BVMS News!
December 2014
- “DECEMBER EVENTS”
Thurs., December 4 7/8 Choir Concert - 7:00 - High School Auditorium
Fri., Dec. 5 Dance 7-8:30 Pre-Sale tickets - $3.00/At the door - $4.00
Tues., December 9 5 - 8 Band Concert - 7:00 - High School Auditorium
December 17, 7pm Community Conversation about the future of BVLS with Superintendent Miller at BVMS cafe. (see attachment on this email)
Fri., Dec. 19 - Fri., Jan. 2 Winter Vacation !
- “SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS”:
●The Teen Institute Club at the high school is once again sponsoring a Winter Coat Drive for the Common Ground Free Store in Delaware. Please bring your gently used coats of all sizes to the main office of any BV school until December 5th. The TI Club will deliver them to the store on Saturday, December 6th. Give a warm hug this holiday season for those in need in our community.
●7th grade math will be participating in the REAL WORLD, REAL MONEY simulation December 17,2014. Miss Dexter and Mrs. Conn are looking for ADULT VOLUNTEERS to help run this simulation of living a day in the life of an “adult” in terms of budgets and finance :)
○PLEASE EMAIL either Mrs Conn OR Miss Dexter if you are interested in participating! We need volunteers to run stations during the simulation, donate food and/or drinks, or both!
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●Ski Club information for students in grades 6, 7, and 8 is available in the front office or you may email Kate Simons at BVHS at for more info.
- “ADMINISTRATIVE NEWS”:
- “CLASSROOM CORNER”: What is happening in each grade?
5th Grade
LA - Fifth grade students on the Gold team will be finalizing their invention research units, and students on the Brown team will be focused on literature circles. The fifth graders will flip these activities in January. Also, students will be finishing up the second round of MAP testing in early December.
SS- We are working on projects about the 5 regions of the United States.
SC -We are exploring the solar system! Students are learning the characteristics of individual planets as well as stars.
M -
6th Grade
LA - For the month of December, we are finishing up the books we are reading: Some are reading Tangerine and some are reading I Am a Sixth Grade Alien. Students will have a choice to either take a test over the book or complete a project to show their understanding of the plot of their story. We will also be concluding our second list of Word Wednesday words.
SS - We are studying another River Valley Civilization called Mesopotamia. This area is located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern day Iraq. We will learn about the kind of government, writing system, and technology in practice at that time. We will also learn about Hammurabi’s Code of Laws and the beginnings of Judaism. We will be working on this chapter until Christmas break and will include a geography lesson with map project, 1 quiz and 1 test.
SC - This month we are finishing the physical science portion of our curriculum..Our last topic focuses on kinetic and potential energy as well as motion which equals some fun, active labs.
M - For the month of December we will be wrapping up Chapter 5 on multiplying fractions and area. This season is a great way to reinforce both of these skills in real-life situations by including your son or daughter in cooking, cutting wood, hunting and even placement of furniture that may be moving to new locations in your house. We will also be reviewing for the mid-course term.
7th grade
LA - For the month of December, 7th grade will be reading the classic novel, A Christmas Carol. The focus for this novel will be vocabulary, figurative language and symbolism. We will see if students can survive Victorian London while completing research and activities surrounding that period. Mid-year MAP testing will also take place this month.
SS - We will finish our work with Islam and complete a culminating class project comparing and contrasting all of the civilizations we have studied thus far in the areas of government, religion, geography, legacies and daily life.
SC - We are continuing our study of energy in our Be E3 Smart Unit.
M -We are beginning Chapter 5 and focusing on part-to-whole relationships, linear diagrams, probability, making predictions about fairness based on the probabilities of events, learning multiple strategies for calculating the probabilities of compound events and well as developing the 5-D process (Draw/Describe, Define the terms involved, Do all math, Decide if the answer is correct and how to modify if it is not, and Declare in a complete sentence the solution to the problem) as a method for solving situational word problems. We will be taking a midterm exam at the end of the month.
ACCM7/8- We are working on circles and volume. By the end of this nine weeks we will be taking a midterm and participating in a REAL WORLD, REAL MONEY simulation. All students will be sent home with a request for volunteers to help out either through donation of food and drinks OR running a simulation station. Students enjoy this day, and we enjoy having adult participation :) !
8th Grade
LA - 8th grade LA students have started reading the novel Tears of a Tiger. Students will be analyzing how point of view influences literary effects, such as suspense. Students will also be creating their own poems and symbolism artwork.
SS - Students are learning about the reasons that led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.
SC - 8th grade science is investigating Earth’s History. Students are studying relative dating versus absolute dating. Students will get to explore fossils, the Law of Superposition, why & what elements geologists use to date materials, and the Geologic Time Scale.
M - 8th grade students will be finishing a unit on symmetry and algebra is completing a unit on statistics. Both algebra and 8th grade math will be taking a midterm exam at the end of the month.
Exploratories
choir-
band-
PE- We are beginning our volleyball unit and will be working on our skills and then playing games until our Christmas break.
health-
computer tech-Wortz In Desktop Publisher, students are making magazine covers.
computer tech- Shaffer
art-
general music-
CBI (Career Based Instruction) - 7th and 8th grade both have started a unit delving deeper into the 16 career clusters. Students will be picking one cluster and doing a presentation on it. 8th grade will be visiting both campuses of the Delaware Area Career Center where we will get a tour, shadow a lab and receive student recognition in the CBI DACC/BVMS program. Our service project for the month is adoptaplatoon.org. We have adopted 21 soldiers where we will be sending care packages for the holidays. We are in need of holiday stockings, any type of holiday goodies like candy, DVDs, microwave popcorn, etc. Anything fun for the troops over the holidays. Please check out and bring any donations to the school to Mrs. Tina Francis.
Life skills- We are finishing our classes in a few days. The students in 5th grade are learning about friend and family relationships. The 6th graders are finishing a babysitting unit by making a notebook with information and they will do a hard-boiled egg as a “Baby” to watch for two days. The 7th grade is finishing career search and they will be doing interviewing questions and proper way to dress.
Mrs. Poydence- We are looking forward to our Annual Brownie Baking Fundraiser with proceeds going to the BV Food Bank. Another highlight this month is our annual Jingle Jam, when we celebrate the holiday season with our 49 Baron Buddies. :)
Library Media Center-
- “PICTURES OF THE MONTH”:
Mrs. Marshall (7th grade) dresses up as scrooge to go along with her hands-on lesson.
Students enjoy the winter dance on 12/5.
Staff on the “Making Middle Grades Work” committee learn from author Dr. Todd Whitaker at a conference on 12/1.