November 13th - November 17th
For November and December, our monthly virtue is Community. One powerful statement that embodies the concept of community is “We are all in this together”. It reminds us that, despite our differences and individual journeys, we share a common humanity. By recognizing our interdependence, we can create a stronger, more supportive environment for ourselves and the children of HDS. Encouraging them to lend a helping hand to others teaches empathy and compassion, fostering a sense of unity within our community and the world at large. Small acts of kindness and support can make a world of difference in someone’s life.
By instilling the idea that “I will help and support others”, we equip our children with the mindset to be active participants in their community. Whether it is assisting a friend with homework, showing kindness to a classmate, or contributing to a schoolwide service initiative, these actions not only benefit those in need but also build character and instill the principles of community.
Let’s encourage our children to be mindful of their roles within the community and to appreciate the support they receive from others. The strength of our community lies in the unity we share, and by nurturing this concept we can create a more harmonious world for our children to thrive in.
Thank you for being a part of our wonderful HDS community, and for your commitment to nurturing these valuable ideals in our children. Together, we can help them grow into compassionate, helpful, and community-minded individuals.
Warm regards.
Jack Cargile
Head of Middle School
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.
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
Coastal Pet Rescue - email Emily Piette (emilyp@coastalpetrescue.org)
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
11. How Do You Handle the Mornings When You Are Not a Morning Person?
Some people are groggy in the morning, so it’s easy to forget things if you are trying to get organized. Instead, gather all of your folders, books, notebooks, and supplies, and put them in your bag before you go to sleep. When you don’t deal with chaos in the morning, you have more resources to stay focused through the day. The calmer your day, the more energy you’ll have to blast through homework in the evening.
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 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 Quiz on 4.7, 5.1-5-2 Wednesday. We will continue working on slope and kids are doing well with their interactive notebooks which should help with content confusion. They will have no Challenge problems or HW over the Holiday. Gobble Gobble.
ADVANCED ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will complete the Algebra portion of our course by completing Chapter 11. We will discover the midpoint formula (11.5) and use the midpoint and distance formulas to calculate a trip across the U.S. and Central America. We will have 2 days of review on Wednesday and Thursday and the 11.3-11.5 test on Friday.
GEOMETRY - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Geometry, we will complete Chapter 5 by learning about the Hinge Theorem and its Converse (5.6) and how to prove something is not true by using indirect proofs. We will have a day of review on Thursday and the Chapter 5 test on Friday.
ELA - Mrs. Boyer
We are in our second week of Macbeth! I am so proud of these kiddos! They have been working incredibly hard on their notes! We will continue to read the week of November 13th and the 27th. 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 Reading Checks for HW, but they will have WORKBOOK PAGES each night.
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.
Assessments:
Macbeth Mini Quiz (Characters/ Act I ) Monday, November 13th
Macbeth Act I - II Quiz Friday, November 17th
**It is incredibly important that your child stays on top of their ANNOTATIONS for Macbeth. My room is open every day at 7:30 am for readers if they are unable to read in the evening. Please help your child by reading and discussing with them! :) **
PHYSICAL SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman
Students are doing a great job grasping one of the harder concepts in chemistry: balancing chemical equations. This chapter is highly cumulative of all the concepts we have learned and the foundations we have covered so far. I am very proud of them for taking it in stride, engaging with the material, and succeeding! Next week, we will have a Unit 4 test over chapters 11 and 12 on Tuesday 11/14. This will be a challenging test but we will have an entire review day on Monday to prepare. We will be doing a really cool lab next week as well and beginning our final unit on acids and bases.
US HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas
Whew! What a busy week its been. Students this week spent a lot of time writing and working on various assignments in relation to the Civil War. Most of this material covered the technological changes and the Antietam. We have fallen a little behind my original schedule, but nevertheless we shall persist! For this week we will be finally covering Emancipation and Gettysburg. Mid-way through the week we will be doing a writing assignment that will be a test grade. They will be able to take it home to work on it so it should hopefully be a good time. After that we cover the final years of the war and wrap up before November ends.
HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH - Mr. De Cardenas
I am so excited to be here at HDS, and I have enjoyed working with your children this week. A major focus of concentration, in addition to vocabulary and verb conjugations, is to work on proper enunciation and conversational Spanish skills. We will be working on our second unit of study to create skills in referring possession and increase our vocabulary by identifying the members of the family, other relatives, and acquaintances. We will also learn to identify and use the defined articles of Spanish language and how to combine them with the preposition (de) to express possession.
QUIZ on on Monday, Nov 13th.
Take it away Mr. De Cardenas!
I am so excited to be here at HDS, and I have enjoyed working with your children this week. A major focus of concentration, in addition to vocabulary and verb conjugations, is to work on proper enunciation and conversational Spanish skills. We will be working on our second unit of study to create skills in referring possession and increase our vocabulary by identifying the members of the family, other relatives, and acquaintances. We will also learn to identify and use the defined articles of Spanish language and how to combine them with the preposition (de) to express possession.
ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor
Students Quiz on 4.7, 5.1-5-2 Wednesday. We will continue working on slope and kids are doing well with their interactive notebooks which should help with content confusion. They will have no Challenge problems or HW over the Holiday. Gobble Gobble.
PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will complete Chapter 4 by learning how to write, compare, and multiply numbers in scientific notation (4.7). We will have a day of review on Thursday and the 4.5-4.7 test on Friday.
ELA - Ms. Ferkol and Mrs. Boyer
This week students will continue to dive into the culture and traditions found within their novels through a fun and engaging vacation project! Students will create a comprehensive vacation plan to the place found in their novel. Every aspect of this plan–from the flights to the excursions to the living arrangements–will be real! These trips could actually be taken! The hope is that students get to dive deeper and immerse themselves in a culture they may not yet have looked at in this way and get to see how far the American dollar can go in these countries! They will have to make important decisions about each aspect of their travel to ensure they get the most out of this project–are you willing to take the cheaper, bumpier and, likely, more uncomfortable flight to have better accommodations or a more exciting excursion? This will be an in-class project!!
Student homework assignments will consist of nightly reading as determined by their book club groups and working on completing the journals in their book club folders. Students are expected to be at least half way through their novel and have at least 8 journal entries completed by November 29th!!
This unit will be over Thanksgiving and Winter Break. It is NOT expected that your child read over breaks…but it is expected that your child stays on top of their reading during school days.
As we continue with our 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.
Please stay on top of the assessment calendar and Google Classroom assignments.
LIFE SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman and Ms. Insignares
We are continuing to work through the cell! We will have a quiz next Wednesday, 11/15. We have enjoyed cell speed dating learning about the organelles. We will be introducing the edible cell project which will be a project that will take place entirely outside of class. They will have part of next week to work on it at home, all of Thanksgiving break (although it is not expected that they work on it then), and part of the week we return from Thanksgiving break. The cell project will be due Friday 12/1.
US HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas
We have an exciting week of material to cover! We will be continuing our discussion on the American Revolution and its battles. Late in the week students will get the chance to teach me something with a new project coming up. The “Teaching a Lesson,” project which will allow students to research a topic and then teach me and the class about it. I’m so excited to see what they choose and how they decide to teach it.
US HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer
Next week we will continue our study of the American Revolution. Students will examine events that led the American Colonies to declare independence, events as they unfolded during the war, and how the war shaped the lives of Americans in the new nation. Students will also begin working on their next project: Teaching a Lesson.
ACCELERATED MATH - Mrs. Taylor
Students will continue with Chapter 5 dividing fractions and mixed numbers. 5.5 and 5.6 involves measuring customary units and converting customary units. They will do a small project or formative assessment before the break When we return, we will review for a Chapter 5 test on Tuesday 11/5.
PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will complete Chapter 4 by learning how to write, compare, and multiply numbers in scientific notation (4.7). We will have a day of review on Thursday and the 4.5-4.7 test on Friday.
EARTH SCIENCE - Ms. Insignares
We’ve had a great time learning about the ocean. Students created their water filter projects and some even produced clear water! This week we did a virtual field trip exploring the most beautiful and deepest parts of the ocean. Students really enjoyed that! Next week students will have a test on ocean structures. They will need to know ocean compositions and layers of the ocean floor!
ELA - Ms. Ferkol
Next week we will look at a few more key components that are essential to consider when reading dystopian fiction; specifically looking at literary devices. We will then take a moment to review all that we have learned so far–concepts and strategies–as we will take a quiz covering this material on Friday, November 19! Students should continue their nightly reading and keep up with the Google Classroom assignments/announcements for additional work to be done in their novel or their Interactive Notebooks.
Please keep in mind that there were a few changes to our regular routine that you should be aware of. The first is that students will be utilizing a gray folder for this unit instead of their blue ELA binders. Throughout the unit, this folder will be filled with anchor charts and activity pages that students complete to reference as they study for assessments. The most important document within this folder will be the GROUP READING SCHEDULE. It will be located in the very front of their folder and will serve as your child’s weekly reading homework pages. As this is a book club unit, student books will likely move along at different paces depending on a variety of factors such as complexity, ability, and interest.
This unit will be over Thanksgiving and Winter Break. It is NOT expected that your child read over breaks…but that your child stays on top of their reading during school days.
INTRO SPANISH - Ms. Brown
Our new trimester is off to a great start with a brand-new unit! In fact, this will be the last unit as it will take us all the way through the December break! The holidays can make school feel rushed, but I am confident that our 6th grade will do great as always!
Quiz on verbs part one, unit five on Nov 14.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me.
WORLD HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer
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