September 7th - September 11th
SCHOOL PICTURE DAY
Middle school students will be getting their individual school pictures taken on Thursday, September 10th. Students may dress out of school uniform on this day. Please note that we will not be taking class pictures due to safety precautions.
PE TO BEGIN DURING EAGLE OP!
Additional PE classes will begin during the time slot known as Eagle Opportunities, aka Eagle Op. In addition to the one PE class already in progress, we will add 3 additional shorter classes during Eagle Op. The Eagle Op schedule is as follows:
6th grade Eagle Op PE on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday
7th grade Eagle Op PE on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
8th Grade Eagle Op PE on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday
Again, these three classes are in addition to the one regularly scheduled class.
CARPOOL
Both morning and especially afternoon carpools have settled into a routine and are running smoothly. This is due in large part to afternoon pickups NOT arriving on campus until 3:15. Thank you all for making this work!!
USE OF ZOOM FOR COVID-RELATED ABSENCES
In the MIddle School, if your child is out for Covid-related issues, please contact Mrs. Smoak (esmoak@hancockdayschool.org), and we will set up an iPad to Zoom with them throughout the day. It is important for your child to “arrive” to classes on time so the teacher can admit him/her and begin teaching class. The same Zoom link sent to him/her will be used for every class throughout the time your child is absent. If you have issues with logging in, please contact Mrs. Smoak or Mrs. Guggenheim for assistance.
If the absence is for any other reason, please ask your child to email his/her teachers to let them know they’ll be out and ask for any work/assignments. We will not be able to Zoom at this time for a non-Covid related absence due to a limited IT capacity.
There is a labeled blue bin outside the entrance to the Middle School for work/materials that need to go home. Please let us know if you’d like us to use that or if there is a sibling or friend to give the work to.
MIDDLE SCHOOL BINS
Outside the middle school office are bins for drop-off items for students grade 6-8.
If you leave an item in a bin, please send Mrs. Mannarino an email.
DRESS CODE CONCERN
Our uniform policy states that boys’ hair should not extend beyond the top of the collar or obscure a student’s face. Understanding that some of our families may be seeking to limit unnecessary trips out in the community, we have not yet enforced this policy this year. Beginning Tuesday, September 8th, our teachers will be sending home a notification with children who still need haircuts. If you know that your child needs to have a trim, please work to make this happen in advance of Tuesday, September 8th.
ASSESSMENTS CALENDAR
We have created a great way for students and parents to check for upcoming assessments. 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.
Different subjects will appear in different colors:
History is black, Science is green, ELA is blue, Spanish is red, and Math is pink.
Please bear in mind that Middle School Assessments may be added, removed, or changed at any time. This Sheet will always be up to date, however - once a teacher assigns or adjusts an assessment, this Sheet will reflect that change.
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 the 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.
Welcome back to school!! This year in the LC Corner, I will be offering tips and strategies to support your work at school. Please reach out to me anytime you need assistance or have any questions.
Tip #3: STUDY AHEAD OF TIME. PLEASE don’t wait until the last minute to study for an assessment. When you see an assessment posted on the assessment calendar, I suggest creating a study plan at that time. Then you won’t be stressed out by waiting until the last minute to study. Studying in advance always helps you cement the information in your brain and lets you know if there are any concepts/skills you need to speak with a teacher about for support.
I have reached out to all middle school students to make sure they are aware of Counseling Services and how to access them. Furthermore, if you have a student who is participating in zoom classes who would benefit from some social and emotional support, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Allison Maher
amaher@hancockdayschool.org
ALGEBRA - MRS. SMOAK
Next week we are starting chapter 2. We will cover rational and irrational numbers, dividing fractions and whole numbers, and square roots. This should be a review, but we are going to be learning how to use our graphing calculators for the first time! There will be a quiz on Friday that will have a calculator and non-calculator section. I hope you enjoy your long weekend!
GEOMETRY - MR. LANFEAR
Next week in Geometry, we will continue Chapter 2 by learning about biconditional statements (2.2), logic laws (2.3), and truth tables (2.3). There will be a quiz on Thursday covering sections 2.1-2.3.
