Tiger Tales. Tiger Tales. Hi Parents and Guardians!

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1 Tiger Tales Tiger Tales Volume 12, Issue 1 September 26, 2012 Hi Parents and Guardians! Welcome! It s already mid-term of Quarter 1 for our School Year, and it appears things are going very well! Our first several weeks have treated us well. Our fifth graders have adjusted to their new environment, and our 6 th, 7 th, and 8 th graders have acclimated to their new grade levels and their new teachers with a flurry of activity. Everything appears to be running smoothly with lots of energy in the halls and in the classrooms. Our mid-term conferences are upon us. Students are sharing in a Student-led format on both Thursday, September 27 and Tuesday, October 2. This format allows for students to take responsibility for their reports and for their learning. They establish a clearer understanding for their objectives in each class as they report their grades and their perception of those grades to their parents. When meeting with your child, you should receive their mid-term grade report, 8 th grade NWEA scores, MCA scores from spring 2012 for all of our students, and their fall of 2012 AIMSWeb fluency and comprehension scores. In addition to the Student-led time, parents are welcome to visit with teachers for the second half hour of each hour in a more traditional environment. We have approximately 600 students attending MMS and the conferences on these two dates. We are capable of completing all of these conferences within this time frame. However, if you find that you would like additional time with a particular teacher, please feel free to contact that teacher or the office to set up another time. This will help ensure that all parents have the opportunity to meet with the teachers. Thank you for your understanding with this request. Several of our teachers at the Middle School coach various activities within the district and must carry out these responsibilities. These teachers have each made arrangements to meet your conferencing needs on one night or the other. They are also available to set up alternative meeting times. Advisory Teachers Student-led conferences will be with your child s advisory teacher. You can find out where these classrooms are located upon entry to the front door of the MS. An advisory teacher s role is to oversee character education, anti-bully information, organizational skills, team-building activities, and to advocate for your child. The advisor is your first contact person regarding your child, much like the homeroom concept. This teacher sees your child daily, is a contact for other teachers for your child, and is a contact for you when addressing general issues or concerns. Thank you for taking the time to support your child in conferences. Your involvement as a parent has a direct positive effect on your child s academic success! HERE S TO A GREAT YEAR! Sincerely,

2 Page 2 5th Grade 5th Grade 5 th Graders Go to Pipestone The fifth graders at the Marshall Middle School went on a fantastic field trip to Pipestone, Minnesota on September 12 th. After arriving in Pipestone, students went to the Pipestone County Museum. Here they observed displays of what life was like thousands of years ago. Guides also taught students about life in Southwestern Minnesota many, many years ago. Students saw artifacts, murals, peace pipes, a covered wagon, and a one room school classroom. Several rooms were set up to show how people lived years ago. We ate lunch at the Three Maidens. These large gigantic boulders were brought to Pipestone by a glacier. The fifth graders also enjoyed visiting Fort Pipestone. Students then visited the Pipestone National Monument. On the Circle Trail, we saw Old Stone Face, Winnewissa Falls, Leaping Rock, the quartzite ledge, the Oracle, and so much more. In the Visitor s Center, students watched carvers create items from pipestone, had an opportunity to try carving themselves, saw petro glyphs, and watched an introduction movie. This was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the Native Americans that we study in social studies class. We had a wonderful time, the weather was perfect, and we thank the PTA for paying for our bus transportation to Pipestone. We had a great time! In social studies class, we started the year reading and discussing the first Americans. These new settlers came from Asia, walking across glaciers during the Ice Age. The people were chasing animals that would provide them with food and furs. We then continued to learn where these people settled. Five different cultures of North American Indians were discussed. The cultures included: the Eastern Woodlands, the Plains, the Southwest (or Desert), the Pacific Northwest and the Arctic Indians. Soon Europeans landed on the North American shores while looking for trade routes to the Indies. Explorers like the Vikings and Columbus arrived first. They were followed by many others looking for the riches of the Far East. Soon people came to America planning to start new colonies. In math class, 5 th graders have been working on place value, estimation, rounding, addition, and subtraction in math. We have recently started working with multiplication. We are discovering