Lance Lightning Newsletter
Lance Lightning Newsletter April 2015 NJHS Induction Ceremony May 14th at 7:00 p.m. Lance Auditorium Lance PTO April 14th 6:30 p.m. in the Lance Library Science Emporium May 26th From the Principal’s Desk . . . I would like to thank you for your generous support during our annual March Madness Food Drive for the Shalom Center. The students donated over 3,350 pounds of food items that will be delivered to the Shalom Center. The students will conclude the food drive with the traditional Staff vs. Student Basketball Game and assembly. Summer school letters will be coming out very soon. Please watch for these in the mail. As the weather gets warmer, I would like to remind everyone of the KUSD dress code. We are reminding students who we see not in compliance with the dress code about what are expectations are. rd Lance Middle School students did very well on their 3 quarter grades. They should be proud of their achievements. We will continue to work with students that need extra help. If you see a concern with your child’s academic progress, please contact your child’s teacher. Enjoy the weather, Mr. Dahlk NO SCHOOL – April 3-12 Spring Break 8th Grade Awards Ceremony June 11th – Last day of school Time – 10:30am More information will follow. Watch for information from your 8th grader. Students who are failing will not be allowed to participate in the awards ceremony. ATTENTION 8th GRADE PARENTS Dear Eighth Grade Parents/Guardians: As a reminder, any 8th grade student who is failing will not be allowed to participate in any of the 8th grade end of the year activities, which includes the awards ceremony on the last day of school. The 8th grade Awards ceremony is scheduled for the last day of school, June 11th. The doors will open at 10:00am for parents. Only parents are invited due to space in the auditorium (no relatives or siblings). We apologize for this, but we simply do not have space. Thank you. Galileo House Science We are heading into the final stretch of the year and let’s finish strong! We just finished our unit in Astronomy on the various astronomers and their discoveries, rotation vs. revolution, and star classification and temperature. Now, we are moving into the life cycle of stars and galaxies. Your student within groups will also be creating a mobile to show how much they learned about the life cycle of the stars and the identifying features of each stage. After a few more weeks in Astronomy, we will be moving into Weather & Climate for the remainder of the year. Pre-algebra During math class, we will be beginning our unit on surface area and volume. This is a great unit to teach and learn! The instructional videos will continue through the year. There are two to three 12-minute videos per week for your child to watch and take notes, so that he/she is ready to practice the concepts in class. Please watch the videos with your child if needed. Some of them are entertaining and all of them are educational. Need a quiet space to work or have a question with your math, the math classroom is open before school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 7:45-8:30. During English, we will delve into the theme for Unit 4: The Power of Voice using various texts including Red Kayak and Golden Boy. In particular, we'll focus on determining claims, evidence, and point of view. Please encourage your child to read independently for at least a half an hour a day. Also, nightly practice is recorded in students' assignment notebooks, so that's the place to look for "homework" for each class. Thank you for your continuing support! Feel free to email any time with any questions, concerns, or celebrations! In social studies, we have been working on Ancient Greece. We will be finishing up Ch. 9, so you expect another end of the chapter test for the students before spring break. They have a study guide on Google that they are making with their groups that will be a great tool for them to use. We are going to do a project for Ancient Greece in the library starting this week. Around this time of year the students can start to get a little restless in the classroom. Please remind them to work hard and pay attention daily, so they can achieve at a high level. If they do miss time due to illness make sure that you remind them to check the assignment chart in the front of the classroom and pick up any necessary worksheets from our weekly assignments board. Make sure to check Infinite Campus on a regular basis, so that you know exactly where your son or daughter is at this point. We are also taking a field trip to Medieval Times in Schaumburg, IL on Wed. June 10th. The cost is $37, which includes a show, lunch, and bus trip. This is a great experience for the kids, and we hope that everyone is able to attend. We will also probably take a couple of chaperones, so if anyone would like to go please email me at [email protected]. Dream Team This month we started a unit on the solar system. Your child has been learning a lot about our moon, the sun and our surrounding planets. Other exciting topics we have covered