February 24th - February 28th

IT’S TOURNAMENT WEEK!

Our basketball’s challenging and successful regular season has come to an end!  SPAL will be announcing tournament seeds, game locations and times sometime over the weekend.  Please look for details for your team coming from the Athletic Department via TEAM SNAP. Academically, we will be sensitive to student’s game commitments and will adjust assignments and assessment accordingly.  To accommodate this adjustment, we will permit tests and quizzes on Monday, March 2nd.

7TH GRADE TRAVELING TO ATLANTA: APRIL 29-30TH!

The details for the 7th grade trip to Atlanta are finally in place.  The key reason for the trip is to visit the Discovery Center. The Discovery Center is a real life simulation where the students will apply the financial skills they learned in their Junior Achievement class.  In addition to the Discovery Center the students will be visiting the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the CNN Center, and the DeKalb Farmers Market. The cost for the trip will be $300 (all inclusive).  7th grade families should look for an email containing specific details in the upcoming weeks. 

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.

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.

February’s Virtue of the Month is Acceptance, which is a particularly important part of development for adolescents.  Middle school is a time that students look to form deeper relationships with peers and even those with a strong sense of self want to feel included and appreciated.  

While it is easy to become wrapped up in a particular peer group or everyday routines, we encourage Hancock Students to look outside themselves to see how they can make others feel accepted.   

-Allison Maher, School Counselor

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!

Algebra 1 - Mr. Cargile

Next week in Algebra 1 we will continue our study of Chapter 7, Systems of Equations and Inequalities. This week we will learn to solve linear systems by graphing and substitution, and we will also learn to solve equations with addition and subtraction. On Friday, we will participate in the annual Georgia Math League contest.

Geometry - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Geometry, we will continue Chapter 10 by learning about properties of chords (10.4), using inscribed angles and polygons (10.5), and other angle relationships and segment lengths (10.6).  There will be a quiz covering sections 10.1-10.3 on Tuesday. We will be competing in the Georgia Math League Contest on Friday.

Advanced Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will continue Chapter 9 by learning how to find the surface area of prisms/cylinders (9.2) and pyramids/cones (9.3).  There will be a quiz on sections 9.1-9.3 on Thursday. We will be competing in the Georgia Math League Contest on Friday.

Physical Science - Ms. Hoffman

Welcome to the final trimester of 8th grade!  Over the next few months we will be learning about wave energy including sound, light, the electromagnetic spectrum (EM), electricity and magnetism.  We started off with mechanical waves and are focusing on sound waves for our first few weeks as we learn about wave properties, interactions and how we hear.  We will have several labs demonstrating these components and the importance of this type of energy in our lives. The February Science Choice Board is due Friday, 2/28 and we will also have a quiz on waves on this day.

Patrick Dean, the regional science and engineering coordinator, from Savannah State University visited our school on Thursday, 2/20 and presented awards to students placing in their subject category at the district science fair.  These students are Emiline Baxter (1st place), Sam Bueno (1st place), Brooke Coulter (1st place), Sydney Hoye (2nd place), Harper Silva (3rd place), Mary Tippens Solana (2nd place). Those students who placed first in their category will be advancing to the state competition in Athens, Georgia on March 27 and 28th.  We wish them the best of luck!

                     

English Language Arts - Mrs. Boyer

Students will be starting their discussion and reflection on Night by Elie Wiesel. This novel addresses some very tough topics. Students will be participating in a large Art & Writing Project/Contest which will be the majority of their T3 grade. Think Science Fair but for ELA. We usually enter our projects into the JEA Holocaust Art & Writing Contest every year; however, because the JEA changed their schedule we are not going to be able to enter our HDS students. BUT, we will be bringing the art and writing pieces to the JEA to be displayed as a part of their Holocaust Remembrance month in April. 

Vocabulary: Unit 15 & 16; Quiz TBA. 

T3 Reading Log Project: Students will be given a choice of three different novels to read. They will read their chosen novel and complete a Google form, answering key discussion questions about their novel. All Google forms must be submitted by May 6th. 

