March 22nd - March 26th

 

APRIL LUNCH SIGN UP IS OPEN

Sign up for April lunches by Friday, March 26th.

CAMPUS SAFETY REMINDERS

For the safety of our students, faculty, staff, and administrative team members, please remember to put your mask on if you are outside of your vehicle on campus for any reason. Additionally, parents are still not allowed inside the buildings unless they have a scheduled meeting. Thank you for your understanding and support!

 

CARPOOL REMINDERS

Early checkouts should continue to occur by 2:15pm due to our staggered dismissal times this year. Please submit all changes using our Daily Carpool Changes form.

 

8TH GRADE PRESIDENT’S VOLUNTEER SERVICE AWARD HOURS

Students are required to perform 10 hours of community service each year while at Hancock.  Some students and families embrace the concept of service and we recognize them with a President’s Volunteer Service Award at our annual Honors Assembly.  

• Bronze Certificates recognize 50-74 hours of service

• Silver Certificates recognize 75 - 99 hours of service

• Gold Certificates recognize 100+ hours of service

If you would like to be recognized with a President’s Volunteer Service Award, all completed community service hours need to be submitted to Mrs. Mannarino no later than March 26, 2021. Any community service hours submitted after this day will not be included for a PVSA.  

LOOKING AHEAD

• 8th grade trip to Tybee Island (Friday, March 26th)

• Easter Break (April 2nd-April 5th); Classes resume April 6th

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.

COMMUNITY SERVICE OPPORTUNITY!

We have had great success at securing volunteers to escort HRB PK - 2nd grade students during morning carpool!  Because of this, we will limit one day a week per student for now.  Reminder: duty hours are 7:45 - 8:10.  ½ hour of community service credit each day.  Please keep track of the weather and dress appropriately. Students should keep a log of their hours on the community service form. If you are interested, email Mr. Crawford and Mrs. Mannarino.

WALKERS FOR THIS WEEK

Monday, March 22nd: Mary Margaret & Madison

Tuesday, March 23rd: Adair & Catherine Anne

Wednesday, March 24th: Robert & Bingham

Thursday, March 25th: Cullen & Wells

Friday, March 26th: Will R. & Eli

This year in the LC Corner, I will be offering tips and strategies to support your work at school and at home. Please reach out to me anytime you need assistance or have any questions. tguggenheim@hancockdayschool.org

TIP #25: WORK IN TEAMS AND NEGOTIATE CONFLICT. 

I don’t think many students get through middle school without feeling like they had to carry the load on at least one group project. Maybe they didn’t delegate and divide the work effectively at the onset. Perhaps they chose to take ownership to avoid a poor grade. Help them understand what happened and consider what they might have done differently. (WASHINGTON POST)

As parents, we work hard to help our children develop into compassionate and empathic individuals.  These qualities lead to a desire to help others and meaningful social connections.  The most powerful way to teach these virtues are by modeling them as parents.  

7 Do's and Don'ts to Help Your Family Build Empathy Skills

Allison Maher 

amaher@hancockdayschool.org       

ALGEBRA - MRS. SMOAK

I have returned from surgery early and we went over all of the exponent rules in class today. We will be practicing during class tomorrow and there will be a quiz on Thursday over Sections 8.1-8.3 in the textbook. All of the teacher notes, homework, and practice is on google classroom for review. I am also available in the mornings for review. Next, we will look at the application of exponents by using scientific notation in real-world examples.

GEOMETRY - MR. LANFEAR

Welcome back from Spring Break!  Next week in Geometry, we will complete Chapter 10 by learning properties about segments lengths in circles (10.6), having 2 days of review on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then the Chapter 10 test (10.1-10.6) on Thursday.

ELA - MRS. BOYER

Students are submitting their Yom HaShoah projects to me on 3/22 and 3/23! Their work will be photographed and then taken to the JEA on Abercorn. Feel free to stop by and enjoy the work of the community in remembrance of the Holocaust. The exhibit will be up for the entire month of April. 

Students will then present their projects and formal reports to the class on 3/23 and 3/24. 