ELA - MRS. BOYER
This coming week we will be wrapping up our unit on Fahrenheit 451. Students will be working on gathering information for their Socratic Seminar, which will be held on September 10th.
We will also be working on a creative activity called Character Body Bio where students analyze the inner workings of the characters of the novel both literally and figuratively.
We will have the F451 Test on 9/11, and then on the 14th we will begin our Introduction into To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
We will begin Unit 2 Vocabulary and DGP Grammar next week.
Every year I look forward to the kids creating their F451 Plot Mountains; however, students may not collaborate in close quarters or share materials. Therefore, this week we worked on a Virtual Thematic Plot Mountain, where students were asked to only consider events that followed their themes! They were so creative! What a great study tool for their test next week!
HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH - MRS. SALE
Hola...Hope everyone had a groovy long weekend!!!! We will start the week by going over the test. Then, classroom vocabulary will be reviewed and a story in Spanish will be read and translated. If there is time, a game of Lucita will be played (utilizing the new vocabulary words). Wednesday and Thursday will be used to review -ar verbs and conjugations. Prepositions will also be reviewed. On Friday, the students will have a quiz. The quiz will include the new classroom vocabulary, -ar verbs and the conjugations as well as the previous material we have studied. After the quiz on Friday, the students will review ‘’question words’’. I hope everyone has a great week and weekend.
PHYSICAL SCIENCE - MS. HOFFMAN
Our Science Fair Projects have begun! Each student received a composition log book and a science fair information packet on Monday 8/31. (It is also posted on Google Classroom.) It contains all the information necessary for this three month long project, including due dates for the nine separate homework grades, as well as four additional grades (homework, classwork, test grade and end-of-the trimester) that are associated with this large assignment. The majority of the work will be conducted at home and the final project is due on Wednesday, 12/16/20. I have posted all the due dates for the project below. Each progress check is due on a Wednesday with the first log book check and final topic/ question for each project due on 9/9/20. This week students participated in a sample mini-project to design and write their own experiment and then another group followed their directions (critiquing as needed) to complete it. We also spent one class period researching project ideas to help decide on a topic. During last Friday 8/28, students also participated in a lab using the engineering process to “save” Wendall the (Gummy) Worm by getting him into his gummy life preserver stuck under his sinking boat (cup) using paper clips instead of their hands. The first group to “save” him in each class were as follows: Period 4--Lula and Mary Blake, Period 5--Finely and Louisa and Period 6--Sadie, Ailish and Kate. Each group and the second place groups received a small candy surprise for their efforts. Photos for both of these activities are below. We finished off the week with a quiz over all this material.
Next week we will begin a review of matter and its properties with a focus on elements, compounds and mixtures. Then we will begin our discussion on chemical and physical changes. Our tentative test date for all this material is Friday, 9/18.
Science Fair Project Dates
(* Indicate Homework Grades
Monday 8/31/20 Science Fair Packets Home
Friday 9/4/20 *Signed Parent Approval Form (1B)
Wednesday 9/9/20 *Log Book Check/ Science Fair Topic and
Question OR Problem
Wednesday 9/23/20 *Log Book Check with detailed Science Fair
Materials and Procedures
Wednesday 10/7/20 *Log Book Check with Research Notes Due
Wednesday 10/21/20 Rough Draft of Background/ Research Info (email or share document)
Wednesday 10/21/20 *Log Book Check with Updates/ Revisions
Wednesday 11/11/20 *Final Draft of Background/ Research Info
(email or share document)
Wednesday 12/2/20 *Log Book Check with Data/ Results OR
Prototype/Solution
Wednesday 12/9/20 *Log Book Check/ Updated Results OR
Solution AND Sketch of Triptych
Completed Formal Report (printed)
Wednesday 12/16/20 All Completed Project Triptych & Log Book
Project presentations also this week
US HISTORY - MRS. ROBINSON
Next week, in American History & Government, we will continue to explore the issues that divided the United States between North and South, ultimately leading to the Civil War. We will specifically look at the experience of enslaved people and talk about how slavery was a driving force of the divide between the North and South in Congress. We will finish the week with a look into some of the reform movements that came out of the expanding democracy created during Jackson’s presidency. Our first mini quiz will be next week on Thursday Sept 10th. More information on the quiz will be given out at the end of this week.
