Blessings to you on this gorgeously sunny day!
Just a note about...
8th Grade MLA Research Papers: You may have heard of this paper already. The guidelines and due dates have already been distributed, and the requirements have been explained. The eighth graders are learning how to properly research and will hopefully master writing a paper in MLA format. This process should not be overwhelming at all if your student follows the simple agenda. Also, this is a combined English and History grade as Mr. Jensema also wants to impart his knowledge of how to research and choose sources. The English component will include the writing and formatting of ideas and how to properly cite in the paper. Mr. Jensema and I will be holding their hands throughout this paper and will be guiding them very carefully. Please check with your student for the list of requirements.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Field Trip!
Dear 8th Grade Parents,
A week from today, we will be going to visit the Greek Orthodox Church (Aristotle Theofilis's church). This will be a wonderful opportunity for the class to get a look at Eastern Orthodoxy in light of our recent Bible unit. The majority of the students mentioned that they have never seen the inside of such a church, and although Ari's descriptions and the pictures in our texts gave us a general idea, we thought it would be cool to check it out for ourselves. Ari's priest will be showing us around and answering any questions we may have about the church.
The drivers for this trip are Mrs. Theofilis, Pastor Handley, Pastor Schmidtberger, who has taken many TCS students on church tours in the past. Thank you, drivers! :)
Please get those permission slips in! The cost is free, but the kids still need parental permission. We will be back in time for lunch, so no need to pack. If you have any questions about the trip, please email me.
Thanks!
A week from today, we will be going to visit the Greek Orthodox Church (Aristotle Theofilis's church). This will be a wonderful opportunity for the class to get a look at Eastern Orthodoxy in light of our recent Bible unit. The majority of the students mentioned that they have never seen the inside of such a church, and although Ari's descriptions and the pictures in our texts gave us a general idea, we thought it would be cool to check it out for ourselves. Ari's priest will be showing us around and answering any questions we may have about the church.
The drivers for this trip are Mrs. Theofilis, Pastor Handley, Pastor Schmidtberger, who has taken many TCS students on church tours in the past. Thank you, drivers! :)
Please get those permission slips in! The cost is free, but the kids still need parental permission. We will be back in time for lunch, so no need to pack. If you have any questions about the trip, please email me.
Thanks!
Monday, March 16, 2015
Back to Normalcy! :)
Finally, testing week is over! And, Lord willing, so are delays and cancellations! We still have much to cover in the classroom, and lots of learning is to be had by all! Despite this fact, we did take twenty minutes of time to take the students outside today. Here is a picture of some sweet seventh grade girls enjoying their time in the sun. :)
And here is the briefest glimpse of what's happening indoors....
7th English: We are finishing our poetry unit this week with a test on Thursday! The students have learned how to write many forms of poetry and have studied a large variety of poems written by authors from all walks of life. The students also have gained a deeper understanding of literary terms in reference to poetry. We begin a new novel, Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez, next week, and we will be continuing with grammar and vocabulary lessons as well.
8th English: We are bringing our short story unit to a close this week. The unit will culminate with short stories written by each student. We have been learning how to develop characters, setting, plot, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The students have also read a variety of short stories from different cultures and different times and of different genres. We will start reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding next week. This is an excellent classic novel which bring an amazing depth of discussion to the classroom. There will be several writing assignments as well that coincide with our next unit.
7th Bible: We only have ONE unit left in the curriculum. Our current unit is on the intertestamental period in Biblical history. The students are usually intrigued about what happened between the old and new testaments. This unit also provides a wonderful time of spiritual growth in discovering how God is most certainly, always there, even when we don't see or hear Him. We learn to praise Him even more for the blessing of His Word!
8th Bible: We are on the very last unit in our text books. These 8th graders flew through the curriculum, but, more importantly, my prayer is that they grew closer to the Lord and have gained a deeper love and passion for His Word and His people. This current and last unit is about the modern church and includes lessons on cults. The students will be giving presentations on their own churches during this unit as well. We discuss more ways to minister and evangelize through a variety of activities. This is always an interesting time for our 8th grade class and my favorite unit of the whole year.
And here is the briefest glimpse of what's happening indoors....
7th English: We are finishing our poetry unit this week with a test on Thursday! The students have learned how to write many forms of poetry and have studied a large variety of poems written by authors from all walks of life. The students also have gained a deeper understanding of literary terms in reference to poetry. We begin a new novel, Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez, next week, and we will be continuing with grammar and vocabulary lessons as well.
