Newsletter

Friday October 16, 2015

Science Mrs.Simpson
[email protected]
This week in Science, students started working with their vocabulary. All students should have 11 terms
marked on their blue Science Focus Vocabulary sheet. These are the only terms students need to be
working on at this point. They have also taken a graphing pre-test. The results of this pre-test will help
guide our instruction, related to graphing, throughout the year. In class we have been practicing metric
labels with the Metric Labels Study Guide. Students will need to continue practicing this sheet as they
will be assessed over the entire sheet on Tuesday or Wednesday next week (October 20/21). Below is a
table with the information they need to know. In addition, students will be assessed Friday of next week
(October 23rd) over their LTP (Learning Target Packet). To end the week, students started a lab tilted Mix
& Match Mass. We will finish the lab next week and discuss our findings.

Science-Metric Information to study for Quiz October 20-21.

Instrument

Measurement

Base
Unit

Labels

Balance

Mass

Gram

g mg kg

Ruler

Length

Meter

m
cm
mm km

Graduated
Cylinder

Volume

Liter

L mL kL

Thermometer

Temperature

Celsius

Computers Ms. Petersen

[email protected]

In Computers students will start the first part of the Financial Literacy Program with
Session 1, Making Responsible Money Choices. Students will analyze the tradeoffs
between saving and spending and good and bad decisions. They will compare
different financial sources that inform financial decision-making and create a
savings plan to meet short- and long-term goals.

Ms. Loneman Language Arts

This week students

drafted, edited, revised, and published their personal narratives
were introduced to and practiced working with lesson 12 vocabulary
listened to the main selection, Airborn and asked and answered questions related to the
story
Next week students will
take the STAR test
be introduced to and work with the lessons prefixes (ad- and en-)
complete a story map and summary for Airborn
take the lesson 12 vocabulary and comprehension assessments
Lesson 12:
Main selection: Airborn
Big Idea: Sometimes you need to give it all youve got.
Essential Question: How does a sky setting shape a storys events?
Target Skill: Story Structure Target Strategy: Infer/Predict
Fluency: Expression
Vocabulary Strategies: prefixes en-, adTarget Vocabulary: jostled, careening, relishing, falter, supple, taut, frail, engulf, frayed, and
undulating
Vocabulary Practice: tinyurl.com/lesson12vocab
Important Dates:
October 19thSTAR Test
October 20thMs. Loneman Absent (Professional Meeting)
October 21stTheme Analysis Papers Due (This applies to my GT READ Group Only!)
October 22nd and 23rdSecond Step Lesson in LA class (lasting half the block each day)
October 22nd and 23rdLesson 12 Vocabulary and Comprehension Tests (one test each day)
October 26thRequest to Retake sheets due
October 26thRetakes offered at 3:30
October 27thRetakes offered at 7:30 and 3:30
Reminder:
The textbook can be accessed at home by following these steps:
1.
Go to: www-k6.thinkcentral.com.
2.
Enter the state, district, and school.
3.
Username: langarts
4.
Password: indianola (not capitalized)
5.
Click Log In.
6.
Click on My Library
7.
Click on Journeys Student eBook
Please feel free to contact me at any time with comments, questions, or concerns.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 961-9530 ext. 3134
Twitter: @msloneman (twitter.com/msloneman)
Instagram: @msloneman
Website: msloneman.weebly.com
Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. FischerLanguage Arts

We have been continuing work with our story Airborn this week. We will be having our unit
test over the vocabulary words on Thursday, Oct. 22. We will be having our unit test over
comprehension of the story on Friday, Oct. 23. . Retakes, if necessary, will be scheduled for
Oct. 26th and 27th. We finished up our narrative writing projects. Retakes will be required for
this assignment as well, if students do not score at least a 70%. Students will receive their
scores sometime at the end of next week. We are also getting started on a nonfiction
newsletter project. The students will be reading books and doing some research about a
topic and will be creating a factual newsletter about that topic.
Lesson 12:
Main selection: Airborn
Big Idea: Sometimes you need to give it all youve got.
Essential Question: How does a sky setting shape a storys events?
Target Skill: Story Structure
Target Strategy: Infer/Predict
Fluency: Expression
Vocabulary Strategies: Prefixes en-, adTarget Vocabulary: jostled, careening, relishing, falter, supple, taut, frail, engulf, frayed,
undulating
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 961-9530 ext. 3146

Social Studies-Mrs. Larsen

[email protected]

We had a change of plans, and hopefully students made you aware that we
would be changing our test dates for our Geo-Journal Geography Skills
Assessment to Tuesday, Oct. 20 (ODD) and Wednesday, October 21 (EVEN).
Students who do not pass the test will be required to restudy and retake until
they are proficient. The end of the quarter is October 26, so it is really important
that they try to pass on their first try. That way they have their best score before report cards are
printed. We will next move on to studying physical features as we create a dictionary of land and
water terms.

Box Tops

Send to school anytime! Collection tubs are located in

Language Arts rooms
and main office.

