Middle School Newsletter
October 2025
Dean Kfoury
Middle School Leadership Seminar:
This month in our Middle School Leadership Seminar, we officially introduced our Student Government Association (SGA), marking the beginning of an exciting leadership journey for our middle schoolers. We discussed what it truly means to hold office in SGA or to be an active member of the general assembly, emphasizing that leadership is not just about titles, that it’s about participation, collaboration, and community. Every student will be involved in meaningful ways throughout this process, whether by running for a position, supporting candidates, contributing ideas during town hall meetings, or working together to bring school-wide initiatives to life.
We also spent time brainstorming our collective goals for the year, thinking deeply about how we can strengthen our school community, promote kindness, and create fun and engaging opportunities for all students: including community service! In the coming weeks, we’ll move into campaign speeches and elections, giving students a chance to use their voices and practice respectful, effective communication. Once the SGA is established, we’ll hold monthly town hall meetings to ensure that every student’s perspective continues to be heard. Looking ahead, we’re excited to tie our leadership work to real-world experiences with planned field trips, including an option theatre night experience and an overnight stay at farm school in New Hampshire. Both opportunities are designed to foster teamwork, responsibility, and connection. We are looking forward to what else this autumn holds in store for us!
Miss Falcone 📚
ELA: The 6th grade students are wrapping up The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by learning chapter vocabulary, discussing key events in detail, and making thoughtful predictions about how the story will end. Students are also exploring the religious allegory in the novel — recognizing how Aslan represents sacrifice, hope, and goodness in the battle between him and the White Witch. They have been acing their Wordly Wise vocabulary lessons, enjoying Halloween-themed figurative language activities, and reviewing subject-verb agreement to strengthen their writing. Students are especially excited to enjoy Turkish Delight while watching the movie version once we finish the novel — a big thank-you to Grace Do for the treats! Their enthusiasm and growing confidence have been wonderful to see this fall!
The 7th grade students have just finished reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. They were deeply engaged in the story — making meaningful text-to-self connections about friendship and bravery while learning about the Danish Resistance during World War II and making text to real-life connections to the visit from Holocaust Survivor, Hanet Applefield, last year. Students have also been doing a fantastic job on their Wordly Wise lessons and are looking forward to reading spooky short stories next week as we celebrate Halloween in class! Our next novel will be Animal Farm by George Orwell.
The 8th grade students wrapped up The Red Bandanna with an essay analyzing the book’s themes and using text evidence to highlight Welles Crowther’s courage and extraordinary heroism. Students have been reviewing figurative language with a fun Halloween twist and continuing weekly journal writing. They especially enjoy our “10 Sentence Challenges,” which help build stronger writing and vocabulary skills through creativity. Next week, we’ll kick off spooky short stories in celebration of Halloween before beginning our next novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.
Special ELA Note for All Grades
Just in time for Halloween… All ELA classes will learn about Edgar Allan Poe, who was born in Boston, and read two of his most famous works, “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”!
6th Grade Social Studies:
In Social Studies, the 6th grade students wrapped up Chapter 1 by learning about historians and the many professions within the field — such as paleontologists, anthropologists, and archivists. Each student researched one of these careers and created slideshow presentations to teach the class. They also completed a hands-on (and tasty!) archaeology activity by carefully excavating chocolate chips from cookies to simulate digging for artifacts. Next, we’ll explore the important work of geographers and the five themes of geography.
8th Grade U.S. History:
In U.S. History, 8th graders are learning about civic duties and responsibilities by creating public service announcements that highlight the duty or responsibility they feel is most important for U.S. citizens. Their clever rhymes and slogans have been so creative! Next, students will explore different types of governments — and on Halloween, they will dive into a special lesson on the Salem Witch Trials. They also enjoyed their first field trip of the year: a tour of the old St. Mary’s High School with Dr. Nadjarian!
8th Grade Homeroom News:
In Homeroom, the 8th graders celebrated the Feast Day of St. Carlo Acutis last Friday with an Italian feast of treats and sodas. Students watched a special slideshow from the week Carlo was canonized, shared by Miss Falcone’s friend, Sister Jeanne Morris, who attended the canonization in Assisi. Sister Jeanne also gifted the class a beautiful painting of St. Carlo and prayer cards. A big thank-you to Ithwa Jones for organizing with homeroom parents and to Nella Duggan for the delicious pizzelle cookies — we are so grateful for the support!