this month are; the ocean, The Dawn Mission, clean water and March Madness. We are excited to announce that we will be having a student teacher 4th quarter. Ms. Mason will be starting in our classroom on March 30th. Thank you to everyone who donated food for the food drive! Phy. Ed. As 3rd quarter comes to an end, we have finished our 3 units which are weight training, health, and kickball. We are looking forward to 4th quarter. We will try and get outside for a few of our units so have your son/daughter prepared for any type of weather. STEM The students of the FabLab have been busy getting ready for a Robotics Competition at Gateway Technical College April 30th 9am2pm. The event is open to the public and you’re welcome to come see our students compete against other middle and high school teams from around the area. More info here: http://cws.gtc.edu/programs/engtech/gtc_su mobots.htm The students will also be at the Willy Wonka play selling purple “Wonka Bars” and other trinkets. Shakespeare House English: This quarter students explored the theme, Perception vs. Reality. Blocks one and three read the book, The Outsiders . Students read, wrote, and discussed how social classes are affected by Perceptions. Blocks two and four read Parallel Journeys, a book that is told by both a man who was a member of the Nazi Youth party and a Jewish woman who was a Holocaust surviver. These narrators shared their perceptions of World War II while gaining a deeper understanding of the realities of this war. Social Studies: At the end of the third quarter the students completed a unit about Ancient Greece. We had fun in the library creating videos comparing the ancient city-states of Athens and Sparta. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, we will begin our unit on Ancient Rome. Please remember to check My Big Campus for updates. The field trip to Medieval Times will be on Wednesday, June 10th. Permission slips and money are due on or before May 1st. Your child has access to an extra copy of the permission slip on My Big Campus in the announcement section of social studies class. Math: This quarter, students had an opportunity to complete a real life problem for their assessment with creating a business, selling items, marking them up and purchasing property. Many students were able to connect this activity to what their parents go through when trying to get the best deal on a purchase or buying a home! We will begin forth quarter with circles, surface area and volume. Please remember to check Infinite Campus regularly for missing work or low scores as everything can be redone for full credit. Science: Students have finished learning about constellations and early astronomers and now we are learning about stars and galaxies. After spring break we will finish up astronomy with the sun and the solar system and it's on to weather and climate. April Attendance Incentives! We have two attendance incentives for the month of April as described below. Students can earn both or just one of the incentives depending on their attendance. Badger Exam incentives During Badger testing days, students who come to school on time, stay all day, and have NO behavioral concerns during testing will be eligible for a free Kenosha Kingfish baseball game ticket and a coupon for a free scoop of Culver’s ice cream. Parents will have the opportunity to purchase discounted tickets to the Kingfish game, too. In addition, we will have an in-school raffle for students to win a pair of Dr. Dre Beats headphones, gift cards and other fabulous prizes. April attendance incentive Do you accept the April Attendance Challenge? During the month of April our attendance office will be supporting all Lance students who will be in attendance for 96% or better. This means the student can only miss 1 day to be eligible in the month of April. Raffle prizes may include Big Star, Olive Garden, Baker Street, McDonald’s, Culver’s, Wendy’s, water bottles, backpacks and other prizes. Integrity House Science (From the Board of Mrs. Petersen) We have finished our book, The Restless Earth. It was a lot of fun to learn about fossils, rocks/minerals, earthquakes, and volcanoes. The students did a terrific job on making geological time scales. You will be able to see them hanging in the hallway during conferences. We are moving on to cells. Our future biology students are finding this very interesting. I know some of them will eventually give me free medical care in my old age. They are able to tell you the difference prokaryote and eukaryote cells. They are labeling the cell membrane, cell wall, cytoplasm, nucleus, and organelles of cells! Our little geniuses!!!! Social Studies (From the Desk of Mrs. Owens) I was overall very pleased with the South American travel poster project. The boards were beautiful. I can’t wait until you see them at student led parent teacher conferences. We have started our “travels through Africa”. Students are very excited about this project. We are completing a journal as we travel through Africa. I have been hearing from my students that some of our parents