Middle School Newsletter

Dear Middle School Families,

The school year is off to a wonderful beginning! In just a few short weeks, students have shifted from summer mode into the flow of school. They’ve been diving into their classes, learning new routines, and finding their place in our school community. It’s been a joy watching them engage both academically and socially.

We are looking forward to all the growth, discovery, and accomplishments that this year will bring. Thank you for your continued support as we begin this exciting journey together!

October 24

• Trimester 1 Progress Reports Released (Grades K2-8)

• Infant/Toddler and EDP Close at 3:30 p.m.

• Trunk or Treat 4 - 6 p.m.

October 31

• Halloween Costume Parade (Infant - Grade 8) at 8:15 a.m.

The students started the year strong in ELA! I’m excited to see the students’ growth this fall as readers, writers, and thinkers! The sixth grade students have been busy reviewing grammar skills, focusing on nouns and verbs, and exploring figurative language. They have also started writing weekly in journals, giving them the chance to practice writing in a creative, reflective way. In reading, we’ve begun our first novel study: C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Students are practicing comprehension, inference, and discussion skills as we dive into this classic.

Seventh graders are off to a great start in ELA! We’ve begun reading Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, a powerful historical novel that encourages students to think deeply about courage, friendship, and resilience. In writing, students are keeping journals to practice reflection and build writing fluency. We are also focusing on sentence structure—learning the types of sentences and how to use them effectively to strengthen both written and spoken communication.

Eighth graders recently finished reading Tom Rinaldi’s The Red Bandanna, the inspiring true story of Welles Crowther. We wrapped up the novel with a Socratic Seminar, where students led thoughtful discussions about Welles’ courage, leadership, selflessness, and sacrifice. Their insights and respectful dialogue were impressive, and it was wonderful to see them connecting the text to larger themes of character and heroism. I am so proud of the depth of thinking and collaboration they showed during this unit, and I look forward to continuing this momentum as we move into our next reading and writing projects.

Our Wordly Wise vocabulary program is off and running with Lesson 1. Grades six and seven already took their first Wordly Wise test of the year and they aced it—they are true Word Wizards! I am so proud of their hard work so far and look forward to a great year of learning and growth!

In 6th grade Social Studies with Miss Falcone, the students have been working in groups to learn more about why we study history and have been reviewing basic map skills using political and physical maps. Using their textbooks, the students have begun reading about history, reviewing timelines and recognizing the differences between archaeologists, paleontologists and anthropologists.

In U.S. History, 8th graders interviewed relatives about their experiences on September 11, 2001, gaining a personal connection to this historic event. We’re now exploring what it means to be an American, the paths to citizenship, and the important responsibilities and duties that come with it. It’s inspiring to see students making meaningful connections between history and their own role as future citizens.

In 6th grade, students have been exploring the various subsystems of our planet. They have identified many ways that the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere affect one another, and they learned to recognize some of these interactions as examples of either positive or negative feedback loops. In addition, students are learning to read topographic maps and describe land forms by their elevation and relief.

In 7th grade, science students have focused on the characteristics and needs of living things. In addition, they explored the modern system for classifying organisms and briefly compared it to a system of classification developed by Aristotle over 2,000 years ago.

The 8th grade science students have also been thinking about classification, but they are focusing on matter rather than organisms. They also learned to distinguish between chemical and physical properties and to recognize signs of a chemical reaction.

In 7th grade Social Studies, students have been exploring South Asia. After identifying key geographic features such as mountain ranges, rivers, and plains, students explored how these landforms contributed to the development of ancient civilizations in this part of the world. They also considered the roles of religion, climate, and colonization on the evolution of South Asia countries, and they are just beginning to look at modern life in these places.

The 6th grade students kicked off the year by reviewing operations on whole numbers, fractions, and decimal operations. We practiced comparing and ordering numbers, as well as solving multi-step word problems. Students finished their first chapter and are beginning their second this week which covers manipulating and ordering ratios and formulas. Students are starting off the year building confidence with their foundational math skills to prepare for new topics ahead.

The 7th grade students started the year by diving into integers and rational numbers. We learned how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide positive and negative numbers, and applied these skills to real-world problems. We worked on applying the mathematical operations on integers, fractions and decimals. This strong start sets the stage for equations and proportions in the coming weeks.

In Algebra 1, the 8th grade students began exploring the building blocks of algebra by reviewing expressions, order of operations, and properties of real numbers. We also practiced simplifying expressions and solving basic equations. It was critical that students first became proficient with using operations on integers (both positive and negative) and evaluating multivariable expressions before moving on to more complex functions later this year. These fundamentals are laying the groundwork for later topics like linear equations and functions.

