March 2nd - March 6th


IMPORTANT - MORNING CARPOOL
As a reminder, after 7:55am please be sure to pull all the way forward toward Gold Zone to drop off.  Please DO NOT stop to drop off at the middle school doors unless the line has come to a stop. This allows us to unload 14 cars at a time, and speeds up the morning drop-off process. 
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.


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. We will solve linear systems by multiplying first, solve special types of linear systems, and solve systems of linear inequalities.
Geometry - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Geometry, we will complete Chapter 10 by learning how to graph circles on the coordinate plane (10.7).  We will then have 2 days of review and the Chapter 10 test on Thursday.
Advanced Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will complete our last unit of Geometry by learning how to find the volume of prisms and cylinders (9.4), pyramids and cones (9.5), and how to find the surface area and volume of spheres (9.6).  We will have a day of review and then the Chapter 9 test on Friday.
Physical Science - Ms. Hoffman
This past week students have learned about the two main groups of waves-transverse and longitudinal.  We discussed the basic parts of a wave (crest, trough, wavelength, compression, rarefactions), a wave’s properties (amplitude, frequency, speed) and the way that waves interact (reflection, refraction, diffraction and interference).  We also looked at these wave interactions during a lab (see photos next week) and will have a quiz on all this wave information on Monday 3/2/20. Next week we will continue learning about waves and focus on sound. Some of the topics will include sonic booms, doppler effect, echolocation, the ear and how we hear.  We will also have several labs and will create a wave/sound booklet. Our unit test is tentatively scheduled for Thursday 3/26/20 and our March Science Choice Board is due Tuesday, 3/31/20.
                     
English Language Arts - Mrs. Boyer
Students have begun 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. 
We will be engaging in a three day workshop with Mrs. Robinson to discuss the Why and How of this horrific time in history. 
Students will be watching The Wave. 
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 wrapping up our Unit on the Great Depression and the New Deal and starting our Unit on WWII. Next week the 8th graders will be participating in a series of cross curricular discussions to help them learn about and unpack the Holocost. This series of discussions will help prepare them for our History unit on WWI, their ELA unit on Night, as well as their DC trip. The series of discussions will include some reflections for homework as well as tackling big picture questions about equality, prejudice & silence. 
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) 
Grammar quiz  - Tuesday - March 3rd 
Unit 6 Lesson 1 Test - Friday - March 6th
Grammar: Continued practice of the use of affirmative and negative tú commands. 
Here’s the StudySpanish.com introduction to the informal (tú) commands
We will be doing practice work on Classzone as well as an in class handout over the use of the tú commands. Thursday, we will review the vocabulary and grammar for your test on Friday, March 6th.
Unit 6 Lesson 1 Test - Friday - March 6th
*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. We will solve linear systems by multiplying first, solve special types of linear systems, and solve systems of linear inequalities.
Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will complete the first part of Chapter 8 by learning how to use slope-intercept form to graph linear equations (8.5) and how to write linear equations given points on the line (8.6).  There will be a day of review and the Chapter 8.1-8.6 test on Friday.
History & Gov’t I - Mrs. Robinson
Next week, in American History & Government I, we will wrap up our study of how America put its new government into action. We will cover early internal and external conflicts as well as touch on John Adams Presidency. The Unit Seven Test will be Wednesday March 4th. After we finish the test, the students will begin a mini-unit on Fake News which they will be completing the following week while I am in D.C. with the 8th graders.
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.
Grammar Quiz - Tuesday, March 3rd 
Lesson 1 Test - TBD (March 6th - tentative) 
Grammar:  Continued practice of Ser and Estar and the use of ordinal numbers as adjectives. 
Here’s a link to the studyspanish.com intro lesson to Ser and Estar.
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 focusing on the circulatory system.  They will practice labeling a diagram of the heart, learn how to assess their pulse, and learn how blood flows through the heart. They will also be conducting an engaging lab  where they will be simulating the heart pumping at a normal rate, comparing their results to the normal heart rates of a variety of animals. They will also be conducting a webquest on the circulatory system.  They will have a heart diagram labeling quiz on Thursday.