8th English: We are bringing our short story unit to a close this week. The unit will culminate with short stories written by each student. We have been learning how to develop characters, setting, plot, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The students have also read a variety of short stories from different cultures and different times and of different genres. We will start reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding next week. This is an excellent classic novel which bring an amazing depth of discussion to the classroom. There will be several writing assignments as well that coincide with our next unit.
7th Bible: We only have ONE unit left in the curriculum. Our current unit is on the intertestamental period in Biblical history. The students are usually intrigued about what happened between the old and new testaments. This unit also provides a wonderful time of spiritual growth in discovering how God is most certainly, always there, even when we don't see or hear Him. We learn to praise Him even more for the blessing of His Word!
8th Bible: We are on the very last unit in our text books. These 8th graders flew through the curriculum, but, more importantly, my prayer is that they grew closer to the Lord and have gained a deeper love and passion for His Word and His people. This current and last unit is about the modern church and includes lessons on cults. The students will be giving presentations on their own churches during this unit as well. We discuss more ways to minister and evangelize through a variety of activities. This is always an interesting time for our 8th grade class and my favorite unit of the whole year.
Friday, February 27, 2015
THREE Reminders! :)
Don't Forget....
1. Tonight is Trinity's Spirit Night! Be in the gym at TCS at 6PM for a fabulous time! See The Trillium or the school website for more information. Admission is only $1 for kids and $2 for adults.
2. This Monday is DR. SEUSS DAY! All students from K-12 are allowed to dress up as any character from any work of Dr. Seuss, or they can simply wear a Dr. Seuss t-shirt! The middle school will be going down to read stories and make butter and bread with the kindergarten, first, and second graders. (Read The Butter Battle Book for further explanation.) Additionally, we will be having a schoolwide assembly in 6th period on Monday to celebrate this special day.
3. Standardized testing is the week of March 9th-13th. We will test for around two hours each day that week. On Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, the testing will take place in the morning, before lunch. On Wednesday and Thursday, the testing will take place in the afternoon, after lunch. We gave the students a specific chart regarding these testing times. Students will take the tests in their homerooms, and their homeroom teachers will administer the test. Please make sure your student is present and well rested during these days and times.
1. Tonight is Trinity's Spirit Night! Be in the gym at TCS at 6PM for a fabulous time! See The Trillium or the school website for more information. Admission is only $1 for kids and $2 for adults.
2. This Monday is DR. SEUSS DAY! All students from K-12 are allowed to dress up as any character from any work of Dr. Seuss, or they can simply wear a Dr. Seuss t-shirt! The middle school will be going down to read stories and make butter and bread with the kindergarten, first, and second graders. (Read The Butter Battle Book for further explanation.) Additionally, we will be having a schoolwide assembly in 6th period on Monday to celebrate this special day.
3. Standardized testing is the week of March 9th-13th. We will test for around two hours each day that week. On Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, the testing will take place in the morning, before lunch. On Wednesday and Thursday, the testing will take place in the afternoon, after lunch. We gave the students a specific chart regarding these testing times. Students will take the tests in their homerooms, and their homeroom teachers will administer the test. Please make sure your student is present and well rested during these days and times.
Monday, February 9, 2015
The Lock-In!
Permission slips and money were due today for the Annual Middle School Lock-In.
Below is a copy of the permission slip in case it was misplaced last week. Please get these in tomorrow at the latest! THANKS! :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JYou’re Invited!J
Who? TCS 7th and 8th
Graders
What? Middle School Lock-In
When? 7PM Friday, February 13th
– 8AM Saturday, February 14th
Where? Trinity Christian School-
meet in the cafeteria at 7PM
Why? We want to create lasting memories and bond
together as junior high students! J
How? We will have an entire
night of fellowship, games, food, worship, and more!
Please bring…
*$10 to cover the cost of pizza, drinks, and a
pancake breakfast in the morning! Any
leftover monies will be donated to the senior class who will be helping the
teachers chaperone this event! J
*a sleeping bag and pillow.
*any snacks you wish to share.
*your Bible for a time of devotions.
*athletic attire for a basketball
and volleyball competition
*modest, comfy clothes
NOTE: Only students who are
currently enrolled in 7th or 8th grade at Trinity
Christian School are permitted to attend the lock-in. Also, parents may be called to pick up their
student at anytime if necessary (for misbehavior, not abiding by rules,
etc.).
