ST. LUCY SCHOOL - Jr. High 6th

WELCOME TO JR. HIGH

Junior high is a time of increased responsibility and self-awareness. We provide a rich program designed to motivate, challenge, and develop the junior high students as they step from elementary to middle school, and then transition from eighth grade to high school.

Students are introduced to a departmentalized Jr. High structure while being educated in a safe and supportive environment. In preparation for high school and college career readiness, students learn and practice organizational skills, time management, presentation, writing, research and critical thinking skills throughout the curriculum.

We are proud of our average Catholic High School 100% acceptance rates. Eighth grade students and their parents are carefully guided through the high school application process and preparation.

8th Grade Homeroom, Religion, ELA, Writing

7th Grade Homeroom, Math, Social Studies

Grade 6 Homeroom, Spanish, Language Arts

Art Studio & Math Classroom

Welcome to 6th Grade.mp4

Grade 6

Welcome to 7th Grade.mp4

Grade 7

Welcome to 8th Grade.mp4

Grade 8

FAST FACTS

The school day is from 8:00 a.m. - 3:00p.m.
The Junior High is departmentalized. The schedule allows for 6 classes per day. Students are assigned lockers, participate in homeroom activities, as well as move to different classes throughout the day with different teachers.
Our day begins with a student-led Morning Assembly from 8:00 - 8:15 daily in the main play yard. Parents are invited to attend.
Extended Day Care (EDC) is available before school from 7 - 8am and after school until 6:00pm. EDC is led by Director Jane Riley and her experienced and loving staff.
Online access to grades is available to parents and students in grades 6-8 via Powerschool. Junior High teachers collaborate in the scheduling of tests and projects to ensure that the course workload is not overlapping, allowing students ample time to do their best work.
Hot lunch (Choice Lunch) or Pizza Friday is available for purchase Monday-Friday.

ACTIVITIES

Family Groups: Each Family Group is composed of one student from each grade, with the eighth grader serving as the head of the family. Eighth graders lead the monthly meetings, which consist of opening and closing prayers, guided reflections related to the school’s yearly theme, as well as a group activity. Students feel connected across grade levels and look forward to Family Group day!

Community Building: In the midst of Covid a class was born- Community Building. This course takes place for all of junior high twice a month. Many of the guest speakers have focused on current events or career interests of the students. This is a student driven course in which the students share at the beginning of the year their interests and teachers dig to find professionals in the fields to present to the students.

Speakers have included: Alma Bonita Animal Rescue, Animator, Professional Baseball Player, Veteran, Dermatologist, NBC Anchor- Monica Alba (SLS Class 2001), Software Developer, Palo Alto Fire Chief, Author and Illustrator, History Professor SJSU

Jr. High Electives: Electives are run by junior high staff according to teacher and student interest. Past activities include: cooking, soda bottle rockets, comic book creation, strategy games, stocks.

Student Council: Students in grades six and seven can run for the following offices: Ecology, Religious Affairs, Spirit, Publicity, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President and President (incoming Eighth graders only). Elections are held in May for the following school year. Activities coordinated by the council include: Spirit Rallies, Halloween parade, holiday drives, Valentine's Day candy grams, Spirit Week, Talent Show, birthday and sports team announcements, and snack shack.

Friendship Quilts: These treasured keepsakes represent the graduating class and the bonds of friendship developed over their years at St. Lucy School. Each eighth grader spends weeks sewing personalized quilt squares to trade with each classmate before sewing together a beautiful friendship quilt. This amazing and unique St. Lucy School tradition was started years ago by a group of dedicated parents. Thanks to the countless hours of love and support from our parent & grandparent community, the tradition continues today.

