January 9th - January 13th

 

Dear Middle School Parents,

Leading up to Christmas break and since we have been back in school, we have experienced slower carpools due to middle school cars arriving on campus before our scheduled pick-up time. With the number of cars in our parking lot during the afternoon carpool pick-up window, it is important that you arrive at the scheduled time for our middle school pick-up zone. When you arrive at afternoon carpool before the designated pick-up time, it causes a disruption in the flow of traffic which slows down carpool and makes everyone have to sit in their car longer. 

For afternoon carpool, it is important to adhere to the scheduled pick-up time for each carpool zone when you are picking up your child:

Green Zone (PreK-2nd Grade) 2:45-3:00

Gold Zone (3rd-5th Grade) 3:00-3:15

White Zone (6th-8th Grade) 3:15-3:30: arrive at 3:07 or after

When we all work together, afternoon carpool runs more smoothly and takes less time out of everyone's day. We recognize that perfect timing is not always easy, and we thank you for your efforts to help streamline our carpool system. 

 

Thank you,

Jack Cargile 

ASSESSMENTS AND PROJECTS CALENDAR

Parents and students have an easy way to look at upcoming assessments and projects.  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 or see Mrs. Mannarino in the office.

As Learning Coach, I work with students, parents, and teachers to offer support and strategies throughout the year. Please reach out to me if I can be of any assistance to you and your child/ren. I will share ideas and strategies often in this space. My email is: tguggenheim@hancockdayschool.org. My phone extension is 327. 

I look forward to working with you! 

Tricia Guggenheim

15. Make academics a focus in your life.

Studying takes time and effort. Get organized, ask for help and put forth effort aimed at improving your study habits now.

The lessons taught in middle school are building blocks for high school and college. Starting good study habits now will help you later in life. 

It does take more effort to study and to become organized; however, academic success will make you feel good about yourself and make your parents smile.

Have you enthusiastically asked your student how their day was at school to be met with an unenthusiastic “fine”? Or, have you asked your student what they learned at school and they responded “nothing”? 

You are not alone. Getting middle school students to talk about their day can be like pulling teeth. However, this article has some good tips and conversation starters to lead to meaningful after school discussions.

Check out this quick read: How to Get Your Child to Talk About School

Please feel free to get in touch with me at amaher@hancockdayschool.org if you have any questions or concerns.

ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor

Students have their first quiz Tues/Wed of next week on Chapter 6. The goal will be 2 quizzes even though this is a short chapter. 6.1-6.3 (one-step, two-step, multi-step inequalities) will be the first quiz, 6.4 (Compound inequalities) the second quiz and 6.5-6.6 (absolute value equations and inequalities) will be on the Chapter 6 test.

ADVANCED ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will complete Chapter 11 by having a day of review on Monday and the Chapter 11.3-11.5 test on Tuesday.  That will complete our “Advanced Algebra” portion of the course!  We will then begin the “Geometry” portion where students will be issued a Geometry textbook that will be used more often for homework.  We will begin Geometry by learning about triangles including classifying them (4.1) and the Triangle Sum Theorem (4.2).  We will have our 2nd STAR Assessment on Friday.

GEOMETRY - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Geometry, we will complete Chapter 6 by learning how to perform dilations on the coordinate plane (6.7).  There will be a day of review on Tuesday and the Chapter 6 test on Thursday.  We will have our 2nd STAR Assessment on Friday.

ELA - Mrs. Boyer

We aren’t done with Macbeth…yet. :) 

For the next few weeks, we will be working on final Macbeth projects such as: Act V Test, Workbook Completion, Reader’s Theatre Major Project, Final Essay- I am thinking of a compare and contrast, and a few mini activities. 

It’s Time for a Mental Break!

The 8th graders have been working extremely hard throughout the Macbeth Unit. As a reward, assuming they continue to work diligently, before we begin Night, the 8th graders will receive one week ‘off’ of ELA. This is a ‘tradition/privilege’ I started last year. Students will watch an educational movie in class that week with snacks and drinks. This is a much needed BRAIN BREAK! I will be reaching out for snack/drink donations! :)

We will then begin Night by Elie Wiesel in late January/early February. 