Please
return the bottom portion of this form and the $10 cost to a middle school
teacher by Monday, February 9th so that we may plan accordingly.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
My
student ____________________________________________ (name) has my permission
to participate in the Middle School Lock-In on February 13th.
Parent
Signature:________________________________________________________
PAID:________
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Chugging Along! :)
Can you believe we are at the half-way mark of the third quarter?! Progress reports already go out on February 13th!
Here is what your students are currently doing as well as a glimpse of what they have to look forward to in the remainder of the third quarter....
7th Bible: As we just finished our unit on the prophets, we have begun a unit on prayer. We are on the sixth unit, and there are only eight in the entire curriculum! These kids are flying through! More importantly, my prayer is that they are drawing nearer to Jesus during our Bible time together. Right now, their Scripture memory work is a four verse passage of their choosing that has to do with prayer. They submitted their individual choices today, and all were approved. Ask your student what part of God's Word he or she is currently memorizing!
7th English: We are currently in the midst of a non-fiction unit which started with learning how to write a formal business letter. Each student wrote to a business of his or her choosing, and we will see if we get any results from our sent letters! We are also on vocabulary lesson 8, and we are continuing in our grammar exercises as well! The students will enjoy reading some non-fiction selections from our literature text in the next two weeks. After this unit is through, we begin our poetry unit where we create our own poems as well as read some classical selections by Poe, Frost, Emmerson, and more.
8th Bible: Church history continues on! We are currently in the 1500s! (Please remember that we began with Pentecost in the book of Acts! Wow!) It is amazing to look through history to see how God has sustained His beautiful body of believers. We look to His Word daily in light of what our founding church fathers have taught. We pray that as we learn, we grow in a deeper understanding of what Scripture has to say about the church. We humbly ask for wisdom and guidance while looking at various beliefs on worship, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and more. I love this class's grace and kindness as well as interest in one another's church backgrounds. From Baptist, to Presbyterian, to Eastern Orthodox, to Anglican, to Evangelical Free, to Methodist, to Lutheran, and more-- the eighth grade is truly a picture of the diversity in The Body of Christ. How interesting it has been to see where each of us has derived our traditions, always seeing God's Word as the foundation of Truth. After these units on church history, we have a unit on "cults" and seeing the results of the church departing from The Scriptures.
8th English: The students did a fantastic job with our recent Shakespeare unit, and they completed wonderful literary essays on their interpretation of the themes of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now we are on to a short story unit! We will be reading some classic short stories from our literature text. We are currently on lesson 6 in vocabulary, and we definitely had fun with these words today. We are never short on laughter in the 8th grade. We press on with grammar and will be covering two more units of Shurley Grammar in the next three weeks in the midst of literature, writing, and vocabulary! After our short story unit, we will be writing speeches. Perhaps I will invite parents for the speech presentations? Hmmmm.... I will keep you posted!
THANK YOU for sharing your kids with me. They are doing a wonderful job. There are a few students who may be losing some gusto in this third quarter. Please make sure to check PowerSchool occasionally, and we will work together to hold your student accountable. Let's shoot for NO missing assignments this quarter! :)
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
THANK YOU! And news...
A special thank you to Mrs. Gunniers, Mrs. Robinson, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Echegaray, Mr. Smith, Mr. Drew, Mr. Judgie :), Mr. Jensema, and Mrs. Schroeder for driving the entire middle school to see The Hobbit!
I greatly appreciate all of your willingness to chaperone and drive!
THANK YOU! :)
In unrelated news, I am making a book order this Friday. If anyone wishes to order books, click the scholastic link on my website.
Additionally, I would like to remind everyone that The Classics Reading Challenge is underway! We are halfway through the school year, but it is not too late to start reading novels for this wonderful opportunity! For those of you who have already begun, keep pressing on! See me for information, books, forms, etc.
HAVE A GREAT DAY, EVERYONE!
I greatly appreciate all of your willingness to chaperone and drive!
THANK YOU! :)
In unrelated news, I am making a book order this Friday. If anyone wishes to order books, click the scholastic link on my website.
Additionally, I would like to remind everyone that The Classics Reading Challenge is underway! We are halfway through the school year, but it is not too late to start reading novels for this wonderful opportunity! For those of you who have already begun, keep pressing on! See me for information, books, forms, etc.
HAVE A GREAT DAY, EVERYONE!
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