Sutton School News - Sutton Middle School - Sutton School District
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Sutton Middle School February 2020
Sutton School
News
Photos and articles submitted by both
Administration and Staff
Page 1
Sutton Middle School February 2020
7 Grade- Social Studies
th
Mr. Cummins
The 7 grade just completed their Australia and New Zealand
th
unit in Social Studies class. While studying the geography of
this area of the world,
students focused on a
particular geographical
feature or region. The
students then created
postcard posters and
skits about their feature
or region. The postcards
and skits were extremely
creative and it gave the
students a great
understanding of the land
of Australia and New
Zealand. Following this,
students learned about the aboriginal and indigenous cultures
of these countries. To conclude this unit, students worked in
groups to create an Australia and New Zealand alphabet book.
For each letter, they chose a word associated with this unit
and had to identify its significance along with an illustration
for each word. The 7 grade really enjoyed this project and
th
we look forward to our unit on Ancient Greece!
Page 2
Sutton Middle School February 2020
Sixth Grade Computers with Mrs. Wa6s - Coding
Con:nues
Scratch ~ Sixth graders moved on to block coding. There are many
resources out there. The one the students have really enjoyed is called
Scratch. It was created by the folks at MIT and is a free, well-designed
website where kids can create their own stories and
games. They can share their crea@ons with the world or
simply play games that have been created by others. There
is a great sec@on on their site for parents: h6p://
scratch.mit.edu/parents/
Students made code for “An
Unusual Discovery”, which was a
combined effort of Google and
Scratch.
li6leBits ~ Students have been crea@ng with
liKleBits, using soMware and circuits, together. In groups of the three,
the sixth graders have been making animated gifs, including a waving
American flag, a flower in the growing process, and mythical creatures
Page 3
Sutton Middle School February 2020
dancing. liKleBits also allows students to create music to go with their
visuals, leOng them be crea@ve in different ways from Scratch. Check
out their website for more informa@on @ liKlebits.com.
Page 4
Sutton Middle School February 2020
7th Grade Science
Students are mid-unit in our studies of forces that shape Earth’s surface. We have
looked at gravity, rivers, and glaciers and soon will look at wind and waves as
forces that move sediments and work to continually change the landscape. Here
students are using sand as sediment material and small rocks as glaciers to create
various landforms. We followed up this activity by writing descriptions and
making drawings showing how these landforms are created.
Page 5
Sutton Middle School February 2020
Eighth Grade English
Eighth grade English is two-thirds of the way through Johnny Tremain by Esther
Forbes. We are reading about the American Revolution and the Sons of Liberty.
While some of the content is new, many students recognize local Massachusetts
places included in the novel, such as Faneuil Hall, Charlestown, and Milton.
Much of our focus has been on indirect characterization and how what a person
says shows who they are. Students have been annotating many quotes and
analyzing how a character’s personality can be observed through their words. This
approach enables students to think more deeply about characters and people in
everyday life.
6th Grade Social Studies Mr. Moseley
We wrapped up February with the end of our Egyptian Unit. The students
learned many important concepts about the development of ancient Egyptian
society and the Kingdom of Kush. One important innovation of ancient Egypt was
the creation of a durable paper-like material known as Papyrus. Students had the
opportunity to create their own papyrus and even write in Egyptian hieroglyphics
on their piece of papyrus.
Page 6
Sutton Middle School February 2020
Egypt was not the only ancient civilization that relied on the Nile River to survive.
We also focused on the often forgotten region of Nubia. Located south of Egypt,
Nubia was home to many natural resources that the Egyptians coveted. The people
of this region, given the name Kushites by the Egyptians, traded many of their
valued resources with the Egyptians. The students took part in an activity where
they had the opportunity to act as traders from the regions of Egypt, Nubia, and
Central Africa. They bartered for tokens, which represented goods from their
region, with the goal to get the widest variety of goods possible. The goal of this
activity was for students to get a visual understanding of how powerful the
Kushites were in the trade networks of the Nile River.
Page 7
Sutton Middle School February 2020
8th Grade History Fun!
We are just starting our Medieval Europe unit in 8th Grade
World History. While we will get to kings and queens, siege
warfare, and the Magna Carta, we started by looking at the
Vikings and their influence on Europe after the fall of the
Roman Empire. When you talk about the Vikings, it's
important to know about their Longships. We took some
time in class recently to read about Longships and their style,
design, and purpose. After gathering the information, we got
into groups to build our version out of Legos. See the photos
below of some excellent examples. Our next project will be to build various
types of siege weapons to storm the castle.
