February 26th - March 1st
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
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Dear Parents,
We continue to experience disruptions to our Gold Gate and Green Gate afternoon Carpools due to Middle School parents who arrive early for White Gate Carpool. When you arrive before your scheduled pick-up time, you cause traffic congestion in our parking lot, which causes the traffic to extend out of our parking lot onto Howard Foss Drive. It is important for all HDS parents to understand that a single car arriving before the scheduled time will cause a chain reaction that has a negative effect on our ability to facilitate Carpool according to expected timelines.
Green Zone (PreK-2nd Grade) 2:45-3:00
Gold Zone (3rd-5th Grade) 3:00-3:15
White Zone (6th-8th Grade) 3:25-3:45: Arrive at 3:15 or later
When we all work together, afternoon Carpool runs more smoothly and takes less time out of your day. We recognize that perfect timing is not always easy, and we thank you for your efforts to do your part to ensure that everyone can experience an efficient and safe afternoon Carpool.
Thank you.
Jack Cargile
Head of Middle School
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:
6 of Hancock’s 9 teams advanced to the Semifinal round of the SPAL Basketball Tournament in hopes of reaching the finals !!!
8th Grade Boys
8th/7th Grade Girls
7th Grade Boys
6th Grade Boys
5th Grade Boys
5th Grade Girls
Good luck moving on!
8th Grade Girls and Boys- Semi Finals held at HDS February 22nd
5th Grade Finals -Girls and Boys will be Tuesday February 28th
Track had a parent meeting this week -but it's not to late for MS Track. For more info please contact Ms Catherine Hallman or Marissa Steimle
Spring Athletic Pictures will be taken on February 27th during School.
Athletes on Baseball, Track, Golf, and Soccer teams will be issued uniforms prior to that date. These will be done the same way basketball pictures were done!
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 - Saturday, 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. *** If you plan to attend, please remember to bring plastic bags with you to Hancock Hall in the morning. ***
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
24. Create a healthy study environment
First, creating an environment that allows middle schoolers to study effectively is essential. When they sit down to study, the atmosphere around the student can significantly influence how they engage with their work.
Create a routine: Students should pick a regular time to sit down and do their schoolwork. They should, over time, determine how much time they need to get the school work done and plan a study block, factoring in adding breaks to their study routine. Parents should monitor this time in the beginning to ensure that they are spending appropriate amounts of time - too much or too little can be problematic.
Create a dedicated workspace: students should find a spot to sit and work without any major distractions. Having a dedicated workspace with all their needed stationery, books, and other requirements is helpful. Some other things to consider are whether there is sufficient light for them to study. Are the noise levels manageable?
Eradicate distractions: try to steer clear of anything/ anyone that may interfere with or hinder your studying. A major distraction for most children is gadgets. Students should put away any devices they do not need for their studies. Even on devices they use for their academics, students should disable unnecessary apps or tabs while working and turn off notifications for social media. Additionally, students often believe that turning on some music helps them study. This is not the case - most music distracts from studies.
“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
We will continue with exponents and scientific notation. Students will take Chapter 8 test 3/6.
ADVANCED ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will continue our study of surface area and volume of solid objects. We will learn how to find the surface area of pyramids and cones (9.3). There will be a day of practice on Wednesday and then we will have a quiz on 9.1-9.3 on Thursday. On Friday, we will have student-led parent conferences. On Tuesday, we will participate in the Georgia Math League Contest where we will compete against schools across the state in an online math contest. The 8th grade gets a very special treat - if they do well enough, they will get to see my 8th grade yearbook picture!
GEOMETRY - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Geometry, we will continue Chapter 10 and circles by learning about chords (10.3), inscribed angles and polygons (10.4), and other angle relationships (10.5). On Wednesday, we will have a quiz covering 10.1-10.3. On Tuesday, we will participate in the Georgia Math League Contest where we will compete against schools across the state in an online math contest. The 8th grade gets a very special treat - if they do well enough, they will get to see my 8th grade yearbook picture!