Assessments: 

Act V Test January 6th, 2023

***In 8th grade it is critical that students need to be completing their homework each night. This is a KEY component to success for 8th ELA. POP Quizzes are continuing…Students are learning that it is critical for students to annotate their books in regards to characters and key details. For students to do well on these assessments, please use the following strategies: 

1. Read and annotate (check annotations with Mrs. Boyer’s book). 

2. Ask for practice questions

3. Come in and practice writing prompts

4. Spend a solid 30 minutes each night on reading, review, etc. 

**Students are currently writing in an ELA specific journal. This journal will be a critical piece throughout the year. I would highly encourage students to take very good care of this journal as it will be extremely helpful as they venture on to high school.**

PHYSICAL SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman

Things are back in full swing for Physical Science. We have spent this week introducing physics concepts to provide the foundation for the rest of the class. This first unit focuses on motion- position, displacement, speed, velocity, acceleration, etc. It covers Chapter 1 and 2 in the textbook. We will learn about these concepts this week and reinforce them with a Hot Wheels Lab on Monday. Yesterday, students received a Chapter 1 checklist of things they need to know for upcoming quizzes and tests. They will receive one for Chapter 2 as well. This is in an effort to provide a visual guide of the objective for each chapter. Hopefully, this will be a concrete point of reference for them as they study. I am looking forward to this next half of the year!! 

US HISTORY - Mr. Gauthier  

  2022: The year in Review (see what I did there 🙂) project is due Tuesday.  We will finish up WWl next week and should be moving onto the Roaring 20’s

SPANISH - Ms. Crocker

We are continuing learning about la comida (food) It is all about food and family vocabulary and activities in this unit. We are going to learn how to make basic commands in Spanish using cooking-related verbs. We have a quiz Wednesday(D block) and Thursday(A/B Blocks) on our new food vocabulary terms Lista #5.

This week starts the new weekly homework assignment that I will post on Monday morning and due on Friday morning. 

ADVANCED SPANISH - Ms. Brown
Feliz año nuevo!!

With the new year in full swing, what better way to launch our progression into Spanish Immersion Learning (the current Spanish to English ratio heard by students in class is now 60:30) than with everyone's favorite unit -FOOD!!!

Looking forward to each student giving a spoken presentation in Spanish about the foods they love in the coming week! As for all projects, remind students to see Google Classroom for the rubric!

ADVANCED SPANISH - Ms. Crocker

We are working on our receta project this week! We are making a class recipe book after students translate a Spanish recipe. Students have the OPTION to cook and bring in the food from their recipe to share on the day the project is due. (Tuesday for E block, Wednesday for C block). We have a quiz next Wednesday(E block) and Thursday(C Blocks) on these delicious vocabulary terms from List #5.

We have a new weekly homework assignment that I will post on Monday morning and due on Friday morning at 8am.

ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor

Students have their first quiz Tues/Wed of next week on Chapter 6. The goal will be 2 quizzes even though this is a short chapter. 6.1-6.3 (one-step, two-step, multi-step inequalities) will be the first quiz, 6.4 (Compound inequalities) the second quiz and 6.5-6.6 (absolute value equations and inequalities) will be on the Chapter 6 test.

PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will complete Chapter 4 by having a day of review on Monday and the Chapter 4.5-4.7 test on Wednesday.  We will have our 2nd STAR Assessment on Thursday (C Block) or Friday (E Block).

ELA - Mrs. Buchner & Mrs. Boyer

Happy New Year! We hope you had a restful and fun break. We are so excited to start the Voices of the World unit! We know that students will reap many benefits from this unit including how to work as a team, how to self-direct their learning, as well as the academic benefits of digging deeper into literature. 

