March 20th - March 24th
STUDENT SIGN IN/OUT REMINDER
Just a friendly reminder that all students, grades 6th through 8th, should be signed in and out of the middle school office by their parent.
8TH GRADE GRADUATION INFORMATION
DETAILS FOR FAMILIES
We will be having our 8th grade graduation and reception at Isle of Hope United Methodist Church on Wednesday, May 24th. Students will need to arrive for pictures by 9:45am. Graduation will begin at 11:00am in the Sanctuary. Immediately following the graduation, the 7th grade will be hosting the reception in the Anchor Room for graduates and their families. We are looking forward to this exciting event! Please email Mrs. Mannarino if you have any questions.
SLIDESHOW
Every year we display a slideshow of the 8th grade class during their reception following graduation. Families are asked to provide five (5) pictures of their choice (baby pictures, family pictures, friends, etc.) and the high school they will be attending in the Fall. Please submit this information to Mrs. Mannarino via email by Friday, May 5th. For an example of a past slideshow, please click here.
8TH GRADE GRADUATION RECEPTION (7TH GRADE FAMILIES)
If you are interested in participating in the Hancock tradition of hosting the reception for the graduating 8th grade class on May 24th, please follow this link for more information and sign-ups!
HONORS ASSEMBLY - PRESIDENT’S VOLUNTEER SERVICE AWARD
8th Graders interested in earning a PVSA at our annual Honors Assembly will need to submit their community service hours by Friday, March 24th.
Gold Award (100+ hours)
Silver Award (75 - 99 hours)
Bronze Award (50 - 74 hours)
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.
Current Opportunities for Middle School Students:
April 7th - Second Harvest - SIGN UP
April 10th - Second Harvest - SIGN UP
April 22nd - Tybee Beach Cleanup - SIGN UP
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
23. Don’t wait until the last minute.
Study a little every night instead of cramming late the night before the test. A good night’s sleep helps. Bleary eyes and a tired body do not.
Talking to your middle school student about peer pressure is a great way to help them develop strategies to navigate tricky situations before they encounter them.
Creating a family “code word” or “code phrase” is a simple tool that enables your child to indicate they need assistance to leave a potentially dangerous environment. See the link below for tips on how to implement this.
Resources:
6 Ways to Help Your Child Deal with Peer Pressure
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 will test on Chapter 7 Tuesday/Wednesday after spring break. They were given a study guide similar to the test. The answer key will be posted this weekend. We will review Monday 3/20 as well. Thursday, we will begin Chapter 8, exponents.
ADVANCED ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Welcome back from Spring Break! In Advanced Algebra, we will start our short unit on angle relationships. We will learn about complementary, supplementary, and vertical angles (2.2-2.3) as well as the various angles formed by parallel lines and a transversal (3.3-3.4). We will start a project where students design a portion of a city using those angles! There will be a day of review on Thursday and a quiz on angle relationships on Friday.
GEOMETRY - Mr. Lanfear
Welcome back from Spring Break! In Geometry, we will begin Chapter 10 which is all about circles. We will learn about tangent lines and their properties (10.1), arcs and their measures (10.2), chords, and inscribed angles and polygons (10.3-10.4). There will be a quiz on Friday covering 10.1-10.3.
ELA - Mrs. Boyer
Your students have finished Night by Elie Wiesel. This is a memoir of Wiesel’s time in the Holocaust concentration camps. This is the first year that the schedule has worked out so that I am able to teach the novel/content before the Washington, D.C. trip at which they will be visiting the United States Holocaust Museum.
This unit is about reflection, awareness, respect, and diving into the unanswerable question…WHY?
Students will work through this novel using the following:
Night Reflection Packet- Class Warm Ups, Night Comprehension Questions, Journal Entries
Yom HaShoah Contest Packet- All 8th graders will be entering the Jewish Education Alliance’s Annual Yom Hashoah Holocaust Art and Writing Contest. Your child will receive this information on Monday, and their homework will be for you to read and sign.
Night Unit test on March 1st/2nd.
Dear Parents,
During the next several weeks your child will be completing their Yom HaShoah Contest Project. This project is a large part of each student’s overall grade for the third trimester and failure to complete it may result in a failing grade in English Literature for T3.
Besides weekly homework grades as outlined in the dates below, there will be four additional grades accessed for the project based on each individual part required. These are the submission brainstorm, the contest submission piece, formal report/class presentation, and the Reflection Journal/Packet. Each of these will count for the following grade: formal report= test grade, the contest submission piece= test, reflection journal packet- project grade, and the presentation= classwork grade.