Please be sure that your students are starting to work on their submission piece. All submissions must be in Hancock Hall on 3/22-3/23 with their Cover Sheets. Submissions without cover sheets will not be submitted, and there will be a 15 point deduction from the grade. 

We will begin our Intro to Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet on Thursday and Friday!! This will bring us to the end of T3.Their exam will be on Romeo & Juliet, with an essay regarding the theme from all novels of the year. 

Students will have a review of Unit 7-9 because there will be a test on 3/30. 

*It is critically important that all 8th graders stick with the timelines I give them for reading and projects. Also, if students are spending more than 25-35 minutes on ELA homework, please send them to me in the morning. Students in the 8th grade really need to pay attention to their time management skills before moving forward to 9th grade.*

THERE WILL NOT BE A READING LOG FOR T3….BUT… students may complete vocabulary unit exercises for Unit 10-15 for extra classwork grades. 

HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH - MRS. SALE

Hola…..welcome back from Spring Break.  I hope everyone had a great time & had lots of fun and relaxation...we will start the week off with learning the Preterite Tense.  It is one of the two past tenses in Spanish.  We will work with the preterite tense all week.  On Thursday, the students will have a quiz over the preterite material. I hope everyone has a good week.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE - MS. HOFFMAN

Welcome back from a fun and restful week off for Spring Break!  Before our time off eighth grade students were learning the fundamentals about waves, including the different types of waves, their parts and how waves interact.  Photos of that week’s wave interaction lab are below.  In this lab students used slinkys, a flashlight and mirror, a container of water and marbles, and beakers full of a variety of liquids to demonstrate and describe how waves reflect, refract, diffract and interfere with other waves.  At the end of that week, we also began to focus our learning onto sound waves by introducing the various parts of the ear and how we hear sound.  Finally, we began discussing how to  measure and manipulate variations in pitch and loudness.  

This week we will continue to learn about sound,  focusing on the Doppler Effect and comparing music with noise.  There will be a Musical Notes Lab to demonstrate how to change the pitch and loudness of a sound and students will also make musical straws.  On Friday 3/26, I will lead the beach discovery walk during the eighth grade visit to Tybee.  Students will look at beach topography, learn about seashells and other items/ creatures washed up on the sand and then sift the sand for small invertebrates.  In addition, we will observe the water waves and look to identify their parts, frequency and examples of wave interference. 

A culminating activity the following week will tie all our sound information together with the basic wave information we have previously learned.  After discussing echolocation and sonic booms, students will be creating a wave/ sound booklet.  This individual in-class project will also assist with preparing for the Sound Unit Test scheduled for Thursday, 4/1/21.  Finally, don’t forget our March Science in Comic is due Wednesday, 3/31/21.

US HISTORY - MRS. HORTON

This week in US History we will begin learning about the events leading up to and surrounding World War I in Chapter 21.

ADVANCED SPANISH - MRS. SALE

Hola...and welcome back from Spring Break.  I sure hope everyone had a fun and relaxing time.  We will begin the week with the verb ESTAR and emotions/adjectives.  We will then continue with ESTAR and learn the PRESENT PROGRESSIVE tense.  Mid week, we will learn about Direct Object Pronouns.  The end of the week, the students will watch a movie. I hope everyone has a great week.

ADVANCED SPANISH - MR. ALEXANDER

Hola...and welcome back from Spring Break.  I sure hope everyone had a fun and relaxing time.  We will begin the week with the verb ESTAR and emotions/adjectives.  We will then continue with ESTAR and learn the PRESENT PROGRESSIVE tense.  Mid week, we will learn about Direct Object Pronouns.  The end of the week, the students will watch a movie. I hope everyone has a great week.

ALGEBRA 1 - MRS. SMOAK

I have returned from surgery early and we went over all of the exponent rules in class today. We will be practicing during class tomorrow and there will be a quiz on Thursday over Sections 8.1-8.3 in the textbook. All of the teacher notes, homework, and practice is on google classroom for review. I am also available in the mornings for review. Next, we will look at the application of exponents by using scientific notation in real-world examples.