Extra Curriculars: Basketball (boys/girls), Chess Club, Choir, Ecology Club, Flag Football (boys/girls), Girls on the Run, Homework Club, Monday Math Club, Scouts (boys/girls), Study Hall, Track & Field (boys/girls), Volleyball (boys/girls), Yearbook

RELIGION

Religion

Religious instruction is a core academic subject. The adopted program is Christ Our Life by Loyola Press. Additionally, students participate in planning and participating in school and parish Masses several times per year. In keeping with our Catholic tradition, the school community also recognizes and celebrates various feast days throughout the liturgical calendar. All junior high classes participate in an annual retreat. Students look forward to this lively and engaging experience, where they focus on exploring and developing their faith and building community. The Family Life program is dedicated to applying Catholic moral philosophy to challenging real-world issues.

Sixth grade focus: Old Testament

Seventh grade focus: New Testament

Eighth grade: History of the Catholic church, Family Group leadership and preparation

Service Projects

When St. Lucy School students reach junior high, they are required to challenge themselves by completing service projects that help others. Students reflect on their service, who it helped, and share that reflection with their peers.

Sixth grade: The sixth grade service commitment is 4 hours per quarter. Students choose service projects on campus to achieve these hours.

Seventh grade: The seventh grade service commitment is 6 hours per trimester.

Eighth grade: The eighth grade service commitment is 8 hours per trimester.

Social Emotional Growth Curriculum

"Second Step" is a curriculum rooted in social-emotional learning (SEL) that helps transform schools into supportive, successful learning environments uniquely equipped to help children thrive.

READING and WRITING

Reading and Writing

The reading program provides opportunities for developing a student’s ability to use various reading strategies and skills to aid in comprehension. Students read a variety of grade level appropriate poems, short stories, drama, and novels. Learning centers on in-depth classroom discussions, vocabulary acquisition and assistance with both reading fluency and comprehension. Students further develop the writing skills necessary to create “perfect” paragraphs, working towards crafting five paragraph essays. Students focus on all facets of writing including a strong push in the areas of literary analysis, argument writing, informational writing and narrative. Students also expand their understanding and use of proper grammar, sentence structure and highly evolved vocabulary to enhance writing across the curriculum.

Frequently Used Texts:

6th Grade: Hatchet, Freak the Mighty

7th Grade: Farewell to Manzanar, The Giver, The Outsiders

8th Grade: The Pearl, The Book Thief, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, My Brother Sam is Dead

SOCIAL STUDIES

Sixth grade: The National Geographic program in sixth grade is a study of ancient civilizations. It is intended to expand the students understanding of ancient history by studying the people and events that ushered in the dawn of the major ancient civilizations. Political, cultural, and physical geography is a major theme. Students participate in the interactive program Walk through Ancient World. They retell stories from ancient history through the use of storytelling, role playing and period costumes.

Seventh grade:

Through the use of the National Geographic program, seventh graders study world history and geography: from the medieval to early modern times. They also study cultures, environment and technological innovations, and movement of people and religions. The ages of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution that ushered in the Age of Enlightenment and the modern world are also explored. Written and oral presentation skills are developed using World History content. Students practice cooperative learning skills as they experience a variety of group projects.

Eighth grade:

Through the use of the National Geographic program, eighth grade social studies takes an in-depth look into the world of U.S. History. We first begin with the colonial system, then we take a glance at the world of early American life and culture, government, and much more. This is followed by the study of the Constitution and its rules and regulations, as well as how they apply to our own state government. Finally, how the U.S. government progresses throughout multiple presidencies is studied, with students also learning about significant events concerning the Civil War.

MATH

The College Prep Math Program (CPM) is the Common Core math program used in Junior High. Students use problem-solving strategies, questioning, investigating, analyzing critically, gathering and constructing evidence, and communicating rigorous arguments justifying their thinking. Students are encouraged to justify their reasoning, communicate their thinking, and generalize patterns. The College Prep Math (CPM) curriculum engages our students into collaborative mathematic problem-solving as well as independent study.

Sixth grade math: Students are divided evenly to work with two math teachers for a ratio of 1:18.