Library News-Mrs.Wanamaker
[email protected]

The book fair is approaching quickly. Remember the book fair will occur in
the library during conferences. For those of you unable to attend in person
we have an online page:
http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/indianolamiddleschool
You may visit the page for more information and beginning on October
28th you can place orders online. Books are then delivered to the school.
Online orders count toward the schools sales which are then used to buy
books for the library.
Mrs. Wanamaker is also looking for adult volunteers to work the book fair. Please
contact her if you can help.

Math-Mrs. Vetter
[email protected]

Math 6
This week we continued work in Unit 2 in the Everyday Math book; Operations
with Whole Numbers and Decimals. Students worked on reading and writing
both Large and Small (decimal) Numbers and reviewed adding and subtracting
decimals. The students took the Place Value quiz on Wed (Day 1) and Thursday (Day
2). Some students did very well! Some will definitely need to retake. We also
continued reviewing adding and subtracting decimals, began work with Multiplying
by Powers of 10, and multiplying decimals.
Next week we will review the above skills and also do some work with dividing
whole numbers and decimals.
Math 6/7
This week we continued our work in the Big Ideas book Chapter
2-Fractions and Decimals. Students will take a quiz over lessons
2.4-2.6 on Monday October 19th. Concepts on the quiz include
adding and subtracting decimals, and multiplying and dividing
decimals. Many students checked out a textbook to bring home
to study. We will then review for the Chapter test after the quiz on Monday and
students will take the Chapter 2 test on Wednesday October 21st.
Math 7/8
From Mr. Westerly Math 7/8 students have finished chapter 1 and the assessment.
They will get it back on Monday and anyone who wants to retake missed problems
may do so before Friday at 3:20. Our next unit deals with congruency, similarity,
transformations, and a connection to proportionality. Kids will be rotating, reflecting,
sliding 2D objects on a coordinate plane, along with seeing how proportionality can
determine if two shapes are similar or not.
Please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Phone: 961-9530 ext. 3147

Have a great weekend!

Art-Mrs. Smith
[email protected]

Art Class Website: www.artinspiredbylife.com

Weekly Accomplishments:
This week students learned how to transfer 2D shapes into 3D objects by
learning how to shade. Students should be studying the elements of art
which ties right into our drawing unit and then our painting unit. They will
be using that vocabulary to discuss artwork so it is important they study to
become Elements of art experts!
Homework: Peace Poster entries due Oct 19th. Formal entries due Monday
morning and class assignment entries are due during regular art class. The
theme is share peace.
Square 1 Art: Important dates to remember:
October 9 : Custom catalogs and stickers were distributed to take home
to parents. Ask your child if he/she has not handed it to you yet!
October 23rd: Deadline for orders to return to school. Ordering online is
easy and we also accept paper orders.
November 12th: School will receive products
Directions for ordering online: Go to www.square1art.com/shop enter your
childs access code which
Is printed on the paper order form. Click add to gallery, then click start
shopping! If anyone
Lost the access code, email me at [email protected] and I can give you
the access code.
th

Square1art takes your childs artwork and makes it into great products for you to purchase.
These products are wonderful keepsakes and gifts for family and friends (just in time for
Christmas!). Your child has been busy making beautiful artwork that can be made into many
fun products such as magnets, t-shirts, mouse pads, ornaments and much more!
Money raised from this fundraiser will go towards an additional classroom ipad for extension
lessons and also for additional needed art supplies. Thanks in advance for supporting your
child and the Middle School art department!

Second Step-Mrs. Cherniss

[email protected]
Next week, 6th graders will continue with the Second Step curriculum by participating in lesson
9. Lesson 9 focuses on calm-down strategies students can use when experiencing strong
emotions. Effective problem solving cannot occur under intense stress. Students need to be able
to calm strong emotions in order to make positive choices in intense situations. By the end of this
lessons, students will have practiced using the following calm-down strategies: centeredbreathing, analyzing self-talk and how it contributes to strong feelings, and using self-talk to
manage emotions. Students will also identify calming-down strategies that work best for them.

Backpacks 4 Hunger
No Child Goes Hungry Over the Weekend
Sign up for Backpacks 4 Hunger- Food for over the weekend
Backpacks are filled Friday and sent home with meals and snacks for over the
weekend.
Backpacks and contents provided by donations and volunteers in the community of
Indianola.
ALL students are eligible.
TO SIGN UP: Contact 961-5755 or your School Counselor, Lacey Cherniss,
at 961-9530 X3106

Sixth Grade Redo/Retake Policy

As a sixth grade, students will be expected to retake an assessment or redo a project/paper if they are
not proficient.
Students who are proficient may choose to retake the assessment or redo a project/paper to improve
their score.
Students are required to make arrangements for retaking/redoing with the content teacher.
Secure = 80%-100%
Secure and Nearly Secure are proficient
Nearly Secure = 70%-79.99%
Developing = 40%-69.99%
Beginning = 0%-39.99%