September 11th - September 15th

 

Dear Parents,

The virtue of the month for August and September is Kindness. We made Kindness our first virtue of the school year because of its importance to all of us in the community. While we shine a light on many other important virtues throughout the school year, kindness must be our foundation. There are many benefits to practicing kindness because acts of kindness:

• Create a greater sense of belonging

• Improve self-esteem

• Increase peer acceptance

• Decrease feelings of stress

• Increase feelings of gratitude

When we consistently practice kindness, and are the beneficiary of consistent kindness, our brains rewire to be more compassionate and altruistic. There is no doubt that a big part of the Hancock Way is kindness, in fact, kindness is embedded in our Mission Statement:

Hancock Day School develops the whole student by instilling values, knowledge, and skills to become an independent, self-reliant, lifelong learner with strength of character to make positive contributions in our ever-changing world.    

It is my mission, and that of all of the Middle School faculty, to help your child develop their strength of character to make positive contributions in our ever-changing world. I encourage you to frame your conversations at home with the virtue of kindness. It is not a stretch to say that the Hancock Day School community would not be the amazing community that it is without our shared value of kindness. 

Kind regards,

Jack Cargile

Head of Middle School

6TH GRADE PARENT EDU: Making the Transition into 6th Grade

I hope to see all 6th grade parents in Hancock Hall at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, September 13th, for a look into 6th grade practices and procedures with helpful hints and information about making your child’s 6th grade year a success. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to me: tguggenheim@hancockdayschool.org

See you there!

Tricia Guggenheim

Learning Coach

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.

It has been a great week in athletics and we are looking forward to homecoming this week! On the 11th we have 6th grade volleyball playing at 6pm at SCPS, 7th grade volleyball playing at 7pm at St. Andrews and 8th grade playing at 6pm at SCPS. On the 12th we have 8th grade volleyball playing at 7pm at Memorial Day School. On the 13th we have 5th grade green playing at 5pm at SCDS, 7th grade playing at BSS and 8th grade playing at 8pm at BSS. On the 16th, Coach Bellairs is hosting a basketball clinic for 5th-8th grade form 9-10:30. 

Homecoming is next week on the 9/14. They will be playing SCDS. JV will start at 6:15 and Varsity will be at 7:45. These games will both be played at Hancock’s home field at BC. Come cheer on your Eagles!!

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. Click HERE for a log form or see Mrs. Mannarino in the office.

Below is a volunteer opportunity, organized by the PA, for our Middle Schoolers outside of school!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAFAB2BABF5C34-second

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

Tip # 3: How Should You Begin Homework?

When you first sit down to do homework, take two minutes to put loose papers into the proper folders. Use the next eight minutes to reread notes and/or handouts from school. These 10 minutes will save you hours of searching and studying. You will quickly get into the habit of putting assignments where they belong. Reviewing your notes transfers information to long-term memory, saving hours of study time when test time comes around. Lastly, open Google Classroom and write down your homework using a bulleted list. Highlight or cross off each item as it’s completed and submitted on GC or filed in the correct section of your binder. 

For middle school students and families, this is a busy time of the year. Juggling school obligations, after-school activities, and squeezing in some family time can be difficult, if not impossible at times. However, middle school is also a crucial time to reinforce virtues that will last a lifetime.

Kindness is our virtue of the month and takes both practice and intention. Being kind involves thinking beyond yourself, which is not necessarily aligned, developmentally, with the middle school brain. 

While modeling virtuous behaviors is crucial, you can also help your student think ahead about situations that they will encounter. Find time to squeeze in “what-if” scenarios with your student while driving in the car or at dinnertime to help them visually practice kindness. Start with common situations like a student dropping items on the way to class or tripping in the hallway. Move up to situations that are more difficult such as a student who is sitting alone at lunch or appears to feel left out at recess. By having these conversations, your student will be more equipped and more likely to demonstrate acts of kindness.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns that you may have this year at amaher@hancockdayschool.org.

ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor

Students’ averages are looking good. We began Chapter 2 Wednesday 9/6 and will take the first quiz over 2.1-2.4 Tuesday 9/12. I will study with them Monday 9/11.