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
This week has been so fun as I got to teach my favorite lesson on Bernoulli’s principle and we did the classic “Penny boat lab.” These next two weeks, we will switch from having our assessments on Friday to Mondays now. Please see the assessment calendar as this is reflected there. This is temporary and not a permanent change! The quiz will be on Monday (2/26). We will be beginning our egg drop project next week Tuesday-Friday. We will be dropping them on Friday. This will be worth two project grades. It is our second big project in physics this year and I am excited, as are they. I will be dropping them from the roof (no students will be allowed on the roof) but it will be a very legitimate test of their knowledge of fluid forces and drag.
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
We are progressing well. Last week we started with an early history of antisemitism and how we got to the 20th century roots of the Holocaust. This week we will be talking about antisemitism and Nazism’s rise to prominence within Germany. This will cover the Ghetto system, Night of Broken Glass and the Nazi power in government. Late into the week we will talk about how ordinary people would become collaborators and direct participants in the Holocaust.
HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH - Mr. De Cardenas
I must say I am very proud of all the hard work the students are doing in my class. Their progress has been huge and I am sure they will soon be ready to establish a fluent conversation in Spanish even with a native person like me and succeed in communicating their thoughts in any situation. Next week we will be learning how to ask or give someone’s address. For this they will be using the place prepositions we have been studying so far and also they will learn some new verbs and their conjugations which will allow them to improve even more their talkative skills. The master of the cardinal numbers in Spanish is very important for this so we will put special emphasis on them. On Friday we will have a quiz to measure the students' improvement in all the topics we have reached in class.
ADVANCED SPANISH - Mr. De Cardenas
I must say I am very proud of all the hard work the students are doing in my class. Their progress has been huge and I am sure they will soon be ready to establish a fluent conversation in Spanish even with a native person like me and succeed in communicating their thoughts in any situation. Next week we will be learning how to ask or give someone’s address. For this they will be using the place prepositions we have been studying so far and also they will learn some new verbs and their conjugations which will allow them to improve even more their talkative skills. The master of the cardinal numbers in Spanish is very important for this so we will put special emphasis on them. On Friday we will have a quiz to measure the students' improvement in all the topics we have reached in class.
Mrs. Brown (Mr. Jones)
Students are progressing steadily however our most recent in class activities have taken more time to complete, peer review, and check with me individually then I had anticipated. Being said, we’ll postpone our project due date until Thursday, February 29th to ensure all students have had time to gain clarity and confidence of our grammatical structures in question prior to adding anything creative thereafter. Parents keen to assist their students in preparation of our project ought to encourage them to study the we/they/y’all conjugations of ser/estar. We will also work to continue distinguishing meaning between ser/estar. I assure all parents, students have the resources necessary to aid them! 7th graders will be challenged in Advanced Spanish with additional structures/vocabulary with which to engage!
ALGEBRA 1 - Mrs. Taylor
We will continue with exponents and scientific notation. Students will take Chapter 8 test 3/6.
PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning about slope (8.4), using slope-intercept form (8.5), and parallel and perpendicular lines (8.5). On Tuesday, we will participate in the Georgia Math League Contest where we will compete against schools across the state in an online math contest. The 8th grade gets a very special treat - if they do well enough, they will get to see my 8th grade yearbook picture! Something to look forward to next year!
ELA - Ms. Ferkol and Mrs. Boyer
This week, we are diving into our next unit–Shakespeare!! We will be reading his famous work, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and exploring the exciting themes of magic, jealousy, transformation, and love (and just how confusing it can be!!). Students will be reading an abridged version of the original Shakespearean language and have access to a Layman’s terms version on Google Classroom; it is suggested that as we read portions of this amazing work in class, students are supporting their comprehension and understanding of the work with this online resource, for as we all know, “The course of true [knowledge] never did run smooth!” This is an incredibly interactive unit, with many opportunities for students to engage with the material in new and exciting ways, and we are hopeful that students are ready to “perform”! :)
First, we will dive into an intro lesson on Shakespeare himself through reading and annotating notes, interacting with an Interview with Shakespeare, and a T/F PowerPoint. Next, we will spend the week reading…after students have been assigned their characters! We will be reading the whole play in class! Each evening students will have check-ins to reinforce their learning. This is Shakespeare with a harness…not just a safety net! :)
Please stay on top of the assessment calendar and Google Classroom assignments.