and students are world travelers. If you have traveled in Africa or through Asia, I would love to talk to you to see if you are willing to come into our classes to do a presentation. Real life events are a wonderful way to learn about a country. Current Event Packet Students have received their fourth quarter current events packet. It was given to each student on March 18th. This packet is due May 6th. This is a test grade. Students are allowed to turn them in early. Please note that this packet only has one of each article due. However, it is due at the half way point of the quarter, not at the end of the quarter. Study Skills We will focus on one or two study skills each month. We just finished learning how to write notecards to use as a tool to present during a presentation. We just finished taking notes and documenting our sources from the Internet. We used song when we studied Mexico. We have focused on organizing our notes with the use of our textbooks. We have also focused on review of vocabulary words one day prior to the test, hi-lighting and analyzing pre and post assessments. Discussions on tricks to studying a pretest to prepare for the post-test also occurred. Communication Don’t forget to check Infinite Campus on a regular basis. This is my daily communication to you. A great resource to check is My Big Campus. You can find assignment worksheets, the current event packet, and notes under resources in my group. A list of assignments with homework can be found on my calendar in My Big Campus. Remember there are many opportunities for your child to succeed in school. Students can fix assignments through the day of the test for each unit; students may retake tests if they speak to me about it. I am available every morning from 7:45 am -8:30 am for additional help. I do have outdoor duty on Tuesdays and need to be outside by 8:05. Talk to your child about additional opportunities to do well in social studies. English (From the Pen of Mrs. Schrandt) In English the students have started researching their natural disasters and are doing a great job! They will be working on their survival preparedness plans and innovations. We will also be focusing on Greek root words this month. We Integrity House teachers are running a little low on our tissue box supplies, and we would be very appreciative of any donations. Math (From the Pencil of Ms. Thomson) In April we will finish our unit on ratios, rates, and percentages. Following that, we will begin a unit on integers and the coordinate plane. We have used the coordinate plane in previous lessons, but now we will have the added power of working with negative values. Please continue to monitor your student’s classwork through Infinite Campus. What we learn one day is often used the very next day! The learning is easier when the required pieces are in place, and that requires the student has completed their work before taking on a new lesson. Thank you for the opportunity of working with your children. Excellence House English with Mrs. Brown: Happy April!! In the coming month, we are going to finish our unit on Informational text. The entire sixth grade will finish working on research skills, information text reading, informative writing, and multimedia presentations. Student groups will present their final projects on natural disaster innovations. Then, we will move on to argumentative writing and reading. Finishing up our last unit with some great debating! We will also continue to work on vocabulary with a focus on Greek and Latin roots. Your child can study for the units with our Quizlet class online. Students can search for the Mrs. Brown Excellence Class to access our unit words. This website allows students to play games and practice using the current and past word lists. Every student should be reading 15 minutes five days a week and logging what they read. Please remember to check those Reading Journals to ensure that your child is getting the minimum required reading done each night. Be looking for Scholastic Book Club order forms each month. These are a great way to put fantastic reading materials in the hands of your students for very reasonable prices. Every time you order, our classroom library will grow! I look forward to another great month of learning! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me via email at [email protected]. Math with Mrs. Ford: Spring is finally upon us, and we are ready to jump into fourth quarter. In the next week our math class will begin to wrap up our ratio unit and move onto integers. We have picked up the pace quite a bit from earlier quarters, and I am so proud of the hard work being put in by Excellence students. Please remind your child, in an effort to stay current on their assignments, any written work not completed in class can be taken home. Please also encourage some time to be spent working on Odyssey math from home. Most students do not get enough computer time in class as our schedule only allows about twenty minutes two times per week. As the Odyssey learning path is directly linked to a student’s MAP score, getting through at least one quiz per week, will help your student get to our target RIT score for the end of sixth grade of 232. Thank you for continuing to encourage your child to be checking My Big Campus and Infinite Campus daily, especially when they miss a day of school. All assignments, homework help, and math grades are posted daily by 5:00 p.m. Finally, please be reminded that if your child needs to come in for any extra help, I am here Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:00 a.m. