April 1st - April 5th

SMOKING, VAPING, E-CIGS AND JUULING
We had a successful presentation by the Georgia Department of Health to both the students and parents about the emergence of e-smoking.  For those who could not attend the parent.edu session, the slides can be found HERE.  

ERB TESTING - APRIL 8- APRIL 11
Students in grades 3-8 will take standardized testing in the mornings of April 8- April 11.  It is especially important that students arrive at school on time on these days as testing will take place first thing in the morning.  Please encourage your children to get a good night’s sleep and eat a healthy breakfast each day in advance of the testing.

Due to light homework and assessments during the week of testing, we will open up Monday, April 15th for classroom assessments. SPRING PICTURES InFocus will be on campus to take Spring Pictures on April 2nd. Completing this form is required in order to have your child's picture taken. There is a free choice dress for picture day only if you have completed this form. Otherwise, your child must come in their HDS uniform (or PE uniform if it is a PE day).

THE PRESIDENT'S VOLUNTEER SERVICE AWARD  
In the 8th grade, students who complete hours beyond the basic Hancock Day School requirement are recognized at the annual Middle School Honors Assembly. Eligibility for an award is separated in three levels:  Bronze: 50 - 74 hours, Silver: 75 - 99 hours, Gold: 100 + hours. To qualify for this award your hours are due to Mrs. Mannarino by April 1st so they may be submitted to the President for review.

ATHLETIC INTEREST 2019-2020
Parents:  Please help us plan for the future by completing the 2019-2020 Athletic Interest Survey Form.  To accurately predict our Athletic needs for 2019-20, we need responses from all parents of prospective student-athletes in grades 5th-8th.

ST. VINCENT’S ACADEMY 2ND ANNUAL ART MASTERPIECES EVENT
Click HERE for more information.

Each middle school student is required to complete ten hours of community service over the course of the school year.  Please remember to list hours worked on a daily basis, do not log total sum of hours worked over an extended period of time.  See below for a few upcoming service opportunities. Click HERE for a log form.

The President's Volunteer Service Award  In the 8th grade, students who complete hours beyond the basic Hancock Day School requirement are recognized at the annual Middle School Honors Assembly. Eligibility for an award is separated in three levels:  Bronze: 50 - 74 hours, Silver: 75 - 99 hours, Gold: 100 + hours. To qualify for this award your hours are due to Mrs. Mannarino by April 1st so they may be submitted to the President for review.

The Old Savannah City Mission needs volunteers for various positions.  The mission provides food, shelter, and clothing to the homeless.  For more information, contact Connell Stiles at 912-232-1979 or stiles@oscm.org.

America’s Second Harvest needs volunteers to help prepare monthly bags of food for senior citizens in our community.  Volunteers should arrive by 7:45 and must wear closed-toe shoes. Contact Bryce Seuntjens at bryce@helpendhunger.org for more information.

This month we are exploring confidence as our virtue of the month. We are continuing the March Kindness Competition for another week! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact Ms. Pedrick at apedrick@hancockdayschool.org

Algebra 1 - Mrs. Reardon

Next week, we will continue in Chapter 8 by defining and using zero and negative exponents and reviewing scientific notation.  On Wednesday, we will review for the quiz on Thursday over 8.3-8.4. The challenge problem that was distributed on Tuesday, March 26 is due on Tuesday, April 2.

Advanced Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Next week, we will begin the last portion of the year in reviewing important concepts from Algebra 1 that will be used next year in a high school Geometry course.  We will start with exponent rules such as the product rule, quotient rule, and power rule. We will also review negative and zero exponents and their meaning. There will be a quiz on Friday covering exponents and their rules.

Geometry - Mr. Lanfear

Next week, we will continue Chapter 11 by learning how to find the area of trapezoids, kites, and rhombuses (11.2).  We will also learn about how perimeters and areas of similar figures are related (11.3), how to find the circumference and area of circles and sectors of circles (11.4-11.5), and how to find the area of any regular polygon (11.6).  There will be a quiz on Friday covering sections 11.1-11.5.

Physical Science - Ms. Hoffman

This week the eighth graders finished learning about sound and created a wave/ sound booklet.  This booklet counted as a test grade and a classwork grade. (See photos below.) Next week we will learn about the Electromagnetic (EM) Spectrum, including the seven main waves (radio, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays), as well as their importance and application. They will also participate in a lab about light and its’ properties. Our next quiz will be on Monday, 4/15 after the week of ERB testing 4/8-4/12. The unit test for light and the EM spectrum will be Thursday, 4/18 before our Easter holidays. The last Science in Comics for the year will be due Tuesday, 4/30 and students may complete up to two extra ones for additional homework credit.

