmas on Tuesday, Jan. 10.  We are currently learning about humidity and relative humidity, cloud formation and types of precipitation.  The students completed a lab on relative humidity, making and using psychrometers to measure the relative humidity in the classroom.

Math--Ms. Cline  Students in sections 7B and 7C finished their scale drawing projects before Christmas break. They turned out great! For the project, they chose a cartoon to draw at a larger scale. The students had to figure out what scale would work with their cartoon and the paper they were given. Then, they had to accurately grid their papers to create their final products. Be looking for their scored rubrics coming home soon. I will be keeping their projects to display for the next few weeks. Students in these two sections are finishing up Chapter 4 and will take the test on Friday, January 6.  Students in section 7A have taken their first quiz of Chapter 4--they did GREAT. We have been working on using a calculator as a tool, while making sure the calculators aren't taking place of our brains--students are showing their work and making sure the answers on the calculators make sense. We have begun using our knowledge of proportions to solve problems involving similar figures.

8th Grade

Important 8th grade dates:

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 Happy New Year!  This week and part of next week will will be finishing up our unit on The Four Marks of the Church. We will be taking our test on Wednesday with a review day on Monday. Tuesday we will be participating in Adoration.

Language Arts--Mrs. Callaghan                   The kids had a blast at the Drake game!                          Reading: We are almost halfway through the book Mergers. Many new vocabulary words have been introduced. We will be discussing challenging questions on what a perfect society would look like, why would or wouldn’t that be good and whose responsibility is it to change the world.    Also, the first 600 minutes for the trimester were due on January 4th and most have turned them in. It is recorded on Powerschool.      Door decorating was a hit before Christmas break! Language Arts: A large poetry unit has been covered and completed. The kids learned about various styles and then created their own.  A poetry final ended the unit, as well as watching the movie Dead Poets Society. Grades for the tests can be found out on powerschool. Dates to remember: Mondays and Fridays: Vocabulary pre-quiz and quiz January 16, 2017 NO SCHOOL Finally, I would like to say thank you for the kind words and generosity given at Christmas. I am utterly amazed at what an amazing community SFA has and I feel truly blessed to work here. I look forward to the rest of this year and am afraid it will go way too fast. Happy New Year to you all!! May it be filled with love and blessings.  Mrs. Callaghan

Social Studies--Mrs. Wallace The 8th graders have started their large unit over the Constitution and American government.  We will be first studying all of the issues that the founders debated as they drafted the Constitution; large vs. small states, representation, and slavery.  We then will be holding a mock Constitutional Convention in class as well this month. As Chapter 8 is a larger chapter, the students will have several quizzes before an exam.  In addition, we will be taking some time in January to study the Supreme Court as we will be traveling to the Iowa Supreme Court in February.  I will make sure to communicate to the students when their first quiz over Chapter 8 will be during the week of January 16th.

Science--Mrs. Mistry The 8th Graders are continuing their study of animals, currently learning about circulatory, digestive, respiratory and excretory systems of various animals.  The students will have a test on Chapter 6, Obtaining Energy, on Thursday, January 12.  On Friday, the students will have their final dissection lab and will learning about the body systems and internal/external structures of starfish.  This is usually one of the students' favorite labs of the year and we are looking forward to it!

Math--Ms. Cline  Sections 8B and 8C took their Mid-Year Exam the two days before Christmas break. This gave them a good idea of what it will be like to take a final exam in high school. Students will be bringing home a slip of paper with their score to have signed. I was impressed with how hard everyone worked to prepare for the exam! Next up is solving inequalities. Section 8A has been solving systems of equations using three methods: graphing, substitution, and elimination. With lots of steps in solving these, it is easy to make mistakes, so we have been concentrating on checking our answers EACH TIME. We are planning to take the test over solving systems on Wednesday, January 11.