Middle School Newsletter

Middle School Updates
Week ending February 21, 2020

5th Grade
Religion: This week we are wrapping up our exploration into the Sacrament of the Eucharist. As Lent begins on Wednesday, we will begin praying the Stations of the Cross with our buddies from 1st and 2nd grade. Also, we will be partnering with a classmate during the season of Lent as we read Rediscover the Saints and work through the Best Lent Ever journal.
History: Students continue to work on their Law Day vocabulary. Students continue to learn about amazing individuals who took risks, took a stand, and made a difference. This week, we learned about Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.
Language Arts: We finished our third draft of our biographical essay. We also participated in the 24th Annual National Student Poetry Contest through The America Library of Poetry. Daily we practice various writing conventions as we work on improving our grammar skills. We continue to work in our vocabulary books as we expand our lexicons. We are continuing our practice of penmanship with our cursive review.
Science: We are learning about the types of water on Earth and looking to solve the problem that we are finding about the cleanliness of freshwater.
Math: We continuing to utilize our place value knowledge as we work with the decimal operations of multiplication and division. Some of us are working on addition and subtraction with fractions and mixed numbers. All of these skills are being applied to word problems to help us see their application in life.

6th Grade
Religion: In religion this week, the 6th graders finished up their discussion on the story of Cain and Abel. They also completed their own sacred art over one of Sunday’s readings. Next week, we will begin looking at the story of Noah.
History: This week, we wrapped up our Black History Month projects and presented posters. We also spent time studying for the test that the 6th graders had on Friday.
Language Arts: In language arts this week, the 6th graders began to edit their “Christ is Alive!” essays. Next week, we will finish editing and complete a final draft.
Science: We are beginning our study of the human body systems, looking at how the body’s that God gave us are infinitely better than anything we could design ourselves. This week focuses on the circulatory system.
Math: We have been practicing for the National Math League Contest that will take place this Tuesday. For the contest, the students will be answering questions for 30-35 problems within 30 minutes. Their contest sheets are then sent in to be scored. We are exploring polygons and how to find the area of specific ones. A few of us are investigating ratios and rates. Some of use are working with integers and absolute value. The rest of us are finding statistical measurements dealing mean, median, and mode. Students should be keeping their computation skills sharp by practicing nightly.

7th Grade
Religion: We are continuing to study Salvation History, reviewing how the Bible has presented us with God’s revelation of his love to humanity and to each student. We are working through the prophets this week with students researching and presenting each topic.
History: In social studies this week, the 7th graders finished their discussion of Imperialism. They also began to review for their social studies test which will be on Monday. After our test, we will begin looking more in depth into Africa.
Language Arts: We have had a shortened week but still managed to work in Vocabulary, started a compare/contrast paper between the book and movie of The Cay.
Science: We are beginning our study of the human body systems, looking at how the body’s that God gave us are infinitely better than anything we could design ourselves. This week focuses on the circulatory system.
Math: We have been practicing for the National Math League Contest that will take place this Tuesday. For the contest, the students will be answering questions for 30-35 problems within 30 minutes. Their contest sheets are then sent in to be scored. We are utilizing our skills from solving equations to solve inequalities. Some of us are working with angles and their relationships. A few of us are exploring slope and its connection to linear equations and direct variation. The rest of us are going to explore triangles and the Pythagorean Theorem. Students should be keeping their computation skills sharp by practicing nightly.

8th Grade
Religion: We are continuing to study Salvation History, reviewing how the Bible has presented us with God’s revelation of his love to humanity and to each student. We are working through the Prophets this week with students researching and presenting each topic.
Language Arts/History: We continue to read and experience the life of Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. What amazing life lessons and themes are brought out in the book. Students still completed Vocabulary for the week. In history, we too learned about amazing individuals that left their mark on the world in which we live.
Science: Students are going through the rock cycle to determine what is occuring in order to change a rock from one type to another type .
Math: We have been practicing for the National Math League Contest that will take place this Tuesday. For the contest, the students will be answering questions for 30-35 problems within 30 minutes. Their contest sheets are then sent in to be scored. We are continuing to graph linear equations and work with slope, as well as, explore the relationship between proportions and slope. Some of us are exploring inequalities and utilizing our skills from solving equations to solve inequalities. Students should be keeping their computation skills sharp by practicing nightly.

Important Dates

February 25, 2020 PSAT Testing – 8th Grade, 8:30 – 12:00 pm

February 25, 2020 Regional Spelling Bee at Black River – Join the Corpus Christi Community as we cheer on Sheona and Yavin Fickel 7:00 pm

February 26, 2020 Ash Wednesday Mass at OLL 9:00 am

March 13, 2020 No School Faculty PD Day

March 13, 2020 Earn Parish Service Hours by assisting at the OLL Fish Fry and Stations of the Cross – see Mrs. Koster if interested.

March 20, 2020 Earn Parish Service Hours by assisting at the OLL Fish Fry and Stations of the Cross – see Mrs. Koster if interested.

March 25, 2020 5th – 8th Grade Lenten Retreat – Servant Leadership