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel to contact via email at [email protected]. Social Studies with Mrs. Vitkus: This month in Social Studies we finished up our exploration of South America and the Western Hemisphere. Students completed travel posters for the different countries in the region using the ‘Five Themes of Geography’. We began studying Africa, which is where we will continue in April and to start 4th Quarter. Students will have three vocabulary quizzes (one for each section) and a test for this unit. We will also work on a small in-class project following Spring Break. By the end of April we should just be starting our study of Asia, beginning in the southwest region. Enjoy the time off for Spring Break! Please keep up to date with your student’s progress using My Big Campus and Infinite Campus. The daily work is posted on the MBC calendar, and grades are updated daily. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you might have. My email is [email protected]. Science with Mrs. Casey Just a reminder for students and parents. If students retake or take a Quia because they were absent, they need to write their score on a piece of paper and turn it in to me. Also, students can retake Quia quizzes (not tests) for a higher score. In science we are learning about cells. Students are learning about cell organelles and their functions. Students will be expected to know all of the cell organelles and their functions at the end of the chapter. We have been looking at different types of cells on the microscopes and will be looking at more cell slides this month. Right now we are starting a CSI Investigation of a home invasion. All of the evidence left behind deals with identifying what kind of cells were found at the scene of the crime! After this chapter, we will begin explaining the process of diffusion and osmosis. We will have labs to help in our understanding of these new and exciting science vocabulary, ideas and concepts! Then we are onto the Cell Cycle. How exciting it will be for students to learn how mitosis works in animal and plants cells. Keep asking your child what we are doing in science because there is always something new happening! :) Honesty House Math (Mrs. Beth) During April in math, kids will be working on percents, converting measurements and then moving on to integers, fractions and decimals on the number line and using the coordinate plane. If you have a minute, please replenish your child's supplies. Pencils, red pens, spirals, folders, ear buds, etc… Thank you for continuing to check the calendar on My Big Campus and also for checking the assignment notebook and Infinite Campus on a regular basis. We do appreciate this. I hope you all have a wonderful spring break! Social Studies (Mrs. Becker) We are "hopping an airplane". Just finished learning about South America, everyone did an amazing travel poster about a chosen country, and we learned about the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. Now we are heading to the dark continent of Africa. Students will be journaling about their "travels" through west and central Africa. We will continue with current events through fourth quarter. Science (Mrs. Hamdan) We are done with the book “Inside the Restless Earth” and started learning about cells. Students enjoyed learning about earthquakes and the different types of volcanoes. They have done a great job working on their own volcano structure!!! We are now learning about what is a cell, what is it made of and the difference between cells. The students are asking a lot of questions about the topic and they are encouraged to look up more information at home to share in class. Please remind the students to bring in their own glue and pair of scissors and keep in their pencil pouch as they always use them in class. Thank you. English (Mrs. Biernat) April will be buzzing and blooming with new learning opportunities as well as polishing up previous skills. As April begins, we continue our NASA “Natural Disaster” project and put the final touches on team multimedia presentations. This will encompass research skills, informational writing, effective speaking and listening, paraphrasing, citing sources, using text evidence and working in groups to problem-solve. Other areas we are focusing on in April are Greek and Latin root words, context clues, a wide variety of other vocabulary activities, and improving writing skills. We revisit poetry and literary devices as well, and students will work on techniques for improving presentation, including body language, projecting their voices