There is a lot going on in Middle School!

First of all, 8th-grade Leadership has been working hard. They have completed the collection of holiday gifts from the FWM community to be delivered to a local Newtown family needing assistance this holiday season. Next, they have been busy with their business, The Fraser WoodShop, creating the 2024 Holiday Ornament and beautiful charcuterie boards (limited number) to sell before next week’s holiday concert! All proceeds will go towards Ben’s Lighthouse.

Next week, we look forward to the following:

• Door Decorating Contest! We will decorate by grade level with whatever winter-themed decorations are brought in!
• PAJAMA DAY: Thursday, 12/19, is PJ day for Middle School!!!
• Holiday Party: Thursday, after an all-school concert rehearsal, we will have our winter party.
• Secret Snowflake: Students should bring in a gift ($15 limit) for their assigned secret snowflake.
• HOLIDAY CONCERT: 10 am start. The attire is dressier than normal (no dirty sneakers, sweats, ripped clothing, etc.) STUDENTS CAN LEAVE WITH THEIR FAMILIES AFTER THE SHOW.
  

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Humanities

Grade 6 Humanities classes focused on finishing their second class novel, Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper. This week, they worked on small group discussions in which they prepared their own questions. They read through and identified the climax of the novel and worked on writing a novel reaction at the end of the week. The students will watch the newly released movie version of the book next week in Humanities! Also, earlier this week, one of Mrs. Lamb’s favorite poets, Nikki Giovanni, passed away. In her memory, students read “Knoxville, Tennessee” and discussed the notion of nostalgia. Then, they composed their own pieces about a place they find nostalgic.

The 7th grade Humanities class is two assignments away from finishing their third class novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry. In addition to their nightly reading, the class began each day with a book discussion before transitioning to the much-anticipated Community Project. This is a favorite among 7th-year students and involves partnering with another classmate to create their own version of Utopia. The groups must consider and write about multiple factors before presenting their imagined community to their peers. Government structure, the environment, essential resources, and economics are only a few of the components of their Community they must consider. It will be exciting to see how these turn out!

8th-grade Humanities classes this week focused on drafting an essay and the play. The Reimagining History essay has students develop a singular change in the early days of the colonies and write about the possible effects of this change that would be immediately seen and even felt today. Students researched and composed their drafts with individual writing goals this week. Next, they came up with the big idea for the 2025 Middle School Play! They aren’t ready to share with their classmates yet, but all will be revealed soon.

Math

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Prior to the break, the school came together for a celebration led by the Middle School. The program included the presentation of the elements, class gratitudes, singing “Light a Candle for Peace,” cultural blessings, and sharing bread. It was a wonderful way to send us off for the long holiday weekend.

This week brought the first glimpse of snow for most of us. Middle School students enjoyed being outdoors, especially throwing snowballs. Students are welcome to bring in snow gear whenever we have snow so they can enjoy being outside. We suggest all students have a spare set of gloves left in their lockers for the spur-of-the-moment snowball fight.

Here’s what went on in classes this week:

6th-grade Humanities continued working on their class novel, Out of My Mind. Students had smaller group discussions, which they led themselves, and participated in large group discussions surrounding the assigned chapters. They will continue in the book next week. The 6th grade also worked on writing this week. The class completed editing practice, continued conferences with Mrs. Lamb, and began their longer December writing assignment based on a few prompt choices. One of the choices, to write a persuasive letter to Mrs. Lamb with a plan for the Middle School trip, was a favorite choice. The students are still working on them and will read aloud once completed.

The 7th-grade Humanities class is devouring the book The Giver by Lois Lowry and, with it, discussing the notion of Utopia. This fictional dystopian novel sparked a conversation about what is not perfect, what might be perfect, and what would need to be perfect in order to make Earth a utopian place to live. Students are almost finished drafting pieces that speak to this idea. Next, students will imagine their own Utopia in an interesting group project called The Community Project.

The 8th-grade Humanities class completed their first novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here, by Eric Gansworth. In the end, the themes of friendship, loyalty, belonging, and growing up stood out among students. They led discussions this week using questions they developed. Additionally, the 8th grade workshopped their thesis statements for their “Reimagining History” essay. They will spend next week researching and drafting.

Separately, the 8th grade worked in Leadership to create more of the Fraser Woods annual ornaments that they will sell at the pop-up shop before the winter concert. They also tried to finalize the design for their latest item, a charcuterie board.

Math

Pre-Transition: This week, the class dove right into Chapter 4, “Using Subtraction.” Students learned all about three different models for subtraction: the takeaway model, the slide model, and the comparison model. They also used fact triangles to find related facts for addition and subtraction. The class closed out the week by taking the Chapter 4 quiz.