Seventh grade math: Students are grouped in either seventh grade math or an advanced Pre-Algebra class which allows for small group instruction and differentiation to meet the needs of both grade-level and accelerated learners. Students study relationships, number system expressions and equations, geometry, statistics and probability.

Eighth grade math: Students are grouped in either eighth grade math or an advanced Algebra 1 class. This allows for small group instruction and differentiation to meet the needs of both grade-level and accelerated learners. Many of our eighth graders choose to take the high school challenge test and many test into honors algebra or geometry.

SCIENCE

The Pearson science curriculum that aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) established by the State of California. This curriculum provides a significant increase in the availability of on-line resources to support and supplement the classroom activities. ATTEND CLASS X TIMES IN FULLY EQUIPPED LAB

Sixth grade science: The curriculum in sixth grade begins with significant study of living organisms, Biology (including Cell biology), and Body systems. From there, it continues with Earth Sciences, Energy, and Weather systems.

Seventh grade science: The curriculum in seventh grade begins with a study of Chemistry and introduces many of the classical underpinnings of the discipline. From there, we investigate Cells, Minerals, Earth's resources and Ecosystems.

Eighth grade science: The curriculum begins with the study of Newton's three laws of motion and an investigation of Electricity & Magnetism. Upon completion of these classical topics, we begin studying how these ideas apply to the Earth, moon and sun before stretching out to a larger investigation of the Universe. From there we continue our science study with Genetics, Earth's historic geology, and Electromagnetic radiation.

SPANISH

Sixth grade:

The students begin by reviewing some of the vocabulary they learned in the primary grades but do not need to have had any prior Spanish instruction before coming into sixth Grade. The class builds additional vocabulary such as greetings, introductions, classroom objects, numbers, calendar, weather, people and family, and descriptive adjectives. Interwoven with the vocabulary, they learn regular present tense verb conjugations, along with a few irregular verbs. These skills are then used to read, write and speak in Spanish. The students also learn about the culture of the different countries we "visit" through the textbook, videos and class discussions, with the sixth Grade focus being on Mexico.

Seventh grade:

The students continue where they left off in sixth Grade Spanish. The vocabulary consists of the parts of the house, furniture, appliances, chores, free-time activities, shopping and clothing, stores, food and flavors. They will build on last year's grammar skills learning stem-changing verbs, additional irregular verbs, making comparisons, and direct and indirect object pronouns. The student focus is on sharpening grammar skills and engaging in more conversation as they build vocabulary. Students continue to compare and contrast Hispanic cultures as they learn about Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Peru.

Eighth grade:

The students continue to build on their sixth and seventh grade skills. Eighth Grade vocabulary consists of shopping and clothing, stores, food and flavors, parts of the body, the five senses, ailments, remedies and personal hygiene, professions, pastimes and sports. They will build on prior grammar skills learning additional stem-changing verbs, additional irregular verbs, preterite (past) tense verbs, making comparisons, and direct and indirect object pronouns, regular and irregular informal commands, the present progressive and expressions of the future. They will continue to engage in writing and more topic related free-form conversations. Students continue to compare and contrast Hispanic cultures as they learn about Guatemala, Spain and the United States. Students should plan on taking the Spanish placement test in the spring of eighth grade. This will inform the high schools of their knowledge base so they can be placed at the level that will best allow them to succeed.

ART

NEW Jr. High Art Class has been added for grades six, seven, and eighth integrated within the social studies or Spanish class period. Mrs. Horowitz meets weekly with gr. six and bimonthly with grades seven and eight.

