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Mr. Farris
is our
Physical Education Teacher
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6th Grade - Classes will get a chance to work on their frisbee skills and use them in games, such as disc golf. Students will learn the basic rules of disc golf, where they can play, and relate it to the real game of golf.
7th Grade - Classes will use their frisbee and teamwork skills to learn and play the game of Ultimate. The most popular way to play is Ultimate Frisbee, but students will be able to use different objects.
8th Grade - Our 8th graders will be finishing up their year of PE with some of their favorite games from middle school and some of their favorite games from their younger years. It's always a fun week of PE getting to play with the parachute, playing tag, and other activities.
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Congratulations to the Intermediate and Advanced Band students who played their final Band Concert of the school year at the Chris Wilson Pavilion. These young musicians have grown immensely through music this year, and each person is an integral part of the Band Program. Students will finish the year practicing and performing various duets and trios for the class.
During the concert we recognized the dedication of our graduating 8th graders who have played in the bands for five years. Their leadership and dedication have created a culture of excellence and passion in the Band Program. Their encouragement toward each other and their pride in performing music will leave an incredible legacy at Saint Pius X.
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6th grade students have begun exploring simple melodies through singing, xylophones and recorders. Students are working on performing simple melodies and accompaniment parts as an ensemble using their reading and decoding skills.
7th grade students have been building their notation reading skills using simple melodies and accompaniment parts. They are working on their last performance piece of the year to demonstrate their reading skills. They will continue developing their decoding skills by decoding and writing simple melodies that they hear.
8th grade students are working on their last composition. They have been working hard to develop their listening skills , reading skills and writing skills through decoding and writing music as well as performing music from traditional notation.
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6th grade students are currently reading The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan. This novel is filled with allusions to Greek mythology, including myths, gods, and monsters, and provides engaging discussion for both fans of Greek mythology and those who are new to the genre.
In Writing Class, 6th graders have been learning about how to properly design a Problem-Solution essay.
7th grade is ending the year with a graphic novel study. The book, When Stars is Scattered, is based on the true story of Omar Mohamed, a Somalian refugee, that immigrated to the United States with his special needs brother, Hassan. He spent fifteen years in the Ifo refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. Students will not only learn about Omar but also study graphic artist techniques like how they use angles, shots, panels, and speech bubbles to tell the story. I encourage you to read the book with your child. I have included a link to a YouTube playlist of an audio version of the book.
8th grade is wrapping up their study of Romeo and Juliet this month. We are using the Shakespeare Made Easy version of the text which has a modern translation of the text on the right side of each page. Students will respond to their reading using Actively Learn which will check for understanding as they work through the text. Below are some other resources students may use if they are struggling.
So far students have acted out Act One, Scene One, compared and contrasted the balcony scene in the text with two movie versions, and learned an Elizabethan-era dance.
Romeo and Juliet Resources
Myshakespeare.com
No Fear Shakespeare
Folger Shakespeare Library
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Click HERE for a link to a YouTube playlist of an audio version of the book. | Examples of student body biographies of The Outsiders characters. | 8th grade students wearing the masks they designed for our masked ball. | |
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The 6th graders are moving through the book of Exodus and the Passover. Next week we will read about the Crossing of the Jordan River and the Book of Judges. The students have been a joy to teach religion to these past three years. I have always looked forward to our discussions and their creativity. Deacon Harry is going to enjoy having them in class next year.
The 7th graders are practicing Lectio Divina prayer. Lectio Divina is a Latin term meaning “divine reading” and it is an ancient monastic prayer practice dating back to the Sixth Century. The process is a conversation with God – listening to God through Scripture, contemplating and responding in prayer. Each student has the opportunity to lead the class in prayer through a simple format of Lectio Divina; they also include reflective music. Your son or daughter should be well capable of leading the family prayer with this format.
If you want to try it yourself, follow this format:
Read (lectio) - Read Scripture passage out loud, slowly. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at that moment and sit with it for a time.
Meditate (meditatio) - Read the same passage a second time, reflecting on words or phrases that stand out.
Pray (oratio) - What is God saying to you in these words? What do you want to say to God?
Contemplate (contemplatio) - What gift has God given you to take away from this prayer? To what action might God be inviting you? Thank God for this gift as you conclude your prayer.
On Sunday, April 21st our 8th graders were sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit by Bishop Rhoades. The Church, through the Apostles, has received the Holy Spirit from Christ and is free to give him to its members. Your son or daughter is challenged to live God’s Holy Spirit, not that of the world. This will be a challenge as they make their way into high school – with all the opportunities of newfound freedom. So, as they prepare to graduate from St. Pius X, we will have classroom conversations about how we live differently than our pagan brothers and sisters.
They will be challenged with a number of questions. What is different about our lifestyle compared with a law-abiding atheist? How must we live as professed Catholic-Christians? If we truly were Christ to the world, others would also want to be Christlike; how can I be Christ to the world?
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6th Grade Course 1: The 6th graders are working on their last unit of the year, data collection and display. We are learning about all different types of graphs. Some they have heard of before like bar, line, and dot plots, and some new ones like box and whisker and stem and leaf. We will take NWEA next week, and I am looking forward to seeing how much they have grown!
Our 6th grade prealgebra students are building their number sense by working with squares, square roots and cubes, and cubed roots. They will also be applying these skills to real-world scenarios through the use of the pythagorean theorem. They will be taking the math NWEA next week.
