February 19th - 23rd
Dear Middle School Parents,
This year in the Middle School, we are having student-led conferences on Friday, March 1st. The student-led conference is a great opportunity for students to not only share what they have learned but also how they have learned. The focal point of our student-led conferences will be your child’s e-portfolio, which has artifacts from each class accompanied by reflection narratives. We are excited that you and your student will be able to have this experience together and we are confident that the student-led conferences have many benefits, including:
Encouraging students to accept responsibility for their learning and progress;
Helping students recognize and take ownership of the things that interfere with their learning success;
Teaching the student the process of self-evaluation;
Facilitating the development of student communication skills and self-confidence;
Enhancing communication between parents and the student.
Student-led conferences are mandatory for all students, and it is expected that all students will have at least one parent attend their assigned session with their child on conference day (siblings may not attend student-led conferences). Parents and students, with Chromebooks, should expect to arrive on campus in time for the beginning of your assigned session and stay for the duration of the assigned session.
Session 1 (8:30-10:00) is for surnames starting with A-H
Session 2 (10:30-12:00) is for surnames starting with I-P
Session 3 (1:00-2:30) is for surnames starting with Q-Z
The students are investing time, thought, and energy into their preparation for student-led conferences. We are confident that this format will facilitate thoughtful conversations with you and provide a meaningful opportunity for students to actively present their learning. We look forward to seeing you on Friday, March 1st!
Kind regards.
Jack Cargile
Head of Middle School
8th Grade Washington, D.C. Trip Reminders
When purchasing 8th-grade school lunches, do not sign up for the week of March 11th - March 15th.
Please complete the medical form for the nurse by Friday, February 16th.
Attention 7th Grade Families
It is a long-standing Hancock Day School tradition of having the 7th grade class help host the reception at 8th grade graduation in May. It's an exciting time for Hancock to send off our graduates with support from our community! In the past, families have set up decorations/flowers, brought in finger foods and desserts (homemade or store-bought), and provided beverages. Those interested in volunteering for this event can click here to learn more information and sign up.
President's Volunteer Service Award (8th Grade)
If students in the 8th grade would like to receive a PVSA at this year’s Honors Assembly, all community service hours need to be completed and turned in to the middle school office no later than Monday, March 25.
Bronze Level: 50 - 74 hours
Silver Level: 75 - 99 hours
Gold Level: 100+ hours
8th Grade Graduation
Time to start preparing for graduation! Please take some time to complete the graduation form (link below). This information will be used on the programs and diplomas. After the ceremony, we will have a brief reception, where a slideshow will be displayed with the graduates. We request families to submit 5 pictures for the slideshow. The pictures can be anything you would like (baby, siblings, family, friends, etc). The pictures should be submitted electronically to mmannarino@hancockdayschool.org.
Graduation information and slideshow pictures are due Friday, May 3rd.
Junior Achievement of Georgia’s Upcoming Summer Camp
It’s going to be a fun week at their Discovery Center on the GSU Armstrong Campus. The camp is for 10-14 year old students, and it’s June 10-14th from 9AM-3PM.
Here is a link for more information about the camp - JA Summer Camp
And here’s a link to register - JA Summer Camp Registration (just click the “Get Tickets’ button)
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.
Basketball Tournament
We have the brackets but we don’t have times or opponents due to games yet to be played but here's what we have been told ..so subject change
8th Boys plays Wednesday (time TBA depending on opponent) @ HDS
7th Boys play Wednesday (time TBA depending on opponent) @ SCPS
6th Boys play Tuesday (time TBA depending on opponent) @ SJS
5th Boys 5A and 5B play Thursday (time TBA depending on opponent) @SAS
_____________________________________________________________
8/7 Girls play Tuesday (time TBA depending on opponent) SJS
6 Girls play Tuesday (time TBA depending on opponent) @ SCDS
5B Girls play Tuesday (time TBA depending on opponent) SCDS
5A Girls play Wednesday (time TBA depending on opponent) BSS
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.
Plarn - February 24th
Plarn, or yarn from plastic grocery bags, can be used to make sleeping mats for the homeless. Hancock has partnered with Messiah Lutheran Church on Skidaway Island to complete this project. The plarn created by Hancock students will be passed to volunteers at Messiah Lutheran Church who will, ultimately, create the mats. Once students learn to make plarn, they are welcome to make it at home and turn it in to the middle school office for additional community service hours. Sign up HERE.
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.
