January 13th - January 17th

Deadline for PVSA Community Service Hours – Don't Miss Out!
If your 8th grader would like to receive a Presidential Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) at this year’s Honors Assembly on Monday, May 19th at 8:30 AM, please make sure all community service hours are completed and submitted to the middle school office by Monday, March 24th.

Here are the PVSA levels based on the number of hours completed:

• Bronze Level: 50 – 74 hours

• Silver Level: 75 – 99 hours

• Gold Level: 100+ hours

We’re excited to recognize our students for their outstanding service to the community, so encourage your child to get their hours in on time! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

Attention 7th Grade Families
We are excited to continue the beloved tradition of having 7th grade families host the reception following the 8th grade graduation ceremony on May 22. This special event is a wonderful way to show our support for the 8th graders as they celebrate the end of their middle school journey and prepare to transition to high school. 

Please click here to sign up and be part of this meaningful occasion! 

** Graduating families who helped with last year’s reception: Albert. Cheshire, Lake, Lapp, Mitchell, Mobley, Moody, Phillips, Richter, Stegall, Tanner, Thomas, Wilson, Wilkes, and Zeigler! **

Share Your Memories! 

Click the QR code below to upload your photos for our school yearbook. Share your memories from school events, sports, or special moments in the classroom! Help us capture the moments that matter most!

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.

Spring sports are just around the corner, and we want to make sure everyone is ready to kick off the season with a bang! Here are a few important reminders and exciting updates:

Spring Sports Reminder:

If your child plans to participate in any spring sport, a current physical must be on file in the nurse’s office before they can start practicing or playing. Please make sure this is completed as soon as possible!

Spring Sport Contacts:

Boys Baseball: Manny Carucci
Boys Soccer: Tim Roberts
Boys Golf: Matt Mobley
Boys Track: Dylan Jones
Girls Soccer: George Milmine
Girls Track: Dylan Jones
Girls Golf: Heather Seibert

Exciting Baseball News:

Open Practice: January 12th from 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM at Paulson Field. Don't miss it!

Basketball Updates – The Teams Are On Fire!

Boys 5th: Improved to 3-1 after a dominant win vs SJS (29-7)
Boys 6th: Unbeaten at 3-0 after a big 46-34 victory over SJS
Boys 6th B: Perfect at 4-0, most recently defeating Habersham 43-20
Boys 7th: Showed tremendous improvement with a strong second half vs. SJS #1 team
Boys 8th: Dominated Calvary 46-27 and are pushing for the #1 seed in the tournament with a 7-1 record (including non-SPAL games)
Girls 5th: Balanced at 2-2 after a split with SAS
Girls 6th: Undefeated at 5-0, most recently beating SCPS 26-7
Girls 7th/8th: 2-3, with a big win over St. Peters last week

We’re excited for the upcoming season, and we hope to see you cheering on our athletes!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to the respective coaches. Let’s make this spring one to remember!

Tip  #11 Try harder in the classes that are not your favorite. 

Chances are, you have at least one class that is a struggle for you. Try harder in that class, or those classes, and you’re less likely to struggle. Sometimes all it takes is an attitude adjustment (It’s not that bad), positive self-talk (I can do this!), or touching base with the teacher to identify strategies that may support your work.

Our Virtue of the Month for November and December is community! Consider looking for an opportunity during this time for your family to volunteer together. The United Way of the Coastal Empire has opportunities and  Second Harvest allows volunteers ages 12 and up when accompanied by an adult.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns you may have this year. amaher@hancockdayschool.org

Each middle school student is required to complete ten hours of community service over the course of the school year.  Please remember to check this area of the blog for opportunities. Click HERE for a log form or see Mrs. Mannarino in the office.

Algebra I - Mr. Scordato
We finish our unit on Systems of Inequalities with a Desmos art project due on Friday 1/17. Get ready for Exponents, it’s a power-ful unit.