It’s BOOK CLUB time!! Your students will be venturing into one of our favorite seventh grade units: Voices of the World. Students will be allowed to choose from five novel choices: The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Bryan Mealer and William Kamkwamba, The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani, and Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed. This is a unit that works in tandem with cultural studies, as students work on their research based writing skills, and literary analysis, as students create their independent reading schedule and work in literature circles with their own literary reflection journal. Students will begin conducting research on each book next week, as well as receive their book club groupings after they have completed a preference form. Not every student will receive their first choice, but we will make every effort to give them one of their top 3 choices. Please encourage your students to make their choices based on which book they are most interested in reading, not the books their friends choose to read.  Students will then conduct research and create a Brochure on the country in which their book is set. This will be due Tuesday, January 17th by 3:30 pm. 

In preparation for the VoW Book clubs, students have been reviewing literary devices this week that are critical to the 7th grade curriculum (simile, metaphor, symbols/motifs, foreshadowing, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, anecdote, paradox, personification, alliteration, irony (dramatic, situational, and verbal), oxymorons, imagery, etc.). Students will use their knowledge of literary devices and Idea Based Writing to dive deep into their chosen novel. The activities associated with this review will allow students to have a little fun too! They will find memes to use as examples of the different literary devices for which they will be responsible. Next week, Friday January 13th, students will have a quiz over the literary devices. 

Assessments: PLEASE HAVE YOUR STUDENT BRING A BLUE OR BLACK INK PEN TO ELA CLASS. WE WILL BE DOING A LOT OF JOURNALING FOR THIS UNIT!! 

Literary Device Quiz - Friday January 13th

Research Country Brochure- Due Tuesday January 17th by 3:30 pm

Students are highly encouraged to come in for extra help if they are having any difficulty with any assignment. Mrs. Buchner and Mrs. Boyer are available weekday mornings from 7:45 am to 8:15 am.

Strategies for Home: 

-Students should be studying for the exam a little each night. Students retain information much better if they study along the way, rather than cramming the night before a test.

-All homework assignments are in Google Calendar and Our Weekly Google Slide Presentation.

-Students should be coming in from 7:45-8:15 am to review/ask questions/work on their homework. 

**As students continue into their 7th grade year, it is imperative that they keep up with their reading, annotate their novels, and come in for extra help. The foundation of this class is heavily based on student reading and the sharing of ideas; students will need to participate to be able to engage with the material in a productive manner. All class activities are based on the reading completed prior to class time. 

LIFE SCIENCE - Mrs. DuRant

Welcome back! We had a wonderful start to the New Year by delving into our unit on Body Systems. This week, we looked at how the body is organized and began the Skeletal System. Next week, we will have a quiz on Monday on Body Organization and a test on Thursday on Body Organization and the Skeletal System. Students need to review their class notes and diagrams daily to be prepared for their assessments. I have put a Skeletal System diagram and key in the GC so they can make additional copies to study at home. Please remind your student to check the Google Classroom daily for announcements, assignments, and study materials.

US HISTORY - Mr. Gauthier

Tuesday will be our trip to Georgia Southern to participate in the culminating simulation activity of the Junior Achievement program.  We will also be finishing up the American Revolution and moving on to the very popular ?Articles of Confederation/Constitution unit.

US HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer

Students will venture to Georgia Southern on Tuesday to experience the interactive world of the Junior Achievement Finance Park. When we return to the classroom we will dive deep into the American Revolution and its causes.

ACCELERATED MATH - Mrs. Taylor

Students will have their first quiz Monday on Chapter 5 (5.1-5.2). They are adding and subtracting mixed numbers and fractions.  The last two sections will be over multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers. The test will follow by the following week (Tues/Wed).

PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will complete Chapter 4 by having a day of review on Monday and the Chapter 4.5-4.7 test on Wednesday.  We will have our 2nd STAR Assessment on Thursday.

EARTH SCIENCE - Mrs. DuRant

Welcome back! We have had a wonderful start to the New Year by delving into our unit on the Layers of the Earth. Next week, we will continue our unit on Layers of the Earth and also discuss different types of landforms. Students will have a quiz on Layers of the Earth on Tuesday and a test on Layers of the Earth and Landforms on Friday. Please remind your student to check the Google Classroom daily for announcements, assignments, and study materials.

