News & Notes South Fayette Middle School November, 2017 Sixth Grade Submitted by The Sixth Grade Team In Social Studies, the students have been delving into the foundation of the US government. We have found that our cherished governmental form of democracy was modeled after ancient Greek ideas beginning around 500 B.C. A successful civilization realized that caring and representing the people would prove to be more successful than ruling by force or a king owning the land 2,514 years ago. In the other civilizations, students analyzed how kings, dynasties, tyrants, and emperors were all other forms of ruling. Also, repeating events such as shifting of power and strong leadership played a role in changing the forms of government throughout history. Students in Mathematical Functions have been busy multiplying and dividing fractions. At first, students practiced estimating with fractions. Then, they began finding the product of fractions, whole numbers, and mixed numbers. Students are also making sure that their final answers are in simplest form. If you hear sixth graders saying the chant, Keep, Change, Flip, this doesn t deal with gymnastics. Rather, the saying reminds students the steps that need to be taken in order to divide fractions. Students in science finished the unit on chemistry and are now looking at sound waves. Sound waves are more than what we hear. They are a form of energy we can feel as vibrations. Students are making connections between the knowledge gained in chemistry and sound. For instance, students are understanding why sound travels slower in air compared to solids. They are finding out that sound travels faster when the air temperature is warmer. It s all about the particle motion of atoms at different temperatures. The warmer the air, the faster the atoms are moving, which allows the vibration of sound to travel faster. Students will continue learning more about another form of energy in the next unit, Electromagnetic Waves. In Language Arts 6, students have continued developing critical reading strategies while engaging in rich literature. These strategies include: summarizing text using the Somebody- Wanted-But-So method; character analysis with the Traits-Motivation-Conflict-Point of View- Relationships outline; and making generalizations utilizing the It Says-I Say-So method. In addition to reading and responding to text, students have broadened their repertoire of vocabulary to include over 50 higher-level words. Students have utilized context clues strategies to infer word meanings, and have written paragraph responses to cagey questions to demonstrate their vocabulary acquisition. Besides writing with vocabulary, students have begun to develop their text dependent analysis writing skills by providing relevant text evidence from stories and poems, and offering explanation and analysis of the evidence. Finally, students were immersed in a poetry / figurative language unit through early November. We delved together into the structure, meter, rhyme scheme, tone, mood, and message of a variety of poems, while
also analyzing the poets use of figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, idioms, hyperbole, onomatopoeia). As a culmination to this unit, students have worked to craft an original poem incorporating figurative language and sensory details. Seventh Grade Submitted by The Seventh Grade Team Pre-algebra students are completing calculations on rational numbers and classification in the real number system. We are also learning about the Distributive Property, adding, subtracting and factoring linear expressions. Algebra students are learning about Linear Functions. This includes graphing linear equations, solving linear equations by graphing, rate of change and slope, direct variation, arithmetic sequences as linear functions, and proportional and nonproportional relationships. The topic of Equations of Linear Functions is upcoming that includes various forms of linear equations. This month in language arts, students are being introduced to dramas with the play The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that is read aloud in class after students choose roles to act out. Students are challenged to contemplate larger ideas, such as Where do superstitions come from? and What makes ghost stories enjoyable? and What do legends tell us about history? Students will then turn their attention to nonfiction text by examining the central idea of turning failure into success with an emphasis on text structure and other nonfiction elements. Finally, students will strengthen their writing skills by completing a comma unit. This unit examines precise rules as to when to use this punctuation mark for clear written communication. During the month of November, students will engage with material related to the events of the American Revolution. This part of our curriculum focuses on the birth of the new nation, being the United States. These sections of instruction will focus on developing student understanding of the United States Constitution, organization of the U.S. government and the presidency of George Washington. Students will also begin their research and planning for the end of the semester project, The Living Wax Museum. This month students will be participating in our chemistry unit. The students will be focusing on the concepts related to chemical reactions and chemical bonding. Throughout this unit the students will participate in a variety of labs where they create and/or observe various chemical reactions. These labs are designed to help the students better understand concepts such as; What is a chemical reaction? How can chemical reactions be identified and classified?, Can chemical reactions can be sped up or slowed down?, and What chemical reactions are occurring around us everyday?
