Hello, Cooper Family! September has arrived here at TCS Middle School and we are looking forward to what it will hold for your kids. Here are five fun facts about September:

1. The name “September” comes from an old Roman word, “septem,” which actually means 7. That’s right – September was the seventh month of the year on the Roman calendar. It did not become the ninth month until the advent of the Gregorian calendar.
2. Out of all 12 months of the year, September is spelled with the most letters. It contains nine letters, and it happens to be the ninth month of the year. No other months have the same amount of letters as their number in the calendar year.
3. This September “Harvest Moon” is the fullest moon of the year.
When you gaze at it, it looks very large and gives a lot of light throughout the entire night. No other lunar spectacle is as awesome as the Harvest Moon.
4. There are more pop and classic songs with “September” in the title than any other month.
5. The birthstone for September is the sapphire which is said to reduce inflammation, treat fever and act as a lucky charm for the person wearing it. It symbolizes intuition, clarity of thought, peacefulness, as well as loyalty and trust (12 Fun Facts About September! /The Storage Inn Blog, 2020).

Here’s a look at what is happening in each of the classes:

What’s happening in Science?
Seventh Graders contemplated the existence of exoplanets and researched compelling evidence provided by NASA that there are definitely planets that exist outside of our Solar System. They questioned and explored what makes a planet habitable, by considering a planet’s temperature range, whether it can remain in a temperature range that sustains liquid water, and whether there is evidence of landforms that may have been created by liquid water. Seventh Graders also identified their cosmic address and where we “fit” in the universe. They experimented with “space debris” (pepper) and stimulated their own solar system formation. Next week, we will begin our moon phase study. If you are out this weekend after dark, or up early in the morning, check out the moon! We are having a full moon on Saturday!
What’s up in Math?
The first unit for 7th Grade Math is a long one. We’ve been spending a lot of time on Transformations: Rotations, Reflections, Translations – actions that move a shape while leaving its physical attributes 100% the same (congruent). The 7th Graders have been patient and have worked hard, and they took their Mid-Unit Assessment this week. Now it’s time to fiddle with shapes a little more, mostly triangles. We’re about to learn characteristics of different triangles, similar vs. congruent triangles, and how to tell the measure of an angle from missing information. They’re like little riddles – math mysteries, I guess – and it gives the students a chance to be very creative in finding clues that they can use to find other clues until it’s solved. They’ll do well, and I’m sure we’ll be taking the End-of-Unit Assessment within 2 weeks.
What’s happening in ELA?
Your Seventh Graders have been working on making strategic reading plans and ways to access the texts they want to read. We have learned that the New York Public Library website has a useful link titled, “Title Quest: In Search of the Forgotten Title”. As parents, you may even find the website useful. We also reviewed expectations for their reading log journals. Please be sure to look over their journals.

Finally, Seventh Graders are working on a book project. They are creating book jackets for the books they are reading or have recently completed reading. If they are unable to complete the project by Friday morning in class, the project will be sent home to be completed over the weekend.

What’s going on in Social Studies?
This week we began to explore European exploration into the America’s! We took an assessment to be sure that we have mastered all of the content before moving forward next week!

Next week we will be focusing on the first colonies of North America by the Spanish, English, Dutch, and French! We then will be diving deeper into the 13 colonies and the differences between each of the regions.

Important Dates:

September 21st: Middle School Curriculum Night (5:30-6:30)
September 29th: Parent Coffee (8:00am-8:45am)