Montgomery Catholic 7th Graders Experience Camp Chandler

The transition to middle school can be a difficult time for some students. Moving to a new school, meeting a lot of new people, switching between different classes each period, and learning to open a locker are part of the challenges that almost every middle schooler experiences for the first time in 7^th grade. To help ease the new school jitters and build fellowship, the Montgomery Catholic 7^th grade class takes an overnight trip to Camp Chandler at the beginning of each school year.

The students enjoyed all kinds of activities including archery, swimming, tower climbing, boat rides, and everyone’s favorite high-intensity camp game, GaGa. The students split into four large groups and rotated between the different activities during the day. In the evening, everyone gathered around the campfire to wind down for songs and fellowship with one another. Justin Castanza, Principal of the Montgomery Catholic middle school, gave a motivational talk to welcome the students to middle school and encourage them to get to know one another better.

Reflecting on the time spent together, the students felt that the trip was both fun and valuable to create new friendships and strengthen bonds within the class. “Camp was fun and a great way to get to know everyone,” said student Michael Ann Williams. Eli Kindle agreed. "It really brought us together and united us.”

Montgomery Catholic 7th Graders Get Hands-On Lesson About Classification

Karla Gier’s middle school science classroom recently may have looked like it needed an

exterminator, but she said that it was all part of the lesson. Shadowboxes of desiccated grasshoppers, cicadas, and dragonflies lined the tables. Petri dishes full of preserved spiders, scorpions, millipedes, and beetles were placed in front of the students. At the front of the classroom, a large cage that looked like it should hold a small songbird instead housed an enormous banana spider.

“Her name is Nellie,” said Mrs. Gier, “after her scientific name, Nephila clavipes. And it is her lunch time.” Nellie was hungrily devouring a bumblebee that was neatly wrapped in a nearly invisible strand of silk.

To some students’ delight and to others’ horror, their assignment was to open the dishes, delicately handle the specimens, and create a dichotomous key based on the physical traits of each arthropod. Each small group of students classified the various preserved insects, arachnids, and myriapods based on number of legs, presence or absence of wings, number of body segments, the shape of the mouth, and other traits. The students then used the keys they made to identify each specimen. While many students bravely picked up their specimens to get a closer look, others chose to take a supervisory role and instead took notes from a more comfortable distance. By the end of the period, each group was able to use the keys they created to identify the specimens that were classified by the other groups.

"Once students get beyond the ‘ick factor’, they discover that these small creatures, often overlooked, are fascinating and, dare I say it, beautiful,” said Mrs. Gier. “They are so important in our ecosystem and are the perfect specimens to instruct a lab on classification."

Holy Spirit Holds Grandparents Day

Whether you’re called Memaw, Nana, Papi, Halmoni, Sittie, or just the classic Grandma and Grandpa, chances are you may have gotten an invitation to a very special gathering from your Holy Spirit student recently. Grandparents, parents, family members, and special guests crowded the gym of the Montgomery Catholic Holy Spirit campus to get a glimpse of their beloved students. Each class prepared a special presentation for the entire audience comprised of their classmates, teachers, and of course, their grandparents. The students donned creative hats, displayed hand-made signs, recited poems, and sang songs to honor their very special visitors. After the heart-warming performance, guests were treated to donuts and juice with their students and had a fantastic time learning about the fun things that the children are learning at Holy Spirit.