GEORGETOWN MIDDLE 301 West Market StreetFALL 2018 EDITION Georgetown, DE 19947

KNIGHTLY NEWS

David Hudson, Principal Karen Oliphant, Assistant PrincipalPhone: 302.856.1900 Fax: 302.856.1915

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESKWelcome to the 2018-2019 school year at Georgetown Middle School! We are excited about how smooth the start to the school year has been and we would like to thank our students, families, and the staff of Georgetown Middle School for their part in allowing us to have such a fabulous start. As of September 30th, 794 students were enrolled in our school. This the most students ever registered at GMS! The GMS staff is excited to reach and teach every one of our 794 students.

Please remember that if your child is experiencing any difficulties adjusting to the new school year, please contact us. We would like to be proactive now to

avoid larger issues later. Teachers may be reached during their planning times or you may leave a message on

a teacher’s voicemail. The school counseling department and school nurse can be reached from 7:40 a.m. until 3:20 p.m. daily (School Nurse – Mrs. Marshall, School Counselors - last names A-L, Mrs. Davis, last names M-Z, Ms. Keffer). In addition, either of the school administrators can be reached between 7:20 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily.

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Georgetown Middle School is a Positive Behavior Support School. Our school this year has embraced a consistent school-wide PBS system. We encourage all of our students to Get ready! Model responsibility! and Show Respect! All day, every day. Students who exhibit these behaviors are rewarded daily with GeMS. Students can use these GeMS to purchase special prizes via the school’s GEMU. In addition, students who demonstrate these behaviors over an extended period will earn the right to attend our end of the month celebrations, events, and our ever popular, Gem-A-Paloozas. Please continue to encourage your student(s) to Get Ready, Model Responsibility, and Show Respect!

We again want to thank you for the wonderful start to the school year and we look forward to a successful remainder of the year.

Sincerely,

Mr. Hudson and Ms. Oliphant

EIGHTH GRADE INFOThe 8th graders are off to a great start in ELA! We commenced the school year by reading the novel The Outsiders. Students are now using the novel to help them define heroism in an expository essay; the way in which they are doing this is by choosing a character from the novel and proving through textual evidence why he or she is a hero. In addition to reading and writing, students have been busy mastering parts of speech, as well as, simple, compound, and complex sentences. Students are quickly learning: grammar IS fun!

8th grade students enrolled in Course 3 math have worked through the distributive property to solve linear equations for a variable and will continue to graph and represent these linear equations. Students will be able to represent real-world scenarios in tables, graphs and equations. Students enrolled in Algebra 1 have worked to write and solve both linear and literal equations. They will continue to expand this knowledge to inequalities, as well.

In 8th Grade Social Studies we are learning how to evaluate sources for credibility.  Also, we are learning about the exploration and settlement of

America.

The 8th grade scientists are beginning their journey into the wild world of Physics. We will be exploring the complex world of ENERGY. It’s all around us; yet we don’t see it!!! Our scientists begin this journey by investigating the foundations of energy: Gravitational Potential Energy and Kinetic Energy. This unit allows the students the opportunity to experiment on a weekly basis and to examine the mechanics behind amusement park rides.

SEVENTH GRADE INFOIn 7th grade ELA, students have just completed their first novel, A Long Walk to Water. In the novel, students meet two characters who live in South Sudan; their lives are much different than ours and we see how they each handle the difficult issues they face. Students will be writing an expository essay on one of the major crises in South Sudan. They will do further research and will present their information in a creative way using text features.

Seventh grade Mathematics classes are diligently working towards obtaining mastery of our first unit, The Number System. Students have been working to apply previous

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understandings of operations with both fractions and decimals, and further extending that understanding to successfully complete operations with positive and negative numbers. Within the classroom, the focus has revolved around students becoming self-determined critical thinkers, while utilizing their classmates to increase their own understanding through productive mathematical discourse. In the upcoming weeks, we will move onto our second unit, Expressions and Equations.

The seventh grade social studies students have been back in time to the beginning of our American government.  They've imitated work of our Founding Fathers by analyzing and creating rights for the American people. They are about to begin their study of the Expansion of Freedom unit. In this unit they will learn that democracy means rule by the people and that majority votes are just an arbitrary indicator of what the people want.  Students will understand that the addition of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution was motivated by the recognition that citizens need protection from abuse of the government. Students will learn how different minority groups obtained the rights and privileges they have today. We will also explore many court cases that have set precedence in the fundamental rights of citizens.

Seventh grade Science classes are off to a great start!  We are now implementing a new Science curriculum that includes students analyzing

a few phenomena throughout each unit.  Students then utilize their new knowledge to analyze these after the lesson or unit concludes.  This is a new way of teaching Science, but our students are doing well with this. We have already learned the differences between matter, non-matter, mass and volume.  We've learned how the elements on the periodic table combine in various ways to make different types of

molecules.  We have also learned how to write in scientific notation.  Some upcoming topics include:  density, solubility and states of matter.

SIXTH GRADE INFOIn English Language Arts, the Seagulls, Wildcats, and Wolverines have been analyzing

personal narratives. Our conceptual focus for the year is “change,” which is fitting since sixth grade is a big transition from elementary school to middle school. Our study on change in narratives will help us better understand how change is woven into our own lives. We will conclude our unit by writing a personal narrative about an incident we experienced, our response to the moment, and our reflection on the impact it played on our life.