Eighth Grade Submitted by The Eighth Grade Team As the month of November began, Honors Geometry students completed a unit on parallel and perpendicular lines. Students first discussed the relationships between lines and the difference between parallel lines and skew lines. They reviewed the types of angles that are formed when lines are intersected by a transversal, and then focused on the relationships between these angles when the lines are parallel. They used these relationships, stated as postulates, theorems, and converses, to write formal proofs involving parallel lines. The focus then shifted to algebra as students worked with slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines to write and graph equations. The unit concluded with determining the distance from a point to a line and completing formal proofs of theorems related to perpendicular lines. Throughout the rest of November, Honors Geometry students will be working on a unit devoted to congruent triangles and applying and proving triangle properties. Students will first review the different types of triangles as well as the triangle sum theorem. They will then move to working with congruent triangles, including writing accurate congruence statements and working with rigid transformations. The latter part of the unit will focus on discovering triangle congruence shortcuts that allow students to determine what parts of two triangles are necessary to determine whether or not they are congruent. This information will be used to write formal proofs of triangle congruence. Finally, the unit will conclude with properties specific to isosceles and equilateral triangles. In Algebra, students continued their work on the Linear Functions unit. After focusing on methods for determining slope and rate of change, students then used this knowledge to begin to study the first of several different linear models, slope-intercept form for a linear function (y = mx + b). They used their graphing calculators to investigate how changing both the m and the b values in an equation affects the graph of the line. This then led to a more solid understanding of slope and y-intercept. Students were asked to write equations in slope-intercept form when given various situations, including being asked to find slope and y-intercept from a graph. They will continue to work with writing equations from tables of values, from two ordered pairs, and from verbal models where an emphasis will be placed on application problems that link these concepts to real-world situations. After mastering slope-intercept form, students will move on to study both standard and point-slope forms for linear equations. In language arts, students began their exploration of short fiction with the Tales of the Strange and Mysterious unit. The students started the unit with an investigation into the genre of mystery fiction by reading The Bus to Winnipeg as well as by exploring urban legends, which they used to create readers theatre presentations that were performed. Many students had the opportunity to showcase their performances a second time by performing in front of the entire eighth grade on our middle school theatre stage. Additionally, the students sharpened their analyzation skills as they read and discussed The Landlady by Roald Dahl in preparation for a text-dependent analysis essay that they are composing. Students will follow the MLA writing format as they draft, revise, and edit essays that analyze the author s use of specific writing
techniques to create suspense in this piece of horror fiction. Students also continued their work with grammar skills as they continue to review the parts of speech. In history, students began their exploration of Jacksonian Democracy by examining the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the challenges that this compromise brought to an increasingly unstable Union. Additionally, students investigated the various reform movements of this time period by creating digital and interactive presentations highlighting the research that they had gathered on such topics as education reform, aiding the disadvantaged, gaining women s rights, abolishing slavery, and attacking alcohol. Students also learned about the transcendentalism movement and developed Google Slides presentations analyzing the five tenets of transcendentalism and identifying song lyrics from a variety of musical genres that illustrate the ideals of those tenets. Finally, students will be examining Jackson s war with the National Bank as well as his policy on the removal of the Native American Indian population through the reading of primary source documents and participation in a Socratic seminar near the end of November. Thanks to the Trout In the Classroom program, over 400 brook trout eggs arrived at the middle school and are growing and thriving in our aquarium. Most of the trout are currently in the sacfry stage, growing as they consume what s left of egg nutrients. Soon, when the egg is absorbed, they will be freely swimming in the tank we will start to feed them. Our participation in the Trout In the Classroom program was made possible through a unique partnership between PA Fish and Boat Commission and PA Council of Trout Unlimited. This partnership, coupled with assistance from local conservation organizations, was created to introduce Pennsylvania students to coldwater resources and their importance to all communities. The partnership also provides brook trout eggs, trout food, technical assistance, curriculum connections and teacher workshops each year. We have concluded our unit on Motion and Energy, which involved the students in a variety of hands-on investigations and inquiries including: construction and analysis of working roller coasters, measuring and graphing our own motion both by hand and with the aid of motion probes and software, and the use of various online resources such as the Energy Skate Park and the Moving Man. Students in science 8 will investigate the different forms of energy and energy resources in our next unit. Students will trace the flow of energy through its different forms from its source to a chosen output, such as a person moving or a toaster heating up. We are also looking forward to discovering more about our energy resources, including renewable sources of energy, which will culminate in a student-centered town hall meeting. Our students will debate the pros and cons of various energy sources and ultimately decide the best option to power a fictional town. Foreign Language Department French Club Middle school French Club students travelled to Franktuary in Lawrenceville recently to sample poutine, considered to be French-Canadian junk food. It is a base of French fries with fresh cheese curds and brown gravy. Students could also choose other forms of poutine: baked potato, with sour cream and jalapeños, spicy Korean style with kim chee, or Texas style with cheddar