and using more sophisticated language while speaking and writing. Our class read aloud is Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. The students are really enjoying it so far! Please make sure your child is checking MyBigCampus and Infinite Campus regularly and that he/she is utilizing quizlet.com and vocabulary.com for expanding, reviewing, and learning new, wonderful, rich vocabulary! Contact me anytime at [email protected]. Happy spring! SCIENCE EMPORIUM The annual Lance Middle School Science Emporium will take place in the gymnasium on Wednesday, May 26th. In the morning, many elementary school students will visit the fair to take part in the activities and enjoy the exhibits from all three grade levels. Einstein House Science We have almost reached spring break and when we return fourth Quarter is already here! As our spring weather rolls in we will beginning our weather and climate textbook. This textbook will provide us opportunities to conduct labs outside. Students will also be creating their own weather newscast using Imovie. This unit is perfect for our last quarter of science to end our school year. Students will be asked to bring in a kite to fly for one of our upcoming labs. A kite from the dollar store will be perfect. I will send a note home closer to the exact lab date, but if you see one while out shopping you may want to grab it when you see it. Have a fun and safe spring break. Enjoy the time off of school. Math We are finishing up our 3rd Unit on Fractions, Decimals, and Percents. Students are excited about starting the next unit on Geometry. The unit will begin with lines and angles. Students are in need of pencils, paper, a notebook, a 4-function calculator. At the end of March there will be student lead conferences. Please check the school calendar and add these important dates to your personal calendar. Please keep in touch and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Mrs. Gosse English Apparently, we are officially in the season of spring, but someone forgot to tell the weather! Everyone is really looking forward to Spring Break right now as we wind down the third quarter; I only hope that we get great weather to enjoy during that time! In the fourth quarter, we will be focusing on “The Power of Voice”--when and how do you use your voice to make a difference? When have others in real life and literature stood up for something they believed in? These ideas will guide us as we reflect on different points of view and what we each feel is worth standing up for. We will continue to tackle our seventh grade, or in honors, eighth grade, standards, and focus on independence to prepare for eighth grade. In order to help with this, please send pencils with your child as that seems to be the one supply that the majority are lacking. Thank you! Mrs. Gaudio Social Studies During the second half of third quarter, the students will learn about Persia’s attempts to to take over Greece. They will also read about two great Greek cities--Athens and Sparta, and how they worked together to protect Greece from this invader. Finally, the students will discover how, even though another invader conquered Greece, Greek influence continued to spread. Without a doubt, students will understand the politics of the time in order to understand the Greek world and its society and culture. Also, just a reminder that Medieval Times permission slips are due no later than May 1st, 2015. Ms. Pendleton Revolution House Science, Benser: We are just finishing up our Unit on Waves, Light and Sound. During this unit, we have performed many experiments that describe various behaviors of light, such as refraction, reflection and absorption. We are now starting on the next unit that will center on basic concepts related to Chemistry and matter. The Science Emporium is scheduled for May 26th. Every student in Grade 8 at Lance is expected to complete a project. Information on this assignment will be distributed shortly. These projects will be displayed in the school gym that day for elementary students to view. Parents are invited to come see the projects that same evening from 5 to 6 pm. Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions: [email protected] English, Miller: We'll be finishing our unit on dystopian fiction during the first week of fourth quarter. Students' marking books are due on Thursday, April 2. We have been working on this project in third quarter, but it will be going on the fourth quarter report card; if it is missing, it is likely that your student will be failing for the majority of fourth quarter. After spring break, we will come back and begin working on a reading and writing unit involving books with courageous characters. Blocks 1 and 3 will be reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Blocks 2 and 4 will be reading You Don't Know Me by David Klass. Blocks 2 and 4 ONLY: I strongly suggest that students purchase the novel. It is available at RK News in Kenosha. They offer a student discount of 20%. Social Studies, Davidson: Welcome to the 4th quarter! It is difficult to believe