Community Flyer

Dear Ballenger Creek Middle Families,

I hope you and your loved ones are doing well during this very busy time of year. If you’re like my family, you’re doing your best to keep your children focused on school during this last full month, managing transportation and attendance for extracurricular activities that they’re involved in, and looking ahead to or making summer plans. This, plus the milestones that some of us might be experiencing with our kids--them moving from fifth to sixth grade, eighth to ninth grade, graduating high school, or even college--and the events that go along with them--is a lot to process!

Every year at this time, I try to designate a few minutes as regularly as possible to reflect on and be grateful for the people I’m with right now and anything good that is occurring for them or for me. There is almost always much to be grateful for. This routine helps provide me with proper perspective and to negotiate those hectic moments that inevitably occur each day. I encourage you to join me in this practice.

Additionally, I wish you smooth sailing during these last weeks of school. If you need assistance and you think we can help, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are here to partner with you.

Take care,

Jay Schill

Principal, BCMS

Mrs. Rogers, our community liaison, is hosting a Diversity Night on May 15 and our English Learners have been invited to participate!

Students in the EL English classes will begin working on slideshows to gather information about their countries as a class project. Then, interested students will be able to take their ideas and make a poster for their booth at the diversity night.

If you would like your child to share their culture at the diversity night, please see more information in the Community Liaison section of this newsletter.

6th Grade - Students will work through how to solve for unit rates and proportions.

-Completing tables of equivalent ratios

-Writing proportions to solve real world problems with equivalent ratios

-Expressing variable relationships in tables, graphs, and equations

-Unit conversions and converting between fractions/decimals/Percent

6th grade Pathways - Students will work through how to solve for unit rates and proportions.

-Completing tables of equivalent ratios

-Writing proportions to solve real world problems with equivalent ratios

-Expressing variable relationships in tables, graphs, and equations

-Unit conversions and converting between fractions/decimals/Percent

7th Grade - Students will work on finding Probability.

7ACC -- Students will finish up how to calculate slope and move into how to solve systems of equations using multiple methods.

8th Grade - Students will identify angles produced from parallel lines cut by a transversal and students will learn the Triangle Angle Theorem.

Alg - Students will finish the Exponential Functions unit and move into the Additional Nonlinear Functions Unit.

Algebra students will take the Algebra MCAP Test on May 8th and 9th.

Students should be completing weekly ALEKS topic goals in Math. Students should be checking their Math schoology pages to see what their specific weekly goal is. Students can monitor their own progress by checking their topic reports in ALEKS, a step-by-step how to for this can be found here. Students can make up missed topics by completing extra in the next week. ALEKS topic goals have the same mid-term/end of term due date as other class assignments. For questions about ALEKS topic goals - please reach out to your grade level Math teacher; our school Math specialist, Ms. Boyer (Laura.Boyer@fcps.org); or our school Math department chair, Ms. Dickson (Ashley.Dickson@fcps.org).

Students should be checking their grade reports on schoology weekly to see updates regarding missing/re-do work. If there are any questions regarding student grades, please reach out to your grade level Math teacher.

6th grade: Students will develop and use a model to describe the functions of a cell and its organelles.

7th grade: Students are studying how geological processes, such as plate tectonics, have changed the surface of the Earth

8th grade: Students are using evidence to show the effects of masses of objects on gravitational force.

As our WIDA ACCESS English Language Proficiency test comes to an end in February I want to take a moment and thank all the students for their hard work! It has been 4 weeks of taking tests and they have handled it extremely well. I am very impressed by their hard work, patience, and perseverance to complete all 4 sections of the test well.

To the parents, thank you for your encouragement and support. Student attendance has been excellent and it has helped students to get the practice they needed to feel confident taking the test.

I can’t wait to celebrate and share student growth when the results are returned in May. I will be meeting with students to share their individual growth. Parents, in May I will be providing more information about Parent Sessions to understand the scores. Official score sheets will most likely be sent home in the mail with students’ final report cards in June.

Students are finishing their year in Language Arts by examining the connections between perspectives, events, ideas, and individuals. Additionally, students are reviewing the motivations of characters and the impact of the reactions on the plot of a text. Through the analysis of various historical texts, poems, short stories, and other written works, students will demonstrate their learning through both written assignments and oral discussions. Students are also completing iReady testing in their classes. The entire ELA department wants to congratulate the students who have met their growth goals for the year!

• Camp Burgundy Junior Program

• Frederick Community College

• Frederick County Parks & Recreation

• Frederick County Public Library Summer Challenge

• ID Tech

• Maryland Science Center

• Ranger Programs at Gettysburg National Military Park

• Smithsonian Summer Camp

• STEMed Labs

In 6th grade, we finished our unit on Ancient Greece and finished the Benchmarks for the county. Students are beginning their final unit looking at Ancient Rome, where they will explore the rise of the republic as well as its transformation into the Roman Empire. 6th grade teachers would like to remind parents and students to stay up-to-date on assignments and have them completed on time, as Chromebooks will be collected later in May.

In 7th grade, we are finishing our 8th unit on the Age of Exploration. Students are learning about the massive amounts of trade and cultural diffusion that took place between the Americas and the European, Asian, and African continents. Afterwards, students will start the final unit of the year, which looks at the colonization of North America and the formation of the 13 colonies to prepare them for 8th grade next year.

In 8th grade, students will complete the state standardized test in May. They will complete this during their social studies class. Otherwise, students will then finish the unit looking at settling the Western United States. Afterwards, we will begin our final unit on Industrialization.