News from Mrs. Morgan for Rm 9 Homeroom, 7-3 Reading, 6-7 and 6-9 Reading and Language Arts on this spectacularly sunny September Sunday! 

 

Back to School Night: Thank you so much for coming to STM on Monday night for Back to School Night! I appreciated seeing so many familiar faces and the care and concern with which you send your student to school each day. Thank you for supplying fresh masks, for reinforcing uniforms and homework, signing the green sheet on Thursdays, and checking assignments and homework in Google Classroom. I appreciate all that you do to help your middle school student as they navigate this "they still need you but they also don't want to tell you they need you" time in their lives!

 

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe: We are so thankful to the STM PTO and Mrs. Pacheco for this family reading program, and to Connor Brittle for continuing to run our answers every morning down to the office! Next week begins Chapters 7 & 8.  Whether TLTWTW is new to you or an old favorite, C.S. Lewis's book is always a special read! 

 

Battle of the Books: The Battle teams meet on Tuesdays at lunch in the outdoor classroom. Last week the team finished J. K. Rowling's The Ickabog and are beginning Lee Bacon's The Last Human. Mrs. Meehan and I generally attend, and even more importantly, generally read the books too! Mrs. Pacheco is assisted by Eva Tzanavara, Panagiotis's mom.  Thank you for volunteering with the Battle of the Books!

 

Room Parents: Thank you to Christine Rance and  Maria Parker (Cristina's mom)  for volunteering their time to be room parents for Rm. 9!  We appreciate in advance all that you will be doing for Rm. 9 and the 6th grade this year! First up is the Race for Education! Speaking of...

 

Race for Education: Coordinated by Christine Rance (Maria Dozier's mom) and Ann Marie Coolick, this fundraiser helps STM enormously to update the school - last year's funds went to the water bottle refilling stations and the BIG TENTS outside! T-shirts are free (please order your shirt at the link in the STM blast or PTO newsletter). 

 

Sock Day: Rm. 9 donations made $40 toward the awesome total collected - thank you for your generosity!

 

Middle School Dance:  The Middle School Dance is 4:30 - 6:30pm on Thursday. The admission price is canned food and costumes from the 60s - 80s are encouraged!  Stay tuned this week for more information (there may be cash needed for food trucks) as it is confirmed. The Student Council is doing a great job of getting the students excited for the dance by promoting fun "throwback" dances on the morning announcements, and playing "Name That Tune"! Even our most reluctant and/or quiet students will enjoy Thursday's social!

 

Reading 7: In Reading, the students are expected to be halfway through independently reading The Seventh Most Important Thing. There is a YouTube channel where all 53 chapters are read aloud, the link is here: https://youtu.be/NPC5T_QPbqU

If this resource is helpful for your student, please let me know! We are reading now for analyzing scenes for cause and effect: what are the causes of the problems? What are the effects of the problems? What emotions are the characters feeling, and why do they feel that way?

 

LA 6: The students are beginning a two-week Personal Narrative writing unit. They will enjoy pulling from their past experiences to create a piece of writing that will be enjoyable for the reader by using an engaging and interesting lead, a sequence of events, and reasoning that makes the personal narrative story a special one for them. 

 

Religion 6: The students will complete and check the Chapter 2 study guide on Monday and Tuesday and begin Chapter 3, Everything God Created is Good. on Thursday. Last week we had a fun (in a Catholic school sort of way!) Bible Hunt activity where we searched for various Scripture passages in the Old Testament. It really is amazing how well the students have demonstrated their knowledge of the Bible when they get to middle school! 

 

Reading 6: The 6th graders will be finishing Nine, Ten next week and are pulling together the four characters' stories and how they are impacted by September 11. There will be a Vocabulary in Action, List 2, test on Thursday. A link that your students can use to practice for these tests can be found here: http://www.vocabularyinaction.com/students/sr-level-g

 

Best wishes for a great week!

Mrs. Morgan