- 6th Grade -Topics have been related to Social Studies and Spanish. Sixth graders have completed projects that reinforced the ideas of mapping, cave art, symbols, and spirituality. Some of the techniques introduced have included scratch board art, watercolor, sculpture and pastel. Currently, students are working on an Egyptian clay piece.
- 7th Grade - Seventh graders have been working diligently to understand 1 point and 2 point perspective. First, students created simple box forms in 1 point perspective using a horizon line, a vanishing point and orthogonal lines that extend to our box corners. Then students tackled 2-point perspectives. Once the students had a basic understanding of 2-point perspective, they applied it to a drawing of the Parthenon. Further discussions on perspective will occur when we start the Renaissance.
- 8th Grade - Eighth grade students carved linoleum blocks to create unique coin designs and then used clay pressed into the two carved linoleum pieces to create their coins. Finally, they used metallic paint to complete the coins. Students are currently working on a new project inspired by Mexican alebrijes. Alebrijes are fantastical creatures made from paper mache used in celebrations (Day of the Dead) throughout Mexico.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The emphasis of P.E. is on body and locomotive movement. Students participate in physical activities once per week and in the PE elective class, when offered. Sportsmanship and teamwork play a significant role in our program.

INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY

Jr. High students use technology in all of their core subjects. Our Jr. High program is 1:1 ratio for Chromebook laptops to facilitate learning throughout their day. Students use Google Apps for Education (GAFE) as a way to communicate and collaborate. All of their subjects have an online component. Computer technology and Digital Citizenship is spread throughout the curriculum and students create a Digital Portfolio of their favorite work throughout each trimester in each subject. Students also focus on research, presentations, web design, video editing, digital portfolios, and educational app development.

ELECTIVES

Rocket Propulsion Elective.mp4

STUDENT LEADERSHIP

Family Groups.mp4

Family Group Leadership

Student Council

Service Projects

OUR TEACHERS

Mr. Dan Kropp

Sixth Homeroom, Math 6-8, Religion 6, Social Studies 8

I am in my 22nd year here at St. Lucy School, and I still love teaching and being with the kids every day. I began teaching fourth grade in 1999, and have since moved up to Junior High which is where I feel I have found my true calling. I have taught a number of classes in my years here; this year I am teaching three math classes, sixth grade religion and eighth grade social studies. I love seeing and working with your kids every day, and I really love the families at St. Lucy.

Outside of school I enjoy reading, watching my own children's sports activities, watching Notre Dame football, and spending time with my family. My wife, Ann, is a Principal in the Cupertino School District; she has also been a teacher and has worked in the District Office. My children are all St. Lucy graduates; Ryan is a Senior and Liam is a Sophomore at Bellarmine. Briana is a Freshman at St. Francis High School.

Mrs. Jane Foster

Seventh Homeroom, Reading 6,7, SS 7, Religion 7, Writing 6

Hello! I am Mrs. Foster, the seventh grade religion, reading, writing, and social studies teacher. As a child, I attended St. Lucy School before graduating from Presentation High School. I earned my B.A. in English from San Jose State and my credential and master’s in teaching from the University of San Francisco. This will be my fifth year teaching junior high at St. Lucy School and will surely be unique in many ways. I came to teaching because I have loved reading for as long as I can remember and hope to help students develop essential reading and writing skills needed to succeed in high school, college, and beyond. Outside of school and reading, I enjoy spending time with my family, hiking, and exploring the incredible natural environment and history found in the Bay Area.

Mrs. Lexie Soria

Eighth Homeroom, Reading 8, Religion 8 , Writing 6,7,8 , Social Studies 6

I started teaching at St. Lucy School in 2012, and I couldn't be more excited to continue to be a part of this community. A little about me, I am from the Bay Area born and raised in Los Gatos. Parochial schooling has been a significant part of my life having started my education at St. Mary's in Los Gatos moving on to Archbishop Mitty and continuing through to Santa Clara University. My whole life I have been privileged to be a scholar athlete. It is because of this that I was able to move to Hawaii to be the volleyball program’s graduate assistant and earn my masters and credential in Secondary Education with a concentration in English. On Oahu, I taught English and English honors to both freshmen and sophomores. When I moved home, I started out by teaching fourth grade for 3 years at both public and private schools. I then taught fifth for 2 years before teaching seventh for 3 years. Slowly I have climbed up the grade levels getting back to my roots and passion for teaching middle and high school students.

