December 2nd - December 6th

LOCKERS!

We have been noticing that some students are having difficulty fitting all of their supplies into their lockers. After extensive research, we have identified a few factors that contribute to their distress: 

• Locker shelves that are not tall enough. We suggest shelves that are at least 12 to 12-½ inches high. This allows students to place their binders below the shelf and their books on top of the shelf, and their locker doors will close.
• Stackable shelves also alleviate the space issue because they allow students an extra place to put lunchboxes and items other than books and binders. 
• Locker shelves need to be no wider than 12 inches. Students will have the same locker for three years and will be allowed to leave the shelves over the summer, so the investment is good for three years. :)

I am happy to assist any student to organize his/her locker.

Tricia Guggenheim

Below are pictures of lockers that work:

MEMORIAL HOSPITAL TOY DRIVE

Dear Parents, as we approach the winter holidays, Hancock Day School is honored to continue the privilege of decorating the tree for the Pediatric Rehabilitation Unit at Memorial University Medical Center and providing gifts for the children there. We will be accepting gifts in the Front and Middle School Offices until December 6th. 
Memorial Hospital provided us with a list of suggested gifts: 

Infant play sets/ shape sorters/ blocks/ring stackers/ spinners, 

Musical light up toys, activity centers, fisher-price figures/sets

Baby teethers and rattles

Books for infants and toddlers

Wooden puzzles (from infant to early elementary ages)

Play-doh / Play-doh sets / fun craft sets

Mega/Lego Blocks for toddlers

Lego Sets for school aged kids

Action figures

Trains/trucks/cars/hot wheels

Sports balls – basketballs, playground balls, footballs
Games- board games or card games

$10 gift cards for our older kids- Target, Apple iTunes, etc.

*Please NO stuffed animals, Barbie Dolls/baby dolls, coloring books-crayons, or clothing items  *Please do NOT wrap the gifts

MIDDLE SCHOOL EXTENDED
As always, middle school students that stay for extended should report to the appropriate classrooms to be signed-in immediately after school.  We have mandatory homework time from 3:30 to 4:00 and 4:00 to 5:30 students may choose to go to Hancock Hall for board games, outside to play, or stay in a quiet classroom to complete homework.  Student athletes staying at school until their practice/game are also required to report to extended for sign-in and work on homework. To be released for a practice/game, a parent or coach must sign the student/s out.  Click HERE to view this month’s Extended Newsletter!

LOST AND FOUND
We continue to quickly accumulate student clothing, lunch boxes, and water bottles… With cooler weather here, we anticipate additional miscellaneous items to find their way to our lost and found.  Please remember to label all items with first and last name so that we may return them to their owners.  Thank you in advance for your help!

ASSESSMENTS CALENDAR

THIS LINK leads to a Google Sheet that will have the next 2 weeks of assessments.  The link below will lead to the 6th grade assessments, but by using the tabs in the lower left corner (shown below), you can navigate to 7th grade and 8th grade assessments as well.

History/black, Science/green, ELA/blue, Spanish/red, and Math/pink.

Dates are subject to change; teachers will keep the calendar updated.

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE - SPRING PERFORMANCE

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.

HDS Extended Day Care needs volunteers to help out after school.  We are currently limiting this opportunity to 8th graders, with a possibility of opening it up to 6th and 7th graders later on.  If a student is interested in earning some community service hours, please contact Mrs. Mannarino.

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.

We are excited to launch a Kindness Club for 6th grade students!  Meetings will take place at lunch once per week and are open to any 6th grader.  The purpose will be to promote acceptance, inclusion, and positivity throughout the school.  

-Allison Maher, School Counselor

Algebra 1 - Mr. Cargile

Next week in Algebra 1 we will begin our study of Chapter 5,  Writing Linear Equations. To start the week, students will complete corrections and a reflection for their Chapter 4 test. We will then learn and practice writing linear equations in slope-intercept form, and use linear equations in slope-intercept form. 

Geometry - Mr. Lanfear

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break!  Next week in Geometry, we will complete Chapter 6 by learning about dilations in the coordinate plane (6.7).  There will be a day of review on Wednesday and the Chapter 6 test on Thursday. We will then begin Chapter 7 by reviewing the Pythagorean Theorem and learning how to use the Pythagorean Inequality Theorem to determine if a triangle is acute, right, or obtuse simply based on its side lengths (7.1).

Advanced Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break!  Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will continue Chapter 4 by learning how to use the Pythagorean Inequality Theorem to determine if a triangle is acute, right, or obtuse simply based on its side lengths (4.4-4.5).  We will also learn about the medians and the centroid of a triangle (4.6) and triangle inequalities (4.7). There will be a quiz on Thursday covering 4.1-4.6.