“Empathy is at the heart of what it means to be human. It’s a foundation for acting ethically, for good relationships of many kinds, for loving well, and for professional successes. And it’s key to preventing bullying and many other forms of cruelty.” -Making Caring Common Project
Empathy is the HDS virtue of the month for February. The following article has some great tips to help your middle school student develop empathy.
5 Tips for Cultivating Empathy
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 8 Laws of exponents. It is a short chapter and they will have their first quiz Friday, 2/23. (8.1-8.2)
ADVANCED ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will finish our unit on angle relationships by having a quiz on Tuesday. We will then begin learning about three-dimensional shapes, identifying solids and polyhedra (9.1), and how to find the surface area of prisms and cylinders (9.2).
GEOMETRY - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Geometry, we will begin Chapter 10 in which we will learn everything you want to know about circles and more! We will learn about tangent lines and their properties (10.1) as well as how to find arc measures in circles (10.2).
ELA - Mrs. Boyer
This next week we are finishing up our ‘travels’ and students will begin organizing their thoughts as we begin the Yom HaShoah research/brainstorm process.
Throughout this unit, It is critical that your child work on their time management skills. Students will be able to choose their own text: I never saw another butterfly: children's drawings and poems from Terezin concentration camp, 1942-44, Night by Elie Weisel, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, or When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr.
Students will be embarking on a journey of reflection and education, both literally and figuratively. This summer I traveled to Germany and Poland where I stepped foot in the hallowed grounds of three concentration camps: Suchsenhausen, Ravensbruck, and Auschwitz. I will be sharing my experience with my students so that they too…will never forget.
PHYSICAL SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman
Next week, we will continue our learning of fluids and forces. We will be learning the necessary concepts next week to be ready for our egg drop project taking place the week before we leave for DC. Students will be learning about drag, buoyancy, and pressure to name a few concepts! Students will be doing an interesting lab on Archimedes principle on Thursday and having a test over Chapter 4 on Monday, 2/26. The end of the trimester is next Friday. Students have had many grade opportunities this trimester, including many projects/labs, quizzes, and extra credit. Their grades should not shift too much once the gradebook closes. I will only be adding a few low stakes grades and dropping their lowest quiz grade. Hopefully, this should mean that everyone’s grade will stay the same or trend in the positive direction!
Students have been doing really well with physics. I think conceptually, it is much easier than chemistry. The real world applications are the most helpful part of this class! Please remind your students that while 8th grade senioritis is very much a thing, there is still work to be done. We can’t do any of the fun stuff, if we don’t lay the foundation with concepts first.
US HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas
Greetings again! Next week we will be changing gears from the Progressive era and talking about the Holocaust. This dark period of history is incredibly necessary to cover as we transition fully into the 20th Century. The Holocaust has origins even as far back as the Classical era, so some context is necessary to prepare students to understand as we begin to cover the great wars and modern century. To help with this we will be reading the excellent book Night by Ellie Wiesel and discussing the context and world of the 1930s and 40s. I know the students are excited after being introduced to the topic by ELA and I’m sure they will appreciate this as well.
HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH - Mr. De Cardenas
At this point the progress made by the students has been amazing. They are performing very impressive dialogues spontaneously which shows their master of the Spanish grammar and narrative as well since they are writing descriptive paragraphs. We will take the next week to practice what we have been seeing this week in class. We will perform situations where they will need to use the place prepositions such as the indefinite quantity articles linked to the defective verb (Haber) in a descriptive paragraph talking about their houses. They will be practicing and memorizing all the vocabulary they need to make a detailed and consistent description of the house. Of course this will also be used to compose comparative statements giving another perspective to the intended description. We will review and practice all the topics to make sure the kids master them and continue improving their talkative skills. There will be a project due by next friday where they will need to write a detailed description of their houses using at least 100 words.
ADVANCED SPANISH - Mr. De Cardenas
At this point the progress made by the students has been amazing. They are performing very impressive dialogues spontaneously which shows their master of the Spanish grammar and narrative as well since they are writing descriptive paragraphs. We will take the next week to practice what we have been seeing this week in class. We will perform situations where they will need to use the place prepositions such as the indefinite quantity articles linked to the defective verb (Haber) in a descriptive paragraph talking about their houses. They will be practicing and memorizing all the vocabulary they need to make a detailed and consistent description of the house. Of course this will also be used to compose comparative statements giving another perspective to the intended description. We will review and practice all the topics to make sure the kids master them and continue improving their talkative skills. There will be a project due by next friday where they will need to write a detailed description of their houses using at least 100 words.