History & Gov’t II - Mrs. Robinson

Next week in American History & Government II, we will be continuing our Unit on the Great Depression and the New Deal. Students will dive into what caused the Great Depression, how it changed life in America, and start to investigate how the country responded to the crisis. Students will complete mini projects along the way to help deepen their understanding of the topic. 

8th grade Spanish - Ms. Hill

We will be continuing our Unit 6 Grammar and Vocabulary - Talking about Movies and Movie-making and using Tú commands (which are a little different from Usted/Ustedes commands) 

Lesson 1 Quiz - Tuesday, Feb 25th 

Lesson 1 Test -  Tuesday - March 3rd 

Vocabulary: Monday we will do some vocabulary practice to review for your quiz. Pay attention to your words and phrases. There will be multiple choice as well as some translation work. 

We will have a Lesson 1 vocabulary quiz on Tuesday, Feb 25th. The quizlet is posted with your vocabulary list for U6L1. 

Grammar: Wednesday and Thursday we will be working on the use of affirmative and negative tú commands. 

Here’s the StudySpanish.com introduction to the informal (tú) commands

Informal Commands ("tú") 

We will be doing practice work on Classzone Friday as well as an in class handout over the use of the tú commands. Monday we will review the vocabulary and grammar for your test on Tuesday, March 3rd.

*any review Kahoots or Quizlets will be posted in Google Classroom under their respective categories - All items are listed in T3 folders

Algebra 1 - Mr. Cargile

Next week in Algebra 1 we will continue our study of Chapter 7, Systems of Equations and Inequalities. This week we will learn to solve linear systems by graphing and substitution, and we will also learn to solve equations with addition and subtraction. On Friday, we will participate in the annual Georgia Math League contest.

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning about x and y intercepts and how to use them to graph a linear equation (8.3) and we will learn about the slope of a line (8.4).  There will be a quiz covering sections 8.1-8.3 on Wednesday. We will be competing in the Georgia Math League Contest on Friday.

History & Gov’t I - Mrs. Robinson

Next week, in American History & Government I, we will continue our study of how America put its new government into action. Students will investigate how the early financial state of the country led to the early political parties. We will look into the Federalist and Republican positions and learn how Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson played a key role in the development of political factions in the country. Students will write and present two minute persuasive speeches about their given side, either Federalist or Republican. This assignment will focus on students presentation and persuasion skills as well as the content. The Unit Seven test is scheduled for Thursday March 5th. 

7th grade Spanish - Ms. Hill

We will be continuing our U5L1 Vocabulary and Grammar about things around the house, chores and responsibilities, and ordinal numbers.

Lesson 1 Quiz - Tuesday, Feb 25th 

Lesson 1 Test - TBD - Tuesday / Wednesday - March 3rd or 4th

Vocabulary: We will be doing practice and review on Monday for our quiz Tuesday. 

Grammar:  “to be?, or to be? … that is the question” - Ser and Estar both mean ‘to be’ so we will be working on how to tell the difference and how they will be used. 

We will be using the acronym DOCTOR for ser and the acronym PLACE for estar.

Here’s a link to the studyspanish.com intro lesson to Ser and Estar.

Ser and Estar: Part I

Lesson 1 Quiz - Tuesday, Feb 25th 

Lesson 1 Test - TBD - Tuesday / Wednesday - March 3rd or 4th

We will be working on IXL assignments for online practice, in class as well as for homework/review - IXL Unit 2 Grammar section J and K for Ser  and Unit 4 Grammar section I and J for Estar

*any review Kahoots or Quizlets will be posted in Google Classroom under their respective categories - All items are listed in T3 folders

ELA - Mrs. Boyer

Literature: Students will continue engaging in a Book Club theme revolving around Voices of the World. Students will have the choice between four novels: Refugee by Alan Gratz, The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz, Audacity by Melanie Crowder, and Just a Drop of Water by Kerry O’Malley Cerra. 

Vocabulary: Students will be engaging with Unit 6; the quiz is TBA. Students have their vocabulary workbooks; this workbook will be collected in May and used during their 8th grade year as well.

