Go Mustangs! Our school spirit is strong and bold. Some 6th graders helped to create this image after school to show the neighborhood the pride we all have in being a Mustang. This week our 6th graders have been continuing our study of the early Patriarchs of the Church (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and exploring the many ways that God reveals Himself to us. Our daily scripture readings and reflections are helping us to understand how we are to live as God's chosen sons and daughters. The kids are doing a great job of sharing and participating in our class discussions. Keep up the good work, 6th graders! And we were so lucky today to have Mr. O pray with and for us. In PE, students learned about “The First Tee.” This specific organization teaches students about golf while also highlighting 9 core values that align with our IB traits. These 9 values help develop character. They focus on honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy, and judgment. We also spent time creating a mini golf course around the gym. Check out these creative courses that JH made! 6th grade students examine mentor sentences from popular adolescent literature and notice what the writer did to create that sentence and why. We are so grateful to have the resources for every student to have a chromebook. They are well used throughout the day! Exploring the meaning and relevance of the IB Learner Profiles, students worked in groups to create posters that illustrated and defined how one of the IB Learner Profiles are used in the Specials:Art, Spanish, Music, and Technology. Students did a wonderful job putting these concepts into a message they and their classmates can easily understand and relate to. These posters are now hanging in the hallways and 305 classroom to encourage all of us to work on being life long learners. Our 7th Graders did a beautiful job hosting Friday's Children's Mass. At Mass, we also celebrated Catechetical Sunday where we recognized and blessed all our teachers and staff who, in addition to teaching their subject areas, model the teachings of Jesus in all that they say and all that they do. The 7th graders lead us in our readings, prayers and songs and set such a good example of respectful and reverent behavior while in the Church.
0 Comments
In all our JH religion classes, we have read and discussed Gospel readings at the start of each class. We then ask for prayer intentions that we can pray for as a class. This sets a great tone for our time together. We have been discussing how Scripture is timeless and applies to our lives right now. Students were asked to find a Scripture quote that somehow relates to their life right now. It could a quote that identifies a goal they have for this year, or even just a quote that they can relate to. They did a great job with this creative prayer experience. I am thrilled with their participation in class, their willingness to share ideas and ask questions, and their level of respect and openness with each other. Great job, Junior High students!! The St. Matthias Choir made their return on Friday at Mass, and their sound was music to our ears! We have many middle school students who are lending their voices this year and our choir has 65 members! We have decided that it would be best, for now, to split the choir into two, so we will rotate weeks..Choir 1 sang this past week, and Choir 2 will sing this coming Friday. We are so grateful to have them back and are hopeful that we will hear them as one BIG choir soon! In preparation for the novel, Lord of the Flies, the 8th graders participated in a symbolism gallery walk. Collaborating in groups, students found symbolic meaning in different images. This week students continued their team building skills in PE. We did a warm up activity called “dice fitness,” where each number on a dice was assigned a different exercise. We also concentrated on jumping rope! We focused on speed and control as we practiced jumping or swinging the rope around for our classmates! Once the MYP students reach Year 3, (8th grade), they are ready to take on the MYP Community Project. The community project is a year-long service learning project where students work individually or collaboratively. Each student/student pair receives a supervisor from MYP teaching team who works closely with them and helps them complete their service. Students can work directly with a certain community or can provide indirect service. If a student chooses, they can also advocate for a certain population or they can research a subject and educate their community on why this research can be beneficial . We will be sharing more information on the Community project process in the coming months! Ms. DeFrank's 8th grade homeroom led Mass beautifully on Friday. We are beyond grateful that we are still able to celebrate our weekly Masses in our wonderful church. All of our Junior High students are back together for recess! This year we are able to get back to the playground and see our friends from other classes and make new friends! There is always so many things happening from basketball to four square and football and the infamous spinner. Everyone has a great time playing at recess! On behalf of the JH Team, we are so happy to be back with you this school year! We look forward to your smiling faces everyday and cant wait to see what we will accomplish this year! Here’s to a happy and HealThy 2021/2022 School yeAr!Teamwork makes the dream-work! In PE, students have been given team building tasks. We highlighted important factors, such as communication and collaborative skills. We learned that it is very important to