B ENJAMIN L OGAN M IDDLE S CHOOL
M IDDLE S CHOOL M AT TERS
V OLUME 4, ISSUE 4
D ECEMBER 2015
S UPER H EROS !
As winter fast approaches and we prepare for the cold and snow our teachers
have created and posted lessons online
for “snow days” 6, 7 and 8. You can find
these calamity day lessons on our District home page and Middle School
home page. On the district home page
simply click on the Resources tab and
scroll down to calamity day lessons, then click on Middle School. On the
Middle School home page click on students and scroll down to the calamity
day lessons link.
If we miss school for days 6, 7 and 8 we will utilize the calamity day lessons. Students will have two weeks to complete the work and students do
not need to print off all the material. They may use their own notebook
paper to complete assignments. If your child does not have internet access
they will be allowed to get material at school on the next school day we are
in session.
Please understand that we are here to assist you in any way we can with this
so please feel free to call my office or your child’s teacher if you have any
questions. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jeff McPheron
Jeff McPheron, Principal
Benjamin Logan MS
December
Important Dates
1: After School Detention
8th Grade Washington, D.C. Trip
Deposit Due
2: Basketball Games vs Ridgemont
Boys : Away/Girls: Home 5pm
3: Study Tables
4: FLL Open Table
5: Wrestling: North Union Invite
10am
7: LPDC
OMUN
Art Club
Basketball Games vs Greenon
Boys: Home/Girls: Away 5:30pm
8: After School Detention
Winter Band Concert 7PM in Gym
9: Basketball Games vs Shawnee
Boys: Home/Girls: Away
10: Study Tables
Wrestling: Logan County Meet
Indian Lake HS 6pm
12: FLL Competition at the Boonshoft
Museum in Springfield
Wrestling: Aqua Fall Invite 9am
Indian Valley Middle School
14: OMUN
Art Club
Basketball Games vs Northridge
Boys: Away/Girls: Home 5:30pm
Board of Education Meeting 7PM
15: After School Detention
Winter Choir Concert
(5th & 6th Grades) 6:30PM in
H.S. Auditorium
Winter Choir Concert
(7th & 8th Grades) 7:45PM in
H.S. Auditorium
17: Study Tables
Basketball Games vs Jackson
Center 5pm
Boys: Home/Girls: Away
18: Winter Dance 1pm
1 hr. Early Release
19: Wrestling: Sidney Pool
Tournament 9am
Sidney High School
21-31: Winter Break -No School
S TUDENT C OUNCIL
B OX – T OPS FOR E DUCATION
December 1st – 4th,
Student Council held a
bake sale during lunchtimes. They collected
several hundred dollars that will go to
help support the local food banks during
the holiday season.
Builders club is
continuing to collect Box Tops for
Education.
Last
year we collected a
total of $935.80 in box tops. As of October we have collected $141.10. This
project helps fund the Washington D.C.
trip. Please continue
to send in box tops
and help us reach our
goal of $1,000.00.
2015-2016 Y OUTH L EADERSHIP
BLMS W INTER S PORTS U PDATE
Several Benjamin Logan Middle School
students have been selected to participate in this year’s Logan County Youth
Leadership program. Youth Leadership
is a program designed by the Midwest
Regional Educational Service Center to
provide our future leaders with a variety of skills such
as: Communication, Stress Management, Conflict Resolution and Diversity. These sessions are facilitated at
Benjamin Logan Middle School by a variety of community leaders and instructors. This year’s Youth Leadership members include:
Benjamin Logan Middle School athletics has
had a great start to the winter season. Girls
Basketball had a quick start to the season
and has 20 girls that are participating. We
have both coaches back from last year with
Coach Hughes working with the 8th grade
girls and Coach Inskeep working with the 7th grade girls. In
boys basketball, we have two new coaches working with our
boys. Coach Conley has 15 boys on the 7th grade team and
Coach Allen has 12 boys on the 8th grade. On the mats this
year, we have both of our coaches returning. Coach Whitlow and Coach Newland are working with 14 wrestlers this
year and they have gotten off to a great start to the season
doing very well with the first tournament of the year. Finally, we have great numbers out for winter cheerleading with
12 girls participating. Our cheerleaders are led by their adviser Coach Skidmore. All in all, our winter sports are in full
swing and we are excited for another successful season.
Please visit our website at BLMS Winter Sports Schedule to
find the schedule for all of our winter
sport activities. We would love you see
you come out and support our Raiders.
