Today's Monarch

Mr. Heneghan and some of the 8th graders take a break in a garden on the campus of Marian College.



From Mrs. Bryant...
Seventh grade students will have a DNA have lab tomorrow. Please remind your son or daughter to bring their lab coat to class.

Sixth grade students are exploring plants in science; however, Friday they will learn about thermal energy in a short lab. Please be sure to ask them about it.

Eighth grade students are studying plate tectonics. Ask them where some of the plate boundaries can be found in our world and how our earth is shaped as a result of their pushing, pulling apart, or sliding past each other.

From Mrs. Groves...
6th graders are beginning to study algebraic properties and solve equations.

7th graders are finding percent of a number. They realize that our sales tax is 7%, but were surprised to find out that 7% for a $16,000.00 car added $1,120.00 to the cost!


8th graders are finishing up a unit on formulas—finding volume and surface area of prisms, pyramids, cones and cylinders. After attending the baseball game, we will apply what we know about formulas to find the “on base percentage” of some of the Indians.

Indianapolis Indians Game – Wednesday, April 30th
Reminder: For the Indians game next Wednesday, please be sure the students bring money for lunch. I did not realize that we are not allowed to bring food since we have box seats. For those who are chaperoning please arrive at school at about 9:30.

In Mr. Heneghan’s class...

· 6th-8th graders have finished their Shel Silverstein projects for National Poetry Month. Look for them in the halls starting tomorrow. We hope to share them with the younger kids in school. Mr. Carlstedt has also suggested they record them for an online podcast!
· 8th graders will NOT be going to Eli Lilly tomorrow. It has been rescheduled for next Friday. It is in the afternoon and we are looking for drivers. Contact Mr. Carlstedt if you can help out.
· The 8th graders will present the May Crowing mass on May 1st at 9am. Please join us.

Today's Monarch

The 8th graders visited Marian College on Wednesday.

From Mrs. Groves...

• Great things are happening at St. Joan of Arc:
Middle School Finalist for 2008 Intel Schools of Distinction Award

SJA has been chosen as a finalist for the Intel Schools of Distinction Award - Math Excellence category. As a finalist we receive a $2500.00 grant. There are 9 finalists from across the country, and 3 will be chosen as the winning schools in June (See article in today’s school newsletter).

We are in the middle school math category. The winning schools receive $10,000.00 in grant money and $150,000.00 in tech products!

• Indians Game – April 30th

As part of our Sports Connection Program the middle school will be attending the Indians vs. Columbus baseball game at Victory Field on April 30th. We have openings and tickets for 2 chaperones. We will leave here at about 9:30 AM and return by 3:00 PM. If you would like to join us, please send a note to school.

• Finance Park – May 15th

The 7th & 8th graders will be visiting Finance Park on May 15th. They should have brought an information packet home concerning it on Tuesday. Please let us know immediately if you can volunteer to help. The details were included in the packet.



From Mrs. Hasbrook...

• The 6th and 7th graders just finished up the chapter and will test on Tuesday the 22nd. They have had lots of review time with flashcards and a game of Jeopardy, but still need to study, study, study!! After the chapter test, they will begin their dialogues and enter the next chapter (our last chapter for the year).
• The 8th graders have already written, memorized and performed their dialogues and are well into the next chapter. They will be quizzing over new classroom vocabulary on Tuesday the 22nd.


From Mrs. Bryant...

• Students enjoyed a visit from Professor Donovan and his traveling science show last Friday as he explored changes in gas volume, force, and temperature. The students were very enthusiastic about The Challenger Learning Center’s show. Ask your son or daughter not only about our student participation, but also how Mr. Carlstedt and Mr. Heneghan contributed to the performance.

• Mitosis and meiosis are the topics for eighth grade students this week. Ask your son or daughter to show you the computer game that they played which reinforced their understanding. If you are in the school, please take a stroll down our middle school hallway and see their detailed sketches, the students did an excellent job.

• Seventh grade students are studying heredity this week and will extract a sample of their own DNA from their cheek cells in their lab on Friday. Ask them to explain to you what a Punnett Square is used to predict.

• Sixth grade students have started learning about our world’s biomes and their plant and animal resources. Students are preparing Power Point presentations on their chosen area of the earth.

From Mr. Heneghan...

• We’ve been celebrating National Poetry Month by exploring some of Shel Silverstein’s children’s poetry, learning a little about the poet himself, and are actually creating and analyzing our own poems. Look for them in the halls in the week to come.
• Interested in some book suggestions? Not a reader, but would like to become one, and thus help your child be more engaged in reading? Check out the post after this week’s Monarch. It has some book suggestions for kids and adults, as well as an introduction to a cool reading community website called “Library Thing” (www.librarything.com).
• 8th graders learned loads at their Marian College visit yesterday. We toured the Catholic campus, sat in on Theology, Marketing, and Writing classes, had a roundtable discussion with current Marian students, and enjoyed a tasty lunch.