PRE-ALGEBRA - MR. LANFEAR

Welcome back from Spring Break!  Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning the meaning of slope and how to find the slope of a line (8.4), how to use slope-intercept form of a linear equation (8.5), and how to write linear equations from graphs and other information (8.6).  There will be a Math Facts Quiz on Thursday, and the outline will be handed out on Monday.  On Friday, we will begin a two-day project where students design their own stained glass window using linear equations!

ELA - MRS. BOYER

Starting today! Posted by John David Anderson! Students will engage in intro activities, receive their discussion questions, have a dedicated reading day, and begin enjoying their last novel of the year! :) 

Vocabulary: There will be a Unit 7-9 Test on March 23rd! Students will review before break, so they should use those resources to be prepared! :) Students received a major study guide!!!

ELA - MRS. SASSER

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great Spring Break!

This week, we will be diving into our next novel study Posted by John David Anderson. Students started reading before Spring Break and will have a quiz over pages 1-117 on Tuesday. We will dissect our characters this week, breaking down their personalities and relationships. Students will use our discussions to create a “Locker Project,” where they will construct a character’s locker and place key items inside that relate to their chosen character. They will then write a brief character analysis around the items inthe locker. This project will be due on Monday at the beginning of class. 

As with all of our novel studies, it is important that students keep up with the assigned readings/questions. Failure to complete the reading means they are unprepared for our class discussions and activities. As always, I am available every morning to go over any questions they have. 

All reading assignments will be posted to Google Classroom. Typically, students can expect to be assigned their reading on Tuesdays and for it to be completed the following Tuesday. 

Vocabulary: Students will be working on vocabulary from our novel study. They will be given a list of vocabulary words and will have a quiz halfway through our unit. The words will also be on the final unit test. 

NO Reading Log in T3...BUT...there is an extra credit opportunity...to enter the Yom HaShoah Art & Writing Contest sponsored by Jewish Education Alliance (JEA) off of Abercorn in Savannah, Ga. Contact Mrs. Boyer for more information if you are interested. I will give you an extra 10 points added to any assignment of their choice. Due March 23rd. 

A reminder about any and all projects in ELA: projects in my class are designed to help students think critically and not just memorize information. Rather, I want them learning how to apply what they’ve learned. They are given detailed rubrics with checklists and a breakdown of my expectations. They should consult their rubric regularly while working on their project. The bulk of ELA projects are completed in class; they are given ample time and multiple class periods where they are strictly working on their project. Therefore, if students use their time wisely, they should have only minimal parts to complete at home. 

LIFE SCIENCE - MRS. DURANT

I hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break! Next week, in Life Science we will be wrapping up our unit on the Cardiovascular System. We will spend the first half of the week studying the components of blood. Students will participate in an engaging blood typing lab. We will have a test on the Cardiovascular System on Wednesday.  At the end of the week, students will complete a brief overview of the lymphatic system. This will conclude our study of anatomy and the interrelationships between the organ systems.  The following week, we will dissect a frog so students can get an overview of the organ systems that make up a complex organism. 

US HISTORY - MRS. HORTON

Students did an excellent job on the Create Your Own Government projects! This week we will finish The Patriot and begin Chapter 7 on Creating the Constitution.

US HISTORY - MR. O’HAYER

This week in American History students will complete their “How To Create a Government” projects. These will be due Friday the 26th. We will also continue our study of the Citizen’s Handbook. Focus will be on the Principles of the Constitution, The Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches of our government. We will have a test on Friday the 26th.

ACCELERATED MATH - MR. CARGILE

Next week in Accelerated Math 7, we will continue cumulative review of Chapters 1-6. At the end of the week, we will begin Chapter 7,  Equations, Inequalities, and Functions.

PRE-ALGEBRA - MR. LANFEAR

Welcome back from Spring Break!  Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning the meaning of slope and how to find the slope of a line (8.4), how to use slope-intercept form of a linear equation (8.5), and how to write linear equations from graphs and other information (8.6).  There will be a Math Facts Quiz on Thursday, and the outline will be handed out on Monday.  On Friday, we will begin a two-day project where students design their own stained glass window using linear equations!

