October 16th - October 20th

 

Dear Parents,

For the month of October, our virtues are Respect and Responsibility. Both of these virtues are critical ingredients in our recipe for success in the Middle School. Respectful behavior choices allow all students to feel safe and included in the school community. Responsible behavior is the foundation of success in Middle School, with students making choices that help them stay organized, complete assignments on time, take care of personal and school property and actively participate in class discussions and activities.  

The ability to make respectful and responsible choices has a direct correlation to the consequences we experience, and it is our goal to help our students see this connection and experience the positive consequences of framing decision-making through the lenses of respect and responsibility. We hope you are able to take the opportunity to reinforce our monthly virtues by framing some of your conversations at home with our October virtues. 

 Kind regards,

Jack Cargile

Head of Middle School

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.

Hi all! What a GREAT week of athletics we had. Congrats to Varsity Football for a share of regular season Championship and congrats to 4th grade Flag Football for an undefeated season!! We are also very excited that Hancock Tennis has made its debut this week.

Varsity Football

Semi-final game on Wednesday, October 18th at 6:15 vs Calvary (BC field)

Basketball Organizational Parent and Coach Meeting

Moved to Thursday, October 19th at 7:15

Monday Oct 16

Volleyball 5W @SJS 6pm 5Green@SJS 5pm Wednesday 18th

BASKETBALL MEETING MOVED TO THURSDAY Football Semi Finals HDS vs Calvary @BC 6:15 Thursday Oct 19 Basketball Meeting, (parents players and potential coaches) 7:15pm Volleyball away 5G @SPS--6pm 7th @ SCDS-6pm (court 1) Friday Oct 20th Open gym@ Southside Baptist 3:30-6pm All Future players and coaches encouraged to come

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.

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

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

2. Coastal Pet Rescue - email Emily Piette (emilyp@coastalpetrescue.org) There is a Volunteer orientation is Sunday, 10/15/23. 

3. Savannah Camellia Planting Project (10/27/23  @ 11:30 am – cleanup)

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAFAB2BABF5C34-44654115-savannah

Learn more https://savannahcamelliafestival.com/

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 #7 What's an Energizing After-School Snack?

When kids do homework, they should sip (not gulp) a drink with sugar in it, says Dr. Russell Barkley, Ph.D., author of Taking Charge of ADHD. Lemonade or sports drinks are good choices. These beverages deliver glucose to your brain, which is its only source of fuel. The more fuel you have, the more you will be able to work effectively and efficiently.

This month, we invite parents to partner with us in teaching our students about both responsibility and respect. Middle school is a crucial time to continue the development of virtuous behaviors. 

Here are some strategies that you can use to at home:

How to Teach Your Child to Be More Responsible

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 began Chapter 4 last Thursday and will take their first quiz Wednesday. 10/18. The day of the quiz, they will be given a project about slope in real life that will be due the following week.

ADVANCED ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will continue the last chapter in the Algebra portion of our course - Chapter 11.  We will learn how to simplify radical expressions with and without variables as well as rationalize denominators (11.2).  There will be a short quiz on Tuesday on 11.1 through the beginning of 11.2.

GEOMETRY - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Geometry, we will continue Chapter 4 by learning how to apply congruence and triangles (4.2), proving triangles are congruent by Side-Side-Side (SSS) (4.3), Side-Angle-Side (SAS), Hypotenuse-Leg (HL) (4.4), Angle-Side-Angle (ASA), and Angle-Angle-Side (AAS) (4.5).  There will be a short quiz on Tuesday covering 4.1-4.2 and another quiz on Friday covering 4.1-4.5.

ELA - Mrs. Boyer

We will be enjoying our Mock Trial performance at 1:20 on Monday, October 16th in Hancock Hall. Pictures and videos will be available on the MS Instagram! :)

Your child will have a reading day on Tuesday, October 18th as the final novel is due on Wednesday, October 18th. We will be working through review activities this week along with final reading checks. Students will be engaging in a final writing project. 

Unit Test: 

We will begin Macbeth on October 30th. Please be sure to be present this week. We will begin reading on November 2nd, and we will continue through November 8th. We might finish by then…or need Monday, November 13th. If your child misses a reading day, they will be responsible for reading on their own. They may come in and listen to the dramatic reading on my computer from 7:30-8:10 am. 

Your child will not have original reading to complete at home, but they will be asked to interact with the text after in-class reading. 

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. 

**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 are well into our unit on atoms and the periodic table. This past week we completed a project where students “adopted” pet elements to take a deeper look into the different elements that make up the world around us. Next week, we will learn about the organization, history, and nuance of the periodic table and complete the week with a test on Friday 10/20. Please have students reviewing each night in order to be successful. I have noticed some students have really been reaching their goals in science as far as grades are concerned. I asked several of them what has made the difference and they responded, “I really studied and paid attention” or “I actually tried.” Success is only a bit of motivation away! 

US HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas  

What an exciting week coming up! At the beginning of the week we’ll be performing the Mock Trial unit. This is the culmination of a week’s preparations and study of the 1930s, its justice system and race relations of the era. It was an incredibly important time period and this mock trial will help illustrate how the law works, both back then and today.