ADVANCED ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will continue Chapter 10 by practicing graphing quadratic equations, finding the maximum and minimum (10.3), and using the vertical motion model to solve real world problems.  There will be a quiz on Monday on 10.1-10.2 and a day of review on Friday to prepare for the 10.1-10.3 test the following Monday.

GEOMETRY - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Geometry, we will continue Chapter 2 by learning how to complete algebraic proofs (2.5), see our first geometric proofs (2.6), and prove statements about angle pair relationships (2.7).

ELA - Mrs. Boyer

This week we will be on our second week of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. We have two upcoming assessments, so this week we will focus on review and setting up for Part II of the novel. We will begin reading Part II when we return from Merri Mac. I am extremely proud of this class! 

MOCK TRIAL after Merri Mac!!

During this week, your child will be reading 25-30 minutes a night. I highly suggest your child use Audible.com or Youtube readings. (When using Audible.com, your child can adjust the reading speed to their liking.) 

With each night of reading and class, your child can expect Reading Checks multiple times throughout the week. Your child may use their book/annotations to help them. REMINDER: Students may come in and **check** their annotations against mine. 

Upcoming Assessments: 

9/15 TEST Ch. 1-11

9/22 TEST Ch. 12-19 

**It is incredibly important that your child stay on top of their reading. My room is open every day at 7:30 am for readers if they were unable to read in the evening. Please help your child by reading and discussing with them! :) **

PHYSICAL SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman

We have laid the foundations for their chemistry knowledge this week and will take an even deeper dive into that next week. We will be looking at physical and chemical changes, investigating reaction rates, and doing our first official lab! They will have an assessment next Friday 9/15. 

US HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas  

Next week we are beginning to cover the Civil War. After last week’s test we are slowing down again to cover the details of the early war and how the conflict changed over time. Late into the week we’ll talk about life, food and the technology of the time to get a better understanding of soldiering in the largest conflict on American soil.

HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH  - Ms. Gonzalez

¡Hola! We have completed our first Spanish project - Introducing family and friends. The students presented their Google Slides, introducing themselves, a family member and a friend. Next week we will begin reviewing conjugating verbs!  

ADVANCED SPANISH - Ms. Brown and Ms. Gonzalez
For students enrolled in Ms. Brown’s class, please see the following bullets to know what we have on our agenda for the coming week!

• Quiz at the end of this week.

• Project will be worked on in class and turned in next week using Canva; please remind students to check their work with the rubric that will be posted and to not hesitate to ask questions.

• Test on the 12 of this month to wrap up this short but important grammar unit!

Take it away Ms. Gonzalez!

¡Hola! We have completed our first Spanish project - Introducing family and friends. The students presented their Google Slides, introducing themselves, a family member and a friend. Next week we will start our new unit: Regular & Irregular Verbs! We will be conjugating verbs!  

ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor

Students’ averages are looking good. We began Chapter 2 Wednesday 9/6 and will take the first quiz over 2.1-2.4 Tuesday 9/12. I will study with them Monday 9/11.

PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 2 by learning how to use the distributive property to write equivalent variable expressions (2.2), how to identify like terms, coefficients, and constant terms (2.3), and how to combine like terms to simplify variable expressions (2.3).  We will have our first Math Facts Quiz the following Monday.  Students will be given a Math Facts Quiz outline next week which will detail what will be on the quiz.

ELA - Ms. Ferkol and Mrs. Boyer

We are on our second week of Posted by John David Anderson! Students are working through their discussion packet, and we will be reviewing for the test. Later in the week, we are working on a mini writing assignment. Reading Checks are being graded and sent back to the students through their email. It is our suggestion that students create a Posted folder in their Gmail for these checks, so that it is easier to find them for study purposes. Students will have a Test on pages 1-117 on Wednesday, 9/13 (Boyer) and Thursday, 9/14 (Ferkol). The discussion questions will all be checked and graded for a test grade the day of the final unit test. 

When we begin novel studies, it is expected that your child will read for 20-25 minutes at home each night. This will be the majority of their homework. Some nights they may also have Reading Checks to go along with their reading; we will also be working on these Reading Checks in class. These Reading Checks will be CW/HW grades that will be averaged into one quiz grade. Students may always use their beautiful annotations to help with these reading quizzes. 

