BJHS News

^{Published by 8th grade Technology Applications II classes, 4th & 6th periods.}

8^th English–Mrs. Brevard  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Lange for facilitating the newsletter each six weeks! I would like to thank the students who work hard and get it prepared. You are appreciated! J 8^th graders will finish the year with mucho grammar. Sentence combining, reflective writing, and enjoying our last six weeks together will be our top priorities. I have been encouraging these students to pass the TAKS and we are still, but they still need all of the support they can get, from you!

8^th Grade Reading – Mrs. Sykes My classes have just finished a poetry unit. Students studied poetry written by such poets as Walt Whitman, Longfellow, Shakespeare, and Robert Frost, but were also given opportunities to write their own poems. Students wrote life metaphors, limericks, concrete poems, and bio poems, as well as poems entitled “Talking” and “If Kids Were Put in Charge of Schools.” The 8^th grade honors class will continue the poetry unit by completing a project called “Revolution” where they will be using popular song lyrics to teach literary devices.

7^th Honors/ 8^th Grade Math–Mrs. Kelley 7^th / 8^th Grade Math Whew!  Time has flown this year.  I have enjoyed being here in Ballinger and working with your kids.  They have made my first year here in Ballinger one of the best school years ever.  The Math TAKS test is coming up on April 17.  We have worked hard to prepare for the test.  I feel confident that our kids will do well on the math test; they have the capability to succeed on the test.  Please encourage your kids to prepare themselves mentally and physically before coming to take the test.  We will continue to prepare for 9^th grade during the last six weeks.  Contrary to student belief, school really is going on for the next six or so weeks and we will continue working with new concepts and skills in math.

Technology Applications II–Mrs. Lange Tech App II is working on the end of the year presentation. The date for the presentation will be announced at a later date. We are also studying Excel.

7^th Grade English- Mrs. Adams The 7^th graders have been working on Dr. Seuss and now will be starting a poetry unit. The students will be doing all sorts of cool thing involving poetry for National Poetry Month.

7^th Grade Science- Ms. McClung We are currently finishing genetics. We will soon begin studying the body system.

7^th Grade Reading- Mrs. Nord The seventh grade reading classes have been preparing for the TAKS test. We have also just finished the novel The Legend of Jimmy Spoon. The honors class read The Miracle Worker and is learning the alphabet in sign language. This six week the reading classes will begin Jimmy Spoon and the Pony Express – the sequel to the novel they just finished.

7^th Grade Math–Mrs. Hash Good Luck on the Taks Test April 17, 2007, next week.

7^th Technology Applications– Mrs. Lange Tech. App. is finishing up the spreadsheet unit. We will move to databases after that.

6^th grade Science –Mrs. Travis We will be finishing up on rock cycle, hit on spring storms, the weather, and we are applying Newton’s laws to balloon rockets, cars, dropping eggs so they don’t break and volcanoes. All students will need to be prepared to bring some materials from home for these experiments.

6^th Grade English- Mrs. Buchanan The 6^th graders have been working hard on adjectives and adverbs this 6 weeks. They made alphabiography booklets describing themselves with each letter of the alphabet. These were very creative! The last 6 weeks will be spent writing, writing, writing!

6^th grade Math– Ms. Fulton Ms. Fulton’s classes have been reviewing all of the TEKS and TAKS objectives in preparation for the almighty TAKS test on April 17^th. J After TAKS is over, the students will be working on a newspaper scavenger hunt project for a few days at the beginning of the 6^th six weeks. The students will have a list of things to search for in newspapers, cut them out, glue them to a sheet of paper and be graded according to a rubric grading system. As the year winds down the students will be working on preparing for the 7^th/8^th grade years in math. Fun stuff and more fun stuff are coming. It’s going to be a great last six weeks of school!

6^th grade social studies–Mrs. Harral The rush to finish our study of the world is on–Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia.
          Mancala class champs-2^nd Sabrina Salinas, 3^rd Kendra Halfmann, 6^th Gaby Martinez, 7^th Tony Galvan,
          8^th David Puckett, 6^th grade Champion—Tony Galvan!

6^th grade Reading–Mrs. Carter Battles have been won, Soldiers are ready, War is on the horizon.  We will do our BEST and we will SUCCEED! Ask a 6th grader or a 7th grader, or even an 8th grader what that means from Commander Carter's battle plan Top Secret Folder...... Look out TAKS, We have declared War!

Once the War has been fought and Victory has been claimed,  the sixth graders plan to "Number the Stars" until the end of school.  This will be our last book of the year and as the old saying goes, "we have saved the best for last." 

6^th Grade Keyboarding–Mrs. Lange Keyboarding has completed the report unit. We will learn to format business and personal letters. After that we will study outlines and vertical and horizontal centering.

Library-Mrs. Burton This has been a very busy year and we still have all the TAKS testing and various end–of–school activities ahead. We have 39 students with 100 points or more eligible for the end of school swimming party. The top five points-earners overall at the beginning of the 6^th six weeks are as follow: Jordan Tamez–585.0 points, Steven Ritchie–492.6 points, Jose Gallegos–361.1 points, Alyssa Biscoe–352.2 points.

Top ten points–earners for 5^th six weeks are as follows Jordan Tamez–152.3 points, Giovanni Hernandez–129.9 points, Jacob Mallory–119.6 points, Steven Ritchie–115.0 points, Alyssa Biscoe–80.0 points, Jose Gallegos–74.9 points, Erin Boggess–65.4 points, Jared Fournier–65.4 points, John Avis–60.3 points and Synithia Aviles–53.0 points.

It seems like we are always waiting for new books. There are still some new titles the students have requested that have been ordered and hopefully will be delivered in the next few weeks. Some of the newly published books the students have requested are series that they have been reading during the year.

The library will close May 11^th so students need to be busy reading and earning the last points of the year before that date.

“Those who don’t read have no advantage over those who can’t.” Mark Twain