In 6th grade math, students just finished up part of their whole number unit focusing on multi-digit multiplication and division along with

factors. Students should continue to practice multiplication facts and the standard algorithms for both multiplication and division. These skills will continue to cycle back. Over the next few weeks, we will be investigating decimals. Students will be reminded how to add and subtract decimals by lining up the decimal point, and they will also learn the proper procedures for multiplying and dividing decimals. We encourage all students to study their Cornell Notes and be diligent about completing homework. There are plenty of extra practice problems in the Springboard book for student who may need extra help. Students will also receive extra reinforcement during their RTI block.

Why do lazy people have many remotes? Ask your sixth grade student and they will tell you all about it! We will learn a lot about the five themes of geography. In fact, we will soon begin our first project of

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the year by creating a brochure that applies the five geography themes to a destination of your student's choosing.

Maps! Maps! Maps! It will be all about maps in Social Studies for the next few weeks. We will be learning about the important parts of a map, map projections, map distortion, regions, and visual associations. When all is said and done, we will finally be able to answer the Unit Question: How do mental maps effectively change and develop?

We finish up the month working on speed, acceleration, and forces.  In October, the Delaware State Police Reconstruction Unit came to Georgetown Middle School to show the forces involved in a roll-over accident through a simulation to our students.  Georgetown Police Department allowed students to interact with different police equipment that related to speed and velocity.  In the future students will be exploring the  types of forces and Newton's Laws with the end product of creating a safe go-kart for an egg.  Students will engineer a car that will keep their egg safe as it is put through various tests of forces. 

We are always looking for community support, as related to real world science.  If you have a job, hobby, or any expertise in any area that relates to SCIENCE, please feel free to contact George Schwendtner.  

COUNSELORS’ CORNERYour School Counselors are IN! It has been a great start to the 2018-2019 school year. Ms. Keffer welcomed two new additions to the department. Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Cash are the new faces to the school counseling department this year.

The last five years, Mrs. Davis has been the school counselor at East Millsboro Elementary. While at GMS, Mrs. Davis will be working with the students who have a last name starting with letters A-L.

Mrs. Cash is the new secretary in the school counseling office and keeps the department running. The last 13 years she has sat at the desk at Howard T. Ennis.  

Ms. Keffer and Mrs. Davis look forward to meeting with their students, running groups, celebrating with students during the GEM-a-palooza events, and having a GREAT 2018-2019 School year!!!

A “Note” FROM THE MUSIC ROOM

The choruses and bands for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades are already preparing for their Winter Concert! We are looking forward to our performance on December 18th at 7:00 in the GMS auditorium. Please be sure to mark your calendars! More information on attire and student arrival time for the concert will be given at a later date. Please encourage your band and chorus student(s) to practice at home.

Selected 7th and 8th grade chorus students will be invited to join Sussex County Honors chorus in November. Look for

nomination letters the week of October 8th. Acceptance letters will be due by October 12th. Look for information regarding Sussex County Honors Band to come in the next weeks.

All 7th and 8th grade chorus students have been invited to try out for Jr. All-State Chorus on November 17th. Students who wanted to audition were given applications. Both the applications and the application fee of $15 are due no later than Monday, October 8th. Look for

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information regarding All-State Band to come in the next weeks.

READ 180Students in sixth and seventh grade are currently studying immigration. They are reading nonfiction articles about three teens who have very different journeys to the United States. Eighth grade students are reading and learning how people cope with the devastation of natural disasters like the Tsunami of 2004. Students will read a variety of articles and watch videos to learn more about immigration and natural disasters. Parents may access the Family Portal for Read 180 from home to learn more about the program. The website is read180/familyportal.com.

Students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade are reading nonfiction, high interest articles. They can choose articles from many different topics and subjects. They are also utilizing these articles to practice test taking skills and various strategies. These articles are self-guided based on the reading assessment they took a couple weeks ago. Each article has questions, writing prompts, and math activities that the student can complete to improve their reading comprehension. This program also has a home communication that families can access from home. The website is Achieve 3000.com.

ELL(English Language Learners)ELL students are off to a great start this fall!   We welcome Mr. Wilgus to our ELL team this year.  Mr. Wilgus comes to us from Sussex Central High School, and he will be working with Ms. Lopez and the 8th graders.   

7th grade students have been working on Decimals and Fractions in Math.  They will

be moving on to Integers.  Seventh graders have also been working on Parts of Speech to build language skills.  Ms. Paulsen and Ms. Morales work with seventh grade students. 

6th graders are reading and writing narratives in ELA classes.  We will be reading "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott.  Students are learning about different types of conflicts in narratives.  All sixth graders will be writing personal narratives in ELA classes.  Sixth grade students work with Ms. Araya and Ms. Juarez.  

September Students of the Month: 6th grade Seagulls: Russell Murray 6th grade Wolverines: Kinder Synder 6th grade Wildcats:

Bedsaida Raymond 7th grade Cavaliers:

Takoda Bowden 7th grade Terps: Jinnyvette

Ortiz Lopez 8th grade Blue Hens: Daniella Roblero 8th grade Hornets: Sydney Clendaniel Exploratory: Joaquin Rodriguez

~ KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK!! ~

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YEARBOOKS ARE ON SALE!!You can go to a link on the GMS website to purchase.  There are also order forms

in the main office.  No more orders will be taken after January 31, 2019.