North Boone Middle School
September 4th, 2026
7th Grade News
English Language Arts
Mrs. Wilson
In English, students will be writing their own narratives as we continue to build on the different stages of the writing process—planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Alongside their writing, students will also be learning about Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes to strengthen their vocabulary and word study skills.
Mr. Plessner
We will be following the 8th grade curriculum this year.
We will begin by strengthening our skills in answering questions with constructed responses, using the RACE (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain) writing strategy while also comparing it to the CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) strategy. We will also begin a creative Wordless Writing Unit focused on developing narrative writing skills. Students will observe and describe images, analyze main ideas and details, and use precise nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to bring their descriptions to life. Students will work with a series of images to create stories in groups while incorporating ingredients, such as a specific lead, ending, point of view, dialogue, and transition words or phrases. Finally, students will share their creative stories with classmates.
Reading
Mrs. Katz
During the month of September, 7th grade students will focus on building strong reading and critical-thinking skills using the Notice & Note Fiction Signposts. These six strategies will help students slow down and think more deeply about what they are reading by making connections, noticing important details, and using evidence from the text to support their ideas. Students will practice identifying theme (the main message or lesson), understanding characters and their points of view, analyzing how characters and events influence one another, using text evidence to explain their thinking, and understanding important words, phrases, and literary techniques. Our goal is to help students become more confident, thoughtful, and independent readers while developing skills they will use throughout 7th grade and beyond.
Mrs. Murfin
→ Fiction Signposts: reading strategies that help students notice important moments in fictional stories. It teaches students to stop, pay attention to clues, and think deeply about why the author included events, details, or character reactions. Skills and standards fiction signposts cover include making inferences, citing text evidence, character analysis, determining theme, analyzing plot, understanding author’s purpose, connecting events, and identifying patterns.
Math
Mrs. North
Math 7
In Math 7, students are wrapping up our module on Integers. They have been mastering how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide with positive and negative numbers, and how to use the order of operations to solve complex problems. After our mid-September assessment, we will move on to exploring Proportions Relationships for the rest of the month.
Advanced Math 7:
In Advanced Math 7, students are wrapping up their module on proportional relationships, where they’ve been mastering unit rates, constants of proportionality, and graphing. After their mid-September assessment, we’ll dive into our next module on solving percent problems.
Everyone is working hard and doing a wonderful job in class!!
Mr. Renton:
In 7th Grade Math, we will be following Mrs. North’s class curriculum while making modifications and providing additional support based on student needs. Our goal is to strengthen foundational math skills while continuing to work toward grade-level standards.
August 31–September 4: Students will review basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. During this review, students will not use calculators. This will allow them to focus on understanding the steps and strategies used to solve problems before relying on a calculator. Students will also practice their skills through engaging activities on GimKit.
Coming Up: After reviewing basic operations, students will begin working with positive and negative integers.
Our class may move at a different pace than Mrs. North’s class. This is intentional, as I want to make sure students have the foundational skills they need and address any learning gaps that may make future math concepts more challenging. Building these skills now will help students become more confident and successful as we move through the curriculum.
Students won’t have any homework for my class. All work is completed during, so if something is missing they either forgot to turn it in or it’s in their class folder.
Social Studies:
Mr Ullrich
In Social Studies, 7th graders have been busy learning about the lives of the Neanderthals and prehistoric man. We’re studying the beginning of agricultural societies and how the bronze trade led to the powerful ancient Greek city-states. Our essential question for this quarter will be “Where does information come from?” As we explore source material, ask your 7th grader to explain the difference between primary and secondary sources to you!
🔎Science:
Mrs. Doering: Welcome back! In Science we are starting off the year off with some interesting things! Findings about the human microbiome are all over the news and are attracting the attention of scientists from many different fields—for good reason! There is evidence to suggest that the approximately 100 trillion bacteria living on and in the human body may correlate to many different health conditions. Further, altering one’s microbiome can result in altering one’s health, for better or worse. These developments have sent many from the scientific community to further investigate the human microbiome. In this unit, students take on the role of student researchers as they work out and explain the anchor phenomenon for the unit (a procedure that cured a patient suffering from a potentially deadly C. difficile infection). They make arguments that justify continued research of this new treatment. By engaging in sense-making about the same types of data that professional scientists use, they work to understand how having 100 trillion microorganisms on and in the human body can keep a person healthy. In the process, they learn to examine living things at multiple scales, from molecules to single-celled organisms to the overall human body.
Physical Education
Mrs. Jeffers and Mr. Jensen - Students have started off the year with ultimate games such as ultimate football and ultimate frisbee. Great activities that keep students active and social during PE. Please remember to be in the gym before the bell rings and wear your PE shoes. Stay Active!
Health - Students will be focusing on the following units: Analyzing Influences, Decision Making using the DECIDE model and Catch My Breathe VAPING unit.