8th grade:
Gavin Clay, Dylan McManus, Alex Naragon, Duncan
Wilber, Noah Wilcoxon, Emily Folk, Hanna Logsdon,
Kiersten Maxwell, Bailey Shope, Emma Wenger
7th grade:
Trey Allen, Zach Boger, Leland Hawkins, Ethan Ricketts, Dominic Roose, Alexis Achor, Taylor Carnes,
Josie Davis, Corinne Herring, Molly Vance
Susan Headings
BLMS Guidance Counselor
A LL A BOUT THE 5 TH G RADE
S CIENCE
The fifth grade science classes have been busy this year by beginning with basic science investigations and process skills. We
started the year by performing some science activities to review the scientific method. During a colored water lab we
confirmed what colors can be made by mixing other colors. This was only successful by following directions and making careful measurements. Later we practiced using the design process by creating foil boats, and then seeing how many pennies it
would hold. The goal was to then alter the designs to allow the boats to float even more pennies. Most recently we have been
studying the relationship between the earth, moon, and sun and all other parts of our solar system including the planets and
heavenly bodies like asteroids, meteors, comets and dwarf planets. We focused especially on what causes night and day and
the seasons. In our scientific future will be investigating ecosystems including food chains and food webs, force and motion,
and forms of energy such as sound and light.
G OOGLE CL ASSROOM
What’s Google classroom? How can it help my child to improve on their writing skills? Those are questions you might be asking yourself at the beginning of your child’s fifth grade year.
Fifth grade students have been working in Mrs. Gill’s and Mrs. Wishin’s rooms on their typing skills by
using the tool Google classroom, which is a way to organize student assignments, gives teachers and students a chance to communicate through the computer on your child’s writing assignments, and gives
them an opportunity to practice their typing skills on a weekly basis. Google classroom will send your
child’s teacher an email when they have a question or concern about the writing assignment. Google
classroom is a great tool that provides students and teachers a platform to communicate about your child’s writing!
In writing, we’re working on the writing model 6+1 Writing Traits, which asks students to work on their writing in the following categories: word choice, conventions, ideas/content, sentence fluency, voice, organization, and presentation. The purpose
of the model is to get students to understand how to improve their writing through thoughtful reflection and focus during the
editing process. We’re currently working on the sentence fluency trait by exposing students to a variety of sentences and discussing what makes a complete sentence.
Our goal for students, in writing, is to expose them to a variety of sentences and encourage them to use it
in their writing, use complete sentences with a subject/predicate, and to continue to practice their writing/typing through Google classroom. We want to help improve their typing skills, so they can have the
stamina to type for longer periods of time and the ability to get their thoughts on the computer.
A LL A BOUT THE 5 TH G RADE
ELA
As easy as pie! It’s raining cats and dogs! Break a leg! A needle in a haystack! What do all
of these phrases have in common? They are all examples of figurative language!
The fifth grade students in Mrs. Wishin’s and Mrs. Gill’s ELA classes have been learning
about different types of figurative language. The students have been identifying the different types, writing examples of figurative language, and searching for examples of figurative language when reading from books. Similes and metaphors were introduced and the
students added notes in their Interactive Notebooks. The students also created simile posters by writing similes
about themselves, and identifying and illustrating similes from their reading book, The City of Ember.
Idioms are common phrases that have a different meaning than what the words say. The students have been learning
the meanings of these phrases, such as “break a leg” and “hold your horses.” To finish the unit about figurative language, students will next be learning about personification and hyperboles.
Our goal is not only for the students to be able to identify figurative language when reading
someone else’s writing, but to improve their own writing. Using figurative language when
writing helps to create better images in the reader’s mind!
M ATH
The 5th grade math classes finished a multi-digit multiplication unit and are currently working on a long division unit.
During the multi-digit multiplication unit, students completed various activities, such as, completing task cards involving word problems and computation, playing Largest/Smallest Product, as well as identifying and analyzing multiplication errors in problems. They also worked on a Resort Report to reinforce multi-digit multiplication in a real
world setting. Students were given the task of figuring the cost of building, supplying, and managing a resort. They
found out that it requires a lot of money and planning to make a resort successful and run smoothly!
Students are currently working on a long division unit. They are solving long division problems with 2 digit divisors
using the standard algorithm as well as equations and area models. They are working on a Movie Marathon project
that involves long division in a real world setting.
A LL A BOUT THE 5 TH G RADE
S OCIAL S TUDIES
The fifth grade social studies classes are finishing up their study of U.S. regions. We have learned
not only the names and locations of the states in each region, but have completed small projects as
we study each one. Some of the projects included advertising posters from a state, menus from a
state in which the foods served all had to come from that region, acrostic poems, and songs about a
state that listed information about it. These projects helped us to learn about the climate, products,
and economy of each region while also incorporating ELA skills into our social studies class. We
finished the unit with a test on which we could earn bonus points for identifying the location of all
50 states!
BLMS P ICTURES