how important it is to practice our math facts. Students should be studying their math facts every night at home for minutes. We have begun multiplying by two and even three digit numbers. Please help practice this at home by giving your child a math problem to solve. Up next Division! In language arts we have been working with literature and vocabulary. During our vocabulary units, we have been working with our new vocabulary curriculum - Wordly Wise in Lessons 1 & 2. In literature we have been studying the following stories: Cinder Edna - read about the wiser, spunkier version of Cinderella (Cinder Edna), read about Cinderella stories from different cultures and created our own Cinderella story from another character's point of view No Guitar Blues - talked about cause & effect relationships and types of conflict, took the students back in time and introduced them to American Bandstand and Los Lobos (La Bamba!) Man vs. Machine - learned about the legend of John Henry and worked on chronological order Roberto Clemente - read a biography on the famous baseball player who overcame adversity and discrimination to make it to the Major Leagues and died in a tragic plane crash, worked on chronological order and the SQ3R reading strategy. Sentences - learned about complete sentences, fragments, capitalization, punctuation and the 4 types of sentences In Ms. Weedman s science classes, students are currently finishing up the unit on animal traits and adaptations. Students took their first chapter test so please look for that in their binder. Students are to keep ALL papers in his/her school binder to help prepare for the MCA science test that they will take later on in the year. Lastly, your child has been given a username and password to use on This website is a great resource to review all science areas that they have learned from 2nd-5th grade. They have 30 assignments that they need to have completed by the end of the year. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Weedman. We had two fantastic fifth graders receive shirts for showing PRIDE, RESPECT, and RESPONSIBILITY. The winners were Emma Kepler and Mohamed Abdi. Students receive tiger tokens for showing excellence in their academics and behavior. These tiger tokens are put in a box for a monthly drawing. The lucky winners of a movie pass were Nimo Kalif and Ali Ahmed.

3 6th Grade Page 3 Math is off to a fast start and we are really excited with all of our classes. Blocks 1 and 2 have been working on whole numbers and patterns in chapter 1, as well as the introduction to algebra in chapter 2. Our block 5 class has been working on algebraic reasoning in chapter 1, and integers and rational numbers in chapter 2. Along with their classroom studies we will be implementing computer time into our classes. We have two programs we will be using the majority of the time, Study Island and Sumdog. Your child has the username and password for each of these programs. Please encourage your child to go on and use these programs at home. Language Arts has been incredible so far this year! The splendor of our new curriculum and integration of new ideas into our old curriculum has unveiled the appeal for learning and an affection for the content area. These words are not only eloquent, they are what sixth graders are learning in class. In addition to vocabulary, students have read about doing good deeds, an exciting event in Bora Bora, and a boy who has to make an unselfish choice for his family. We have also worked on writing compete sentences and using context clues to help us understand words and meanings. It is exciting to see students triumph over their success in class. If you have a sixth grade student, ask him or her to point out all the new vocabulary in this article. Sixth grade science is exploring the world of matter. Students are learning that matter has measureable properties, such as mass, length and volume. Students are also learning that matter can exist in three states, and that the states of matter can change through phase changes like melting, freezing, evaporation and condensation. Students have even looked up close to the particles of matter and how they move...ask your student about the particle model of matter to find out about the behavior of the particles in our world! Social studies has worked our way up to the early Minnesotans. We have talked about the Dakota and the Ojibwe. The students are now working on projects to present for each of the tribes we have studied. For Patriot Day we created a flag from red, white and blue slips of paper that contained answers to the question "What does America mean to me?" The flag is displayed in the sixth grade wing. Students also wrote a paper in language arts on what freedom or America means to them. The whole 6th grade class went to Memorial Park and learned about the significance of each of the elements displayed in the park, and showed their respect for those that lost their lives on September 11th. Tiger Traits recognizes: Miranda Eberling and Hunter Smidt. Congratulations on showing Pride, Respect and Responsibility!! Mrs. Mather s advisory won the In It to Win It Paper Airplane through a hula hoop contest. Mr. Bouwman s class made a class flag on What America Means to Me.

