Team 6B ---LITTLE GIANTS!!!!…..

What a great start to the new school

year! It’s hard to believe that we are

already at the end of the first grading

period. We are thrilled to begin this

new adventure with all of our students.

Our goal is to create a strong, success-

ful team through a combined effort of

our students, parents, and teachers.

Our core teachers are Mrs. Equihua

(Math), Mrs. Pugh (Math), Mrs. Buelow

(Language Arts) , Mrs. Howard

(Language Arts), Miss Huebner

(Language Arts), Mrs. Blue (Science),

Mrs. Jeremiah (Science/Social Studies),

and Mr. Holobawski (Social Studies).

In Social Studies, students have finished

our Geography section and will now be

learning about the Ancient Greek civili-

zation. The students will learn how the

Greeks spread their culture through

Europe and Asia through colonization,

trade, and conquest.

In Science, students will be finishing up

their Astronomy Unit with Chapter 6 and

an Astronomy Post Test. They will

participate in an Oreo moon phase lab

and other fun labs to visualize different

space phenomena’s. Students will also

be going on a field trip to the Challenger

Learning Center. Students will be able

to carry out a simulated space mission

to Mars and see a a show in the plane-

tarium

In English, students just finished “The

Interactions with Self” Unit. They have

read several stories featuring characters

with diverse traits and life circumstanc-

es. Students are discovering what self-

awareness is, challenges that they face,

and similarities that we all experience as

we grow up. They have been able to

reflect on their own traits and personali-

ties comparing them to those of the

characters that they are reading about.

Students have also taken a look at the

six traits, or “ingredients” that make up

good writing as a foundation for the

upcoming narrative and argumentative

essays that they will write this quar-

ter. They are off to a great start, and

we encourage you to keep reading 20

minutes every night.

The second quarter in Math will have

the students working with decimals

and fractions. They will focus on num-

ber theory dealing with Greatest Com-

mon Factor, Least Common Multiple,

and Prime factorization.

Overall, our team has really started out

well. Please remind all students to

check the agendas for each subject in

BUZZ to see all of their homework

assignments. Also, check BUZZ for all

homework throughout the week.

Thank you to all of our wonderful par-

ents for supporting your children so far

this school year. Please don’t hesitate

to contact us if you have any questions

or concerns.

Team 6A- It is hard to believe that we have

already completed one quarter. Hopefully

your child has settled in nicely here and feels

at home now. We are looking forward to a

very successful second quarter. Below you

will find a snapshot of what the team will be

covering in the next nine weeks.

Language Arts- Over the last nine weeks,

students have been learning about self-

confidence and self-awareness through sto-

ries that we have read. Students are learning

how to become more confident and self-

aware through our stories and activities that

we have competed. Moreover, students have

learned essential reading comprehension

skills such as finding main idea, theme, and

making inferences about characters. They will

take these skills that we have learned and

apply them to our upcoming writing assign-

ment.

Math- In Mrs. Slosson’s math class, all stu-

dents are reminded to bring their math note-

book to class every day to take down notes and

complete them during the lesson. The exam-

ples from the notes are helpful in completing

practice work, review work and to help study for

quizzes and tests. Students also complete as-

signments in their notebooks. No pages are to

ever be torn out from the notebook.

All students use the Chrome books for our

online textbook, practice quizzes, Moby Max,

Prodigy and especially to see the assignment

each day on their math Buzz Agenda. The Buzz

Agenda also can show upcoming quizzes or

test. If a student is absent, all they would need

to do is check the Buzz Agenda for the assign-

ment for that day. Our online text is my.hrw.com

username and password: tmath27

This quarter students will be working on: adding,

subtracting, multiplying, and dividing Decimals

and Fractions. We will also solve equations with

decimals and fractions.

In honor’s class this quarter, students will be

working with equations, inequalities, and deci-

mals. We will also be working with proportion-

al relationships.

Like the regular math class, all assignments

are located on Buzz Agenda. The username

and password for the online textbook

is hmath36.

Science- As students move into our second

grading period, the students have completed

their studies of our solar system. They will

now move on to learning how the Earth moon

and sun interact. This unit will involve such

concepts as the seasons on Earth, the phases

of the moon, and tides, amongst many oth-

ers. We will also be taking a field trip to the

Challenger Center.