Assessments:
Character/Note Quiz Monday,March 4th
Full Play Quiz Friday, March 15th (If you are learning early for Spring Break, you must schedule to take the quiz before break.)
LIFE SCIENCE - Ms. Hallman and Ms. Insignares
Next week, we will be beginning our next unit on the immune system and excretory system. It should be gross and fun! On Thursday (2/29), we are lucky to have another visit from a parent/doctor- Dr. Moody! He will be talking about his job as a pulmonologist which will wrap up our unit on the respiratory system perfectly!
AMERICAN HISTORY - Mr. Saviskas
Hello again! Next week we will have fully covered everything on the Constitution and US Government and will be taking our test on Wednesday, 2/28. Students will have a study guide to help them and we will be doing a review lesson on Tuesday. After the test we are moving on to the New Republic period of American history. These are the early years of America under the Constitution and its expansion to the West. Some figures and events we’ll cover are Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, the War of 1812 and Manifest Destiny.
AMERICAN HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer
Next week in American History students will move on from our Government Unit and begin our study of 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. Students will also begin their Presidential Biography project.
ACCELERATED MATH - Mrs. Taylor
We will continue with Chapter 8 (slope, writing and solving proportions, and scale drawings). We will do a small scale project and test on Chapter 8 Tuesday, 3/5.
PRE-ALGEBRA - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning about slope (8.4), using slope-intercept form (8.5), and parallel and perpendicular lines (8.5). On Tuesday, we will participate in the Georgia Math League Contest where we will compete against schools across the state in an online math contest. The 8th grade gets a very special treat - if they do well enough, they will get to see my 8th grade yearbook picture! Something to look forward to in 2 years!
EARTH SCIENCE - Ms. Insignares
This week we closed the chapter on minerals and rocks. Next week we begin Chapter 5 (Weathering and Soil) and Chapter 6 (Erosion and Deposition). We will quiz on Chapter 5 on Thursday, Feb 29th.
ELA - Ms. Ferkol
This week will be our last week working with new content for our Realistic Fiction unit! Students have been doing a great job interacting with their novels and each other to develop a deeper understanding of this genre and all of its intricacies. As we finish up this week, students will have their final book club discussions and their final binder checks. As a reminder: the grades from the three binder checks will be averaged together into a quiz grade! Students have had access to my example binder every day and it is expected that if they are absent, they see me to receive the notes they missed or consult the binder! The following week, students will write an essay on their novels utilizing the IBW structure. This will take up classroom time and account for the homework for the week. This essay will be the culminating assessment grade for the unit!
INTRO SPANISH - Ms. Brown (Mr. Jones)
Students are progressing steadily however our most recent in class activities have taken more time to complete, peer review, and check with me individually then I had anticipated. Being said, we’ll postpone our project due date until Thursday, February 29th to ensure all students have had time to gain clarity and confidence of our grammatical structures in question prior to adding anything creative thereafter. Parents keen to assist their students in preparation of our project ought to encourage them to study the we/they/y’all conjugations of ser/estar. We will also work to continue distinguishing meaning between ser/estar. I assure all parents, students have the resources necessary to aid them!
WORLD HISTORY - Mr. O’Hayer
Next week in World History We will begin our next Unit: The Industrial Revolution: Changes and Challenges. This is a very interesting unit. Students will learn that the IR was a time transformation in how people worked and lived, bringing innovation and fueling debates about forms of government, economic systems, and workers’ rights. Students will examine inventions that changed our society as well as building their own inventions.
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