4 Page 4 7th Grade Courage Retreat We were so fortunate to be able to attend the COURAGE RETREAT again this year on September 5. It was such a great way for our seventh graders and students from Tracy to all come together, put aside their differences, and open up about their fears. They sang, danced, met in small groups for discussion, and participated in large group activities. We were so proud of how the kids responded to the Youth Frontiers leaders, the high school group leaders, and to each other! For more information, check out: To see more pictures from the retreat, visit the Middle School Website at: and click on the link in announcements. In our Math 7 classes we have been studying algebraic reasoning, which includes patterns, exponents, scientific notation, order of operations and one-step algebraic equations. Ms. Chepa's Linear Algebra class just finished a unit on positive and negative integers and one-step algebraic equations and are just starting a unit on rational numbers. Mr. Thor s Linear Algebra class will start the Graphs and Functions unit. In this unit, students will be asked to represent real-life situations with equations, graphs, and tables. All math classes are taking daily homework quizzes. The quizzes are a way for students, teachers, and parents to get a quick overview on the progress of the student section by section. Their daily homework logs chart their progress in a way that shows their strengths and areas of opportunities. It is a good tool to use to prepare for a test. Parents, please make sure that at the end of each week you sit down with your child to look through their homework, homework quizzes, and homework quiz logs. We are off to a great start in Language Arts! We have successfully completed two lessons in Wordly Wise, which is our new vocabulary series. We also are reading the novel, Freak the Mighty, which fosters some great discussions about friendships, tolerance for differences, and showing COURAGE in our daily lives. In 7 th grade science, we began the quarter by practicing our use of the metric system and lab techniques, as well as by getting started using the ipads in the classroom. We are now focusing on the physical science portion of the 7th grade science standards. This standard deals with atomic structure and the periodic table. One of our recent activities was to create a Physical Science imovie. Each small group highlighted one of our physical science vocabulary terms in an imovie trailer. It was fun to see the creativity displayed as well as the diversity of ideas. Upcoming activities are the Sow Bug Inquiry Lab Activity and the Water Quality Mentoring Project. We will end the quarter with a study of cells and microscopes. Remember that weekly lesson information can be found on Dr. Sueker s school district webpage ( If you have not already done so, please download the science flexbook. There are links to the pdf and epub versions on the website. In 7 th grade social studies we have recently finished the Map Master geography unit and are currently learning about the early civilizations of the world. We are also studying current events twice a week in this exciting election year. Be sure to have your child share with you their incredible knowledge of Middle East geography; they might just amaze you with how much they know! Remember that we now have an online textbook option for studying and homework, so your child doesn t have to lug home a heavy textbook anymore! To access the online text just go to The user name is student and the password is 413tigers. A seventh grade student is chosen to receive the ACE award each week. This award is chosen based on the following criteria: A = Attitude, C = Commitment, and E = Effort. The winners so far have been Kaleb Bossuyt, Madison Siers, Sydney Blomme, and Kyle Kruse. PBIS T-shirt winners this month (students who exemplify the Tiger Traits of Pride, Respect, and Responsibility) were Garrett Hoff and Taryn Truwe! In advisory we have a fierce competition going on in our weekly challenges. These challenges are either mental or physical activities that require each advisory to work as a team. The winning advisory at the end of each quarter receives a pizza party. Ask your child how he/she did in one of these challenges!

5 8th Grade Page 5 8th grade students have an excellent opportunity to be math peer helpers this year. Students who are doing well in math class, as well as other subjects, can help mentor other math students. Initially they will help out 5 th and 6 th grade students during enrichment time. However, the program is also looking to extend to help during advisory time one day a week. This is an excellent opportunity for our students to work together toward a goal of mathematical excellence! Students in language arts have been learning about the new middle school vocabulary curriculum, Wordly Wise. Many have found the vocabulary words to be quite challenging, but with adequate effort, most have found success with the new program. The students have also been studying the holocaust and are now in the midst of reading 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. In addition to vocabulary and literature, students are also studying verbs in grammar. Mr. Shaffer and Ms. Dorschner are also excited to introduce Ms. Kelly Fitzgerald. She is a student teacher from SMSU and will be working primarily in Mr. Shaffer's room through December. Students in Earth Science just finished with their unit on Earth structure. They have now started a new unit of study on earthquakes. As part of the unit, students will be constructing earthquake buildings from toothpicks and marshmallows, and then testing them for strength and height. After the earthquake unit, they will begin volcano studies. Students will have the opportunity to make a volcano using paper mache, a 2 liter pop bottle, and a tube of Mentos. Check out Ms. Thooft's website for photo updates in the upcoming week. Students can find presentations on all of these subjects at Ms. Thooft's website. Social Studies students began the year with geography basics, learning about the types of governments and economies found in our world. Investigations into the early civilizations and the Middle Ages of Europe are currently being completed in a totally digital format. We are having an interesting, although sometimes challenging, time previewing a new style of textbook which is completely online. Ask your child to show you their digital homework sometime. It is truly amazing! All of our studies, so far, are leading us up to our fieldtrip to the Renaissance Festival. This fieldtrip will bring to life an important and life changing period in the history of Europe. We are lucky to have the PTA and parents who provide the support to make this trip possible. Thank you! Each week the 8th grade team nominates a student for our ACE Award. ACE stands for Attitude, Commitment, and Effort and the award is given to a student who has demonstrated excellence in each of the three areas. The 8th grade ACE Award recipients so far this year have been Sergio Talamantes, Charlie Serreyn, Osman Hassan, and Brooke Chesley. At the mid-quarter PBIS celebration on September 17th, two students were recognized for their outstanding demonstration of the Tiger Traits: Pride, Respect, and Responsibility. The students recognized were Mitchell Sueker and Melise Baumgarn. Congratulations to all of our 8th graders on the beginning of what looks to be an excellent year of Tiger Pride!!! The 8th grade is looking forward to their trip to the Renaissance Festival on Friday, September 28th.

