October 20, 2023

Shepherd of the Hills

Middle School Newsletter
Happy Friday! It was great to see everyone at conferences these past 2 days. We hope
everyone has a great long weekend and gets to enjoy time outside! Don’t forget about the
wellness day Monday! If there are any questions, concerns, or you just want to talk, feel free to
reach out to us. Our emails are listed below. Have a fantastic weekend!

Important Dates
Oct 23: Rsvp for Trunk or Treat
- Wellness Day
Oct 26: Trunk or Treat
Oct 30: Student Council Halloween Carnival
Oct 31: Happy Halloween
- Wear Orange and Black
Nov 1: All Saints Day
- Wear white
Nov 2: All Souls Day
Nov 3: Wear Kind T-shirt

Wellness day Monday

What brings WELLNESS to your mind, body and soul? A hike on a beautiful trail, meditation, a good
movie with a bowl of buttery popcorn, family time? Whatever it may be, you will have an opportunity
to have a DAY OF WELLNESS on Monday, October 23.
We are asking all students and staff to 'snap a selfie' of something you did during your
wellness day, print it off, and bring it to school by Wednesday, October 25. Don't have a
printer? You can email your photo to your teachers and we will print it off. These photos will then be
displayed on a "Wellness board" in our hallway for all to see!

Contact Info
Miss Carter: acarter@soth-school.org
Ms. Schaalma: kschaalma@soth-school.org
Mrs. Schreiner: kschreiner@soth-school.org

Reminders
● Birthday treats= can be homemade but should be
pre-portioned
● Take home and wash gym clothes every week
● Take home and bring back water bottles every day
● Out of dress code days are for tops

Social Studies
6- The sixth graders are learning about our
hominid ancestors and other stone age people.
7/8- Seventh and eighth graders are learning
about mock trials. They are working on a case
involving a mining accident.
Science
6- The sixth graders will be learning about
natural selection and how organisms evolve.
Miss Carter
Math
6- The sixth graders are finishing their chapter about
solving multiplication, division, addition, and
subtraction with mixed numbers and decimals.
7- The seventh graders are learning how simplify
and combine algebraic expressions through
combining like terms and using the distributive
property.
8- The eighth graders have been learning about how
graph and write different equations on a coordinate
plane through a variety of methods.
Ms. Schaalma…
6th grade reading/ELA- This
week we will continue to work on
informational texts and
incorporating various sources.
The following week we will start
The Westing Game. It is about
16 unlikely people who have to
try to solve the mysterious death
of Mr. Westing in order to inherit
his fortune. Next week we are
going to start working on fictional
narratives.

7th Reading-We started to read

The Secrets of the Immortal
Nicholas Flamel. It is about twins,
Sophie and Josh who find
themselves in the middle of battle
between Nicholas Flamel and
dark forces. In ELA, we will start
a fictional narrative.

8th grade reading- We just

started The Outsiders. The
classic is about Ponyboy and his
crew as they struggle with the
social divide. In ELA, we will
start a fictional narrative. 6th grade Vocab 7th/8th grade Vocab
1. Oppression 1. Blasé
7th/8th Science- We just started 2. Evaluate 2. Commemorate
to discuss natural selection 3. Alleged 3. Glut
4. Omit 4. Pithy
5. Copious 5. Benign
6. Beacon 6. Anarchy
7. Enthrall 7. Reverberate
8. Oration 8. Encompass
9. Flabbergasted 9. Avid
10. Fruitless 10. Feasible
 Mrs. Schreiner
● · All grades 5th-8th presented their slide show presentation for a Saint of their
choosing. The presentations were very insightful. Ms. Schaalma has been working with
students on them also as part of her writing curriculum. A few presentations will be
selected to show again on Nov 1st following the All Saints day 8:30am Mass to grades
4-8 and any parents/parishioners who would like to attend this event after the All Saint’s
Day Mass at 8:30 on Wednesday, November 1st. The presentations will be given in the
cafeteria.
● · All grades are memorizing the 20 mysteries of the Rosary for the month of October.
Many have already recited them to me. Any students who have not are encouraged to take advantage
of this long weekend to work on memorizing these mysteries.
● · We are using self examination exercises to prepare for monthly Reconciliation with
Father Mark. These exercises are being carefully put into our prayer journals. Some
class time will be devoted to self examination.
● · We are being exposed to some simple Ecclesiastical Latin.
● o Grade 6-8 already know the Hail Mary and Our Father. This past week they were
given the Glory Be. Next week we will complete the Fatima prayer and then be able to
experience praying the rosary in Latin for the month of October with the help of
Cardinal Raymond Burke at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe site found at:
https://www.guadalupeshrine.org/latin-rosary
● o The first site used to practice reading Latin words with grade 5 is below:
● o Pronunciation of some Latin letters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGVQT1fwtSo

● · 5th grade Learned the Hail Mary in Latin this week and did an excellent job! We
are praying it in Latin prior to the beginning of every class now.
● · 6th grade Planned and ministered at Mass this past week.
● · 7/8th grade Planned and ministered at Mass last week and lead All School
Rosary during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament this week.
 Upcoming Events
Meetings on Thursdays! They helped call Bingo for Grandparents Day!
Friday October 27-support the Wisconsin Badgers Volleyball team!
Monday October 30-Halloween Carnival in the morning

Hi! I’m Sophie, the Vice President of Student

Council. I am in the eighth grade. My goal for
student council is to be a good role model for
other students and to be a great leader. My
favorite sport is volleyball and I love watching
all the different Disney movies! Outside of
school I like to spend my time doing outside
chores. A few more fun facts about me are my
favorite color is pink, I like kangaroos, and
eating gyros.
Hello all. We finally have our new Chromebooks in operation.
They have been working great. It is amazing to have such a
great resource to use in our classrooms. There are many
positives to having such technology, but there are also those
negatives we have to deal with. One of those is misuse and
abuse. Most of our students do a great job taking care of
their devices and using appropriate activities on them, but
there always seem to be a few who do not adhere to the
policies or don’t care to take care of the devices. It is our job
as educators to keep our students safe while using the
school devices. SOTH has a software program that helps us
with this. We use Go Guardian which allows us to monitor
what the students are doing, and gives us notifications when
they are in places they should not be. It also allows us to
limit what and where they can use the devices. We are able
to remove their access at any time or block individual things
such as You Tube.

Starting on October 30th we will be allowing the 6th - 8th grade only
to take their school-issued Chromebooks home if they need them to
work on a school related project or assignment. They will not be able
to use them for non-school activities such as gaming or YouTubing.
As we are able to monitor what sites they go on, if they take them
home and use them for things other than the school related
assignment, they will lose that privilege to take them home in the
future. There will be a no tolerance policy for this. We will also set a
pretty strict policy of what Go Guardian allows the students to be
doing on these devices. All of this will be explained to the 6th - 8th
grade this coming Friday in Technology Classes. Any questions or
concerns feel free to email me at rholden@soth-school.org.
Academic theme “Don’t Bug Me I’m Reading!”: Students will be
working on improving their skills in reading throughout the school
year.Here are the all school reading goals for the year.
● the school has read 6,000 books, we get an ice cream party.
● reach 10,000 books read, we will have a picnic with dirt cups.

Catholic Identity Theme Be the ‘i’ in Kind: Ephesians 4:32

Students will participate in assemblies, classroom, or buddy activities
throughout the year to learn more about being kind and showing
kindness.