Friday, December 20, 2019

Friday, December 13, 2019

Newsletter

Our 6/7/8 Grade Girls took 4th place at their tournament last weekend!


Dear Parents,

 I hope all of you are having a wonderful Advent Season as we prepare to celebrate Christmas.  We’ve had several practices this week for our Christmas program, “The Christmas Gift”.  The students are doing a nice job and I’m so excited for Sunday night. There are quite of few students in our class with speaking parts, so it would be great if you would make sure your student practices his or her lines and is ready to go for the program  (I’m sure many of you have already been doing that.)
Lunch Menu Changes
The lunch menus for Wednesday and Friday will be switched next week.  This means students who signed up for grilled cheese for Friday, will have that on Wednesday.  If they were planning on bringing lunch on Friday, they need to bring a lunch on Wednesday.  We will have pizza on Friday. Since we are having our class Christmas dinner on Friday, (see note below)  I will have Mrs. Gorrow cancel the pizza lunches for the 7th/8th graders for that day.  
Christmas Program Details
·         The students should be at school by 6:00 p.m.Sunday evening. 
·          They should report to our classroom.   (Band students need to be at school earlier.)  
·         The students should wear nice clothes.  No jeans, please.
Bowling Party and Christmas Caroling
The All School Bowling Party and Christmas caroling isTuesday,  December 17. Mrs. Gorrow sent out a Google Docs for you to sign up for driving if you are able to do so.  We will have our Bowling party from 9:00 to 11:00 and then come back to school for lunch. Around 12:45,  the 5th through 8th graders will leave to go Christmas caroling at The Parkway.  
Classroom Christmas Party - Friday, December 20 -  9:00 to 12:30
We will have the 7th and 8th grade classroom Christmas party next Friday.  The students have drawn names for Secret Santas. They should bring a small gift each day next week.  These should be inexpensive.  Gifts such as: candy, cookies, pens/pencils, note pads,  or even just a note saying have a good day. On Friday, we will exchange a bigger gift, and then reveal who everyone’s Secret Santa’s were.  I have stressed to the students to only spend about $10 for this gift.  They’ve also chosen to have a white elephant gift exchange, but this is optional.  The students who bring a white elephant gift will play the gift stealing game.
Around 11:00, we will have a ham dinner. The students have signed up to bring food, drinks, or  tableware. I told the students to check with their parents before they sign up to bring a dish or snack.  If your son or daughter has signed up to bring a dish or snack, and something comes up and you are unable to make the dish, no big deal.  We will have plenty of food!
The students are really excited about their party.  It should be a great way to celebrate Christmas together as a class.
Important Dates Coming Up:
·         Sunday, December 15 - 6:30 - Timothy Christmas Program  in the school gym. Students should arrive at 6:00.
·         Tuesday, December 17 - All School Bowling Party at Lunar Bowl - 9:00 to 11:00. Christmas Caroling at The Parkway at 1:00. 
·         Friday, December 20 - 1:00 Dismissal - Christmas break begins!.

Here’s what’s happening in our classroom:
·         7th / 8th Grade Religion -   We are finishing up the unit - “God’s People Under the Kings”. We will have the unit test on Thursday.     Memory for next week:  Tuesday - No memory;          Friday - Books of the Old Testament - (1st half)
·         7th Grade Math - We took a test over fraction operations today.  Next week we will work on adding and subtracting positive and negative fractions. 
·         Algebra - We are finishing up our linear equation unit and will have the chapter test next Wednesday. 
·         7th/8th Grade Science - We finishing up our chapter over heredity and genetics.  Today we reviewed and Monday we will have the chapter test .  
News from Mrs. Otte’s classroom:
This week, we will finish reading The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  We have been watching the movie while we read the book to visualize and understand what we have been reading.  We are working on indirect objects and predicate nominatives today. Next week, there will be a Spelling Unit (17) but the final test will be on Thursday, instead of Friday.
In Geography, we took a test today over Aztecs, Inca, Maya, and Toltec tribes.  Next Wednesday will be a test over Latin America including a map test for the Caribbean Islands (just the major ones).  
In Art, we have been creating Christmas ornaments.  We also drew and painted beautiful Nativity angels.

We are working on our hour of code this week playing CodeCombat.  Students have access to it at home.

Reminder:  Book Talks are due January 10 - 250 pages

Have a great week-end!
Mrs. Barnett
5th/6th grade art!



Friday, December 6, 2019

Newsletter


Friday, December 6, 2019
Dear Parents,
The Christmas Season is here!  Our room looks so festive! The students had a fun time decorating,  The students are working really hard preparing for the Christmas program, A Christmas Gift.  Please invite family and friends. It should be a wonderful celebration of Christmas and celebrating Jesus’ birth.
Date Change for Bowling Party and Christmas Caroling
Our all School Bowling Party and Christmas caroling has been moved to Tuesday,  December 17.  We will have our Bowling party from 9:00 to 11:00;  then we will come back to school for lunch. In the afternoon, the 5th through 8th graders will go Christmas caroling at The Parkway.  This is such a fun day of celebrating Christmas with our school and then caroling to spread the wonderful message of Jesus’ birth to the elderly.  We will need drivers for that day, so let me know if you can help out. You can drive in the morning, afternoon, or both.
Important Dates Coming Up:
·         Sunday, December 15 - 6:30 - Timothy Christmas Program  in the school gym.
·         Tuesday, December 17 - All School Bowling Party at Lunar Bowl in the morning, Caroling in the afternoon. 
·         Friday, December 20 - 1:00 Dismissal - Christmas break begins!.
Here’s what’s happening in our classroom:
·         7th / 8th Grade Religion -   We are in a unit entitled - God’s People Under the Kings.    Memory for next week:  Tuesday - 1 Chronicles 16: 25-26; Friday - Psalm 43:3 & Romans 3:23-24.
·         7th Grade Math - We are working on addition and subtraction of fractions.  
·         Algebra -  We are graphing equations using slope and intercept.
·         7th/8th Grade Science - We are studying heredity and genetics.  This week we found the probability of traits occurring using Punnett squares.

News from Mrs. Otte’s class:
Hope you had an excellent Thanksgiving and got your fill of delicious food.  We are blessed!
In English this week, we reviewed direct objects as the who or what of the verb.  We are completing a writing choice board for the week. We started learning about Charles Dickens's England and how hard life was back then with diseases, child labor and debtor's prison.  We started reading a Christmas Carol.
There will be a Geography map test over all the countries in South America on Wednesday.  We have been studying the Maya, Inca, Toltec and Aztec populations in Geography - what makes them special and how they were defeated.  There will be a quiz over those 4 populations next week Friday.
In Art, we started creating an angel picture with the nativity story drawn in her dress.  This project will take us a few weeks.
We are continuing spreadsheets in computer.  This week we learned how the computer can calculate the mean, median, mode and range.

Have a great week-end!
Mrs. Barnett