With snowflakes on our brains, it is easy to tell that winter break is near! There has been a fun energy soaring through Middle School! Students decorated classrooms, went sledding at recess, practiced for the holiday concert, and holiday music can be heard from their laptops while working.

In Science, 6th years depicted phases of the moon, 7th years constructed models of elements, and 8th years continued their study of astronomy. In Math this week, 6th years started working with rational numbers, 7th years began exploring percentages, and 8th years worked with fractional equations. In Humanities, 6th years continued to study civilizations in Mesopotamia, 7th years looked at ancient African civilizations and worked on possessive nouns, and 8th years are working on writing peaceful proposals acting as members of Indigenous American tribal nations being forced to move from their native lands.

Finally, middle school students have been working to create Kindness Rocks. Elisa, an 8th year student, wrote about Kindness Rocks for a current event presentation and introduced the idea to the middle school. The idea is to create messages of inspiration or kindness on rocks and leave them for others to find and take with them. With the hope that kindness is contagious, others can create their own Kindness Rocks to leave for someone else to find. Once the snow melts a bit, keep your eyes open! Maybe a message on one of the rocks will connect with you.

Check out the Kindness Rocks Project here: http://thekindnessrocksproject.com/

 

It has been another exciting week for Middle School!

In Science, 6th years finished their unit on Rocks/Minerals by testing the effectiveness of minerals found in toothpaste. Their current unit is Earth, Moon, and Sun. 7th years are working on creating models representing atoms of their choice as part of their Elements and Periodic Table unit. Finally, 8th years are Studying Space, as their appropriately-titled unit suggests. This includes representing refracting and reflecting telescopes using 2 convex lenses of different focal lengths.

This week in Math, the 6th years wrapped up their integer operation unit. The 7th years wrapped up their unit on ratios, rates and proportions. Finally, the 8th years were working on algebraic expressions.

In Humanities this week, 6th years composed sensory poems after reading “Homemade Swimming Hole” by Michael Stolz. Their most recent vocabulary lesson involved the root word “sens”. They also studied the Sumerian people of Mesopotamia and continue reviewing the geography of the Middle East and North Africa. 7th years worked on Sub-Saharan Africa geography as well as their editing skills. Finally, 8th years have been reading about different tribal nations (like the Nez Perce) who had to flee their homes during the mid-late 1800’s. Also they have been reading about Native American reservations, policy, and how decisions made regarding Indigenous Americans in the past affect them now.

Electives wrapped up over the last week. Cooking Club ended with a delicious pizza showdown. To finish up Nature Club’s elective, students had the opportunity to dissect a squid. Students learned about the anatomical features of the squid while enjoying the physical aspects of the dissection itself. Finally, Fantasy Football had 4 of their teams make the playoffs. Woo hoo!

Middle School’s first trimester is wrapping up, and they continue to be hard at work. The teachers are proud of those who gave prayers and blessings in languages that represented their cultures during our Thanksgiving celebration.

In science, 6th and 8th years are concluding their unit on minerals and rock. Our next unit will be the “Universe”. 7th years finished their unit on states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) having identified both Charles’s and Boyle’s Law. In math this week, the 6th years started working on adding and subtracting integers. The 7th years continued exploring ratios, proportions, and similar figures, and the 8th years wrapped up their unit on quadratics. Humanities classes worked on poetry, reflected on the first trimester, practiced editing, and began grammar work to enhance their writing.

Last week, the 7th years concluded their trimester utopia projects and presentations that stemmed off their class novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry. The novel is about a community that tries its best to shield its members from pain, sadness, and harm. While the concept seems to be what we, as humans, ultimately strive for in our world, more and more is revealed that show the community in the novel is, in fact, dystopian.

When creating their utopian communities in groups, 7th years had to plan and discuss many factors including government or lack thereof, economy, sustenance, employment, healthcare, recreation, etc. Then, they composed a 5-10 page paper using the writing lessons from the trimester to explain and convince their class that what they have created is perfection. In Art Humanities classes, models of the communities were constructed and a flag and motto as well. Finally, 15-20 minute presentations were given to their classmates, highlighting the elements of their communities.

The pride from weeks worth of collaboration, compromise, and conscientious work was evident in the 7th year students’ faces. Well done!

 

It’s been another fun week in Middle School! Parent-Child Night was a blast, and we enjoyed having parent visitors in our classroom environments.

The 6th years wrapped up their unit on percents and are now working on a money unit. The 7th years are wrapping up a linear equation with one variable unit, and the 8th years are continuing to work with quadratic equations.

In Humanities, the 6th years began their unit on the Middle East and North Africa, learning the geography of the regions, 7th years are a day away from presenting their utopias, and 8th years continue to study the effects of colonization on Indigenous Americans throughout America’s timeline.

It’s been a busy week in Science! 8th years conducted experiments exploring the formation of crystals as part of their rock unit. Students created a salt solution in test tubes to determine how temperature affected the formation of crystals. Students each placed one test tube in a beaker of ice, room temperature, and boiling water. The longer it took for the solution to cool resulted in larger crystals (granite); the slower it took to cool resulted in minimal crystallization (pumice). 7th years created representations of Boyle’s and Charles’ Law (volume, pressure, temperature). 6th years presented the history/discovery of metals (iron, steel, bronze, copper) as a part of their unit on “Properties of Minerals”.

This week during electives, it was a particularly fun week. Fantasy Football reviewed statistics and proposed trades, Nature prepared for their upcoming dissection, and cooking participated in Cupcake Wars. Everyone had a chance to sample cupcakes, and there were even guest judges! The winning cupcake was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate chips and an Oreo-sprinkle buttercream frosting.

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, we are looking forward to a week of gratitude and reflection.

**It’s getting cold, and we are outside everyday for recess! When the weather is below 50 degrees, students need a warm, outer layer, and limbs covered!**

What a week! Book fair, Fall Family Festival, Fire Safety, and fabulous learning. The middle school students were sad to see this year’s book fair close down and there were students making purchases right up until closing. On Monday, students had a visit and presentation from the Botsford Fire Department that was informative and interesting.

In Math,  6th years continued working on percent word problems, 7th years worked on fractional equations, and 8th years on factoring quadratic equations. In Humanities, 6th years presented some fantastic current events that inspired thoughtful discussion, 7th years worked on presentations for their utopia projects, and 8th years used A Different Mirror to discuss the idea of a Master Narrative and what the effects of this idea are for different groups of people in the U.S.

While 6th yrs are discovering the density of minerals using a triple beam balance (mass) and graduated cylinder (volume) in Science, 7th and 8th year classes had exciting adventures with stop-motion animation. 7th years completed their stop motion project on states of matter using leftover Halloween candy, and 8th years completed their stop motion project on balancing equations, ionic and covalent bonding.  Check out their videos!