ADVANCED SPANISH - MRS. SALE
Hola chicos and chicas!!! I hope everyone had a groovy long weekend!!! We are going to begin the week with learning numbers 0-39. Some math terms will also be introduced. We will spend all week working on the numbers 0-39. Friday, the students will end the week with a quiz over the numbers 0-39, math terms, abc’s, conversation questions and vocabulary.
ADVANCED SPANISH - MR. ALEXANDER
Hola chicos and chicas!!! I hope everyone had a groovy long weekend!!! We are going to begin the week with learning numbers 0-39. Some math terms will also be introduced. We will spend all week working on the numbers 0-39. Friday, the students will end the week with a quiz over the numbers 0-39, math terms, abc’s, conversation questions and vocabulary.
ALGEBRA 1 - MRS. SMOAK
Next week we are starting chapter 2. We will cover rational and irrational numbers, dividing fractions and whole numbers, and square roots. This should be a review, but we are going to be learning how to use our graphing calculators for the first time! There will be a quiz on Friday that will have a calculator and non-calculator section. I hope you enjoy your long weekend!
PRE-ALGEBRA - MR. LANFEAR
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will begin Chapter 2 by learning about various properties such as the commutative property, associative property, and identity property (2.1). We will also learn how to use the distributive property (2.2) and begin exploring simplifying variable expressions (2.3).
ELA - MRS. BOYER
For the past two weeks students have been working on their Analytical Essays. There have been two rounds of teacher comments; the first round was more generalized commentary about ideas and formatting and the students should have received three to five comments; the second round of comments were extremely specific and students received anywhere from 10-20 comments throughout. Students have all next week, in an independent fashion, to work on their essays. Final Essays will be due on September 11th.
We will be working through Unit 2 of Vocabulary and beginning DGP.
Next week we will begin our Introduction into the Hero’s Journey. We will be reviewing Joseph Campbell’s idea of the Monomyth. Students will be put into Book Clubs with the choice of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. Students will engage with the novels through creative projects, literary devices, compare & contrast assignments, etc. Let’s enter the World together!! :)
Below are some photos of our amazing summer reading posters!
Because students cannot join together in group activities, we did a virtual peer editing activity. Students shared their Docs with one another and wrote about five strengths and five challenges that they saw in the writer’s work. The feedback was extremely helpful! :) Great job!
ELA - MRS. SASSER
Students will review Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey and review chapters 1-5 Harry Potter. They will have a quiz over the first five chapters on Thursday. Students will analyze the use of setting how it is used to develop characters. Students will also use EdPuzzle this week to unpack the novel by listening to a podcast and analyzing key events in the novel. At the end of the week, students will map out key settings in a mini-group project.
A note about assigned reading---students should check Google Classroom regularly and keep up with the reading. Normally, they will have 2-3 days to read the chapters. They should come prepared to discuss the reading and complete assignments based on it. If they fall behind, it will be very difficult for them to be successful with their in class assignments. Students are always welcome to come to my room in the mornings starting at 7:25 if they’d like to sit in a quiet space to read.
Students will also be working through their first unit in the new Sadlier vocabulary books. There will be a vocabulary quiz on Friday, September 11th.
LIFE SCIENCE - MRS. DURANT
We have had a great week in Life Science. Students participated in an engaging lab learning how to properly use a microscope. During this lab, they looked at a newsprint of the letter “e” and hair samples. The purpose of the lab was to familiarize them with the parts of a microscope and to learn the difference between magnification and resolution. They also learned the difference between compound microscopes and electron microscopes and we viewed videos of interesting images taken through both types of microscopes. We also began Chapter 1 by studying the Characteristics of Life and creating a foldable to help reinforce the 6 characteristics that all living organisms have in common. Next week in Life Science, we will continue our unit on Classification of Organisms. We will begin to use dichotomous keys and students will develop a dichotomous key of their own. During the week, we will do a station lab on the Classification of Organisms and Dichotomous Keys. Students will have a vocabulary quiz on Wednesday which will cover Chapter 1 vocabulary.