EARTH SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman

This week we have begun learning about the layers of the Earth. Yesterday, we slowly investigated and introduced the layers of the Earth. They were very eager to get back and start learning which I loved! We will be doing a fun activity at the end of this week to help the students visualize the layers of the Earth. Please have your student check Google Classroom for any updates!

ELA - Mrs. Buchner

Happy New Year! We have jumped into our Essay Project with both feet (or hands LOL). Students are writing their rough draft over the book they analyzed for the exam, and will continue writing their essay over the next week and a half. 

Each class students will work on their essay, then make edits on the previous paragraph written for classwork/homework. Students will receive feedback from me on their writing daily, so the expectation is that they are continuously writing and editing their rough draft. The rough draft will count as a PROJECT grade. The final draft will be due on Wednesday January 25th to Google Classroom by 8:30 p.m., and it will count as a TEST grade. Students will turn in a paper copy of their essay to me on Friday 1/27 in class. 

Students should have already chosen and begun reading an independent novel for their INDEPENDENT READING PROJECT. My recommendation is that they will try to finish reading the book while we are working on the 5 paragraph essay since we will begin reading The Outsiders on January 25th.  Students will choose 3 book responses from the Tic-Tac-Toe board in Google Classroom. They may submit their responses in Google Classroom or as a hard copy on notebook paper, or a combination of both. The 1st Independent Reading Project Responses are due January 31st. These book responses will count as PROJECT grades each month. A list of book choices have been posted in Google Classroom. Students may choose to read a book that is not on the list, but must get it approved by me first to do so. 

Once we finish our essays, we will then begin our next novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. During this unit, students will read the novel outside of class and complete discussion questions as they read, so we can use class time to dig deeper into the novel through open classroom discussions. It is very important that students are completing their reading assignments each day, so they can participate in discussions. As well, there will be reading checks over comprehension of the text after each reading assignment. These will be short “quizzes” over the previous night’s reading, which will count as classwork grades. Students will also have a quiz every 4 chapters over the discussion questions and our class discussions.  

 Homework assignments can be found in your student’s Google Calendar, as well as the weekly Google Slide Presentation in their ELA Google Classroom. Students are highly encouraged to come in for help in the mornings from 7:45-8:15 a.m.  I am unavailable on Wednesdays from 7:45 to 8:00 a.m. due to carpool duty. On occasion, I will announce a 7:30 a.m. tutorial on a given morning if I see students are struggling with the content. This will appear in the Google Classroom stream. You can also email me if you would like for your student to have a longer tutorial starting at 7:30 a.m

Upcoming Assessments:

• ESSAY PROJECT rough draft Due Friday January 20th (PROJECT Grade)

• ESSAY PROJECT final draft-Due Wednesday January 25th (TEST Grade)

*Students will submit to Google Classroom and turn in a paper copy to me on Friday 1/27.

• INDEPENDENT READING PROJECT #1: Due Tuesday January 31, 2023

INTRO SPANISH - Ms. Brown

Feliz año nuevo!!

With the new year in full swing, what better way to launch our progression into Spanish Immersion Learning (the current Spanish to English ratio heard by students in class is now 60:30) than with everyone's favorite unit -FOOD!!!

Looking forward to each student giving a spoken presentation in Spanish about the foods they love in the coming week! As for all projects, remind students to see Google Classroom for the rubric!

WORLD HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer

Students will begin our investigation of The Enlightenment period and study how this Age of Reason changed our world and influenced governments across the globe including how its principles impacted the governing theories of the new America.

Happy New Year HDS Community! This week students are working on themes that will cross over into working with clay in the upcoming weeks. The sixth graders are teaming up to sketch Local Live Oaks from the Love Oak in Brunswick, the Candler Oak of Savannah and the Angel Oak of Johns Island.  Love hearing the students remark upon the oaks they love in their very own neighborhood. The seventh graders applied the grid technique to architectural drawings that will become facades in clay.  The eighth graders embraced the challenge to design a mixed media collage still life including a lamp or vase in preparation for the clay vessel ahead!