Lorenzo's Iconic, Jim-Halpert Inspired Costume
Feast of St. Carlo Acutis
Field Trip to St. Mary's High School
Mr. Pritchett 📏
6th Grade Math
In 6th grade math, students explored factors, multiples, and prime numbers. We practiced finding greatest common factors and least common multiples, and used these skills to solve real-world problems. Students also began working with fractions—adding and subtracting them with both like and unlike denominators. They’re building on their skills using all four operations and are moving confidently into new topics.
7th Grade Math:
In 7th grade math, students built on their number sense by working with rational numbers in all operations. We focused on understanding the rules for multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers and applied these ideas in problem-solving situations. Students reviewed how to solve increasingly complex equations with multiple steps and were able to incorporate exponents into their order of operations. We have just entered into our section on converting between equations and graphs and how to think geometrically. Their curiosity and persistence are helping them make strong connections between concepts and real-world math!
Algebra 1:
In Algebra 1, students dove deeper into solving equations and inequalities, including multi-step and variable-on-both-sides problems. We practiced checking solutions and representing inequalities on number lines. We connected the equations they were solving with Euclidian geometry by using proportions to compare similar figures. Students are beginning to see how algebraic equations model real-world situations, setting us up for our upcoming unit on linear relationships. Their problem-solving skills are growing stronger every week as they take on more challenging algebra concepts!
6th Grade Latin:
In 6th grade Latin, students have been diving deeper into their textbook. They were introduced to the main characters of their story, their Familia Romana, and are getting to know about what Roman life was like. In doing so, they are learning one of the most fundamental building blocks of Latin grammar, the case structure. Students are able to identify whether a noun is the subject, object, or possessive (Nominative, Accusative, and Genitive respectively). Students have also been hard at work learning their basic prayers and can now recite the Sign of the Cross, Glory Be, Our Father, and Hail Mary all in Latin. They are moving forward quickly and will continue to incorporate more information as the year progresses!
7-8 Grade Latin:
In 7-8th grade Latin, students have taken a break from their story to focus on some key grammatical concepts. To properly understand the case system in Latin, students need to be able to correctly identify nouns, adjectives, verbs and other parts of speech in a sentence and know how they function. Students worked to identify these parts of speech and connect them to their related Latin cases. Relatedly, students work on their ability to identify and create noun-adjective agreement with the proper number, gender, and case endings. As students solidify these concepts, they will be able to continue reading through their story and build up to reading increasingly complex sentences.
Mr. O'Connor🧪🔬
Science:
Middle schoolers continued to explore a variety of topics in their science classes during the month of October. Building off their studies of the classification and properties of matter, eighth graders have recently been working to understand the Kinetic Theory of Matter as well as the four most common states of matter - solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Seventh grade science students have been conducting a survey of the six kingdoms of life, and they recently explored fungi by dissecting mushrooms, making spore prints, and observing spores with a microscope. Sixth graders have been thinking about how scientists communicate their findings to one another, and they are currently writing their first lab reports of the year to explain the results of their recent experiment that explored factors that affect the water cycle.
Social Studies:
After wrapping up their study of South Asia, seventh graders directed their focus northward and are now exploring Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Siberia. Currently, each student is conducting research in order to produce a travel brochure to highlight a chosen country from this region.
Ms. Stawowczyk🎨⛪
Theology:
Eighth grade is in the middle of their unit on personal growth. Featuring some help from the musical Les Misérables, we discussed solidarity, social responsibility, and what it means to live in relationship with God and His Church. Seventh and sixth grade has been studying the faculties of the human soul and what it looks like for man to use these for his flourishing, especially as we begin discussing the concept of self-gift.
Art:
The students have been hard at work practicing drawing the human figure, solidifying its basic proportions, and sketching models in dynamic poses. Before moving on to our next unit on Iconography, we will replicate different fresco images found on the walls of the Roman catacombs and learn how to give paper an aged and worn effect.
Ms. Pereyra🎭🎶
Music:
In Music, students have been diving into the world of time signatures. They have been learning not just how to read them, but how to feel and perform them. We’ve explored how composers use time signatures like 6/8, 4/4 (common time), 2/2 (cut time), 5/4 and 3/4 to shape rhythm and expression in classical music from the aria “Donde Lieta” from Puccini’s La Boheme. Working in pairs, students have been creating their own rhythmic patterns within these meters, combining creativity with a deeper understanding of musical structure.
Drama:
In Drama, students have been learning about the evolution of different types of stages and how these spaces influenced performance styles. We’ve discussed how raked stages led to the stage directions we still use today, and students have practiced these directions through movement games that build recall. We’ve also begun working on breaking down a monologue in drama. Students are analyzing a chosen monologue to begin making thoughtful character choices, understand the character’s objectives, and emotions.