My life is full of multitasking, juggling and rarely contains a dull moment. I am married and have three children under four. My husband and I have been married for 7 years and were lucky enough to have the St. Lucy choir sing at our wedding. Our daughters Brooklyn Rose, Maddison Mae, and Jocelyn Eloise truly have changed our lives and helped me to gain a deeper perspective on life and a greater appreciation for all parents.

I am looking forward to not only being the eighth grade Homeroom teacher, but teaching Reading and Conventions, Religion, and Writing. My hope for my students is that they become lifelong learners as well as be active, responsible, and contributing citizens to our society. Through our study of Jesus and God, students will strengthen their morals and knowledge. By using the Socratic Method in my classroom and working closely with our anthology-Collections- in addition to novels chosen, students will be pushed to think critically and dive deeper in the expected common core standards.

Mr. Michael Lane

Sixth - Eighth Science

He earned his degrees in Chemistry at San Jose State University and has taught chemistry at De Anza College for 27 years. He had often conducted chemistry demonstrations for the science program at St. Lucy School before joining the science teaching team. His son is a St. Lucy Alumni, who attended Bellarmine and Loyola Marymount University. During his time at SLS, Mr. Lane volunteered as a Cub Scout Den Leader and Cub Master for our Parish Cub Scout Pack. Mr. Lane also has two daughters that went to Presentation High School and have since graduated college.

Señora Caroline Williams

K-8 Spanish Teacher

¡Saludos amigos! Greetings friends! My name is Caroline Williams. I was born in San Francisco and was whisked away to Nicaragua before I could speak! As a result, Spanish is my first language. Growing up, I was able to travel between Nicaragua and the U.S., which gave me a rich bilingual and bi-cultural experience which I love sharing with my students. My husband Dan and I married in 1987. We have two wonderful daughters, both of whom attended St. Lucy School from Kindergarten through 8th Grade.

I began working at St. Lucy’s in 2001 as an Instructional Aide. A couple of years later I began teaching Spanish, splitting my time between aiding and teaching. Now I teach Spanish from Kindergarten through eighth Grade. I LOVE teaching Spanish and speaking Spanish! If you speak Spanish, please speak to me in Spanish. For fun, I love to spend time with my family, gardening, reading in both languages, reading about Spanish, and keeping up with current events in Latin America.

Mrs. Ann Horowitz

K-8 Art Teacher

Hello, my name is Ann Horowitz. I have been teaching Art for a total of about 16 years now. This will be my seventh year teaching at St. Lucy School! Before teaching, I graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Design and became an artist and animator for a children's software company. I am married and have a son, 19, and a daughter 16. I love drawing/painting, hiking with my dog, and watching movies with my family (especially classics)! Although last year brought many challenges, there was also immense growth and resilience! I'm super excited to see the students this year and to continue creating and learning through exploration!

Mrs. Jane Riley

Kindergarten Instructional Aide | K-8 PE Teacher | Extended Care Director

My name is Jane Riley, and I am entering my 23rd year of teaching here at St. Lucy's. I am excited to be continuing as an Instructional Aide in Kindergarten. I am also the PE teacher and the Director of the Extended Day Care program (EDC). I have five children, and I am an alumni of St. Lucy School. Outside of work, I enjoy watching my children play sports.

JR. HIGH IN ACTION

Student Appreciation Day

gr. 7 outdoor reading csw 2.MOV

7th grade works outside

Science projects

Community Building

Student Council

Practicing & Recording Presentations

Math Challenges

Engineering

Book Fair

Service Project Posters

Pi Day

Lunch & Recess Memories

In Class

Lockers!

Service Collections

8TH GRADE HIGHLIGHTS

Friendship Quilts, High School Applications, Family Group Leaders, Elective Classes, State Capital Visit, Physics Day, Science Fair, Graduation Dance & Luncheon