Social Studies- The second nine weeks will

take students halfway around the world and

back in time to Ancient Greece and Rome.

This is a time and place that holds the roots to

our democratic society. The students will be

deciding if Alexander was really Great, and

come to know why all roads lead to Rome.

Special

Points of

Interest:

Congratula-

tions Spell

Bowl Team!!!

Notes from the

Nurse

Guidance News

ISTEP+ Ac-

countability In-

formation

November 23-

24 Thanksgiving

Vacation No

School

Robert Taft Middle School

1000 S. Main St, Crown Point IN 46307

219-663-1507/ https://www.cps.k12.in.us/Domain/167

October/November 2017/2018

ended with a review of key concepts

and an introduction to the elements of

fiction, which will begin the second

grading period. Our second grading

period will begin with a unit on sus-

pense, where we will read “The Tell-

Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe,

among other suspenseful fictional

pieces. Before long, Winter Break will

be upon us. This has been a very

enjoyable first grading period, and it

has been rewarding seeing our stu-

dents grow stronger in their skills.

Team 7A would like to thank the students and parents for such a great start to the school year. We’ve enjoyed getting to know your children. We can’t wait to see what this year has to bring.

In Math 7, students will be explor-ing multi-step equations, solving proportions, using the customary and metric systems of measure-ment, and exploring real life per-cent application problems. In pre-algebra, students will be working with factors, fractions, and expo-nents, rational numbers and equa-tions, and ratios, proportions, and probability.

Team 7A Language Arts students spent the first quarter learning

about physical challenges through fiction and nonfiction texts. Stu-dents focused on two units cen-tered around challenging careers as well as physical de-mands. Students completed an argumentative writing assignment and learned how to make claims and support them with textual evi-dence. Students will now begin the next unit which focuses on heroes.

Science-7: Right now the stu-dents are exploring earth structure and movement, with a focus on earthquakes. Next students will turn our attention to rocks, explor-ing the unique properties of the minerals within and the processes

involved in the rock cycle. We’ll close out this semester with our study of energy.

In social studies class, students have learned the ancient history of the Middle East. The roots and achievements of the Mesopotami-an and Egyptian river civilizations were a large focus. Content then shifted to the birth of monotheistic religions, as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were covered. Students will be moving on to a very compli-cated subject, the modern Middle East. Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Iran will be key topics.

ries, “The Possibility of Evil” and “The

Lottery.” These two stories helped to

reinforce the standards/concepts of

plot, point of view, conflict, mood and

tone, irony, foreshadowing and flash-

back, and textual evidence. Students

were taught all these standards and

had many Skills Builders for practice in

order to be able to apply the concepts

to their readings. Students then

moved on to our non-fiction pieces

about the Civil War, where textual

evidence and figurative language were

important elements to the understand-

ing of the texts. The grading period

It is hard to believe that the first grad-

ing period is already over. The stu-

dents in Mrs. Weiss’ and Mrs. Zembil-

las’ classes have been very busy

learning. There were many stand-

ards/concepts taught. The school year

began with a grammar lesson on sen-

tence structure, which will be applied

throughout the school year. Then, the

students were taught about narrative

writing, and they wrote their first essay

of the year. Following the narrative

essay, students did a short back-

ground search on the author Shirley

Jackson, as they read two of her sto-

already and will complete more before the

end of the semester. During the second

quarter, the science students will explore

earthquakes and volcanoes to finish up

their unit on Earth’s structure and move-

ment. Then, they surge forward and learn

all about energy transfer. Topics will in-

clude light and sound waves, kinetic ener-

gy, potential energy, and Newton’s laws of

motion.

For the second quarter in regular math

classes, students will be working on topics

from chapters 12, 4, 5, and 6. These will

include such topics as multi-step equa-

tions, using proportions, and problem-

solving as it relates to real world situations,

such as doing comparison shopping. In

pre-algebra classes, students will continue

to work with rational numbers. They will

cover topics from chapters 4, 5, 7, and

lessons 1-6 of chapter 6. They will spend a

great deal of time with fractions and pro-

portions in this quarter.

