Season’s Greetings, Middle School Families!
The Advent season is in full swing at St. Mary and we’re all excited for Christmas! This week, we have the Our Lady of Guadalupe performance, put on by the 6th graders on Wednesday after Mass. It starts at 9, so please come if you can!
5th & 6th Grade Language Arts:
We’re continuing the Leadership Requires Engagement unit with The View from Saturday through Christmas and into January. Please remember that every time students have reading homework, they also have vocabulary words to complete on Google Classroom. This will also be the last week of spelling until after we return from vacation. The 5th graders are continuing to work hard on their Catholic Schools Week contest essay. Their final draft of this essay will be due, printed, next week. I will be sending home the permission form for parents to sign in order for us to submit essays to the contest this week. In 5/6 writing lab, we will be putting View from Saturday expository writing on hold until we return from break, and will do some Christmas creative writing for our last few class periods leading into Christmas.
7th & 8th Grade Language Arts:
We’re continuing the Change Requires Effort unit with To Kill a Mockingbird through Christmas and into January. Please remember that every time students have reading homework, they also have vocabulary words to complete on Google Classroom. This will also be the last week of spelling until after we return from vacation. We’ve had some great discussions about To Kill a Mockingbird so far! Please be willing to continue discussions with your student at home regarding the themes and issues that the novel brings up. As a reminder, it takes place in the segregated South during the Great Depression, and as we read further into the story, more issues of inequality will surface. Please also note that the story’s narrator uses the language and terms of the time period, which contributes to a better understanding of the deeply rooted prejudice that our characters face and seek to change (hence our theme, Change Requires Effort!). We are also going to put argument writing on the back burner until January to engage in some Christmas creative story writing for our last few writing periods of 2018.
Art
7th and 8th graders are working on a piece to submit to MCA’s Christmas Art Contest. Final pieces are due this Thursday, Dec. 13th. You will receive a permission form on Monday that will need to be signed in order for us to submit your student’s artwork.
Looking Ahead:
Wed. 12/12: Early dismissal; Our Lady of Guadalupe at 9am after Mass
Thurs. 12/20: Class parties after recess (7th/8th is a movie and brunch party in room 11)
Fri. 12/21: Christmas pageant at 10am; early dismissal (you may pick your student up from the classroom after the pageant) *no extension, students must be picked up by 12:15*
Sat. 12/22 – Mon. 1/7: Christmas break!!! Tues. 1/8: School resumes