Our 7th grade course 3 students have been learning all about exponents. They have been thinking like mathematicians by looking at patterns and noticing relationships between problems and their solutions. They have come up with many exponent rules so far. They will be taking the math NWEA next week.
Our Algebra students have been solving quadratic equations using many methods including factoring, solving by square root, and the quadratic formula. Have them sing the quadratic formula song to you! Seventh graders will be taking the math NWEA next week.
Our Geometry students are coming full "circle" by ending the year studying circles! For such a simple shape, this is one of the more complicated chapters with a large amount of theorems to learn. We are going strong until the end!!
8th Grade Course 3: The 8th graders are working on their final unit of the year, probability. We reviewed basic probability as well as looking at compound events.
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SPANISH
8th grade finished Unit 24, Ecoturismo en Costa Rica, and learned about ecotourism efforts and sustainability programs in Costa Rica. We are working on our final project which requires students to plan a day in one of Costa Rica’s 29 national parks and write about their adventures in Spanish using the past tense.
7th grade is ending the school year with a culture research project and presentation. Students will present on a culture topic of their choice in Spanish for at least one to two minutes.
6th grade is finishing up Unit 5, La Corrida de Toros. Students learned about the history of bullfighting in Spain as well as vocabulary to describe the event. We had great conversations about the pros and cons of bullfighting and students were able to formulate an opinion in Spanish as to whether or not they agree or disagree with this cultural tradition. We are ending the unit with the Disney movie “Ferdinand”. We’ll spend the last few weeks of school learning about the royal family of Spain and reviewing vocabulary for la familia (family).
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The 8th grade class geared up for an exciting field trip to Washington, D.C., Mount St. Mary's Seminary, and Gettysburg Battlefield. Upon their return, the focus has been on the events leading up to the Civil War, and its effects of war on our nation. Finally, students will learn about the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War.
7th Grade social studies
students are wrapping up the last unit of the year with Japan. We have learned about Medieval Japan's development especially the Heian and Samurai Periods. Students have enjoyed acting out skits and making connections to WWII.
The 6th graders have recently learned about the connections between the ancient governments of Greece and Rome and our own, United States government. Students will conclude this year by exploring the foundation of the U.S. federal government, as well as the Indiana state government.
| Thank you to Kieran Miller who brought in some Japanese swords to share with the class | |
A student collecting rocks to play the Japanese game rango; the object of which was to balance as many stones as possible on one finger. | 7th graders participate in Samurai school | | |
6th grade testing water samples for the STEM challenge during ILEARN week. Students evaluated the rate of flow, turbidity, pH and cost of filters to effectively clean water. | Sheep brain dissection in 7th grade | |
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6th grade: In our last unit of the school year, we are exploring what plastic is, why it is useful, and how much we use it. We are also exploring how ecosystems work and why plastic pollution is such a problem for wildlife. All the while, we will be exploring solutions, such as designing a floating device to catch plastic in the water, and discussing proposed bans on single-use plastics. Our major assessment task will involve communicating about the issue of plastic pollution to others in the school and community.
I encourage you to discuss ecosystems at home. Some ways to connect the learning at school to home are:
• Brainstorming what marine life your family eats and what their food chains might look like.
• Consider what plastic-free options are available when you’re at the grocery store together.
• Choosing a few tips to reduce your plastic use at home - make them into a family challenge!
7th grade: This is a quick update to let you know we’re accelerating into our last unit on Newton’s Laws of Motion. We are exploring how Newton’s Laws can be used by creating videos and doing hands-on labs for each of the three laws.
8th grade: Our final unit focuses on combatting common misconceptions about evolution. We discuss what genetic variety is, and why it is important in evolution. We look at this process through the lens of natural selection and genetics. I hope that the 8th graders will be equipped with the facts of the theory we are aware of today.
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Our 6th and 7th Graders are onto their last project of the year! After wrapping up their 2D art show drawing, they will be starting, The Drip. This is a new project this year inspired by the artist, Jen Starke. She is a contemporary artist (ask your kiddo what that means:)
The kids chose an object that will go into their art and it will consist of that object and its mirror image. “The Drip” will come into the drawing when they color it with markers and black sharpies. I am hoping to convince them to let me keep them and hang them up at the beginning of the next school year!! Let’s see if I’m successful!
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The 8th graders went on one last field trip to Notre Dame. At the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art the focus was on the environment and physics. The Environment portion features artworks that interact with and communicate messages about land, environmentalism/carbon footprint, local water systems, art making processes that use natural dyes, etc. The Physics component looks at the sculptures of George Rickey and Kenneth Snelson, exploring topics of balance (fulcrum point), motion (kinetic sculpture), geometry, and forces (tension/tensegrity, gravity, etc.).
At Jordan Science Hall the students were led by Dr. David Veselik. They went through the museum of animals, the infectious disease lab where we learned the importance of heartworm medication for our pets, and learned about the cancer research being done at the University.
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Our 6th and 7th grade students will be returning their Chromebooks and power cords Thursday, May 30th.
Please help to ensure that both the Chromebook and its power cord are with your student. Also, we will be checking to make sure the spine cover is attached to the Chromebook. The Chromebook cases will go home with the students.
Here are the fees for missing items:
- No power cord: $20.00
- No spine cover: $10.00
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6th grade social studies enjoying class outside | |
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