6 Visual Arts Visual Arts Page 6 5th Grade Art Currently, the fifth graders are working on the concept of horizon line, as well as creating the illusion of forms, and learning how to shade those forms. We just completed our fancy doodling project. This project was all about pattern, line, and shape. After we drew out all of our fancy doodles in a spider web pattern the students had the opportunity to work with a quill and ink. (Currently hanging in the Marshall Middle School). The project that we did before that was on the artist Robert Indian who was a sculptor. He created the love sculptures that are now installed all over the states, and even in some countries over seas. For our project we painted the words warm and cool, and painted in the warm or cool color scheme, depending on the word used. 7th Grade Art In seventh grade we are just starting a lesson on jazz music. This project is based off of Debra Hurd s jazz music paintings. For this project we talked about the mood of paintings and how Debra Hurd makes the mood of her paintings as if the viewer is actually listening to the music at a jazz music concert. We just finished working on a project based off of Stefan Bucher s daily monsters. These monsters are created with a blob of India ink, and a straw to blow the ink around, and then the students add the monster features using a quill and ink. They found this process to be rather exciting. (Currently hanging in the Marshall Middle School). Prior to the daily monsters was a project based off of Gustav Klimt s tree of life. We created a collage from paint chips, or the cards for paint colors that are anywhere that sells paint. We also used watercolor paint for the background of these projects. The Gustav Klimt inspired trees are on display at the Lyon County Public Library. Our first project was a still life where the students were challenged to draw four or more objects. Within this project we not only drew out the objects, but we learned how to shade to make dimension using pencil and color pencil. (Currently hanging in the Marshall Middle School). 8th Grade Art The first project in eighth grade this year was their leaving a legacy project. This project was based off of the artist Peter Max. Students first had their photo taken profile style, then the students transferred this photo on to their canvas, and created a Peter Max-like painting. Their next project was a single object still life, they could choose from their shoe, or an object that I had chosen. This project, much like the still life we worked on in seventh grade, had also used the materials colored pencils, as well as a pencil, learning to shade to show dimension. (Currently hanging in the Marshall Middle School). After our still life project we learned how to make plaster facemasks, where Ms. Jansen (our student teacher in Art) had a couple of students plaster her face! (Photo included) When our masks were made, and dried, we painted them in the style of Bridget Riley. Bridget Riley is an OP (optical illusion) art painter. The most recent project in 8th grade is a sculpture. We started creating these projects by measuring out 7x7 squares, and then made bubble letters for our names. Next we painted our letters in patterns, and then assembled our sculptures. These sculptures were a creative and fun way to add sculpture in to our curriculum.