Accelerated Math 7 - Mr. Cargile
Next week in Accelerated Math 7 we will continue working on Chapter 7, Equations, Inequalities, and Functions. We will review solving one-step equations, and then learn to solve two-step equations, and solve inequalities.
Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will complete the first part of Chapter 8 by learning how to use slope-intercept form to graph linear equations (8.5) and how to write linear equations given points on the line (8.6).  There will be a day of review and the Chapter 8.1-8.6 test on Friday.
ELA - Mrs. Sasser
This week, students will begin a mini-unit on poetry. They will learn key figurative language terms and identify figurative language examples in sample songs and poems. They will  compare and contrast modern music with classic poetry, identifying similar themes and uses of figurative language. They will also read and analyze Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” as well as his various sonnets. Students will even write their own sonnet and incorporate similes, metaphors, alliterations, hyperboles, and personification. Students will have a quiz over figurative language key terms on Friday. 
This week, we’ll finish up with our Greek/Latin vocabulary words. Students should be studying these words for 10 minutes every night! Their quiz will be Wednesday. 
T3 Reading Log Project: Students will be given a choice of five different novels to read. They should select their novel by March 2nd and have a copy of their novel in class by March 9th. They will read their chosen novel independently over the course of the trimester and complete a Google form, answering key discussion questions about their novel. All Google forms must be submitted by May 6th. 
Earth Science - Mrs. Hoffman
The ocean is so interesting and we are blessed to live so close to one. In the first portion of our ocean unit the sixth graders have learned about the ocean’s chemical makeup (NaCl, minerals, dissolved gases), topography (continental shelf, continental slope, abyssal plain, trenches, seamounts, etc.), various water columns (intertidal, neritic, pelagic, surface, transitional, deep) and general animal types (benthic, plankton, nekton). See below for photos of students testing for the pH (acidity/alkalinity)  of ocean water collected off Tybee. There are also photos of our Ping Ping activity from 2/21 where students used sonar data to simulate the mapping of the ocean floor. We also looked at organisms that live beneath a floating dock. (see photos for this next week) We will have a quiz on all this material on Thursday, 3/5/20.
Next week the students will receive a rubric for a project on ocean animals called cereal box science.  They will choose and research information about an ocean animal and put that information onto a cereal box.  The projects are due Wednesday 3/25. (This date is slightly different from the one posted in the syllabus.) Next week we will also begin learning about ocean waves.  Additional topics to come include tides and ocean currents. Our ocean unit test will be Thursday, 3/36/20.



Earth Science - Mrs. DuRant
This week in Earth Science, students will begin an exciting unit on rocks and minerals. Throughout this unit, they will focus on the difference between rocks and minerals, learning the characteristics of each. They will conduct an engaging mineral lab. Students will have a quiz on minerals on Thursday.
Ancient Civ -  Mr. O’Hayer
I can’t believe it’s March already. Where did the year go? Spring is in the air. This week we finish up our exploration of Ancient Greece. Lesson 3 brings us to “Times of Conflict” in Greece. Here we will identify events that caused the Peloponnesian War and compare and contrast the roles of Athens and Sparta in the war. Lesson 4 brings us to Alexander the Great and his vast empire. We will study how he came to power and the influence his empire hd on the world. We will have a test on Ch. 9 Lessons 3 and 4 on Thursday the 5th.
Spanish - Mr. Alexander
This week will be focusing on the family members and personality traits.  We will have the family vocabulary quiz on Tuesday, and the personality trait quiz on Friday.
<<<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 warrant a call home - as it is usually the same names on the list week after week.>>>


Art - Mrs. Cookson
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” - Vincent Van Gogh
8th: Surrealism and self-expression
7th: Music posters
6th: Wet felting, wet felting, wet felting

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