have those skills for future success in school and in any sport you want to achieve at! We had a shared lesson for all our Junior High Students to start off our new year in religion. We focused on Psalm 139 which reminds us that God is everywhere and knows us intimately. God's unconditional love for us reminds us that God loves us all the time, no matter what. We will aim to have that same love for everyone! We also spent some time with get-to-know-you activities to start building up some good classroom community. In spite of the heat, it's already shaping up to be a great year! Our 7th and 8th graders went straight to work in Math class this week by completing a few different activities that focused on teamwork. In 7th they worked on the 100’s task and Four 4’s. Did you know that every number can be made using a combination of Four 4’s? Ask our students and they’d be happy to show you 1-20! Then in 8th we completed Pascal’s Triangle and 31-derful. A task that promotes working together, 31-derful has students set up a 5x5 grid of cards where each row and each column adds up to 31. Students we’re able to exemplify group work expectations by modeling communication skills, open-mindedness, and determination throughout the week. We are so proud of all their hard work! To encompass their probability knowledge, the 7th graders created their own carnival games to play with our class! Whether the game had an equal chance or winning or nearly impossible, the creativity in the games really shown through! From a target practice and balloon pop, to a dice roll and a new version of Plinko. Everyone had a blast on our carnival day with many prizes won! After the carnival, students compared their theoretical probability and the experimental probability of their game. In 6th grade I&S we've been studying Ancient Greece for the past 6-7 weeks. About a month ago I broke the class into 4 groups, based on Ancient Greek societies (Athens, Argos, Corinth, Sparta). Each week I gave them time to do research on that society and then create a banner that represented them. Since the Ancient Greeks invented the Olympic Games, the final part of the unit is today and tomorrow where they are competing in our own various "Olympic" games as representative teams from their specific societies. There were points awarded for each game, including the best team banner and team chant. Olympic medals will go to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall winning teams. Now for The 8th Grade GRADUATION Events!On Wednesday, the 8th graders spent part of their morning painting messages of hope and inspiration on rocks that will be placed by the IB trait post in the front yard of the school. These positive messages from the Class of 2021 will help to put a smile on the faces of our younger classes when they are having a bad day and remind them to always work hard and be kind! An 8th grade tradition is the creation of a class Memory book. Thanks to a bunch of help from our parents, a collection of photos from our time at SMS were compiled into a book. On Wednesday, our students got to see the books for the first time. They spent the morning reminiscing and signing each other’s books. Thanks to everyone who helped create these special memories! Field day! On Thursday, everyone spent the day outside at Winnemac park. Coach K organized stations so that everyone could play soccer, volleyball, frisbee, and football all in one day! Afterwards there was a DJ playing music for our group water balloon toss and later water balloon fight. We topped the day off with a group game of kickball. Thanks to Pillars for some special snacks, thank you to all the parents who donated equipment, and thank you to Coach K and Mrs. Reckamp for all their help planning this special day! On their final dismissal, 8th graders were treated to the “Clap Out” as they walked out for the final time. The halls were lined with every grade level with everyone cheering. The 8th graders will be missed by all these students next year! Congratulations to our 8th grade students for graduating this past weekend. We are all so proud of you and what you have accomplished. We look forward to all the good things to come as your journey continues into high school! Science engineering and design challenge: With paper and tape, how tall can you build a structure and have it hold the weight of a television remote? Sixth grade showed their creativity and enjoyed the challenge. More STEM challenges to come! The 7th grade class has been learning and researching the importance of Musical Theatre and how it positively impacts society. They researched influential composers and read the stories of great musicals like West Side Story, Hairspray, Les Miserables, and Dear Evan Hansen. They then were able to discuss the themes of social justice and injustice that are prevalent in these musicals and understand how they can help to foster compassion, unity, and understanding in communities across the globe. Hopefully, our students will be able to go back to the theatre soon and see live performances! How high can you jump? This week in P.E. we focused on shooting baskets. We learned how to properly throw a basketball into the hoop. We also focused on working on our layups. Our students reached good height! Way to go future NBA stars! The Graduation Events have begun this week with The Candle Ceremony. In the Ceremony our 8th graders passed the light to our 7th graders as they transition to their final year at St. Matthias. Our 8th graders also lit a candle for every high school that they will be attending this fall from Amundson and Lane Tech to DePaul and St. Pat’s and the