Physical Science - Ms. Hoffman

Welcome back from a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!  Before the holiday, we reviewed potential and kinetic energy and the different forms of energy, including chemical, thermal and mechanical.  We finished up our week with an ice-cube insulation lab to illustrate heat transfer. (See photos below.) Students chose and used four different pieces of everyday materials (provided) to create an insulating container to hold an ice cube and prevent it from melting.  After 15 minutes and comparing pre/post masses, the following groups from each class were able to insulate their ice cube the most efficiently: Period 4--Tilly, Julianna and Emiline (lost 0.3 grams), Period 5--Jack C, Isabella, Brooke (lost 0.9 grams) and Period 6--Sam B and McCall (lost 1 gram).

This week we will begin our physics unit on Motion.  This will include speed, velocity, acceleration and reference points.  We will have a motion lab at the end of the week (weather permitting) to make actual calculations, determine stopping distances and discuss friction and other factors that can affect these values. Later topics for this unit will be balanced/unbalanced forces, gravity and friction.  Upcoming science quizzes will be on Thursday, 12/12 and Thursday, 12/19.

Science Fair:  We are at the final two weeks of our science fair projects.  This Wednesday, 12/4 is our last log book check where I will be looking for all updates for your project, including data and results or updated prototype designs.  The log book should also contain a sketch of your triptych. In addition, this Wednesday, 12/4 all formal reports are due. This test grade assignment must be printed/ stapled and turned in by the end of the day at 3:15pm.  

All project triptychs (end of trimester project grade), abstracts and finalized log books (homework grade) are due next week on Wednesday, 12/11/19.  The students will also present their projects to me in class at the end of next week. See due dates below and found in your packet for more information.

I am available for specific project questions by email, during the 8th grade independant time 1 - 1:30pm each day and  each morning (especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays) from 7:30am until 8am.  

Remaining Science Fair Project Dates

(* Indicate Homework Grades)

Wednesday                12/4/19                        *Log Book Check/ Updated Results or Solution AND

                                                                               Sketch of Triptych

 Completed Formal Report (printed) Due (TEST grade)

Wednesday                12/11/19                     All Completed Projects Due

This includes the Triptych (end of trimester PROJECT    

grade), Log Book (HOMEWORK grade) and completed Abstract Form--Complete abstract on-line or use form in the packet 

                                                                     Project presentations will also occur this week

                     

English Language Arts - Mrs. Boyer

Students should have completed the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell. We will be engaging with this novel until the Winter Holiday. Our unit will focus on mob mentality, types of government systems, and the power of propaganda. Students have already been given notes, and they should begin studying the terms in order to better their comprehension of the material. I have posted an immense amount of material in GC already; most of it will be printed out by me and completed in class. 

Quiz: Animal Farm Quiz 12/5, Animal Farm Test 12/13.

Students are learning about the Russian Revolution in order to fully relate it back to their reading of Animal Farm. We have been discussing the meaning of allegory, and why it is critical to this novel to understand both the literal and figurative. 

History & Gov’t II - Mrs. Robinson

Welcome back! Hope everyone enjoyed a nice holiday and was able to catch up on some rest and relaxation over the break! This week in American History and Government Part II, we will be starting our study of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. We will introduce the frustration and corruption the progressive reformers were fighting against and look into their solutions. Students will engage in an activity highlighting the importance of journalism at the time and then finish the week with a small project covering the three progressive Presidents. The Unit Four Test will be on December 18th. 

8th grade Spanish - Ms. Hill

Review classroom rules and expectations as well as December’s academic timeline. 

Preterite continued - Learning irregular verb stems- Using the preterite to describe one time past actions. Preterite Grammar quiz on Thursday, December 5th.

Vocabulary: Review words and phrases that trigger the use of the preterite tense.

Algebra 1 - Mr. Cargile

Next week in Algebra 1 we will begin our study of Chapter 5,  Writing Linear Equations. To start the week, students will complete corrections and a reflection for their Chapter 4 test. We will then learn and practice writing linear equations in slope-intercept form, and use linear equations in slope-intercept form. 

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break!  Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 5 by learning how to divide fractions (5.5), use multiplicative inverses to solve equations involving fractions (5.6), and solving equations and inequalities involving fractions and decimals (5.7).

History & Gov’t I - Mrs. Robinson

Welcome back! Hope everyone enjoyed a nice holiday and was able to catch up on some rest and relaxation over the break! This week, in American History & Government Part I, we will continue our study of the Revolutionary War. Students will spend the week researching a particular aspect of the Revolutionary War. Topics include major battles, battle strategies, women in the war, slaves in the war, and many others. Students will create a poster with their group highlighting the important details of their particular topic. Students will have a Unit 5 Quiz on December 12th and the Unit 5 test on December 18th.

7th grade Spanish - Ms. Hill

Review classroom rules and expectations as well as December’s academic timeline. 

Grammar notes on using irregular verbs in the present tense. 