EARTH SCIENCE - MS. HOFFMAN

Welcome back from a fun and restful Spring Break!  Before our week off, our sixth graders finished learning information about ocean topography (continental shelf, abyssal plain, hydrothermal vents, trenches, etc.), major ocean zones (intertidal, neritic, pelagic, surface, transitional, deep) and basic animal groups (nekton, plankton and benthic).  They then worked in groups and created beautiful ocean diorama posters showcasing what they had learned.  See the photos below for a glimpse into the wonderful work of Oceans.  

This week we will start off with a microscope Dock Lab to observe and draw actual living examples of animals that live at the bottom of a floating dock.  Students will also observe plankton collected from the same area.  The sixth graders will also receive information about our Cereal Box “Under the Sea” project. They will choose an ocean animal and gather information on its scientific name, habitat, adaptations, physical/ social description, human threats and other fun facts.  They will use this information, along with a related labeled picture/ drawing of their animal and a fun game/ puzzle they create, to decorate and display on an empty cereal box.  We will spend the first day reviewing the rubric and beginning the research.  The completed project will be due on Wednesday, April 7th and the rest of the work will be completed at home or during the students study halls.  The remainder of this week will be spent discussing information on ocean tides and waves.  Our March Science in Comics is due Wednesday, 3/31/21.  The Ocean Unit test is scheduled for Friday, April 9th.  

EARTH SCIENCE - MRS. DURANT

I hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break! We have a great week planned. Next week in Earth Science, students will continue their study of rocks and minerals.  We will also touch on fossils. Students will experience a virtual field trip with the Aurora Fossil Museum in New Bern, NC on Tuesday.  This is always an exciting opportunity for our students. Students will then begin a brochure which will be used to review the information they have learned about Rocks, Minerals, and the Rock Cycle. Their test on this unit will be on Tuesday, March 30. 

ELA - MRS. SASSER

Welcome back! I hope everyone had an amazing Spring Break!

This week, students will be jumping right into our next novel study on The Outsiders. Students will spend this week building their background knowledge of the 1960s and being introduced to the key characters of the novel. 

They will be assigned to read chapters 1 and 2 and have guided questions to complete. They will have a quiz over these chapters on Tuesday 3/30. 

This week, students will continue to work on their first, formal essay! Please see the due date/outline below. 

Students will have a quiz over the writing process and thesis statements on Wednesday 3/10. 

Vocabulary: We will be completing vocabulary based around our novel study. Students will be given a list of vocabulary words for chapters 1-6 and have a vocabulary quiz on 4/9. 

Reading Reminder: As with any novel study, students will have guided questions to complete for each section. These should be answered in complete, thorough sentences, as it will serve as their study guide for their quizzes and final test. It is essential that students keep up with the assigned reading if they want to be successful on our in class assignments. 

All reading assignments are posted on my classroom board and on Google Classroom daily. Students should check Google Classroom every single day. 

A reminder about any and all projects in ELA: projects in my class are designed to help students think critically and not just memorize information. Rather, I want them learning how to apply what they’ve learned. They are given detailed rubrics with checklists and a breakdown of my expectations. They should consult their rubric regularly while working on their project. The bulk of ELA projects are completed in class; they are given ample time and multiple class periods where they are strictly working on their project. Therefore, if students use their time wisely, they should have only minimal parts to complete at home. 

INTRO SPANISH - MR. ALEXANDER

¡Estamos de vuelta!  We’re back!  I hope everyone had a nice break!  This week we will be continuing our studies of places, ‘to go’, and adverbs of frequency.  We will also learn about accents and stress on Spanish words.  We will discuss two types of music in Puerto Rico and review the question words.

* Make sure to continue working on Duolingo and IXL everyday!

WORLD HISTORY - MR. O’HAYER 

This week in World History students will finish their “Inventions” project, due Friday the 26th. We will also begin our study of “The Rise of Capitalism.” We will then focus our study on Adam Smith. Known today as capitalism’s first great champion. We will have a test on Friday the 26th.

ART - MRS. COOKSON

“Reading is to the mind what exercise it to the body.” - Joseph Addison

Sketchbook Prompt: Draw something using only dots.

8th: Will have an introduction to different Printmaking techniques and begin a String Print

7th: Will finish with Shadow Boxes in correlation with narrative work in ELA

6th: Will finish up Restricted Sculptures