Eighth Grade ELP Book Group

Great Minds, Great Books: 
Exploring Eminence Through Biographies


The second session of eighth grade ELP  Great Books, Great Minds Book Group started on Monday, January 24th with a new group of students. Students  meet with Ms. Krusi and Mrs. Staniforth three days per week during the thirty minute Book Group time. The group will meet for the next six week.

Through their choice of biographies, students will explore the  commonalities and differences in their books. Childhoods,  defining moments, academic experiences, stumbling blocks, career paths, and leadership styles  will be discussed in large and small group settings.

Students will also receive instruction on the "close" reading of a literary passage and will develop writing skills  through practice writing of a timed essay, similar to those  found on the SAT and ACT and writers response to the books.

QuizLet: Practice WORDMASTER Words!

Study Tip # 1    

 Quizlet is an online flashcard site that allows students to play games while reviewing vocabulary words. The first and second lists for 7th and 8th grade is on the Quizlet site. It's a fun way to review the words you learned in November and December. 

8th Grade Words:

http://quizlet/_2fd9p or

http://quizlet.com/4076269/8th-wordmasters-goldnovember-2010-flash-cards/

7th Grade Words: 


List 1 http://quizlet.com/4075712/7th-blue-wordmasters-november-2010-flash-cards/

List 2: http://quizlet.com/4347500/7th-wordmasters-blue-division-list-2-flash-cards/

Once you've mastered the WordMaster words, use this site to make your own flashcards to review for a test! 

7th Grade WordMaster Celebration Pizza Lunch

Pizza was promised if AMS became a top ten WordMaster school. Our 7th grade celebration will be held on two days to accommodate the large group. The first lunch is Tuesday, January 25th for periods 1-3 and  4th period students with last names that begin with letters A through L. The second lunch will be on Friday, January  28th for 4th period students with last names that begin with letters M-Z and 6th and 7th period students.

I'll provide one or two slices of pizza. You bring a beverage and the rest of your lunch.

Congratulations on your 2nd place finish on the first exam. Let's celebrate and begin working on the next round!

AMC 10 Math Competition

The AMC 10 Math Competition will not be given on Tuesday, February 8 due to a conflict with the ITBS.  Instead it will be offered before school on Wednesday, February 23 in the ELP room (starting at 8 AM).  Students who earned 15 or more on the AMC 8 are invited to participate.  A letter reminding contestants of the date, time, and place will be sent out shortly before the competition. 

Library of Congress Archiving Project

ELP students from Mr. Esslinger's American Studies class are spending time archiving websites  for the Library of Congress and Archive-It, a international digital library.  By archiving the websites, AMS eighth graders are creating a digital time capsule  that will provide information about 2011 and the life of a middle school student in the future. This is the third year AMS has been involved in the project.

Sites archived by previous years can be viewed at the Archive-It webpage http://www.archive-it.org/.


REMINDER: Permission slips are past due. Please give to Mrs. Staniforth ASAP!

Math Updates

Students who earned 15 or more on the AMC 8 are invited to take the AMC 10 on Tuesday, February 8.  Letters will go out with details about where and when within the next couple of weeks.

The February CML (Continental Math League) will be given on February 2.  

7th WordMasters-Second Place in the Nation!

Ames Middle School  7th grade students recently earned top honors in the WordMasters Challenge, a national language arts competition. The students finished second in the nation!  Over 27,000 students from nearly 300 schools participated in this first of three exams.

All teams study the WordMaster words, learning parts of speech and the definitions. Students then work at comparing and contrasting the words to prepare for the analogy based exam. The test requires  that students apply their understanding of the words to an analogy-based test that requires them to think metaphorically and analytically. The top ten school scores become our team score for the test. AMS earned second place for the team score on the first exam.

Seven AMS students were among only 120 nationwide who earned perfect scores. Congratulations to seventh grade participants! The second session of WordMasters begins later this month.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year   
ELP students! 
Stay tuned for more exciting ELP adventures in 2011.









Here are some important dates for  January 2011.

January 5, 2011:         CML
January 3-10, 2011:    Class Geographic Bees
January 10, 2011:       Archive-It/Library of Congress Project
January 11-12, 2011:  Team Geographic Bees
January 12, 2011        7-8 ELP Lunch
January 13, 2011        7-8 ELP Lunch
                                   School Geographic Bee
                                   Last day 8th grade Book Group
January 18, 2011:       New 8th grade Book Group starts
January 19, 2011:       7th Grade WordMaster  Session II starts
January 20, 2011:       8th Grade WordMasters Session II starts