Posted is filled with an immense amount of literary devices, world connections, and character development. These are topics which will allow for us to dive deep into our reading comprehension skill building. 

Please stay on top of the assessment calendar and Google Classroom assignments. 

LIFE SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman and Ms. Insignares

We have finished our first unit in Life Science this week! We will be starting biomed next week and doing a predator prey simulation in class. We will also be reviewing their first test that they will take on 9/8 to better understand best study strategies and how to approach this unit with new confidence and energy! 

US HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas

Our class will spend the beginning of next week finishing up the interview project. I’m sure this was an exciting one for parents as much as it was for kids! We hope to wrap that up between Monday and Tuesday but I am flexible should things not line up exactly. After that we will be diving into the early colonial efforts in North America and the eventual foundations of the 13 Colonies. Students will be talking about the explorers, their reasons for going and what they found awaiting them in the New World.

US HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer

Next week in American History students will begin examining how the English Colonies began to take shape. We will study how each colony developed and how the European cultures influenced colonies based on regions and how those same qualities are still evident today. Also, students will continue their Historical Interview Project. Please check GC for more details.

ACCELERATED MATH - Mrs. Taylor

Students’ averages are looking good. We began Chapter 2 Wednesday 9/5 and will take the first quiz over 2.1-2.2 Friday 9/8. They will continue 2.3-2.5 next week, review Wednesday 9/13 and Chapter 2 test Thursday, 9/14.

PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 2 by learning how to use the distributive property to write equivalent variable expressions (2.2), how to identify 

like terms, coefficients, and constant terms (2.3), and how to combine like terms to simplify variable expressions (2.3).  We will have our first Math Facts Quiz the following Monday.  Students will be given a Math Facts Quiz outline next week which will detail what will be on the quiz.

EARTH SCIENCE - Ms. Insignares

We had a GREAT week! Although it was short, it was jam packed! This week we finished with the sun, Earth and moon, completed diagrams to review space models/structures, and even created moon phases using Oreos, yum!!! Students also had their first test of two chapters!

Next week we will jump into comets, meteors, and asteroids. We will discuss how these can impact the Solar System and Earth. Can’t wait!

ELA - Ms. Ferkol

This week, we will be starting our first novel study using the classic coming-of-age novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton! It is such an incredible book filled with many opportunities to engage in meaningful and thought-provoking conversations. 

As we begin novel studies, it is expected that your child will read for 20-25 minutes at home each night. This will be the majority of their homework. We will be utilizing Socratic Seminars 1-2 times per week, so it is very important that students stay up-to-date on their assigned reading to be able to fully participate in our conversations! In addition to these discussions, students may also have assigned reading checks and/or short activities to complete. These are designed to support and extend the work we do in the classroom and should be both manageable and fun for the students! 

**Reminder: Our FIRST TEST of the year is this MONDAY 9/11! The test will focus on the foundational Idea-Based Writing structures that we have been working with for the past few weeks. Students will need to study their notes and reflect on the process of writing their independent choice essays as the test will be focused not only on recall of key skills and ideas within IBW, but also application of those skills.

INTRO SPANISH - Ms. Brown

The 6th graders should all have their first test grades posted online (those who were ill or absent may see them posted later as they catch up on their test this week). Well done to the students and we all look forward to their continued success this year in Spanish!

We have begun a grammar centered unit that will be their foundation for the rest of their linguistic careers in Spanish. They are off to good start! 

• Homework on Spanish articles and pronouns due this week.

• Quiz at the end of this week.

• Project will be worked on in class and turned in next week using Canva; please remind students to check their work with the rubric that will be posted and to not hesitate to ask questions.

• Test on the 14th of this month!

WORLD HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer

Next  week in World History students will continue their examination of Ancient Greece by traveling to Sparta. We will study the impacts on government and society as well as the militaristic nature of the Spartans. We will then benign our comparison of Athens and Sparta. Students will also bwork on their project: Conducting Historical Interviews. This project will help students see how impactful they can be in writing history. Check GC for more specifics on this project.