US HISTORY - MRS. ROBINSON
Next week in American History & Government, students will continue to dig into our unit on community and civilization. We will be wrapping up a study of early Native American cultures in North America and jumping into a short look into the earliest civilizations in the Americans, the Maya, Inca & Aztec. Our first quiz will be the following week on Sept 17th. More detail about what will be covered in the quiz will come out later next week!
US HISTORY - MR. O’HAYER (9/7-9/11)
Next week in US History we will begin in full covering Unit 2: Community and Civilizations. This unit will reveal how Native American tribes used geography and culture to define their civilizations. We will also look at the three early civilizations of the Americas, British colonial settlements along with their regional differences. We will look to have a Quiz toward the end of the week. Day TBA.
ACCELERATED MATH - MR. CARGILE
Next week in Accelerated Math 7 we will continue our unit on Number Sense, Patterns, and Algebraic Thinking. We will learn about exponents and then take a few days working on order of operations. On Friday, we will have a check-up quiz to make sure everyone is on track with their understanding of exponents and order of operations.
PRE-ALGEBRA - MR. LANFEAR
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will begin Chapter 2 by learning about various properties such as the commutative property, associative property, and identity property (2.1). We will also learn how to use the distributive property (2.2) and begin exploring simplifying variable expressions (2.3).
EARTH SCIENCE - MS. HOFFMAN
Sixth grade has done a great job with our two labs last week and photos of the measuring density lab are below. We also had our first quiz on lab safety, measuring mass/ volume/ density and over some basic examples of equipment. This week we started learning about the four states of matter and how these states change phases. Students looked at a plasma ball and how it can actually light a fluorescent bulb without touching it! (See photos below.) We have also discussed various properties of matter such as contraction and expansion. We will have a test on this material on Friday 9/11.
EARTH SCIENCE - MRS. DURANT
We had a great week in Earth Science filled with engaging labs. The students had fun with a measurement lab which helped them learn common tools and units of measure in science. They also enjoyed the fortune teller fish lab which reinforced the steps of the scientific process. We also studied mass, volume, and density and the students had a great time creating a density column and calculating the mass of marbles using common lab equipment and math skills. This week in Earth Science, we will continue our review of the states of matter and include an engaging plasma lab. Students will have a unit test on states of matter on Friday.
ELA - MRS. SASSER 9/7-9/11
This week, students will review key reading strategies that help with annotating and digging deeper into texts. Students will read various non-fiction articles to practice these strategies. They will complete an in class jigsaw activity and present their various articles to the entire class.
Students will also be working through their first unit in the new Sadlier vocabulary books. There will be a vocabulary quiz on Friday, September 11th.
INTRO SPANISH - MR. ALEXANDER
This week we will continue reviewing numbers and telling time, the body, and items in a classroom. We will also discuss the Mayan culture and review the alphabet. We will have a vocabulary quiz on Friday
WORLD HISTORY - MR. O’HAYER
Next week we will begin our first Unit in WH: Ancient Greece and Rome. One major focus will be developing good habits as it relates to note-taking and outlining. Students will spend time learning different note-taking techniques as we move through the first chapter. We will have a quiz later in the week- Day TBA. It is important in World History that students keep up with their readings. Falling behind will cause students to not always know and understand the material which will hinder them from being able to participate in class in a meaningful way.
ART - MRS. COOKSON
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” - Mark Twain
No Monday classes due to Labor Day holiday.
All students have received a sketchbook and have weekly assignments. These prompts will be posted in Google Classroom. This week’s prompt is: Trace your hand and draw what might be inside if you were an awesome robot.
8th: Will begin to learn about architectural elements and apply those to the toppling tower
7th: Will finish up the 3D still life drawings and begin a study of the human figure
6th: Will begin a drawing pulling from the depths of their imagination - we will find a new way to make this a collaborative piece
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