VIDEO PROJECT: Due Wednesday, December 4th

Vocabulary and grammar review for quiz on Thursday, December 5th. Notes and lists will be posted on Google Classroom. 

ELA - Mrs. Boyer

Literature: Students will begin their dive into Book Clubs! Students will have their choice of four novels which deal with the theme of choice. These units will be heavily focused on theme, types of irony, direct and indirect characterization, and a few other literary devices. 

Vocabulary: Students will begin Unit 4; the quiz is on 12/17. Students have their vocabulary workbooks; this workbook will be collected in May and used during their 8th grade year as well.

Grammar: Students will soon begin a unit on Phrases after the winter holiday! Please send your child in for morning help if needed. Also, I always post extra resources in GC such as practice sheets, IXL links, Youtube videos, etc. Grammar is a difficult concept to grasp which means your child needs to identify their learning style and use that to succeed in regards to these concepts. 

Usually Tuesdays and Thursdays are Book Club Days! 

Assessments can be any day Tuesday-Friday! :)

Life Science - Mrs. DuRant

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! Prior to the break, students participated in a lab on genetics and constructed models of DNA. Photos of some of their models are below. This was a fun and engaging activity. This week in Life Science we will review our unit on Genetics and Inherited Traits in preparation for a unit test on Thursday, December 5. We will have a two day review, including a study guide and kahoot review, prior to this test to make sure students are well prepared. Then we will begin to explore the exciting world of organ systems, beginning with the Skeletal System.

Accelerated Math 7 - Mr. Cargile

Next week in Accelerated Math 7 we will begin our study of Chapter 5, Fraction Operations. To start off the week, students will do corrections and a reflection for their Chapter 4 test. For the rest of the week, students will learn and practice adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers.

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break!  Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 5 by learning how to divide fractions (5.5), use multiplicative inverses to solve equations involving fractions (5.6), and solving equations and inequalities involving fractions and decimals (5.7).

ELA - Mrs. Sasser

I hope students had a wonderful and enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday! As they come back, we’ll be continuing to work on our Phineas Gage non-fiction text and analyzing the use of text features. As students go through this text, they will be asked to annotate and think critically about the structure of non-fictions texts. Students will read some case studies on how the brain works and how Phineas was altered after his accident. They will use their readings this week to participate in a Socratic seminar discussion. Students will have a reading check quiz on Tuesday and Friday this week. 

Earth Science - Mrs. Hoffman

Welcome back from a wonderful Thanksgiving break!   We finished up our week learning about energy sources with a with a fun “cookie mining” lab to simulate coal mining and land reclamation. Students were given land (a cookie) and bought tools (toothpick and/or paper clip) to excavate their minerals (chocolate chips) for profit.  They also had to “pay” to restore the land as much as possible. (See photos below.) The Energy Project we began in class a few weeks ago that should be completed at home as either a written report OR a poster OR a 3-D model is due this Friday, 12/6 at the beginning of their class.  The students will also present their projects to their class on this day.  

The rest of this week will be devoted to beginning our Geology unit and reviewing some of our mapping skills (i.e. latitude, longitude, landforms, reading maps), as well as, learning/ reviewing the location of continents, oceans and some major islands. Our quiz on this information will be Tuesday, 12/10.  We will also begin learning about Earth’s structure and the different layers of the earth. We will have a quiz on earth’s structure, along with continental drift and Pangea on Friday, 12/13. We will then continue with plate tectonics and have a unit test on Thursday, 12/19 before the winter holiday break.

Earth Science - Mrs. DuRant

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! This week in Earth Science, students will participate in a Cookie Mine lab where they will learn about coal mining and its impact on the environment. They will also participate in a station lab reviewing different types of renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. At home, students should be continuing to work on their energy source project.  All research was to be done in class and the actual project will be completed at home. The due date for this project is December 9. A unit test on Energy and Renewable/Nonrenewable Resources is planned for Friday, December 6. 

Ancient Civ -  Mr. O’Hayer

Welcome back everyone. I hope your Thanksgiving break was fun and relaxing. This week we finish our Unit on Comparative Religions. This lesson offers a starting point for exploring religions and faith traditions. Students will compare and contrast religious belief systems, origins, and faith traditions. This Unit plan is meant to students a basic understanding of five world religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. The final 2 religions of this unit are Christianity and Islam. We will study key ideas, key people, origins and current areas where the religion is practiced, and the culture of the religion. We will have two assessments on these religions- Quiz on Christianity and a Quiz on Islam. We will shoot for a Quiz on Christianity this Thursday or Friday- depending on how students grasp the content. The Islam quiz will most likely be Thursday of next week. That will leave us a few days before Christmas break. We will have a small group project to introduce the next Unit- Ancient Greece

Spanish - Mr. Alexander

SPECIALS

Art - Mrs. Cookson