Scholas@c Book Fair in the Library
Page 8
Sutton Middle School February 2020
The Scholas@c Book fair was a GREAT success!!! Thank
you to everyone who par@cipated! Profits from the book fair
will be used to purchase books, makerspace materials and
supplies for the library.
During the event some students
par@cipated in games including coin
wars, a lollipop pull, a raffle basket,
and a book raffle. Dona@ons from
these games were used to help
teachers build and refresh their
classroom libraries and to support
kids in need through Scholas@c’s All for Books program. Most
importantly, the book fair allowed students to select books to
read for their own
enjoyment.
Page 9
Sutton Middle School February 2020
Art News!
Apparently we were hungry in the art room this month because we choose our
favorite desserts to render in mixed media. What is mixed media you ask? 7th
graders can tell you that mixed media is a combination of materials to make art.
We choose the best qualities of each material to highlight: watercolor pencil to lay
a base coat, colored pencil to add texture and value, Copic marker to add contrast
and acrylic paint for the highlights. The results are displayed outside the middle
school office and are making me hungry!
Page 10Sutton Middle School February 2020
Page 11Sutton Middle School February 2020
Page 12Sutton Middle School February 2020
As the weather gets balmier we’ll be studying weather. In the online simulation
pictured above, students will be playing the role of meteorologist. As they “drive
around” their mobile weather station, students will measure various weather
components in various weather conditions. Be sure to discuss these weather
components with your student while watching the evening news together before
dinner.
SKY ZONE FLIGHT NIGHT!
Who: SuKon Students, Families, and Friends
What: Join the SMS Student Council for a “Spirit Night” of fun!
When: Thursday, March 19th from 3:00 – 8:00 pm (students must arrange their
own transporta@on)
Where: Sky Zone in Westborough
290 Turnpike Road, Route 9
Westborough, MA 01581
Why?: Fundraiser for the SMS Student Council
Please see aKached flier for details or visit: hKps://www.skyzone.com/
westborough
*** We strongly advise that jumpers guarantee their jump :me by purchasing
:ckets in advance through the Sky Zone website.***
*** All jumpers MUST have a waiver. Waivers must be filled out by a parent or
legal guardian. Waivers can be found on the Sky Zone website. They can be
Page 13Sutton Middle School February 2020
filled out electronically in advance or printed out and brought with you the night
of the event.***
***Upon arrival, please check in with Sky Zone staff – tell them that you are
from Su6on & tell them what grade you are in!***
If you have any ques@ons, please call (x3120) or email Ms. Corron at
corrona@suKonschools.net
*** This is a MINI OLYMPICS event. The grade with the most par@cipants wins 1st
place in the event!***
***Each student that aKends will be entered into a raffle to win a candy giM
basket! *** See Ms. Corron or Ms. DeTrolio at Sky Zone to fill out your raffle
@cket!!!
Page 14Sutton Middle School February 2020
Page 15Sutton Middle School February 2020
Coming in MARCH…
It’s almost @me for our 7th annual SPRING GREENING clothing
drive to benefit Cradles to Crayons. We will be seeking new or
gently used children’s clothing sizes infant to adult medium. There will be
dona@on bins at all main offices (ELC, ELEM, MS, and HS).
In addi@on, NEW this year, we will also be hos@ng a BOOK DRIVE to benefit our
local community. We will be collec@ng gently used books for children, young
adults, and adults. Please consider spring cleaning your book shelves and
dona@ng to the book drive! This project is organized by our Project 351 student
ambassador, Navjot Khatri, with the help of the CSL Club!
We will be sending out detailed informa:on about both of these drives very soon.
These service projects are being completed in conjunc@on with Project 351, part
of the Governor’s youth leadership ini@a@ve.
7th Grade World Language
While the city of New Orleans is famous for its colorful parades and balls leading
up to Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent, other cultures around the world mark
this time of year with Carnaval celebrations. One Hispanic city that is famous for
its special costumes is Ponce, Puerto Rico. These scary costumed creatures are
called vejigantes. All 7th grade World Language students worked to make their
own interpretation of these unique and colorful masks. Here are the winners for
the third annual Vejigante Contest:
Page 16Sutton Middle School February 2020
Page 17You can also read