Supplies needed for this project will include a report cover and any specific art materials needed to complete your child’s experiment. Students needing any assistance with these materials should see Mrs. Boyer.
There will be multiple days in class for working on these assignments; however, the majority of the work for the contest submission piece should be completed at home. Students are also encouraged to come in and work on their projects during morning tutorial times.
Contest Pieces will be due the week AFTER SPRING BREAK!
Please sign the cover sheet of the form to acknowledge the receipt of information about the project and its importance in your child’s ELA class. This form is due by 1/31 (E &F) and 2/1( C). If you have any questions about the project, please do not hesitate to email me at oboyer@hancockdayschool.org. I will be glad to offer any assistance I can to ensure your child is successful in their project.
Yom HoShoah Due Dates
***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:
Read and annotate (check annotations with Mrs. Boyer’s book).
Ask for practice questions
Come in and practice writing prompts
Spend a solid 30 minutes each night on reading, review, etc.
PHYSICAL SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman
Next week, we will be in DC!! So excited to have the best possible experience with the 8th graders. I will be keeping you updated via the DC instagram @hancockdctrip. Follow along for GREAT content! When we return from spring break we will be finishing out our unit on fluids and begin our egg drop project.
US HISTORY - Mr. Gauthier
Next week the Refrain speeches are due (23rd and 24th). The students have been working on them all week. Also, group research projects are due 3/1 and 3/2, students have also been working on those this past week. After the trip to Washington DC we will go deep into WW2
SPANISH - Ms. Crocker
Welcome back from DC and spring break! I hope everyone was able to relax a bit:)
We are starting our second to last unit (can you believe it??) on art! This will be an exciting and creative unit!
ADVANCED SPANISH - Ms. Brown
Students are continuing the long process of making children's books in Spanish -that’s right, books made all by them to be donated to a special lower school class. Our vision for our books is to have them printed via Google Photos (they make beautifully printed, glossy pages with matte textured hard covers -worth every penny) and as we move along in our process of making these books, more information will come!
ADVANCED SPANISH - Ms. Crocker
Welcome back from break! I hope everyone was able to relax a bit:)
We are starting our second to last unit (can you believe it??) on art! This will be an exciting and creative unit!
ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor
Students are working on this project. Please DO NOT DO THIS over the break. We will work on them the week after break. There is a tentative due date and really no wrong way to complete it. It is a learning experience of math in the real world. No stress AT ALL for this project. We will begin Chapter 8, exponents, the Thursday they return.
PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Welcome back from Spring Break! In Pre-Algebra, we will review what we have done so far with percents (7.1-7.4). Then we will go on to learn how to calculate percent of change (7.5) and how percents are used in real-world scenarios (7.6). There will be a day of review and then a test on 7.1-7.6 on Friday.
ELA - Mrs. Buchner & Mrs. Boyer
We have finished our mini-unit on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was a great and condensed way to introduce students to reading, performing, and analyzing Shakespeare. Students seem to have found the material much easier and more enjoyable than they originally thought they would. Next year’s exploration of Macbeth will be slightly easier next year now that students have some basic knowledge of Shakespeare! 😉
After Spring Break, we will begin our final unit over the novel Posted by John David Anderson. This novel will explore the struggles of middle school and the difficult topic of bullying. Students will participate in a variety of learning activities, including a few homework assignments with YOU! We think this will be a fun, interactive way to finish off the school year.
As usual, students may come in early to ask questions, review homework with Mrs. Boyer and Mrs. Buchner, engage with their studies at home for at least 25 minutes, dive into the creative and reflective process as they prepare for reading checks, constructive responses, and complete their reading comprehension assignments. Mrs. Boyer and Mrs. Buchner are looking to see a ‘boost’ in effort and engagement with this unit. Let’s truly push ourselves before we have our week break! Remember: We are preparing for 8th grade.
Mrs. Boyer and Mrs. Buchner are both available for morning tutorials. If your student needs assistance with journal entries or just a quick check to see if they are completing them correctly, please have them drop by.
Students should have a Dark Blue or Black ink pen for class every day. Points will be deducted from responses if they are not writing in ink going forward for the remainder of the school year. They may use an erasable pen if needed.
Assessments/Assignments:
ERB TESTING- March 27-31
Posted QUIZ- Monday 4/3
Posted TEST- Thursday 4/13
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:
-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 or review their journal entries with the teacher.