that it is already April. In Social Studies, we will be studying the differences between the regions of the United States and how those differences contributed to the beginning of the Civil War. Please make sure that your child has all materials needed to be successful! Enjoy Spring Break! Math, Kalowski: Blocks 1 & 3 Algebra: We are currently working on polynomials. We have added, subtracted, and multiplied them. We are using the box, FOIL, horizontal, and vertical methods. Last week we completed a puzzle by multiplying 2 binomials and matching the answer to the correct trinomial. We will be starting factoring and then moving on to Quadratics. This is an exciting Unit and the students will find it challenging! Please discuss your expectations with your child for assessments and assignments. Students have been allowed to use notes and a calculator on every formative assessment (quizzes) and all assessments have retakes available. Reminder: There is an online textbook at www.bigideasmath.com and students can always go to www.khanacademy.org for videos on various topics. After school math help continues T and Th from 4 - 5! Blocks 2 & 4 Pre-Algebra: We are currently finishing our Unit on Functions. We’ve been working on Linear Functions and Representations of Functions. This includes tables, graphs of various types, word problems, and equations. We‘ve incorporated figures and various patterns as well. As we move into Nonlinear Functions we’ll be discussing square Roots, Cube Roots, and the Pythagorean Theorem. After that we head into Volume and Surface Area of cylinders, cones, and spheres. Please discuss your expectations with your child for assessments and assignments. Students have been allowed to use notes and a calculator on every formative assessment (quizzes) and all assessments have retakes available. Reminder: There is an online textbook at www.bigideasmath.com and students can always go to www.khanacademy.org for videos on various topics. After school math help continues T and Th from 4 - 5! Independence House th 8 GRADE MATH NEWS: Mrs. Keckler Please do not forget to use the online textbook as a resource, bigideasmath.com. The online resource is full of videos, interactive practice, and examples. Please encourage your children to continue to reflect on mistakes they are making. Please note: I am available for help at lunch, CORE, or before school at 8:05 (except Tuesday for bus duty). Please let me know if students need to arrive earlier, I can make myself available before 8:05 if I know in advance. Thank you for those that attended conferences. Any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. [email protected]. 8th GRADE ENGLISH NEWS: Mrs. Valeri Is it possible? The end of middle school is truly approaching, and high school is just around the corner. As we enter 4th quarter, students will be using utopian and dystopian fiction to practice their summarizing skills, as well as identifying and analyzing literary devices. Students will also be conducting some research on the author of our novels, and making claims based on the author’s background in connection with various debatable topics. Honors English classes: A request was sent home for the purchase of a novel in order to prepare students for the summer reading requirement for high school. We will be teaching students how to mark their novels for literary devices during the second half of 4th quarter. There is the option of using a novel from my own set, however, the student will not be able to mark up the pages. Honors English Book Purchase Notification for 4th Quarter Who: All 8th grade students in Honors English classes What: Please purchase the novel, You Don’t Know Me, by David Klass When: By April 13, 2015 Why: Students will be marking in the book for literary devices in preparation for high school English classes/summer reading requirements How much/Where: RK News in Kenosha on 75th Street (next to the old Hobby Lobby) $9.99 per book plus a 20% discount for students (just tell them you are a Lance student) 8th GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES NEWS: Mr. Legler Hello from U.S. History! We just finished our 7th unit of study, the Jacksonian Era and Territorial Expansion. Our upcoming 8th unit of study, Expanding West and the Industrial Revolution in America will include key figures and ideas such as: Trails to the West, mountain men, The California Gold Rush, interchangeable parts, Eli Whitney, the beginnings of trade unions, Gibbons vs. Ogden, and much more. All assignments will continue to be posted on My Big Campus and student progress can be monitored using Infinite Campus. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] with any questions or concerns. Our textbook is found online at: http://my.hrw.com Username: lancems Password: sskusd 8th GRADE SCIENCE NEWS: Mrs. Flox We have just finished our unit on Energy, and are now beginning our final unit on Chemistry. This unit will include many hands-on experiments and activities which will include almost daily assignments. Please check to see that your student still has the necessary materials to finish out the school year- a spiral notebook, paper, pens, loose notebook paper and a working calculator. During the first week in April before the Spring Break, your student will receive the information on the upcoming Science Emporium project. Every student is required to complete this project, and these will be displayed on May 26th in the school gymnasium for viewing. We will be having elementary students visiting that day. Families are encouraged to come between 5:00 and 6:00 pm that same day to view our work. On June 4th, all 8th Grade houses will be attending a field trip to the Discovery Museum in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The permission slip and fee must be returned to their Science teacher by the end of next week. Please contact your student’s Science teacher for additional information. Enjoy our Spring Break! [email protected] Band First of all, congratulations to all of the band students who participated in Solo and Ensemble at Indian Trail on March 7th. You all did a wonderful job and I was so proud of you! Also, congratulations to the 8th grade Jazz Band on their amazing performance at the WSMA Jazz Competition on March 10th. The Band earned a “1” rating, which is the highest rating in their class. Way to go, band members! All Jazz band and Jazz club members will be performing for the Student/Staff Basketball game on Thursday, April 2nd, during the school day. Students need to make sure they have their instruments and music that day in order to perform. Jazz Band Performance: The 8th Grade Jazz Band will be performing at Tremper’s Jazz Concert on Wednesday, April 29th. The concert starts at 7:30. A detailed letter will be sent home shortly with all the information on this performance. Please mark your calendars for this great evening of Jazz! Attention all 8th grade Band members and parents: On Thursday, April 30th, the 8th grade band will be traveling by bus to Tremper High School to perform for the annual WSMA Large Group Competition. Please note that this is a change in date (from Saturday, April 25th as originally noted in the band handbook in September). This event allows middle and high school ensembles to perform for certified judges who give the ensemble a rating as well as gives feedback and critiques on their performance. The Lance 8th grade band is scheduled to perform at 9:50am so we will load the buses at Lance at 9:00am. We will return to Lance by 11:30. A permission slip and letter will be sent home in early April and needs to be returned to Mrs. Kline by April 17th. Upcoming Band dates: Wednesday, 4/29: 7:30 Jazz Concert at Tremper HS (8th Grade Jazz band only) Thursday, 4/30: (morning, during school) WSMA Large Group Competition at Tremper (8th Grade Band only) Monday, 5/4: 6:00 Orientation Night for incoming 6th graders; the 6th grade band will be performing music as families enter the auditorium – more information to follow… May 15-17: Ohio Trip (8th grade Band only) – there will be an informational meeting about this trip in early May. Watch for more information… Wednesday, 6/3: 7:00 Lance Spring Concert (for all Bands and Jazz bands) Please make sure to take your instruments home and practice during the Spring Break! Art In the art department we are staying very busy as we start a new quarter. All three-grade levels are working on various projects. The sixth grade will start their quarter off with a color wheel sketchbook cover as they review various elements and principles of art and design. The 7th grade class just finished a Pop Art unit where where we were studying the work of Andy Warhol. The 8th grade 3D classes in Mrs. Krueger’s room just finished building clay pots. The pots will be fired in the kiln and ready to paint or glaze when we return from Spring Recess. Spanish As we begin the fourth and final quarter, new Spanish students (6th Grade) should note that they will need to bring a pen or pencil to every class and should also have their assignment notebook every day. We should be starting on the computer language program, Tell Me More, by the second week of class. Students will be assigned a headset for use on this program. It is checked out to them like a library book and needs to be returned at the end of the quarter (or semester for 7th and 8th graders). Students are able to take their headsets home in order to work on the program from home, but any lost headsets will be charged $8 just like a lost library book. Since we are currently the only middle school that offers full-year Spanish to our 8th graders, it was not listed on the 8th grade course registration form. Students in this class are taught the same information as the high school Spanish 1 course. Therefore, students who do well are allowed to sign up for Spanish 2 Honors during their freshman year. Any 7th graders who are interested in taking full-year Spanish next year should either contact Ms. Clausen or Mr. Kaufmann. Liberty House Grade 8 Math News from Mrs. Fioravanti Students are finishing up a unit on functions and will be continuing on with a unit on real numbers