News and Announcements:

What we've been doing lately...

We have successfully completed the first nine weeks, the first benchmark, and the first writing prompt . All classes have been working hard on reviewing grammar skills, memorizing lists of word stems, and daily writing in journals. The seventh grade recently the first of the four part state writing test.    

All classes visit the library for book checkout every other Monday. Our next scheduled library day is Novmber 9th, which will coincide with the Book Fair. Students should be reading at home. The AR requirement for the first 9 weeks was 10 points. The AR requirement for the second 9 weeks is 12 points.  

All classes have finished reading novels (6th: Hatchet ; 7th: The River, 8th : A Year Down Yonder),  and have completed chapter outlines which contain main ideas and events, as well as book report which reinforced the concepts of setting, character, plot, and theme. New novels will begin with all classes in the 2nd nine weeks.

Novel reading alone will not fulfill the AR requirement; even with the AR points from a novel each week, the students are required to supplement that with additional reading. AR tests may be taken only during Language Arts class (or during their Curriculum Instruction class if that class is on their schedule.) 

Writing:  Recently, all classes have been progressing toward better writing skills, and the importance of "proofreading" has been stressed. We have made lists of common errors that are made when writing is done in haste and when proofreading does not take place. Please encourage your student to proofread (as well as to edit and revise) his/her written work for common errors and careless mistakes.

When proofreading, some common things to check are:

*** Following capitalization rules, expecially "I".

*** Punctuation (periods, question marks, commas....)

*** Make sure it is a complete sentence, not just a phrase.

*** Don't "text-write" (writing "u r" for "you are").

*** Check spelling/ divide word into syllables to check.

*** Don't start a sentence with "also, and, but, or because".

*** Only one "and" in a sentence. (Many students don't realize when they are writing a journal question, that they may have written an entire page, but it is only one long sentence with 5 or 6 "ands" in it.

*** Remember spelling rules (when to double a consonant, drop a silent "e", etc.)

*** Try to avoid short (baby) sentences---average sentence should be 7 words or more.

*** Use descriptive words (find another word besides "good" or "stuff")

*** When the assignment is to write 5 sentences on a topic, try to write more.

*** Check that you don't repeat yourself.

*** Check that you didn't leave out words. Read it out loud to yourself as it is written to check that.

Important Dates:

Homework Assignments:

On each list below the first 5 are for 6th grade, the first 10 are for 7th grade,and all 15 are for 8th grade. Your son or daughter probably also has  a list of science "stems". 

Stems are parts of words (not words themselves, although some can stand alone), and the more stems meanings the students know, the more they can understand unfamiliar vocabulary.  

CURRENTLY: WEEK 11 STEMS

1. graph - (write) - autograph, polygraph

2. tract - (pull) - tractor, traction, attract

3. path - (feeling) - sympathy

4. sci - (know) - science, conscience

5. in - (in or not) - insane, invalid, ineligible

6. nomy - (law) - astronomy, economy

7. fin - (end) - finish, final, infinity

8. fract - (break)- fracture, infraction

9. co - (together) - copilot, coworker, cooperate

10. hexa - (six) - hexagon

11. fid - (faith) - confident, fidelity

12. hetero - (different) - heterogenous

13. phile - (love) - bibliophile, philanthropy

14. hedron - (sided object) - polyhedron, octahedron

15. -ous - (full of) - glorious, luminous,vivacious

Week 10 - Review and testing of weeks 5-9

Week 9 - STEMS

1. leg - (read) - legible, legend (map)

2. tort - (twist) - contort, torture

3. mir - (wonder) - miracle, mirage

4. man - (hand) - manual, manicure

5. sens - (feel) - sensitive, sensory

6. nym - (name) - homonym, anonymous

7. cur - (care for) - cure, secure

8. rect - (right) - correct, rectify

9. -fy - (make) - solidify, pacify

10. gest - (carry) - digest, ingest

11. anim - (mind) - animated, animosity

12. -oid - (appearance) - asteroid, android

13. apt - (fit) - aptitude (SAT), adapt, adaptation

14. voc - (voice) - vocal, vocabulary

15. rid - (laugh) - ridicule, ridiculous 

Links and Online Resources:

Downloads:

Additional Information:

Please encourage these points with your children to help them to be successful:

     *good attendance

     *using their planners daily to record homework, projects, due dates, etc.

     *making up work from when they are absent     

      *frequent handwashing and good grooming/hygiene habits

      *take notes in class and follow organization techniques

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Crest Middle School

315 Beaver Dam Church Road

Shelby, NC 28152

Phone: 704-482-0343

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