 

English Language Arts - Mrs. Boyer
Literature: Students have begin their Yom HaShoah Art/Writing Projects and they are currently reading Part I of Night .

ELA Unit Project: Students will be engaging in a six week project where they will be competing in the Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance) Writing and Art Contest which is sponsored by the Jewish Educational Alliance of Savannah. Rubrics and Due Dates were handed out on 3/25. A Parent Signature will be required on the Rubric by 3/29. Also, students will be turning in their project brainstorms by 3/29. I will review/comment on these brainstorms over the weekend and the students will take my feedback and incorporate it into their final proposal submission, due on 4/3. Students will be focusing on this project throughout T3.

Assessments: Most assessments will come from the project for T3; however, there will be a few quizzes and one test over the novel.

Reading Log: Students will have a choice between turning in a Reading Log (like T1) or a Reading Card (like T2). Either one will be due on 5/14/19. This is a project grade.

History & Gov’t II - Mrs. English

This week students will have a quiz over Chapter 24.1 on Tuesday, April 2nd. Next we will continue our study of World War II and the United States early involvement in the war. Readings and homework will come from Chapter 24.2-3. We also will introduce our cross-curricular group project that represents a memorial art piece for the estimated 75 million victims of World War II.

Spanish - Ms. Hughes

Next week in Spanish the 8th grade will continue to work with the vocabulary and grammar from Chapter 5A. We will be discussing current events and natural disasters in Spanish.  Students will also begin writing their script for their newscast. The vocabulary quiz will be Tuesday, April 2nd.

Algebra 1 - Mrs. Reardon

Next week, we will continue in Chapter 8 by defining and using zero and negative exponents and reviewing scientific notation.  On Wednesday, we will review for the quiz on Thursday over 8.3-8.4. The challenge problem that was distributed on Tuesday, March 26 is due on Tuesday, April 2.

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Next week, we will complete our stained glass window project and start the second part of Chapter 8 by learning about function notation (8.7) and graphing and solving systems of linear equations (8.8). There will be a day of review on Tuesday and a test on Chapter 8.1-8.6 on Wednesday.

History & Gov’t I - Mrs. English

In an effort to give students additional time to edit their films, I’ve extended the due date for the president interview video to Monday, April 1st (at the beginning of class). These videos should be a reflection of their research and scripts that they wrote the week before spring break. We will also discuss George Washington’s presidency and the formation of the first American political parties. There will be a quiz on Chapter 8.1 on Wednesday, April 3rd. The rest of the week will be devoted to checks and balances and early American political parties.

Spanish - Ms. Hughes

Next week in Spanish the 7th grade will wrap up Chapter 9A and the test will be on Tuesday, April 2nd. Students will also be presenting their short films in class at our very own Spanish film festival. After all of the movies have been presented, students will select their favorites according to specific categories from our vocabulary.

ELA - Mrs. Boyer
Literature: Students will begin their final theme for the year: Sportsmanship. Students will have a choice to read ONE of the following novels:

Tangerine by Edward Bloor

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

A Little Piece of Ground by Elizabeth Laird

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Writing: Students will engage in a research paper which will be covering the topic of sports medicine. This paper will correspond with their book club reading.

Grammar: We will continue our learning of intransitive and transitive verbs, and who vs whom, and which vs that. There will be a quiz on 4/5.

Vocabulary: We have begun Unit 8; there will be a quiz on 4/16. We will finish out the year with Unit 9 & 10.

Reading Log: Students will have a choice between turning in a Reading Log (like T1) or a Reading Card (like T2). Either one will be due on 5/14/19. This is a project grade.

Life Science - Ms. Hoffman

The seventh graders have done a wonderful job learning about invertebrates.  This was a lot of information and new vocabulary and I am very proud of their effort in studying, as well as their test scores. We have now moved onto the Phylum Chordata beginning with the vertebrate group the Fish. We have learned about the three main groups (jawless, cartilaginous, bony), their different adaptations and unique body structures. They will use some of this new information to correctly label the Gyotaku print they will be creating in Art class next week. Part of this assignment will count as a grade in science.  The students also participated in a fish camouflage activity. (Photos will be on next weeks blog.)

