Today's Monarch

Syndey, Symone and Payge enjoy statistics and a nice day at Victory Field.

From Mrs. Sharpe...

To Parents of Middle School students:

Many students are spending a great deal of time on the internet at home. Many are using “My Space” (or other social networking sites like “Facebook”) as a means of communicating. Unfortunately, some students are using this as a way to communicate harmful information about each other. Our concern at St. Joan of Arc is that some of this is carrying over into school. Please check with your children, be sure you know what they are viewing and sending. The internet is a great tool if used properly and safely. Otherwise, it can cause a great deal of harm.
Thank you for monitoring this issue.

Mrs. Sharpe

From Mrs. Bryant...
Seventh grade will be visiting the Marian College Ecolab on Friday, May 16th from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. I still need three drivers for this field trip; if you are able to drive, please give me a call. Students will be learning about wetlands while earning a service hour.

Thermal energy was our topic last Friday, as sixth grade students made ice cream. This week students are learning about invertebrates and reviewing proportions.

Eighth grade students will be bungee jumping their Barbies from the computer lab window into a shallow pool the first day weather permits. Students incorporated a number of skills: graphing, determining the line of best fit, extrapolation of a graph for estimating, and proportion calculations in completing this lab.

From Mr. Carlstedt...
6th grade: wrapping up the individual countries of the Old Country. On a side note, they are creating a presentation on Central American countries.

7th grade: traversing the storied history of Europe and understanding basic concepts of personal financial responsibilities.

8th grade: understanding the social and historical impact of the Civil War while preparing for Finance Park.

From Mrs. Groves...
Last week the Sports Connection program sponsored by the Actuarial Foundation was able to host the entire middle school at the Indianapolis Indians Education Day. During the game between the Indians and the Columbus Clippers the students kept a box score. They had learned to do that in class as part of a statistics unit which includes gathering raw data. They will now take that data and tally some statistics such as batting averages and slugging percentages and compare the players’ performance in that game to their overall performance this season. The students also enjoyed lots of snacks from the concession stands!

Many thanks to our mentors as well as Mr. Barney and Mr. Poe for chaperoning.

The 7th & 8th graders are currently preparing for our visit to Finance Park on May 15th. More on that next week!

From Mrs. Schaefer...
6th grade is studying the life of Moses.
7th and 8th grades are reviewing chapters 1-9, while also creating a Crossword Puzzle.

From Mr. Heneghan...
All grades have focused on our Discipline with Purpose skills as the year winds down. Primarily, we have worked on improving Listening, Following Instructions, Asking Questions, and Sharing. All are basic life skills, and many students are finding they have much to improve in their self-discipline, so I hope they are finding these lessons constructive.

7th and 8th grades have been really enthusiastic about our discussion concerning credit for Finance Park.