In 6th grade Latin, the students took their first steps in exploring the language in all of its beauty and complexity. Students were introduced to their textbook for the year (Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: Familia Romana) and began reading about the family they will grow to love over the course of the year. They have begun to think about declensions and how nouns and adjectives express number, gender, and case. Even while not in Latin class, students have begun learning the most important prayers of the Church’s tradition in her native language and will continue to do so throughout the year.

In 7-8th grade Latin, the students dove headfirst back into the language they started exploring last year. They were excited to hear more about the characters they grew attached to (and wrote stories about) last year. Students reviewed the grammar structures of declension and conjugation they previously learned and are continuing to learn more about each week. Now that they have a solid foundation of the Church’s most important prayers, this year they will be learning those prayers the Church herself prays in the Mass. Students will learn how to pray with the Church during the Mass in Latin which they will experience periodically throughout the year.

In Theology sixth and seventh grade have been busy learning about virtue and reflecting on the grand invitation that is offered to us through our God-given free will, using Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation painting. Over in eighth grade, the students have been studying and exploring our origins; what it means to be made in God’s image and likeness, where we come from, where we’re going, and what we’re for. Over in eighth grade, the students have been studying and exploring our origins; what it means to be made in God’s image and likeness, where we come from, where we’re going, and what we’re for.

In Art Class, the students will be going back to Ancient Rome. Our Masterpiece of the Month for October will be “The Good Shepherd” (above) from the Catacombs of Priscilla, from which we’ll discuss the role that sacred art has played and continues to play in the life of the Church. We will then segue into a unit on sketching the human form.

Middle School started off Part 2 of Spanish 1 with a review. They had to poll their classmates on their favorite food, color, and activity. They had to graph their results and present the results orally. In addition, they had to present a dialog talking about themselves and present past tense sentences about their classmate.

From the text, they had multiple sentence answers about hunger, thirst, what to eat, what activities they did, and agreement/disagreement sentences. In asking and answering questions, they had to remember to change the" you" form of the verb to the"I" form of the verb.

The school year began with the introduction of new methods for teaching French to middle schoolers. Along with online French books, we also integrated the TV5 Monde French channel as a learning resource. During these first weeks, we reviewed greetings, self-introductions, and how to introduce others, as well as asking and stating someone’s age and practicing numbers from 1 to 10,000.

Students also learned a few French songs, such as Je te dis bonjour and Je vais dans les bois. In addition, we reviewed the verb avoir and memorized a weekly Bible verse in French. To strengthen their learning habits, students take a weekly quiz to reinforce and apply what they’ve practiced.

In our first month of music class, students have begun laying the groundwork for confident, expressive musicianship. We’ve introduced solfege singing with hand signs to support pitch recognition and memorization, and they explored the fundamentals of music notation. Students are learning to identify treble and bass clef notes and connect solfege syllables to written music. These foundational skills will help develop their ears to hear and understand more complex interval relationships and musical patterns in the future. During the first week, we also engaged in icebreaker activities and focused on essential choral techniques to build ensemble awareness.

For our first unit middle school students have been hard at work creating their dynamic news anchor/reporter scenes that blend improvisation, character work, and collaborative storytelling. Each group chose between writing a scripted skit or developing their scene through improvisation, with the goal of building ensemble skills and bringing their ideas to life. Using the CROW framework (Character, Relationship, Objective, Where), students crafted original headlines and acted out live reports. It’s been a privilege to see their creativity come to life! I’m extremely proud of their teamwork, imagination, and growing confidence as performers!

It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know the St. Mary’s Middle School students as a unit, and as individuals. We have had a couple Leadership Seminar sessions thus far, and each one starts with a team-building exercise. The first one included an activity called “Cheerleader” which is a whole-group rocks/paper/scissors competition. It’s quick, but it’s exciting! We reviewed our Leadership Seminar goals and objectives afterwards, and I introduced myself as the new Dean of Students. The next Seminar included a peaceful grounding activity called “Zen Counting” where students closed their eyes and truly listened to the room and each other: trying to count to 10 without seeing anyone wasn’t easy, but we did it! We’re going to need to really listen to one another as we make important decisions about our school community. We then initiated a community service conversation and brainstorm. As Seminar progresses throughout the year (we meet once a week on Monday afternoons for 45 minutes) we will be establishing our roles as true leaders of St. Mary’s school. We will do community service as individuals and as a group, we will go on field trips that will both educate us and broaden our horizons, we will host a Student Government Association, and more!

8th Grade High School Placement- I have spent the past few years getting to know our 8th graders in preparation for this year. I love getting to spend Tuesdays with them to discuss their high school plans, help advise on what schools I like for each student, and supporting their parents throughout the process. As time moves on, we will work on applications and conduct mock interviews. My goal is to have each 8th grader placed in a school which brings them joy for high school.