and the Pythagorean Theorem. Students are given an assignment two to three days a week, so please expect to see this at home either via online with the online textbook or the blue textbook students have for the classroom. I have been sending home weekly e-mails via Infinite Campus and/or e-mail. I am available for extra help before school on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, as well as, during lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Also, students can be watching tutorials online at bigideasmath.com using their ID # as the username and password. The students have been shown how to do this in class. Please continue to check Infinite Campus for e-mails/messages from me. If you have any further questions, please e-mail me at [email protected] or call 359-2922. Algebra 1 News from Mrs. Fioravanti Students are finishing up a unit on factoring polynomials and will be continuing on graphing polynomials next. Weekly e-mails are sent home via Infinite Campus and/or e-mail. I am available for extra help before school on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, as well as, during lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Also, students can be watching tutorials online at bigideasmath.com using their ID # as the username and password. The students have been shown how to do this in class. Please continue to check Infinite Campus for e-mails/messages from me. If you have any further questions, please e-mail me at [email protected] or call 359-2922. Science News from Mr. Walton In science students are learning about matter and its physical and chemical characteristics. Students will find a number of activities and resources on their Google drive to access at home. This will help them study for assessments and help catch up on missing assignments after absence. Students have been working on their student led conference documents on their google drive in school. These documents are available for students to make updates prior to conferences on March 24th to 27th. I strongly encourage students to take home materials prior to any assessment so they can successfully prepare for assessments and quizzes. I am always available at [email protected] if you have any questions or information. Also, I often e-mail parents before tests and deadlines. If you would like to receive e-mail from me and are not part of our mailing list please send me an e-mail message to the above address. Social Studies News from Coach Krey Please remember to talk to your children about what they are learning in Social Studies on a daily basis. There is a test or quiz every week that students should be studying for. Please e-mail [email protected] if you have any further questions. English News from Ms. Peura We have just started a unit on utopian and dystopian societies. The students will start fourth quarter creating their personal utopia. This will include drawing and writing what attributes make their utopia. That includes the social, environmental, political, and moral aspects. They will also show contrast by creating a dystopia as well. Most of fourth quarter will be dedicated to marking novels. Honors English will be marking the novel You Don’t Know Me. Students were handed notifications to purchase this book this week. We will begin with the novel right after spring break, April 13th. We have extra books ordered through RK News in which you will receive 20% off the purchase. You are always welcome to purchase the novel online if you can find it cheaper. The regular English classes will be in the novel Speak. These classes will focus on figurative language as well. Students will create their own “marking book” to showcase their mastery on different aspects of figurative language. Fourth quarter is a busy one; but I am looking forward to a strong finish for Liberty House students. Please continue to check Infinite Campus to monitor student progress. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Enjoy your spring break!!!! Summer Camp Opportunities The UW- Green Bay Summer camp if for students interested in Art, Music and Science Camps. There are scholarships are available for students with a financial need and a GPA of 2. 50 or higher. The easiest way to get more information and register is to go to the website at: www.uwgbsummercamps.com If you are interested in the scholarships click on the “Scholarships” link on the website for more information. If you need more information please call 920-465-2267 or email [email protected] Art: June 14-19 grades 6-9 Science: Introduction to Video Game Programming, Level 1 June 1417 grades 8-12 Video Game Programming, Level 2 July 26-31 grades 8-12 Beginning App Development Camp (Android) June 28-July 1 Grades 8-12 Robotics and STEM July 19-22 and July 26-29 Grades 6-9 Music: Band, Orchestra, Choral and Piano July 12-17 Grades 6-8 Stay tuned to the weekly Parent Bolts for more information on summer learning camps/ opportunities for your student. These will be passed along in the Parent Bolt as we receive information.
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