Some Random Books From My Library Thing

About a month ago, I introduced the middle school students to the website librarything.com. It is a site which does many things, all of them connected to books and reading. It connects readers in a variety of ways, one way being that it creates places for people to talk about shared reading interests, like science fiction or thrillers, for example. The main function of the site is to give you an opportunity to catalogue books in your own personal library--the books you've read during your life. As you construct this list, you are connected to other users who have also read those books. You're also able to read their reviews of books and see what other books you might enjoy if you liked a certain mystery or a specific author, for example.

Anywho, here's a bit from my librarything catalogue. Check it out, and join up too! It's free. You can also click on 'my library' to see my entire collection (so far).

Today's Monarch

Thank you to the parents who chaperoned at the Pacers game.

In Mr. Heneghan’s class...
• This is National Poetry Month, so we have been exploring poetry, specifically the poetry of Shel Silverstein. Amazing how his poetry and cartoons still make our classes laugh!
• Look for your children to be writing their own poetry.
• Ask your child what their favorite Accelerated Reader book has been in the last month. Ask them why? Get involved in their reading, and tell them about what you read too.

In Mrs. Bryant’s class...

• On Monday, Terry Gallagher and Mr. Ellyson from the Marion County Department of Health were our guest speakers on mosquito biology. Sixth and seventh grade students were able to observe mosquitoes in various life stages through a microscope. Students also learned methods to prevent the number of mosquitoes around their homes this summer. Be sure to ask your son or daughter what diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes.

• Many sixth grade students did not score as well on the cell test as they had hoped. We discussed ways to improve their mastery of the concepts; making a foldable or flashcards and note-taking were all suggested. The key to any method working well is to keep up with the daily assignments and review each day what was presented in class. I explained to the students that in science it is important to read more slowly and for detail, as compared with the type of reading one uses for literature where they may want to grasp the overall idea.

• Seventh grade students will be visiting Marian College’s Eco-Lab the afternoon of Friday, May 16th. If you would be able and willing to chaperone and/or carpool students to this event, please let me know. Please call me at home: 841-3952 or send me an e-mail: sbryant@sjoa.org

• Eighth grade student tests over thermal energy are in their take home folder today. This is the first test of our last quarter. Please take time to review the test with your son or daughter.

• This week students received a book from NIH titled Inside the Cell. You may want to save this as a resource for future high school science classes. The photos are incredible and the illustrations are excellent.

In Mr. Carlstedt’s class...

• 6th-8th grades have their capitals and map quiz on Friday.
• Tech terms for those classes on Friday as well.

In Mrs. Groves’s class...
• The latest in Sports Connections is that we have moved on from March Madness to baseball. The middle school students are learning how to keep a box score during a baseball game. They are also learning how to apply some of the mathematical formulas such as H/AB to find the batting average. That is “hits” divided by “at bats.” We will be attending the Indianapolis Indians Education Day on Wednesday, April 30th. Permission slips will be coming home soon.

National Poetry Month

Shel Silverstein article

Homework Questions
a. What different careers did Shel Silverstein have in his lifetime, and what did he accomplish in each of these careers?
b. The article compares Silverstein to Dr. Seuss, A.A. Milne, and Edward Lear. What did these authors write? In what ways might they be compared to each other in terms of writing style? Why is each author considered a "master of the form" of writing for children?
c. What are some of the subjects of Shel Silverstein’s works (particularly short stories and poems) as described in the article, and why might they appeal to children? What morals does he seem to discuss in his works?
d. Have you ever read any of Shel Silverstein’s poems? What did you like about them? What makes them memorable to you?

Compare and Contrast Your Poem and Silverstein's
--How does the poem you wrote relate to the title?
--What is the meaning of your poem, and how did you attempt to relay that meaning to your reader?
--What does the title of this poem mean in relation to the poem written by Shel Silverstein?
--What is the meaning of the Shel Silverstein poem, and how did he attempt to relay that meaning to the reader?
--What methods did both you and Shel Silverstein use to reach your intended audience of children?

RUBRIC FOR SHEL SILVERSTEIN FINAL PROJECT
Essay: 20 pts
-5 pts: C.U.P.S., Neatly typed, crisp paper, 1 page or less
-5 pts: Concrete examples
-5 pts: Transition words for each "yellow"
-5 pts: Readability, style
Drawing: 10 pts: Connection to your poem; effort and care must be apparent
Your Poem: 15 pts
Silverstein Poem: 5 pts.