Once the Mock Trial is completed we will move back to the Civil War and begin discussing the escalation of the conflict in 1862 - 1863. This includes battles like Antietam, Sharpsburg, Shiloh, Gettysburg and Vicksburg. We will also be starting a Civil War Food Project! Students will be put in groups and given a recipe to prepare for class. They will need to record and document their work and bring their final product to class.

HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH  - Ms. Gonzalez

¡Hola! Last week we completed our Unit 2 assessment and wrote current news summaries from online articles from Spanish speaking countries. Next week we will begin Unit 3 - School Days! Be ready for LOTS of new vocabulary! We will also continue reviewing irregular verbs along with our next unit! ¡hasta luego!

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!

• PROJECT: Wednesday, Oct 18 please see Google Classroom for more details.

• TEST: Thursday, Oct 19 over our current unit.

Take it away Ms. Gonzalez!

¡Hola! Last week we completed our Unit 2 assessment and wrote current news summaries from online articles from Spanish speaking countries. Next week we will begin Unit 3 - School Days! Be ready for LOTS of new vocabulary! We will also  continue reviewing irregular verbs along with our next unit! ¡hasta luego!

ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor

Students began Chapter 4 last Thursday and will take their first quiz Wednesday. 10/18. The day of the quiz, they will be given a project about slope in real life that will be due the following week.

PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 3 by having a quiz on Monday covering 3.1-3.3.  We will then learn how to solve inequalities (3.4-3.6) and practice writing and solving equations from word problems.  There will be a Math Facts Quiz on Thursday, and students will be given the outline on Monday.

ELA - Ms. Ferkol and Mrs. Boyer

This week we will be continuing to develop ideas and expand on relevant themes in the book through the creation of analytical essays. Students are looking to demonstrate deep understandings of this novel’s themes through explaining the importance of the intentional use of Robert Frost poems. This essay will be due on THURSDAY, October 19th! Students should pay attention to the pacing guide posted in the Google Classroom assignment and come to class prepared to write at least one paragraph each day. There will also be time built in for edits and short conferencing times with the teacher. Students should also have a plan to finish the novel by this time as their final test for this unit will be in two parts and completed on Thursday, October 26th and Friday, October 27th.

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. 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 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

Students are moving through our last ecology chapter, Chapter 6, on fossils, natural selection, and adaptation. There will be a test next Thursday (10/19) on only Chapter 6. We will be finishing up 6.3 next week and reviewing all of the concepts so they are well prepared come Thursday. Please reach out with any questions or concerns. Students should be reviewing content nightly (10-20 minutes) to ensure that they are really grasping and understanding concepts. 

US HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas

This coming week we will be finally doing our Chapter 3 history test. For those of you that remember it being scheduled for this week, you’re not wrong it originally was. However, it has been moved to better accommodate students. We will be having a test next Wednesday (10/13) on the same material. After the test we will be starting a new project: Creating your very own colony! This project is meant to teach students how the foundations of the colonies came about and how they functioned. Students will also experience the challenges and struggles the colonies faced and learn how they dealt with them.

US HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer

Next week we will conclude our study of the development of the 13 Colonies. Students will also begin their next project: Creating their own colony. This project will allow the students to examine all the details in creating their colony and relate these challenges to how the original 13 Colonies were created. 

ACCELERATED MATH - Mrs. Taylor

Students will continue with Chapter 4 and their first quiz will be Thursday, October 19th.

PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 3 by having a quiz on Monday covering 3.1-3.3.  We will then learn how to solve inequalities (3.4-3.6) and practice writing and solving equations from word problems.  There will be a Math Facts Quiz on Thursday, and students will be given the outline on Monday.

EARTH SCIENCE - Ms. Insignares

Next week we will have a test on Chapters 15 and 16 on 10/20. This test will cover Earth’s water which includes the water cycle and Earth’s oceans. We had a great week learning about the water cycle and students even taught me a song about it! 

ELA - Ms. Ferkol

Moving into the next week, we will be continuing our reading with Chapters 9-11. We will dive into the reading and some station work at the beginning of the week as we work toward a quiz on Thursday, October 19th covering concepts and material from these chapters. A living study guide will be created and updated as the week progresses. We will then finish the week with a Socratic Seminar to expand our knowledge and understanding of key events and make our final predictions for the end of the book. Students will also be introduced to their final group project for this unit which will be due on Friday, October 27th. 

As we move further into this unit, students should expect to have between 25-30 minutes of solid work each night. This work will often include reading or re-reading portions of the book, comprehension work, and vocabulary. As we move through the unit, this may also include other work such as art projects, Google Form reading checks, or note-taking in preparation for a Socratic seminar. 

INTRO SPANISH - Ms. Brown

Please see below for details coming up!

• Tuesday, Oct 17: QUIZ

• Friday, Oct 20: QUIZ

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

WORLD HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer

Next week in World History students will continue their examination of the Age of Philosophy in Ancient Greece. First up will be the study of the Founding Father of Philosophy: Socrates. Students will study mythology and early Greek philosophy as ways of explaining natural phenomena.
Students will also examine the beliefs of Socrates and his role in Athenian society, his use of dialogue (the Socratic method), and his trial.  Finally, students will be introduced to the other Great Philosophers of Greece: Plato and Aristotle