In Social Studies, students have studied

how the early civilizations in Mesopotamia

and Egypt were able to grow, develop, and

thrive. Also, students have learned how

and why the first Monotheistic religions

were able to emerge. In the second quar-

ter, students will look at conflicts in the

middle east as well as focusing on the

history of ancient and modern Africa.

Students on the Wolfpack Team, 7B, have

gotten off to a great start for this school

year. In English class, students have

learned about theme, mood, and tone in a

unit that focuses on physical challenges.

Students will continue to work on the liter-

ary elements of theme, mood and tone into

second quarter. After completing an argu-

mentative essay on the Education in Spar-

ta, students will write an informational

essay in second quarter that dissects a

character in the short story, The Diamond

Necklace.

In science, the students began the school

year by learning about lab safety, scientific

method, metric measurement and plate

tectonics. They have participated in 4 labs

In Science, students have started

off their year studying an introduc-

tion to chemistry. Students have

looked at the atom and how it is

structured as well as the periodic

table of elements and how it is

organized by this atomic structure.

Students ended the quarter with

the Element Information Poster

Project, where each student had

to research a given element and

create a poster including this re-

search. The students really

seemed to enjoy this project and

did a wonderful job on the posters!

In the second quarter, students

started the quarter with the Period-

ic Word Project, where students

were given the task of spelling a

word using only the symbols from

elements from the periodic table.

The challenge here is that they

could not use the same word as

anyone else on our team and the

word had to be able to be illustrat-

ed in some way. Students created

some very creative posters that

will be displayed on the wall out-

side our classrooms as a result of

this project. They will continue

their study of chemistry with chem-

ical bonding and chemical reac-

tions. Students will be looking at

how the elements we studied from

the periodic table react to and with

each other to form every day reac-

tions and common chemicals that

we use everyday. It will be a fun

quarter filled with a lot of hands-on

lab activities!

Science Olympics-

Mrs. Adamski’s Classes

The students worked hard over

the first quarter completing work

and receiving stamps in return.

For every five stamps earned, the

students increase their status and

receive a raffle ticket to enter into

the class raffle. The status levels

are Qualifier, Bronze, Silver, Gold,

and Platinum. Students reaching

Gold status completed all 20 as-

signments required for the stamp

sheet. Students reaching Plati-

num status went above and be-

yond the 20 required assignments

and completed at least six extra

assignments!! Outstanding effort

and devotion! All students achiev-

ing Gold and/or Platinum status for

all four quarters will be invited to a

special celebration at the end of

the school year.

The following students achieved

Platinum Status in quarter 1:

Kiara Vasquez-Klein, Griffin

Dusseau, Carmen Hernandez,

Kailey Callander, Arisha Raza,

Brayden Weller, Clare Dillon,

Kaylee Porche, Joey Yang, Fati-

ma Pasha, Gabby Hometorwu,

Kylie LaChapelle

As the school year gets underway, students have already played many fun

sports and prepare for more. As always, they continue to have plenty of cardiovascular

activities and days where that is our main focus. We encourage you to participate in ac-

tivities that you and your children can do together as well as encouraging your child to try

new activities that increase their personal fitness levels. One of our goals, as a staff, is

teaching students to set new goals for themselves and finding ways to achieve them. Our

main focus is to teach students that total wellness is balance of a sound mind, body, emo-

tions and relationships.

All the students in health and P.E. classes took the Presidential Fitness test.

We had fifty five students who achieved Presidential status. Please ask your child how he

or she did and what their goals are for the end of the year when they take it again. We

look forward to the next nine weeks and finding new ways to stay fit!

Pre-AP Biology- This first quarter students have focused on charac-teristics of life, cells, and cell pro-cesses. This second quarter they will be working on DNA and ge-netics. Students have had some great labs, and looking forward to participating in some more labs and activities to reinforce and see

real applications of the topics.

Pre-Algebra students have started off the year in a positive direction! They began the

year reviewing Order of Operations and Evaluating Expression while strengthening our

Integers rules skills. For the last month, students have been working on getting more

comfortable and confident when working with fractions. All of their hard work has paid

off and students are beginning to see successes!