cheese, jalapeños and chili. Students agreed it would be a welcome addition to their snack rotation! Special Needs Department Learning Support Last week, students had a Fall Festival Celebration. The students practiced life skills by cooking Chex Mix in the morning. In the afternoon, the students got to use fine motor and art skills to gut and carve pumpkins and then bake the pumpkin seeds! To end the day, students practiced appropriate social skills such as turn taking while playing fun-themed games such as pin the spider on the web and mummy wrap. Enrichment History Bowl: On October 24, 2017, students from all over Allegheny County gathered at the Heinz History Center for a day of exploring and learning in a friendly competition called the History Bowl. Students visited the exhibits and completed fact-finding tasks using the Heinz exhibit, Sports Museum, and Special Collections. Congratulations to our South Fayette participants: Somdatta Basu, Hannah Hutton, Jack McCormack, Daniel Wensuslaus, Jolie Barksdale, Chase Krewson, Tyler Passyn, Josh Strope, Jack Bishop, Brady Fleck, and Sophia Fratto. Library News The library club held its annual fall book fair during the week of November 6. The book fair not only encourages our students to read, but it also raises money for our library. Members of the library club worked diligently to create a fair that really shined - from our starry front door to our decorative lights to our amazing advertisements. With our chosen theme of "Glow in the Dark," the lights in the library were dimmed and students used mini-flashlights to shop at the fair. Special thanks to the members of the library club for all their hard work in creating another successful book fair! National Junior Art Honor Society News On Tuesday, October 30 th, the NJAHS traveled to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens to see the Super Natural Glass Art Show by the artist Jason Gamrath. There were 20 students in attendance. The Fall Flower Show was already taking place and among the flowers and plants, there were large, supersized flowers and plants crafted from blown glass towering over them. The glass pieces shared areas where glass pieces by the artist Dale Chihuly already existed, part of the permanent collection at the conservatory. Members were truly amazed at what they saw! Pausing often to take photos of the displays, and getting a selfie or two in with their friends. There was so much to see that day! After a trip to the gift shop, the group made the customary visit to Wendy s for dinner before returning to the school. On Wednesday, November 15 th, the NJAHS will once again paint the windows of the Middle School cafeteria. The theme will combine fall and winter scenes, along with a hint of the Holiday
season. The students are always excited to paint the windows, they arrive enthusiastically with ideas and are eager to begin their paintings. On Wednesday, November 29 th, Rob Rogers, editorial cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, will be presenting and conducting a workshop for the NJAHS. It s great to have him back again at the middle school. His presentations are always very entertaining, humorous, and educational. Middle School Python Programming - 8th Grade We are near the end of the first trimester of Python and students have shown the ability to learn code in an interactive environment. They have successfully programmed statically and using a robotic device, called Finch robots, from BirdBrain Technology. A picture below shows how we have transformed a traditional classroom into an interactive classroom where the students move around freely using their 1:1 devices and program robots within a grid in an attempt to connect to NASA. Each grid simulates a fraction of Mars in which their collaborative group is required to search for missing satellite parts by programming the finch to move, make noise, light up and detect an object. The end goal is to collect all the satellite parts, use those parts, and connect to NASA to get rescued. The students thrived in this environment and it was a great introduction to Computer Science and Python programming.
Lion Hearts Halloween Dance 2017 Thank you to the students, staff, and parents who attended the Halloween Dance on October 14th. The Lion Hearts welcomed over 200 students to the dance and will be donating $500 to Animal Friends this year. Halloween Trick or Treating with Our Friends at Genesis and Country Meadows Members of both the Middle and Intermediate School Lion Hearts Club and siblings were invited to trick or treat with the residents at Country Meadows and Genesis during the month of October.
Students had the opportunity to play Halloween themed games, balloon ball, and categories. The next visit is scheduled for November 11th from 1:30 to 3:30. Members of the MS and IS Lion Hearts will be putting on a variety show for the residents. Beverly s Birthdays Party Supply and Gift Drive Comes to an End Lion Heart officers, Adam Schepis, Reena Mahendiran, and Paige Miller tally up points of supplies and gifts for Beverly s Birthday. Congratulations to Mr. Becker s homeroom, who will be heading to Beverly s Birthday for a special party of their own on November 17th. Mr. Becker s class earned 1, 054 points. In second place was Mr. Laughton s class (406 points) and in third place was Mrs. Harris class with 297 points. Thank you to all who supported the drive for Beverly s Birthdays!