Many students have used up their school supplies! Please assist your child with restocking their notebook paper and pencils. We are currently out of these supplies in our back up resources as well.

We could use more white board markers as well if you are able to make a donation. We appreciate it!

Keyboarding Skills & Expectations

The middle school team has started pushing the students in their typing speed and accuracy. We have observed slow typing speeds; therefore impacting the students in their ability to get their thoughts on paper smoothly. Often their thoughts are moving faster than their fingers. Even when typing text already written for them, students are showing slower speeds than we would like to see. We are enforcing home-row placement and weekly typing practice.

Each week students will be assigned a keyboarding assignment. The completion and effort on these assignments will begin appearing in their Writing & Research gradebook.

Our goal is to send the students to high school ready to type those 4-5 page essays without speed slowing down their thinking process. This does require the students to build muscle memory on the keys; the hen peck method some of them love will only go so far.

Students are encouraged to continue typing at home as well! The more practice the better. :)

Here's The Happenings:

Science:  The students worked hard this week in their understanding of temperature on a particle level.  We did a lab to test out different insulation techniques with hot water.  This lab will continue into next week.  We also spent a good amount of time researching a scientist named Lise Meitner.  Research skills are so important for students today; we worked on citing each source and filtering through the text to find pertinent and most useful information.

Homework Due 1/21: States of Matter Visual Assignment (Google Classroom)

• Regional science fair students should complete the alternate assignment- Science Fair Board Brainstorming (found on Google Classroom)

Math: Unit 4 (Chapter 1-7th GB)-Adding & Subtracting Rational Numbers

This class is catching onto our addition and subtraction rules so well! Next week we will finish up with our Subtracting rational numbers lesson, work on review and finish the week with our test on Friday! All corrections/missings for this chapter will be due Friday, Jan. 30th.

Homework: None :)

Social Studies: Students will be learning about The Industrial Revolution. We will be starting before the Industrial Revolution, then work on the first important inventions. Students will nominate their favorite inventions and create a slideshow.

English: Our class read The Iliad this week, focusing on “The Wrath of Achilles.” Students discussed how the actions of characters like Achilles and Agamemnon shape the events of the story and explored the motivations behind their choices.

Writing & Research: In Writing and Research, students will be spending the next few weeks strengthening their grammar skills. We’ll be focusing on sentence structure, punctuation, and using grammar to make their writing clearer and more effective. These skills will support all of their upcoming writing assignments across subjects.

STEM: Students are continuing to move through project stations from before break: Claymation, Sketchup, and UKit robots. Two new project stations have been added to the mix: Photoshop and Engino Bridges. No matter what project station your child is on, all students are applying problem solving and critical thinking skills.