Arbutus Middle School ~ 6th Grade
News
Eagle
Update
May/June
Issue 2017
As the weather warms, make sure that your child is coming to school dressed
appropriately. Dress code expectations outlined in the Parent Handbook highlights
student dress expectations for Baltimore County students. Students should not be
wearing strapless shirts, halter-tops, or shirts that expose skin between the bottom
of the shirt and the top of the pants/shorts/skirts. Baggy pants that sag below the
waist are not acceptable. Undergarments should not be visible at any time and
shorts and skirts must be of appropriate length. Please refer to the Parent
Handbook for more details.
Students are expected to have an agenda with them during the school day. This is
not only a place for them to list homework, but also serves as a hall pass. Students
who don't have an agenda should not expect to leave the classroom during class.
Replacement agendas can be purchased in the front office.
Language Arts
GT students will build on their knowledge of Shakespeare to learn about the man and the time period in
which he lived. They will learn about the theater and how plays were staged in the Elizabethan Age.
Ultimately students will create an argument about the relevance of Shakespeare today after identifying
theme in his writings and analyzing the novel THE SHAKESPEARE STEALER.
Standard classes will be reading and discussing various short stories as well as the writings of Gary Paulsen in
order to identify what changes occur as we grow that determine our individual pathways into adulthood and
also to identify in what ways texts are influenced by the life experiences of authors.
Foreign Language
Reading
Mrs. Wilson’s reading research students
will be working on Unit 4: Making
Artistic Connections: Connecting Ideas
through Words and Pictures. During this
unit, students will analyze non-print text
in order to identify similarities and
differences from traditional text forms.
Students are exposed to many graphic
novels from the Graphic Novel Revolve
Series. While reading different graphic
texts, students will develop an
understanding of how these texts are
written and formatted. They will
develop reading strategies to help them
better understand how to read and
comprehend the graphic texts. Students
will use this new learning to determine
the effectiveness of graphic artists’
ability to communicate their ideas to the
reader. Students will then compose an
analysis of their findings and share how
effectively authors’ retold the story.
Finally students will be able to retell a
traditional story that they have read in
the form of a graphic novel.
Students will be taking their Spanish and
Chinese Final Exams starting May 23-June 2. The
final exam is comprehensive and will ask
students to use all their knowledge in Speaking,
Listening, Reading and Writing components. The
test should last around 3 class periods, but it is
very important that students ARE NOT ABSENT
during this time. Students must take this final
exam in order to calculate their overall grade
because this is a High School credited course.
Students should start a study schedule now in
order to full prepare for the exam. Please
contact your student’s World Language teacher
if you have more specific questions.
Mathematics
Standard math classes are thinking algebraically. We have applied properties and simplified expressions by
combining like terms. The distributive property was very different from the rest but it’s actually quite easy
for most of us now. We are learning to recognize equivalent expressions and write our own. We use
variables frequently and soon will be solving equations that have one variable and one operation in them. A
lot of what we are doing now is pre-algebra in preparation for 7th grade.
Parents, if you are wondering how you can help keep your children fresh in math over the summer, have
them review fractions, decimals, and basic multiplication and division facts. Many of the fraction concepts
will be used in algebra. They have worked hard this year, and we want them to retain as much as possible.
World History
Science
Sixth graders had a great week at
NorthBay. They saw how their attitudes
and actions have a lasting impact on
their future, the environment and the
people around them by using character
development and the outdoors as an
integrating context. Back at school,
students reflected on their trip as we
started working in the Ecosystem
Interactions unit. In this unit, students
are developing an answer to the
question, “How can we support the
native wildlife species in our area?"
Students will develop a model of an
ecosystem. Throughout the unit,
students will observe and measure data
from their models as they gain a greater
understanding of interdependent
relationships, the interactions of biotic
and abiotic factors, how matter and
energy are transferred within the
system, and the effects that these
factors have on populations.
As we enter the fourth quarter, we will be
beginning Unit 4. In this unit, we will examine
the collapse, or fall, of the empires we saw rise
to glory. We will look at the fall of the mighty
Greeks, the fall of the Roman Empire, as well as
the Dynastic Cycle/Mandate of Heaven in China,
which will explain how dynasties rise and fall.
Upon completion of Unit 4, we will spend two
class periods reviewing for our comprehensive
final exam. This exam will be the largest grade
of the fourth quarter, and will likely take place
on June 5th and 6th.
7th Grade Team
7th Grade End of the Year Field Trip: June 2nd
Permission slips for our field trip to Annapolis, MD on June 2nd will be sent home the first day of 4th Quarter.
Cash or money order payment, along with the permission slip, is due by May 19th. During the field trip,
students will cruise the Annapolis Harbor on the Harbor Queen boat, tour Annapolis through a scavenger
hunt, and enjoy lunch with their group and chaperone.