8th Grade News
8th grade HW doc - Please bookmark this link on your bookmarks bar
English - Mrs. Tinberg
→ September is going to be a busy and exciting month in 8th Grade English! We will begin by strengthening our skills in answering questions with constructed responses, using the RACE (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain) writing strategy while also comparing it to the CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) strategy. As we build confidence in supporting our ideas with evidence and thoughtful explanations, we will also begin a creative Wordless Writing Unit focused on developing narrative writing skills. Students will learn to carefully observe and describe images, analyze main ideas and details, and use precise nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to bring their descriptions to life. Students will work with a series of images to create stories in groups while incorporating “secret ingredients,” such as a specific lead, ending, point of view, dialogue, and transition words or phrases. Finally, students will enter our Literary Lounge, where they will share and celebrate their creative stories with classmates. We are looking forward to a month filled with strong writing, creativity, collaboration, and plenty of opportunities for students to let their imaginations shine!
English-Mr Plessner
→ We will follow Mrs. Tinberg’s class in curriculum, but at a modified pace, meaning certain assignments may be edited, or deleted entirely.
Math 8 and Algebra - Mrs. Rogers:
→ My website - policies, contact info, chromebook tips, etc.
→ My classroom expectations slide show
Math 8:
→ Exponents and Scientific Notation
→ ALEKS Pathway 75 topics due Friday, October 9th
Algebra:
→ Multi-step Equations and Inequalities
→ ALEKS Pathway 134 topics due Friday, October 9th
Online Math Spotlight:
→ The Magic of Math - These math videos address foundational Math topics for grades 6 - Algebra 1 per Common Core Math Standards.
Math - Mr. Renton
→ In 8th Grade Math, we will be following Mrs. Rogers' class curriculum while making modifications and providing additional support based on student needs. Our goal is to strengthen foundational math skills while continuing to work toward grade-level standards.
August 31–September 2:
→ Students will review basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. During this review, students will not use calculators. This will allow them to focus on understanding the steps and strategies used to solve problems rather than relying on a calculator to provide the answer. Students will also practice their skills through engaging activities on GimKit.
Coming Up:
→ After reviewing basic operations, students will begin working with the properties of exponents.
Our class may move at a different pace than Mrs. Rogers' class. This is intentional, as I want to make sure students have the foundational skills they need and address any learning gaps that may make future math concepts more challenging. Building these skills now will help students become more confident and successful as we move through the curriculum.
Students won’t have any homework for my class. All work is completed during, so if something is missing they either forgot to turn it in or it’s in their class folder.
Reading - Mrs. Chambers/Mr. Slack
→ Nonfiction Central Ideas, Key Details, and Signposts: The 8th grade reading classes will be focused on analyzing and understanding various nonfiction articles on the scientific study of the teen brain and behavior.
Reading - Mrs. Murfin
→ Fiction Signposts: reading strategies that help students notice important moments in fictional stories. It teaches students to stop, pay attention to clues, and think deeply about why the author included events, details, or character reactions. Skills and standards fiction signposts cover include making inferences, citing text evidence, character analysis, determining theme, analyzing plot, understanding author’s purpose, connecting events, and identifying patterns.
Science - Mr. Howard
I am excited to be the new eight grade science teacher. I have taught high school science for over two decades before coming to North Boone Middle School.
Unit 1 of physical science will focus on harnessing human energy. Scientists continue to devise new ways to harness human energy. Energy-harvesting backpacks, bikes, rocking chairs, and knee braces are just a few of the innovative devices that have been created to capture human energy and use it to power electrical devices. In this unit, students assume the role of student energy scientists in order to help a team of rescue workers with an energy problem. Students work to find a way to get energy to the batteries in the rescue workers’ electrical devices, even during power outages, and this serves as the design problem for the unit. First, students are motivated to explore relationships between different types of energy—with an emphasis on kinetic energy and potential energy—and the ways energy is transferred and converted. To solve the rescue team’s energy problem, students research various ways to capture and store energy. Then, students apply their knowledge about energy to design an energy system that can use human kinetic energy to power an electrical device.
Daily study skills: 10 to 15 minutes of thinking and reviewing concepts taught in class, student self assessment of unit learning targets and vocabulary review for 3 to 5 minutes.
Social Studies - Mr. Self
→ The start of this school year focused on what historical skills students would be covering in each of their lessons for the semester such as, source analysis, question creation, finding evidence from sources as well as annotations, and classmate collaboration. This September is focused on the Constitution! Students have been learning about the constitutional convention as well as the foundation and function of our government. The current branch of focus is the Legislative branch and the process of voting. As we progress through our unit on the constitution students should expect to further explore the lawmaking process, our early presidents and their actions as well as Class simulations of the election process and judicial review.
P.E. - Mrs. Jeffers & Mr. Jensen
→ Students have started off the year with ultimate games such as ultimate football and ultimate frisbee. Great activities that keep students active and social during PE. Please remember to be in the gym before the bell rings and wear your PE shoes. Stay Active!
Sports and School Physicals Information
If your child needs a school or sports physical? Check out this information from the Boone County Health Department. Aug and Sept News
North Boone PTO
Check out the North Boone PTO!
Chromebook Insurance
Accidents happen! Make sure your student's chromebook is insured! Check out VikingSurance for your child's chromebook.
Spiritwear Sale!
Don't miss your chance to order some of our latest Spritwear! Orders are due to the Middle School Office by September 11th. Cash or checks made payable to KS Custom Apparel are accepted.
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at NBMS
As many of you already know, the area surrounding the middle school has recieved an amazing asphalt upgrade. Please join us for a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday, September 15th at 6:00 pm.