In addition to classes this week, Middle School participated in Fire Prevention Day and prepared for next week’s Thanksgiving Gathering. First, students listened to a presentation by Bethel Assistant Fire Chief Bill McAllister and a couple of volunteers from the Botsford Fire Department. Then, they were shown how machinery like the jaws of life and the technology involved in the fire uniforms can help save lives. Finally, students jumped on the truck!

In preparation for the Thanksgiving Gathering, the Middle School baked breads. It sure smelled delicious around the building! Last week, students chose recipes that they wanted to bake and prepared them in Advisory this week. Students baked lemon bread, lemon raspberry bread, Japanese milk bread, chocolate chip banana bread, and gluten-free apple bread. The 8th grade is also prepared to host next week’s school-wide Thanksgiving Gathering.

We hope you have a wonderful break full of people that bring you joy. We are grateful for you.

Humanities

6th grade Humanities continued reading Out of My Mind this week. The class is working towards annotating their nightly readings in order to lead their own discussions. This week, students were asked to develop discussion questions instead of nightly comprehension questions. Then, they sat in two groups using their discussion questions to guide the chapter reviews. The groups utilized a circle format to help with listening and responding thoughtfully. This proved to be quite successful. Mrs. Lamb enjoyed sitting in and listening as the class led themselves. Additionally, a final writing piece was introduced and mostly drafted for the descriptive writing unit. Second-round writing conferences began as well.

7th grade Humanities classes worked on writing this week. The class reviewed mechanical editing marks and practiced using an Everyday Edit. They finished drafting their literary analysis essay, which proves a statement from the novel to be true using specific examples and direct quotations from the novel as support. Some students completed initial self-editing checklists, and the class will hopefully begin peer edits next week. The class has been working on current events, which will be presented on Monday.

The 8th grade has been busy between Leadership and Humanities classes. In Leadership, they collected and organized all of the FWM community’s donations for the Thanksgiving Food Drive. This week, students also completed the 2024 Fraser Woods Ornament and Limited Edition Ornament designs that will be sold at the pop-up Fraser WoodShop booth before the winter concert. Students created a prototype then got to work quickly, cutting 30 ornaments on the Glow Forge.

In Humanities class, the 8th grade is in the last third of their class novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here. They began their initial brainstorming for their history essay, Reimagining History. This essay requires both research and making a cause-and-effect claim. They must make a change to something in the course of the history of Native Americans after European contact and imagine a few subsequent effects of that change. Would anything be different today?

Math

Pre-Transition: This week, students wrapped up their learning of Chapter 3. They began the week by learning how to add simple fractions and mixed numbers and reviewing how to apply the properties of angle addition. The class closed out the week by playing a review game of Jeopardy and taking the Chapter 3 test. Students will dive into Chapter 4 when they return from Thanksgiving break.

It finally reached brisk seasonal temperatures this week. We ate inside the later part of the week but still enjoyed both outdoor recess times daily.

In addition to our weekly schedule, we were able to attend a celebration of Diwali. Parents, students, and Mrs. Dutt led the presentation with a brief history, a book, a traditional dance, and delicious Indian food.

Here is what went on in classes this week:

Humanities

6th-grade Humanities continued to work on their descriptive writing unit and began a new class novel. They are finishing writing conferences for their leaf writing and composing their “Shark Attack!” piece. Their new class novel, Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, has been an exciting read so far. It is written from the perspective of the protagonist, Melody, who lives with cerebral palsy and cannot speak. The classes focus on empathy and compassion in both their work and discussions. Students have also been identifying elements of descriptive writing in Draper’s novel, which is plentiful in the pages.

7th-grade Humanities classes completed the novel A Long Walk to Water this week. With it, the class watched a TedTalk given by the novel’s protagonist, Salva Dut. He talks about Water for South Sudan, the nonprofit he began in the US to build well systems for villages in South Sudan. The class also looked at the personal experiences of the Lost Boys from Sudan coming to the United States. This gave them a unique perspective of what it is like to come to the United States and experience a culture that is completely different from the one they know.

8th grade continues to read their class novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here, and relate what they read about life and challenges on a reservation to the experiences of Native Americans in the 1800s. This week, they read about the legislation passed, treaties signed, and court cases that were ignored concerning the relocation and movement of tribal nations, particularly the Cherokee. Next week, they will study the Flight of the Nez Perce in 1877.