Algebra students are also growing in their math skills. They are applying their preexist-

ing knowledge to understand new concepts. It is fun to watch them deepen their under-

stand and make connections at the same time. So far, we have covered Foundations of

Algebra, Equations and Inequalities including compound statements and absolute values.

“Parent involvement” is more important than physical presence at

school. A parent’s presence at school isn’t correlated to student achievement.

What is correlated to student achievement is whether the parent is involved, which means the following:

1. Parents know where their children are at night.

2. They know who their children’s friends are.

3. They know if their children have homework.

They have high expectations, support, and persistence.

-AMLE Magazine March 2014

REALITY STORE!

Friday, November 3rd, 2017

8th grade students attending Robert A. Taft & Colonel John Wheeler Middle Schools will participate in the

Reality StoreSM

What is the Reality StoreSM?

Students will be able to walk in the shoes of their 28 year old self. They will choose an occupation and be given a checking account with the monthly salary amount for that job. At the store, headed by area busi-ness volunteers, students will spend their money on the necessities and luxuries that they plan to as an adult. They will buy a house and car, pay for utilities, food, insurance and education. During the event, students will be thrown a curve ball with a “Reality check,” an unexpected situation such as a broken air conditioner or the loss of a job and make the necessary accommodations. At the end of the event, students can spend their re-maining money on luxuries, such as vacations and entertainment. The students will take a pre and post survey to measure the effectiveness of the event. The lesson we want them to learn is this, “Will you be able to pro-vide the financial resources to provide the type of lifestyle you wish for?”

Goals of the Reality StoreSM

To help all students learn basic skills in financial planning, goal setting, decision-making and ca-

reer planning.

To clarify the need for students to examine their attitudes about their futures and their career ex-

pectations.

To motivate students to stay in school, stay away from drugs and other risky behaviors.

Recently 7th grade hearing and 8th grade vision screening was com-pleted by our corporation. These screening are state mandated and helpful with finding new problems as well as monitoring old ones. New referrals and follow ups to known problems are in the process of being completed and sent out to parents. Please respond to these referrals. If you have any questions about the referrals or in-formational letters please call Mrs. Brown, Taft’s school nurse at ext. 12081.

Our Fall Scholastic Book Fair is sched-uled for November 6-10, 2017. The

Fair will be open daily from 7:30a.m. – 3:00p.m. This event supports the Taft Media Center reading program, and new books are purchased with the

funds generated from this sale.

Thank you in advance for supporting Taft’s Fall Book Fair!

If you would like to make a purchase online please visit

http://www.scholastic.com/bf/taftmiddleschoolcrownpoint

The Crown Point Community School Corporation

garnered an “A” grade on statewide accountabil-

ity. The Indiana Department of Education re-

leased A through F accountability grades for

schools across the state. This year, the grades

were calculated in a way that focused on both

students' proficiency on the ISTEP+ and student

growth. Robert A. Taft Middle School re-

ceived an accountability grade of “B”.

The Robert A. Taft Middle School Spell Bowl Team competed in the Area Indiana Academic Spell Bowl Junior Division competition on No-vember 1, 2017 at Clifford Pierce Middle School in Merrillville. The Spell Bowl Team ended the evening with a first place finish. Marianne Gero-na, Rocco Jann, and Sanjana Kumar all earned near-perfect ribbons. Sampreethi Swaminathan, Lucas Dannels, Krisitan Maunes, Rosalie Degenhart, and Capitan, Daniel Sibincic, all received perfect ribbons. This is the first time that the entire team of Taft Spellers placed with a score of perfect or near-perfect, only missing 3 words out of 72 for the night. The team is coached by Liz Franklin. She stated that, “The entire team of 16 students has had one goal all season, and that is to place first at the state competition on November 11, 2017 at Purdue Universi-ty. This is a team effort. All 16 students push and encourage each other to do their best.” The other students on the team are Jackson Fronek, Chris Gloff, David Garrison, Charlie Hagerman, Ysabel Maunes, Tristin Pool, Travis Roiter, and Kennedy Silberhorn. Vickie Nelson has been filling the role of assistant coach this year.