Writing: Students will be working on a research-based writing project in the next few weeks. 

T3 Reading Log Project: Students will be given a choice of three different novels to read. They will read their chosen novel and complete a Google form, answering key discussion questions about their novel. All Google forms must be submitted by May 13th. 

Life Science - Mrs. DuRant

This week in life science, students will be continuing their study of the digestive system.  We will complete our project of a travel brochure through the digestive system. This is due Tuesday. Students will also participate in an engaging lab where they will use math skills and their knowledge of the digestive system to explore the structures and functions of the digestive system.  Students will have a diagram quiz on Tuesday and a unit test on the digestive system on Thursday. Students should be studying their notes/classwork and digestive system diagram daily to prepare for the test. On Friday, we will begin the cardiovascular system.  

Accelerated Math 7 - Mr. Cargile

Next week in Accelerated Math 7 we will continue working on Chapter 7, Equations, Inequalities, and Functions. This week we will learn to simplify expressions, and solve addition and subtraction equations. On Friday, we will participate in the annual Georgia Math League contest.

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning about x and y intercepts and how to use them to graph a linear equation (8.3) and we will learn about the slope of a line (8.4).  There will be a quiz covering sections 8.1-8.3 on Wednesday. We will be competing in the Georgia Math League Contest on Friday.

ELA - Mrs. Sasser

This week, students will finish going through the writing process with their The Outsiders character analysis essay. They will peer edit their essay and make final revisions.  I encourage students to come in early if they would like additional one on one help. They should also ask their parents to read their writing, checking for grammatical and sentence structure errors that always seem to plague them. The more eyes that check their writing, the easier the revision process becomes! Final essays are due Friday. 

On Friday, students will begin a new unit on poetry. They will review key figurative language terms, identifying these in sample poems and coming up with their own examples. 

This week, we’ll pick back up with our Greek/Latin vocabulary words. Students should be studying these words for 10 minutes every night! 

T3 Reading Log Project: Students will be given a choice of three different novels to read. They will read their chosen novel and complete a Google form, answering key discussion questions about their novel. All Google forms must be submitted by May 13th. 

Earth Science - Mrs. Hoffman

Welcome to the final trimester of 6th grade science!  During the rest of the year we will have two separate units; one on oceans and then one for astronomy.  We are starting off our ocean unit learning about its chemical makeup, topography and various water column and animal zones. In later weeks we will learn about waves, tides, currents, and animal marine life.  Our February Science in Comics is due Friday, 2/28 and we will have a quiz on March 5th.

Earth Science - Mrs. DuRant

This week in Earth Science we will conclude our unit on earthquakes and volcanoes.  We will spend the first part of the week reviewing and conducting a lab on volcanoes. On Wednesday, we will have our test on earthquakes and volcanoes.  We will then begin our unit on rock and minerals.

Ancient Civ -  Mr. O’Hayer

Welcome back from a nice long weekend. This week we will finish up our exploration of Ancient Greece. We will begin Ch. 9 by exploring Athens. We will analyze the roles of Athens and Sparta in the wars with the Persian Empire and also identify the differences between a Direct and a Representative democracy. Given the short week we will not have any assessments. We will pick up next week with Lesson 2 and see how Greek Gifts of Art, Architecture, Literature, Theatre, Science, Math, and History shaped the Ancient world and how these contributons still shape our lives today. We will have a Test on Ch. 9 Lessons 1 and 2 on the 27th. 

Spanish - Mr. Alexander

We will continue learning vocabulary related to ‘the family’.  We will also begin our family tree projects.

<<<Our new discipline protocol for the new trimester will be as follows:  First mark is a warning (students will not be told - they are expected to be on best behaviour at all times), subsequent marks will deduct 5 points each from the weekly participation grade which resets every Monday.  3 marks warrant a call home. Also, names that appear on the list more than two weeks in a row will also warrant a call home - as it is usually the same names on the list week after week.>>>

Art - Mrs. Cookson

“An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.” - James McNeill Whistler

8th: Will start learning about surrealism

7th: Will continue with music posters

6th: Will keep going on wet felting