Math

Pre-Transition: This was an exciting week for pre-transition! Students continued their learning in Chapter 3. They learned how to name and measure angles by using protractors, applied the properties of angle addition, and explored how to add fractions and mixed numbers. The class will wrap up Chapter 3 next week with their unit test on Friday, November 22nd.

What a beautiful week to be outside! We are enjoying the gifts of warm lunches outside as long as we can.

The middle school teachers are proud of the students and how they navigated a unique start to the week in our country, as many of the adults in their lives went to the polls. On Wednesday, the middle school began the day with a circle to acknowledge the spectrum of feelings in the room and to also validate that it’s OK to not feel a certain way regarding the election. Using a talking piece, the middle school gave profound ideas about how they can support each other even when they do not agree. This part of the circle gave the adults in the room such warmth and affirmed that they are truly models for our community.

Here is what went on in some of the MS classes this week:

Humanities

On Monday and Tuesday, grades 6 through 8 learned about the election process in the United States as well as the overall requirements and responsibilities of the three branches of US government. Overall, there were two items they learned that were surprising: first, the importance of the elected congress members in the legislative branch to write and pass laws; and secondly, the electoral college and its function in a presidential election.

6th-grade Humanities classes spent the rest of the week writing. They completed their leaf writing draft and are in the process of completing one-on-one writing conferences with Mrs. Lamb about the piece. Next, they began a descriptive writing piece called “Shark Attack!” This piece charges the students with composing the narration of a video clip as if it will be used in a nature documentary. They need to use specific word choice, figurative language, and imagery to convey the five senses. With Ms. Hunsucker, 6th grade Humanities students embarked on a new project: Walk a Mile in My Shoes. Each student draws one of their shoes from observation and incorporates little-known facts about themselves into their designs. This gives peers the opportunity to build empathy and connection with each other while exploring their own identities.

7th-grade Humanities classes spent the remainder of the week discussing their class novel, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. Using annotations as well as guided discussion questions, students are learning about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Additionally, they wrote and shared informal writing in response to prompts surrounding the election.

8th-grade Humanities classes finished the week with a discussion surrounding their class novel If I Ever Get Out of Here. Additionally, the 8th grade finished illustrations and began assembling their picture book about the Powhatan Confederacy before and after contact.

Science

This week, 6th-grade students have worked to master their graphing skills using the SULTAN method scale: units, labels, titles, accuracy, and neatness. Their progress in these last few weeks has been impressive, and with it, our Introduction to Science unit is coming to a close. Next week, the class will begin working on our first content-specific unit!

Over the last week, our Middle School Community has come together in several ways: Middle School Movie Night, Halloween Festivities, and to celebrate our time with Ms. Sutherland.

First, MS celebrated Halloween with two events. Halloween festivities commenced with Middle School Movie Night. This was planned and hosted by the 8th Grade. It was a fun night of food, raffles, Hocus Pocus, and togetherness. Next, students gathered for the annual FWM Halloween Parade. Lower El, Upper El, and Middle School showed off their incredible costumes for their younger peers. Everyone was impressed by the costumes and masks that were created in MakerSpace! The students surprised everyone when they led a Halloween Flash Mob that they had been practicing in secret in Performing Arts. Thank you to the MS families for sending in yummy treats for everyone to enjoy.

Finally, the MS community came together to bid farewell to Ms. Sutherland. They expressed the multitude of ways they are going to miss her, including her enthusiasm, mathy jokes, and awesome teaching. We are going to miss her!

Here is what went on in classes:

Humanities 

Sixth-grade Humanities finished their first class novel, Becoming Naomi Leon! They completed final discussions and wrote a novel reaction. Additionally, they dove deeper into the Oaxacan Christmas Tradition of Noche De Rabanos. This annual radish-carving festival provided a great cultural setting for the turning point of the plot. Students also worked with Ms. Sara on illustrations surrounding the story. Next, in continuation of their descriptive writing unit, students drafted a piece that they wrote from the perspective of a falling leaf. Next in the writing process are editing and revision. In preparation for this, students made a resource for themselves with editing marks and practiced their skills.

The seventh-grade Humanities class began their study of Sub-Saharan Africa. They completed a political map of the countries in this region of the African continent and are watching a video about the physical and cultural geography of Sudan, which is the setting for their new class novel, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. This novel follows the lost boys who fled Sudan in the late 1980s, walking over 1,000 miles to safety. They will continue to learn about Sub-Saharan Africa as well as more closely the countries of Sudan and South Sudan. Finally, students presented their second round of current events.

