October 9th - October 13th

 

Follow all the fun on our Middle School Instagram account!

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.

We are so excited to have everyone back and competing! We have had a full week of cross country, volleyball, and football! It is a team effort for these events and we really appreciate everyone contributing what they can. Please see the link below to sign up for volunteers for football and volleyball games! We will be having a basketball clinic on Saturday 10/7 from 8:30-10:30am open for grades 3-8. 

Saturday, October 7

Basketball Clinic 

3rd through 8th Grade at 8:30-10:00am

Monday, October 9

Flag Football

TBD Game, possible schedule change

Tuesday, October 10

Volleyball Games

5th Grade White at SPS at 6:00pm

6th Grade at BSS at 5:00pm

7th Grade at SPS at 7:00pm

Flag Football

TBD Game, possible schedule change

Wednesday, October 11

Volleyball Games

5th Grade White at SCDS at 5:00pm

5th Grade Green at BSS at 5:00pm

6th Grade at BSS at 6:00pm

Thursday, October 12

Volleyball Games

5th Grade Green vs SAS at 5:00pm

6th Grade vs SAS at 6:00pm

Football Games

JV vs SJS at BC at 6:15

Varsity vs SCPS at BC at 7:45

Parent sign-up link for football AND volleyball games: 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAFAB2BABF5C34-44516405-cross

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. Parent Association Halloween decorating volunteer day (10/9)!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAFAB2BABF5C34-44654914-decorate

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 #6 How Can We Keep Homework Organized?

Homework is posted in Google Classroom. Go to the “Classroom” section and click on the Calendar towards the top. If “See More” is listed, click on that to get all of the work assigned that night. Write it down in bulleted form! You may use an agenda, a calendar, or even a spiral notebook. When each assignment is complete and back in the binder or submitted, then cross it off or highlight it. You may also click on the “To Do” tab on the left; it’s embedded in the list of classes. That view shows you present and future assignments within each classroom.

HINT: When writing down homework, if it needs to be submitted online, write “S” next to it. If it’s paper and needs to be turned in, write “T” next to it. You can mark homework papers with a Post-It Note off the side so you can easily find them in your binder.

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 wrapped up Chapter 3 rather nicely and will review 10/10 (Tuesday) for a 10/11 assessment. Then we will begin Chapter 4.

ADVANCED ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will have the 10.4-10.7 test on Tuesday.  Then we will begin the last chapter in the Algebra portion of our course - Chapter 11.  We will begin by learning how to graph square root functions (11.1) and how to simplify radical expressions (11.2).  There will be a short quiz on Friday on 11.1-11.2.

GEOMETRY - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Geometry, we will have a day of review on Tuesday and the Chapter 3 test on Wednesday.  Then, we will begin Chapter 4 by learning how to classify triangles and how to use the Triangle Sum Theorem and the Exterior Angle Theorem to find the measures of missing angles (4.1).

ELA - Mrs. Boyer

Students have the entire week to gather/complete their Mock Trial Activity Portion. Assignments/rubrics/videos are all on Google Classroom. Students will be using their knowledge of Chapters 1-19 to ‘act out’ the trial of Tom Robinson. This will be a TEST and PROJECT grade in ELA and History. The Mock Trial will be October 16th from 1:20-2:45ish. 

Your child will be reading Chapters 20-32 (to complete the novel). The novel reading is due by Wednesday, October 18th.

There will be a unit test on this novel, and a final written project (most likely). 

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

What a great time we had at Merri Mac this past week! This week, we have jumped back into chemistry and are learning about atoms, isotopes, ions, and the periodic table. When we return from fall break, we will be working on a Pet element project where students will “adopt” an element, research it, and create a visual representation of that element. There will be no assessments next week! 

US HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas  

This week students will be finishing their prep for the mock trial. This unit will have a project and a test grade so it is important that students pay attention and prepare thoroughly their cases and roles. To help them prepare, my class will be focusing on the justice system in the 1930s and how crimes were punished. We’ll be doing in class reviews of legal cases and discussions on prominent lawyers to help students get into the mindset of law and justice.

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!

• QUIZ: Tuesday, Oct 10 over some of the identified vocabulary for our new 5th Unit. 

• QUIZ: Friday, Oct 13 over the remaining vocabulary of our new 5th 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 wrapped up Chapter 3 rather nicely and will review 10/10 (Tuesday) for a 10/11 assessment. Then we will begin Chapter 4.

PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 3 by practicing solving multi-step equations (3.2), learning how to solve equations that have variables on both sides of the equation (3.3), and learning how to write and solve equations from word problems.

ELA - Ms. Ferkol and Mrs. Boyer

This week we will be wrapping up our reading of our novel! We will be starting an essay: Frost Quoting Frost, where students will be analyzing why John David Anderson uses Robert Frost poems to support the novel’s themes. They will have a quiz covering pages 1-296, the first three parts of this novel, on Wednesday 10/11. Students should utilize their last reading check and guided questions to study for this quiz.

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

We had a blast at Merri Mac but hit the ground running again as we got back! This week we wrapped up our biome and environment unit and we will begin a new unit on fossils and geologic time. There will be a quiz next 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 week we have an exam on Thursday and Friday on the early British colonies. It is the same test but because of the length we’ll be splitting up to two days. Thursday will be the multiple choice and vocabulary while Friday will be the short answer and essay sections. I will be providing a study guide for it and doing a review throughout the week. Given the performances on the last test, this one should be similarly easy for the students. They have really latched onto the subject!

US HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer

Next week we will continue our study of the development of the 13 Colonies. Our focus will be on the cultural exchange that occurred during the Colonization experience. 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 wrapped up Chapter 3 rather nicely and will review 10/10 (Tuesday) for a 10/11 assessment. Then we will begin Chapter 4. They worked on a project that tied all sections of this Chapter together last Thursday and Friday making review a breeze. They ROCK!

PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear

Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 3 by practicing solving multi-step equations (3.2), learning how to solve equations that have variables on both sides of the equation (3.3), and learning how to write and solve equations from word problems.

EARTH SCIENCE - Ms. Insignares

Next week we will have a quiz on Tuesday 10/10 on Chapter 22 to officially close off our Astronomy topic! It’s been so fun and we’ve done many activities that I am sure the students will remember for years to come! We had an amazing day building constellations and ending it with a sweet treat, yum!! After our final Astronomy quiz we will cross into Earth’s Atmosphere and learn about the significant role of water that Earth processes.

ELA - Ms. Ferkol

This coming week we will be getting into the second half of our book with Chapters 7 and 8. We will be doing some station work to dive into Ponyboy’s character development as well as gain perspective on relationships within the book and continue to practice with literary devices, specifically symbolism. We will have our next quiz on Wednesday 10/11. This quiz will cover content from Chapters 4-6. Students should study their comprehension questions, key vocabulary, and our activities covering types of conflict and poetry.

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

It’s so nice to have everyone back in the swing of things here at school post-trip! Please see below for details coming up!

• Tuesday, Oct 10 will be the due date of our most recent project. See Google Classroom for all of the details.

• Wednesday, Oct 11 will be our Unit Four TEST. I am confident the students will do well!

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 discover 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.