Girard Middle School students embarked on the second nine weeks with a variety of academic activities in reading, science, writing, social studies, technology, and music.
Reading students in Heidi Tucker’s sixth grade class studied aspects of literature throughout October, including main idea, details, plot, and exposition. In addition, they read stories in their literature books, including Matthew Henson’s “On Top of the World.”
Her seventh grade reading students also studied plot and read stories. Most recently, students read about former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Along with studying literature, both sixth and seventh graders individually read library books and participated in the Accelerated Reader (AR) program, where students’ reading achievement is improved through reading practice.
Janice Harryman’s seventh grade science classes learned about environmental classification and conservation.
Along with studying rocks, minerals, and erosion, her eighth graders finished their Science Fair experiments, which were on display during GMS Parent-Teacher Conferences Oct. 21-22.
Jan Geier’s seventh grade English classes learned about adjectives, including equal modifier adjectives and hyphenated descriptors.
Her eighth graders worked on their “Bat Unit,” a Halloween-themed English unit where students do everything from researching bats and creating their own bat personalities to writing poetry and stories about bats.
They also participated in two different writing contests. The first, called “Girard Memories,” correlated with Fall Festival activities. In this contest Alex Battitori placed first; McKenna Belcher, second; and Natalie Weber, third.
The second contest theme, through Learning Quest, was “If you could study one subject all day, what would it be?” Mrs. Geier entered 24 student writings into this contest.
Reflecting on the school year thus far, Mrs. Geier stated, “All of us are having a great year. We’re learning a lot.” When asked if they enjoy Mrs. Geier’s English class, her eighth grade students exuberantly yelled, “Yes!”
Dave Wutke’s eighth grade U.S. history and current events students spent October learning about the Constitution, including the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the ratification process.
They argued as Federalists and Anti-Federalists in a mock debate on whether to pass the Constitution and also learned about the Louisiana Purchase.
Jerry O’Rand’s seventh grade reading classes completed a lesson on finding context clues. They began reading an excerpt from “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and will participate in an “Encourage People to Read” poster contest, displaying their posters in the GMS hallway.
His eighth graders studied the elements of fiction in literature and finished the story “Flowers for Algernon.” They will start nonfiction stories by reading “Reflections on the Civil War.”
First-quarter students in Peggy Marshall’s seventh grade technology class finished and posted their podcast about inventions on the school web site.
Students in her two English classes completed a comma unit and were tested over it. They are now working on Halloween writing activities.
Willey Abati teaches a quarterly sixth grade general music class, and students in this class learned the names of lines and spaces as well as sharps, flats, and naturals and what they do to notes. They also learned the count value for quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes and definitions of basic music terms.
He also teaches a sixth grade band class which is working out of the beginning band book from last year. These students will soon receive folders of Christmas music in order to prepare for the Nov. 30 Christmas program.
His seventh and eighth grade band is working on marching and marched in the Girard Fall Festival and PSU parades. The band is now working on music in preparation for the Christmas program.
Christina Wallace, new to Girard this year, teaches a quarterly seventh grade guitar class where her students learned some main chords and how to play them in songs.
Her sixth grade and seventh and eighth grade choir classes are preparing for District and State Choir as well as their Christmas program.
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