Middle School News – November 2022
This month we finished our first trimester. Our dens met for their second den activity to make Christmas placemats for a local assisted living facility. Chapels this month have been about our identity in Christ. We are new creations and aren’t who everyone else says we are.
Fifth grade Bible class, students have been learning about the uniqueness of the Christian worldview. This month, they explored the three main monotheistic religions practiced around the world and compared beliefs about God, creation, and people. Each unit has a key verse. This unit’s was Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Sixth graders wrapped up their unit on the Biblical view of people. They have explored how the Bible helps us to answer two BIG questions: “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?”. Students learned that one reason they are here is to serve others. This month, they presented service projects. For this assignment, the sixth graders looked at Jesus’ example of servanthood and brainstormed how they could serve their community. Their presentations were all so creative! For seventh grade this month was all about examining the major components of the Christian worldview. They created diagrams to illustrate the three-step progression that describes the big picture of the Bible (creation, fall, and redemption). Some students created 3-D models while others made digital illustrations. As they move on to a unit about the fundamentals of theology, they will continue to use these diagrams in the weeks to come. The eighth grade class explored the basics of law. Their guiding question is “what is the ultimate source for the rules that govern life?” In this unit, students were challenged to consider how God has designed laws that not only run the universe but also provide the moral framework for human behavior and social interaction. Their key verses are Romans 2:14 and Acts 17:31.
In fifth grade, students just finished reading Esperanza Rising! It was an exciting book where they discussed human rights in relation to the characters and events happening in the book. They also discussed the theme woven throughout the book “No matter what hard time you may experience in life, you have the power to overcome.” They wrapped up their unit by creating a class book filled with verses that fill them with hope and reminders that we all possess the power of the cross. Sixth grade has been busy reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief together. They worked on comparing and contrasting a movie clip with a chapter in the novel. Students finished their comparison by writing a four paragraph essay focusing on the similarities and differences between the two presentations. Next up for them is studying mythological characters to use in a rewrite of a chapter from the book. Seventh grade finished reading A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. They ended the unit writing an informative five paragraph essay about the way Salva Dut survived a war, homelessness, famine, lack of water, and diverse environment on the way to Ethiopia as a boy. Salva’s story has inspired the class to set up “Snacks for Sudan”, a snack shop to sell treats at middle school lunch Monday-Thursday. The goal of this snack shop is to raise money to dig wells in Sudan through Salva’s organization. Students were also thrilled to learn about Salva’s shared faith in God and how Salva credits God for saving him. Eighth grade finished reading Johnny Tremain this month. Like sixth grade, they also compared and contrasted the 1957 movie of the same title. Students produced a project about the cast of characters, apprenticeships, colonial Boston, and the issues that led to the Sons of Liberty’s part in the beginning of the American Revolution. They wrapped up the trimester by writing a reflective essay on the themes presented in the novel.
A few math classes had some cardboard animal friends come to visit! Each year fifth grade makes volume animals out of cardboard and sets up a zoo to display their hard work. It was so fun to go through and see their creations this year. Since displaying their animals, student have been working on their fractions as quotients and fraction multiplication unit. This month sixth grade had their animals from last year reappear so they could practice finding surface area. They also worked on ratios using Kool-Aid tastings. They found out that equivalent ratios taste the same, the only difference is how much of the mixture they make. Seventh grade completed their unit on positive and negative rational numbers, as well as graphing on the coordinate plane. They were able to use ordered pairs to create cool pictures of different cartoon characters. It was great fun! Seventh grade students are now beginning their unit on statistics and probability. They have learned what makes a question a “statistical question” and how to display results of statistical questions using dot plots and frequency tables. Students will continue this study by introducing box plots and the measures of central tendency. Remember those surveys from the Deerfield Fair? They are coming back and students will be using their surveys to practice their skills! In pre-algebra, students just completed their study of percentages. As a culminating project they created a store of their own with discounts on each item. Students had a shopping day where they were given a budget and they had to purchase items, calculate the discounts, calculate sales tax, and try to stay as close to the budget as possible. Next up for them is operations with rational numbers. Algebra students just completed their unit on linear equations. They were able to create linear equations, graph them, and analyze what the equations and graphs mean in context. They were also able to compare when linear equation situations were equal to one another by graphing them and by using the method of substitution. Next on their agenda is functions, what a function is, what independent and dependent variables are, and how they are displayed on a graph.
Way to hustle to the end and still come back strong after Thanksgiving break, middle school! We can’t wait to see you crush trimester two like you did trimester one.