7 Nurse Notes Nurse Notes Page 7 Calling all Flu shots recipients calling all Flu shots recipients!! It is not too early to give yourself and the people around you a gift for the upcoming holidays: protection from influenza. It is important to get influenza vaccine every year, according to health officials. The vaccine often changes from year to year because the strains of virus circulating around the world can change every year. Although the strains included in the vaccine this year are the same as last year, people still need to be vaccinated since the level of protection wanes over the course of a year. Minnesota immunization law requires and mandates that ALL students have required immunizations. If your son/daughter is not in compliance of this state law, he/she can be withheld from school until proof of immunization is obtained. Reminder: For 7th grade, children need additional immunizations. These typically include tetanus/diphtheria with acellular pertussis (Tdap), an additional Varicella shot, and possibly MMR and/or Hepatitis B series. It is important for MPS to receive a copy of these immunizations early so that we can bring your child's school health records up to date. Thank you for making sure your child gets immunized! What is the new chickenpox requirement? Beginning in September 2009 parents of children entering kindergarten or 7th grade will need to: Have written documentation their child received two chickenpox (Varicella) shots or has had the disease, OR Have written documentation of a medical exemption signed by the child s healthcare provider, OR File a notarized waiver with their school if they are conscientiously opposed to chickenpox vaccine. Note: The CDC recommends that if children previously received one dose, they should get a second dose next time they go to the doctor or if there is an outbreak in their school. Influenza or the flu is caused by viruses in the RESPIRATORY tract. This is an airborne/direct contact virus. Cough into your shoulder or use a Kleenex! Proper HAND WASHING is VERY important during this season!!! Children should be fever free (not medicated) for at least 24 hours before returning to school. Symptoms may include: Rapid onset of fever (over 100.0) Chills Non-productive cough Extreme exhaustion/tiredness/weakness Sore Throat Runny Nose Headache Body aches Children should be fever free (Not medicated) for at least 24 hours before returning to school. Reminder: Please keep your child home from school for at least 24 hrs after their fever (101 degrees or higher) is gone. Fever should be gone without the use of a fever reducer medication. If vomiting or diarrhea, student needs to be free of episodes for 24 hours. Symptoms of the stomach flu may be: Diarrhea there may be blood or mucus in the stool Other symptoms by include: nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, and fever Children that are NOT feeling well and/or need to use the bathroom at frequent intervals should not be in school. Lindsay Pelz, RN BSN PHN Marshall Middle School Nurse Ext lindsay.pelz@marshall.k12.mn.us An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

8 Reading Coaches Reading Coaches Tips for Parents of High School and Middle School Readers What counts as reading? Many readers definitions of reading are bound too tightly to novels and textbooks. Help your reader value authentic text that requires comprehension, but goes outside the lines drawn at school. Menus, song lyrics, birth and death certificates, graphic novels (comics), recipes, product manuals, brochures, sports score sheets, event schedules, maps, games, etc. Browse. For informational text, such as articles or textbook chapters, guide your reader to meaningful or powerful selections. Find what will get your reader hooked on the content. Then read around this hook to gain more context and perspective. (Think about how you read the newspaper.) Draw. Diagramming and drawing content learned in Sciences and Social Studies texts will help your reader synthesize and organize information for long-term memory. Graphic organizers are a great resource to organize thinking. Ask and Answer Real Questions. Readers who read with questions in mind create an opening in the mind waiting for a connection. For specific question routines, do an Internet search on SQ3R, Reciprocal Questioning, and QAR. Readers need to read with a question in mind in order to draw out information. Critical Thinking. The facts find a place to live in the mind when we question them. Who cares? Why is it that way? How does it work? Why did the authors say it that way? What do they assume I believe? Who benefits and who is excluded? One set of guidelines can be found at criticalthinking.net (see address below*). Technology. Learn what your reader is doing with the phone and Facebook. Stanford researcher Andrea Lundsford finds technology at the heart of an unprecedented surge in writing. She sees adolescents turning out high-volume writing for real audiences (aspects of writing difficult to achieve until now). Never mind if the topics seem juvenile, valid concepts are involved! See the Stanford University website (address below**). From the Colorado Council International Reading Association * ** Page 8 Counselor s Corner Counselor s Corner Our 7 th grade students attended the Youth Frontiers Courage Retreat on Wednesday, September 5 th. Youth Frontiers is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that partners with schools to build positive communities where students thrive socially, emotionally and academically. Our vision is to change the way kids treat each other in every hallway, lunch line and classroom of every school in America. ( The Courage Retreat helps to create a school where everyone is welcomed. The leaders work hard to inspire the students to follow their hearts instead of following the crowd. Students are taught how to use moral courage to stand of for their values and make responsible decisions. In focus groups with participants, students reported a reduction in fighting and bullying in general (CAREI Report, 2011). On October 17 th, our 8 th graders will be taking the ACT Explore career and college preparedness assessment. ACT Explore is the first part of a testing system that goes on to include PLAN (10 th grade) and ACT (11 th and 12 th grades.) ACT Explore assesses 8 th grade students in the areas of English, Math, Reading and Science. This test also has a career interest inventory which asks students questions about their plans after high school and about their interests in several kinds of career options. The ACT Explore test assists students in selecting the right classes to align them to their initial career goals. Please call the Middle School Student Services office if you have questions about this test, , extension 4004.