Eighth-grade Humanities is in the midst of reading their class novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here, by Eric Gansworth. This novel follows Lewis, a middle school boy who decides to go to school off of the reservation where he lives in the 1970s. The prevailing themes of identity and friendship follow the protagonist throughout the plot. Additionally, students presented their second round of current events, which sparked some great discussion.

Science

Another great week in Middle School! It was a Community Service week, and many of our students were also able to assist the toddlers in their annual fall festivities, including a wagon ride around the school and pumpkin picking in the zen garden. Below are some announcements and reminders before the weekly update:

• End-of-day on Monday, 10/21: Last chance to sign up for student-led conferences on 10/25 with subject area teachers. You can sign up on the MyFWM.org Dashboard! 
• Friday, 10/25: Middle School Halloween Movie night 6-8:30 hosted by 8th grade Leadership. Don’t forget to respond to the Evite!* 8th grade (and siblings of 8th graders) should plan to arrive at 5 pm for set up!*
• Thursday, 10/31: Halloween! Come dressed in your costume! *Keep it not too scary for our younger peers.*

Humanities

Grade 6 Humanities students had a fun week. They are continuing to read their class novel, Becoming Naomi Leon, having lively discussions. It’s always fun when students have such reactions to the plot of a novel! As the 6th grade was told, this is the sign of a great author. They also continued their study of MesoAmerica with Ms. Sara, and they made tortillas from scratch. Finally, students are working on a descriptive writing unit titled Show! Don’t Tell! They have gone over the topics of word choice, figurative language, and imagery, reading and writing shorter examples. Next, they will identify these concepts in literature and begin writing longer pieces to demonstrate them.

In Grade 7 Humanities, the class wrapped up their unit on China this week. They explored the fall of the Qing Dynasty and drafted their final writing piece for the unit. This piece involves both the novel, Ties That Bind, Ties That Break, along with history learned over the last month specific to 19th and early 20th century China. Students were asked to write a letter from Ailin to her father regarding an unpopular cultural choice she made and how it affected her. An addition to the class has been starting a few classes with the Timeguessr app. This shows five pictures representing a moment in history from 1900 to the present day. Students have to guess where the event took place (without knowing what it is) and what year. By analyzing clues and using historical knowledge, this class is top-notch with these difficult pictures, guessing many precisely. Try it out! Finally, students are starting to think about their next current events presentations on 10/30.

8th grade students continue to work on their Powhatan Confederacy Project, which is an illustrated history book about the Powhatans, specifically looking at their lives before and after European contact. They have completed the research writing and their individual page layouts and are now editing/revising each other’s work. Also, the class began the novel If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth. This book takes place in 1975-76 on the Tuscarora reservation and surrounding areas. It surrounds a Tuscarora teen named Lewis and his journey beginning at a school off the reservation.

Science

6th grade:

In science this week, 6th grade worked to revise and redo their original music labs.  After conducting their first experiment last week, investigating if music helped to improve test scores, the class reflected on problems encountered while conducting the experiments.  They were able to generate a hefty list of problems observed that could lead to potential sources of error in the testing.  As good science students, 6th graders decided to reflect on their own experiments, make any necessary changes, and redo the testing.  The class ended the week by beginning their first formal lab write-up to document their work.

The Middle School students had a great week. Here are some Save-the-Dates:

• Friday, 10/18: Middle School pictures RESCHEDULED
• Friday, 10/25,  6-8:30 pm @ FWM: MS Gathering: Classic Halloween Movie Night (Look for the upcoming Evite)
• Thursday, 10/31: MS Halloween Party in School (Costumes welcome! Look out for more info next week)

Here is what went on this week:

Humanities

In 6th grade Humanities, students continue to read their class novel Becoming Naomi Leon and are getting used to regular reading assignments and expectations from Mrs. Lamb. Class book discussions are lively and showcase the students’ ability to relate to the text and make parallels. While students learned the parts of plot last week, they focused on conflict in literature this week. Using their class novel, they identified the different types of conflict that exist in the plot. With Ms. Sara, students worked on creating soap carvings just as the novel’s protagonist, Naomi, does.

7th-grade Humanities classes finished their first class novel, Tie That Bind, Ties That Break. With that, they have been studying 19th century China and the events that contributed to the fall of the Qing dynasty. They learned about The Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Boxer Rebellion. Students also used their annotation skills when reading articles surrounding each of these. Finally, the 7th graders completed a written discussion about cultural perspective.

The 8th-grade Humanities class worked on their Powhatan Confederacy picture book project that they had designed and planned. They completed all of the research surrounding the content of the book and are currently laying it out and drafting their pages. They also lead two tours and had discussions with vistors from Abbott Technical School and Northfield Mount Hermon School.

Science