Mrs. Brown (Mr. Jones)
By now, a strong foundation has been established with which to begin more interactive activities targeting comprehension and expansion of knowledge gained. Class assignments will reflect this by requiring students to produce more interpretive responses as opposed to singular ones - many new verbs will be introduced! We will also work to continue distinguishing meaning between ser/estar. 7th graders will be challenged in Advanced Spanish with additional structures/vocabulary with which to engage!
ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor
Students began Chapter 8 Laws of exponents. It is a short chapter and they will have their first quiz Friday, 2/23. (8.1-8.2)
PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning how to find x and y intercepts and how to use them to graph lines (8.3). We will have a quiz on Thursday covering 8.1-8.3.
ELA - Ms. Ferkol and Mrs. Boyer
This week, students will utilize class time to finish writing and editing their persuasive essays that will accompany their independent nonfiction book projects. Their outline has been completed and in Google Classroom for students to utilize for the writing process. The Final Persuasive Essay is due on Thursday, February 22nd at the beginning of class.
We will begin our Shakespearean Studies with A Midsummer Night’s Dream near the end of the week.
It is imperative that students come to class with their chromebooks charged and their nonfiction novels handy in order to ensure this work gets done in a timely and efficient manner.
Please stay on top of the assessment calendar and Google Classroom assignments.
LIFE SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman and Ms. Insignares
Next week, we will be beginning our study of the respiratory system! We are are excited to teach the class a little bit about CPR to show how the circulatory system and respiratory system are dependent on each other. They will have a test over the respiratory system and circulatory system on Thursday. Please see GC for any updates and announcements.
AMERICAN HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas
We’ve gotten some great progress this last week on the Constitution! Next week we will continue further in depth with how the Constitution has changed and how the structure of government has shifted to match America’s needs. The students have so far enjoyed the lesson and I’m happy they are eager to learn about our rich history.
AMERICAN HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer
Next week in American History students will move on from our Government Unit and begin our study of the The Republic and the War of 1812. Students will examine how the Electoral College works as well as studying the first seven Presidents of the U.S.
ACCELERATED MATH - Mrs. Taylor
We began Chapter 8 (Ratios,proportions,solving proportions, and scale drawings). There is a quiz Wednesday, February 21st on sections 8.1 and 8.2. We will review Tuesday in class. I would like to complete a project in this chapter so that is my focus. Maybe with scale drawings.
PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning how to find x and y intercepts and how to use them to graph lines (8.3). We will have a quiz on Thursday covering 8.1-8.3.
EARTH SCIENCE - Ms. Insignares
This week we learned about the rock cycle and where we can find them! Next week we will review for our test and conduct a lab on igneous rock! They will test on chapters 2-4 on Wednesday, Feb 21st.
ELA - Ms. Ferkol
This week students will work through skills related to literary conflicts, plot, and text structure. All of these skills apply to many different genres and are important features to understand and be able to identify and explain. We are really moving beyond the, “What is this?” and more towards the, “How can I use this effectively and why is this important to me as a reader?”
The independent Figurative Language One-Pager Project is due Tuesday, 2/20! This must be completed and ready to be turned in at the beginning of class!
Throughout this unit, I will be modeling thinking routines and text features using the novel Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Students will need their novels every day as they will take the skills we learn about in class and work on them in their own stories during independent reading time. As we move forward it is imperative that students also bring their blue binders to every class as their interactive notebooks and activities will mostly be hard copy! There will be 3 binder checks throughout this unit that will average together into a quiz grade!
INTRO SPANISH - Ms. Brown (Mr. Jones)
By now, a strong foundation has been established with which to begin more interactive activities targeting comprehension and expansion of knowledge gained. Class assignments will reflect this by requiring students to produce more interpretive responses as opposed to singular ones - many new verbs will be introduced! We will also work to continue distinguishing meaning between ser/estar. 7th graders will be challenged in Advanced Spanish with additional structures/vocabulary with which to engage!
WORLD HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer
Next week in World History We will conclude our study of The Enlightenment with a final review and assessment of all the philosophers we have studied during this unit. We will begin our review on Tuesday and conclude the unit with a test on the 2/23. Also, we will finish our Enlightenment thinker’s project, due on 2/22. Looking ahead, the next Unit we will study is the Industrial Revolution.
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