The cost is $20 for students and $24 for parent/guardian chaperones. Interested parent/guardian
chaperones must complete the volunteer training on the BCPS website, as well as send in their application
and certificate. http://www.bcps.org/community/volunteer_info/
7th Grade Language Arts
GT:
Students will learn about the Russian Revolution through the allegorical novel, Animal Farm. Types of
government, types of protests, and sociological questions will be addressed throughout the unit. Essential
Questions include:
 How can an author use fiction to express his perspectives on the role of leadership in a society?
 How do two authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by
emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts?
 How does an author use the setting of a story to develop the characters and the plot of the story?
Standard:
Students will learn about fairytales, taking us through the culmination of Language Arts for the year. Students
will write a “fractured fairytale” that tells a traditional fairytale from the perspective of a different character
to alter the character archetypes that appear in the story. They will first reread a fairytale to analyze how an
author develops and contrasts the points of view of different archetypal characters in a text. Then students
will rewrite the story from the perspective of a different character to alter the character archetypes that
appear in the story.
7th Grade World Cultures
Beginning in the month of May, 7th grade World Cultures students will discuss ideas and inventions from the
Enlightenment as well as the Industrial Revolution. Mid-May will be spent examining the causes and effects
of World War I and World War II, which are two topics that many students have expressed interest in. We
will end the month analyzing the role of the United Nations and European Union and evaluating the
successes and challenges of these organizations. Students will be assessed on this knowledge with the
Europe Part 2 Test. The rest of the year will be devoted to our Eurasia unit, meaning Russia and its
surrounding countries. Students will examine the physical and human geography of Eurasia, the Czarist Era of
Russia, the role of communism in the USSR and Russia’s transition to democracy.
7th Grade Math
Algebra 1 students have dived into serious Algebra skills such as operations with polynomials. The students
are able to use the FOIL method to multiply polynomials and now we are learning how to factor
polynomials. All of these algebraic operations will be related back to the graph of the quadratic function so
the students can see how the math shows up in real life such as cost/profit models or productions models.
Pre-Algebra will continue with Unit 4-transformations through the rest of April and part of May. Students
will be learning about translations, reflections, rotations and dilations. Unit 5 will follow, focusing on area &
volume.
7th Grade Science
GT: We will be working on the physics unit for the next couple weeks where the students will make vessel for
an egg dropped off of the roof, and a car that is powered by a balloon. The final unit of the year is the
astronomy unit where students will learn about stars, galaxies and our own solar system. Our biggest project
is a scale model of the solar system.
Standard: Students are currently in the wave interactions unit where they will learn about sound and light
waves. We will finish the unit with a laser project where the students will need to construct a shape using a
laser beam, and measuring the reflection of the beam. We will finish the year in the geology unit where
students will learn about the three different types of rocks and how the earth has changed over time. We will
finish the year with a board game based around the rock cycle.
End-of-the-Year Notes from the Eighth Grade Team
Well, here we are, closing in on the end of your child’s middle school experience! We are helping our
students to “finish strong” – wrapping up curriculum content and strengthening skills to help make them
successful in high school.
In Math 8, students will be exploring the world of geometry and applying the Pythagorean Theorem to
real-world problems. Algebra 1 students are wrapping up a unit on quadratic functions. They are learning how
to factor and solve quadratics. Their comprehensive final will be on May 30th. Geometry students are
completing an introductory unit on Trigonometry. Using trig functions to find missing side lengths of triangles
are how they are applying them. This concept will be explored deeper in future math courses. Their
comprehensive final will be given over the course of two days between May 26 and June 1st.
The Environmental Science unit is kicking up into high gear. Students are finishing up their forestry
unit. After their forestry unit they will over onto a mini unit of wildlife. Students will be taking their
cumulative end of the year final soon! A day students 05/25 and B day students are 05/26. Study guides for the
test will be coming out soon and test review materials are already starting to be placed on the class website.
The standard science students are wrapping up their mechanics unit. They will have their benchmark 5/10 or
5/11. They will be starting to build their final rocket designs. They will be setting the rockets off next week!
Standard students final exam will be on 5/31 for B day students and 6/1 for A day students.
We are closing in on another amazing school year! Social studies students are currently learning about
the Civil War. Students have been engaged in topics such as major battles, technologies of the Civil War,
civilian life including women, African American, and children, and how the Civil War impacted America. Our
final unit will be reconstruction, where students examine life post Civil War and how the country will piece
itself back together.
In all Language Arts classes, we are working on our 4th and final unit, the Challenge of Finding Your Voice.
As part of this unit, the students get to select a novel to read based on personal interest and will work with
others reading the same text in independently functioning Literature Circles. Essentially, class will work like a
Book Club, in which students meet and discuss their text in a self-guided fashion.