Next week on Tuesday 4/2 and Wednesday 4/3,  the seventh graders will participate in one of our most fun and interesting labs of the year to help us learn about the second group of vertebrates, the Amphibians. This two-day dissection lab will focus on the external and internal anatomy of a frog. They will also have a quiz on the chordates, fish and amphibians on Friday, April 5th. We will then continue our study of vertebrates with the reptile and bird groups the week of 4/8, finishing up with mammals and review all of these groups the following week.  The vertebrate unit test will be on Thursday, 4/18 before our Easter holidays. The last Science in Comics for the year will be due Tuesday, 4/30 and students may complete up to two extra ones for additional homework credit.

Accelerated Math 7 - Mrs. Reardon

Next week, we will begin reviewing for the Chapter 8 test that students will take on Wednesday, April 3. On Thursday, I will introduce to them a super fun and exciting project that we will begin called “Recipe Proportion Project”. We will continue this project into the week of ERBs. The challenge problem that was distributed on Tuesday, March 26 is due on Tuesday, April 2.

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Next week, we will complete our stained glass window project and start the second part of Chapter 8 by learning about function notation (8.7) and graphing and solving systems of linear equations (8.8).  There will be a day of review on Tuesday and a test on Chapter 8.1-8.6 on Wednesday.

ELA - Mrs. Guggenheim

LITERATURE: We will continue to read The Giver and discussing in class. Students will write their thoughts in a journal (project grade) after reading the chapters. There will be an open book quiz over Chapters 13 - 19 on 4/3, and we will complete the book by the end of the week. I will assign an in-class project that will count as a test grade for the unit the following week.

VOCABULARY: List 9 Greek/Latin + 7 SAT words was given out on 3/25. The quiz is scheduled for 4/4. Sentences with the 7 SAT words may be turned in for up to 3 bonus points by 4/2.

GRAMMAR: Pronouns! We will continue learning about and practicing eight types of pronouns. There will be a quiz scheduled - TBA (it will not be this week!).

3RD TRIMESTER BOOK PROJECT

Students will be given a choice. They may choose to keep a Reading Log for 360 minutes as they did 1st trimester or create a card as they did 2nd trimester over one book. They must inform me by 2/22 of their choice, and that choice is final. They may not switch between the two midway through the trimester.

Earth Science - Mrs. Taylor

Welcome back! We are moving on the topography of the ocean floor. Students have and in class project. They will by building a play-dough model on a 12 x 12 wooden board. They have been given an assigned partner. They will work on this until completed. Look for pictures soon.  They will be given a partial unit test Friday, April 5th which will cover Currents (they had a quiz on this), tides and the ocean floor. We will go over, Tuesday, the items to use to study for this test.  Moon phases will be next. **Parents** Students have been given a Solar System project choice board for extra credit (can be done twice and rules have been explained to them) on Google Classroom.  This is for one student that asked but opened to the entire class for a 5/10 due date should they choose to do extra credit. **Lastly** Friday, the 5th, students were given a permission slip to get signed for two movies that have quizzes to follow them. Objectives for the class are also stated. Both movies are PG-13. One movie is The Martian with Matt Damon and the other is The Red Planet which Mrs. Hoffman showed last year to 6th grade. Both deal with survival on Mars in the future and now. Please sign the sheet and return the entire sheet if it is ok for them to view these movies.

Ancient Civ -  Mr. O’Hayer

I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing spring break. We have a lot to cover this week. While I was in DC students covered Ch. 9 through a variety of assignments and assessments. We will spend this week going back over that work and covering in more detail the chapter. The Chapter test will be Friday, the 29th. It will only cover Lessons 1 and 2. Outlines are due Friday as well- Lessons 1 and 2.

Spanish - Ms. Dubick

The 6th graders will be learning/reviewing family vocab and personality descriptive words.  They will then use their family vocab with physical, personality and feeling descriptions (using ser, estar and tener) to do a family tree project.

Whenever you and your family have time, it would be wonderful for the students to have photo printouts of at least 5 members of their families.  We will start on family trees April 1.

Because of ERB week the project will not be officially due until Tuesday April 16th though many students may finish early.

Next week they will have a quiz on Thursday April 4th covering family vocab, personality descriptions and latinos in the military

Art - Mrs. Cookson

“Painting is a means of self-enlightenment.” - John Olsen

8th: Will finalize pointillism idea and begin painting

7th: Will do gyotaku (fish printing) in conjunction with Science

6th: Will continue on wet felting (this is a long project)

Craft Club

This week craft club made dream catchers.  This Native American spiritual symbol is traditionally hung above your bed.  It is said to catch all of the bad dreams in the webbing and allows the good dreams to filter down to the sleeper.