many more we are so proud of our students and all they were able to accomplish with their time with us. Stay tuned for Graduation on June 4th! Our Stock Market Class came to a close this week as we ended our group portfolio and individual competition. Between our two 8th grade classes, we had a total profit of $452.82 in just over 6 months! Students did a great job balancing their portfolios. In the individual competition PJ and Shayla are our winner with the AMC and American Airlines gaining the most over that same period of time. Congratulations to all and don’t forget to pick up your management fees at Graduation! In P.E. we began our final unit - basketball! We focused on basic dribbling drills and passes, such as the bounce and chest pass. Positive energy and excitement resonated throughout the gym! What a great way to start the new unit! 7th graders are wrapping up the year with their unit on probability. Recently, they discussed the difference between experimental probability and theoretical probability by flipping a coin 20 times. In theory, you should be able to flip tails on a conic 50% of the time. Although during our experiment, some students flipped more heads than tails. Students discussed so reasons why the experimental probability might not always be the same as the theoretical probability. 7th grade students studied the main structures of the heart and their functions the past few weeks in Science. This week, they dissected sheep hearts to see the structures first hand. Students recognized the aorta, atria, ventricles, and valves. Continuing our experiments this week, our 8th graders designed egg landers using what they have learned about kinetic and potential energy, velocity, and drag. All combined for the coveted Egg Drop! There was overwhelming success with eggs landing safely, with only a few heart “breaks.” The weather outside is warming up! Warm enough for our 8th graders to spend the day reading Life of Pi in the rectory garden. Check out these ultimate flexible seating options! Students in 6th grade involved in the Entrepreneurship Club, Mary, Christina and Ellen made it to the final round after presenting to several judges from various businesses in collaboration with Big Shoulders. Students did an amazing job presenting their invention that would make a global impact on reducing water usage and a solution to help with the universal water shortage problem. Students presented various aspects of the project including the regions most affected by water shortage, the business plan - including costs ad profit and the design and engineering process. They were chosen as finalists for the final round which will include another presentation to a new panel of judges on Friday, May 7th. Stay tuned to find out the results and wish them luck! This week our 8th graders presented their year long MYP projects! Each student focused on a need in our community to address. From raising awareness, to raising funds, and volunteering our students were able to help a vast array of people within our school community and local communities. We are so proud of all of their hard work throughout the school year in order to get to this point. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped out our students! In P.E. we put all of our skills to the test and played a volleyball game! We had great motivation and energy from every class! Way to go Junior High! The 6th graders are wrapping up their chapter on area and perimeter by designing an amusement park! Students collaborated by designing a map and determining the area that each of the rides would take up. Then they made advertisements to try and get people to attend their parks. The 6th graders really flexed their creative muscles and supported with their math skills. Presentations were awesome and everyone created cohesive plans, we are so impressed! Seventh grade putting their finishing touches on their oil pastel drawings. The last thing that they have to do for this assignment is to fill out the French Academy of Fine Art's official entry form for their yearly salon exhibit. Students will be reflecting on their artwork and their use of oil pastels. Bonjour! Our JH students have transitioned to French for the final trimester of the year. To start off, they learned about different ways to greet each other and showed off their skills through a verbal quiz. Students were so supportive and encouraging of one another during the process. We are so proud of them and their hard work! 8th Graders have been working on solving systems of equations using different strategies. The three strategies to choose from are graphing, substitution, and elimination. All three strategies can be used to solve any system of equations but which one is the best? Students got into groups to defend the best strategy. They created an advertisement that included a logo and a slogan to try and convince everyone to use only that strategy. Each group presented their advertisement and they all did a great job working together to create a cohesive presentation. In P.E., we started a unit that we’ve all been waiting for - Volleyball! Students are reviewing basic skills from the underhand to the overhand serve, the forearm pass, and the set. Students are able to volley the ball back and forth with each other and are even practicing with the wall! Stock Market Class is winding down. We had one of our final classes this week and discussed potential careers within finance. There are so many outlets and potential careers that we briefly dissected a few of the options. Next month is the final class where we can see how our portfolio ended! |
Archives
September 2020
|