**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
After Spring Break, we will delve into our next unit - the Respiratory System. Please have your student bring in an empty 16oz. plastic water bottle no later than Tuesday for Blocks A and F, and no later than Wednesday for Block B. We are collecting these for a lab we will conduct on Tuesday and Wednesday, depending on your Science Block. We will have a diagram quiz on the Respiratory System on Friday. Please remind your student to check the Google Classroom each day for announcements, assignments, and study materials.
US HISTORY - Mr. Gauthier
The unit on LORD OF THE FLIES is continuing. All students have drawn their images of the island. Next, they will be put into groups and will try to survive on an island. They will be given various simple resources and have to come up with a plan for survival. They will need to elect a leader, come up with a set of rules and delegate responsibilities.
US HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer
Next week in American History students will continue their study of how our New Republic began to handle the questions and situations facing a new nation. We will study the Electoral College in depth and study how the college developed and the pros and cons of how we elect our President. I will be on the DC trip next week so I won’t see the kids until after Spring Break. I hope everyone enjoys their week off.
ACCELERATED MATH - Mrs. Taylor
Students took a test on Sections 1-5 Chapter 7 Friday. There are three more sections to this Chapter that will begin the Monday they return from spring break. (Inequalities, Functions and equations, graphing the functions. We will spend time on these sections for a good understanding of the content.
PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Welcome back from Spring Break! In Pre-Algebra, we will review what we have done so far with percents (7.1-7.4). Then we will go on to learn how to calculate percent of change (7.5) and how percents are used in real-world scenarios (7.6). There will be a day of review and then a test on 7.1-7.6 on Friday.
EARTH SCIENCE - Mrs. DuRant
After Spring Break, we will continue our study of Rocks and Minerals. We will work on an in-class project which will be due on Friday, March 24. Students have enjoyed this unit and have had the opportunity to see many different samples of Rocks and Minerals, as well as seeing how these are used in everyday life. Please remind your student to check the Google Classroom daily for announcements, assignments, and study materials.
EARTH SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman
We have begun our unit on Minerals! It has been a fun change of pace and the students have really enjoyed being hands on with the minerals. They will have a quiz on Tuesday before we move into learning about the Rock Cycle. I will be in DC with the 8th graders but they will be in great hands! I will always be available by email while I am gone and Mrs. DuRant will be here to answer any immediate questions that they may have. I will miss them and I am excited for all of the exciting things we have coming up after spring break!
ELA - Mrs. Buchner
We have finished The Outsiders unit this past week. Our next unit will focus on Nonfiction texts. When students return from Spring Break, we will complete a mini-unit on Nonfiction Text Features. Students will complete a variety of hands-on activities, ending with a quiz over the mini-unit on Monday 4/3.
We will then begin our nonfiction novel unit. We will be using Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly as a MENTOR TEXT to compare and contrast to an Autobiography/Biography of your student’s choice. In class, students will be exploring Hidden Figures by reading excerpts and comparing/contrasting the novel to clips from the movie version of the book, as well as identifying Nonfiction text features in the novel, so they can transfer this knowledge to a nonfiction text of their choice. The primary focus of the unit will be the analysis of the student-choice book. Students will be expected to find an autobiography or biography on a person who has faced some type of ADVERSITY in their life in order to become a successful person. Students should have their Autobiography or Biography selected, approved by me, and brought to class no later than Monday April 3rd.
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 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 7:45-8:15 a.m. Tutorials are available weekly on Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 a.m.
Upcoming Assessments/Assignments:
ERB Testing-March 27th-31st
QUIZ over Nonfiction Text Features Mini-unit-Monday 4/3
February/March Independent Reading Book TEST- Tuesday 4/4
Bring to class approved Autobiography/Biography Student Choice Book- 4/3
INTRO SPANISH - Ms. Brown
We will begin a mini-unit targeted at making friends and being friendly in Spanish. This mini-unit is in light of the spring break that is just around the corner! Student will have a brief test to complete just before we all leave for the much awaited break; we are confident and ready for it!
WORLD HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer
Next week in World History students will continue our investigation of the Industrial Revolution. Students will discover how the Industrial Revolution was a time of a sweeping transformation in how people worked and lived. We will examine how new innovations transformed governments, economic systems, and workers’ rights. I will be on the 8th grade DC trip next week. I won’t see the kids until after Spring Break. I hope everyone enjoys their week off.
Good day HDS Community! Empathy is an overarching topic that has provided an opportunity to be aware of self-expression and others this week. Seventh graders learned about Chiaroscuro to create the presence of light in their earth's creatures. Sixth graders started designing shoes this week using templates and original ideas. Excited to see their development!
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