Advanced Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will begin Chapter 8 by learning about classifying polygons (8.1), the Interior and Exterior Angle Theorems of polygons (8.2), finding the area of squares, rectangles, and triangles, (8.3-8.4).  There will be a quiz on Thursday covering 8.1-8.4 and we will have our 2nd STAR Test of the year on Friday.

Geometry - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Geometry, we will continue learning about trigonometry by learning how to use SOHCAHTOA to find missing side lengths in right triangles, using inverse trig functions to find missing angles, and many examples of using trig in the real world.  There will be a quiz on Tuesday covering SOHCAHTOA and the trig test on Friday.

Physical Science - Ms. Harmon
We will be having our test on Energy and Describing Motion Wednesday and will begin our lesson on the Newtonian Laws of Motion

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ELA - Ms. Hall

We are so close to the exciting conclusion of Macbeth! Students will finish reading the play by the end of next week, finally turning in their Themes Graphic Organizer that they should have been adding to throughout our study on Thursday (1/16). Using the information that they’ve gathered on the importance and growth of our four set themes, students will be guided through creating a detailed persuasive essay. This due date will be shared at a later time.

US History - Mr. Saviskas
We have been learning about the American Reconstruction after the Civil War. So far we have covered the immediate aftermath of the war, the formation of groups like the KKK and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Next week we are going to finish up with Reconstruction and begin moving on to the Gilded Age. On Thursday we will have a quiz on everything we had talked about in the week prior.

High School Spanish - Mr. De Cardenas

The return to school transition has been great. The students are showing amazing engagement and commitment to the learning process. Next week we will deepen our understanding of Spanish grammar by studying the Co Preterit Past. Our goal for the next week will be to make the students reach a mastery level of this new content. Specifically on how and when to use this new grammar tense, to understand the difference between Undetermined Preterit Tense and Co Preterit Tense, and take a first step towards the verbal conjugation by learning how to conjugate the verbs ser and estar making special emphasis in talkative skills, also listening comprehension,  translation and vocabulary incrementation. 

 

Algebra I - Mr. Scordato
We finish our unit on Systems of Inequalities with a Desmos art project due on Friday 1/17. Get ready for Exponents, it’s a power-ful unit.

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will have our Chapter 5 test on Monday.  We will then begin Chapter 6 by learning about ratios and unit rates (6.1) as well as writing and solving proportions (6.2-6.3).  We will have a Math Facts Quiz on Wednesday and our 2nd STAR Test of the year on Friday.

Life Science - Ms. Harmon

We will be having our test on Cells and Cell Cycle Wednesday and will begin our lesson on the Musculoskeletal System.

Life Science - Mrs. Swanner
Next week, we will begin our study of asexual reproduction.

ELA - Ms. Ferkol

Students did a wonderful job this week working on and presenting their vacation projects! They had some wonderful and exciting vacations planned, some of which I would love to go on myself! In the coming week, students will jump back into their routine of nightly reading and journaling. In class, we will practice skills related to their journal topics.

For the remainder of this unit, students will be creating their own nightly reading schedule with their book club groups. Half way marks and ending deadlines will be posted by Monday for students to adjust their reading speeds accordingly. Additionally, it is expected that students will complete at least one journal entry per night–there will be time most class days to get this completed in school! 

ELA - Ms. Hall
After several weeks of studying and researching the setting of their book club novels, students will kick off reading their novels at the beginning of next week. They will work on completing chapters daily either in or outside of class while developing their writing and critical thinking skills with journal entries. These journals will be taken for grades.

American History - Mr. O’Hayer

Next week in American History students will continue preparing for our trip to Junior Achievement’s Finance Park. This course deals with many components of understanding finance and how money “works.” Topics will include: Income, Savings, Investments, and Risk, Debit vs cash, Budgets, and entrepreneurship. Students will have assignments that will count as grades. We will conclude the unit with a trip to JA’s Finance Park later in Jan.

American History - Mr. Saviskas
Next week we are continuing our Junior Achievement Finance lessons. So far we have covered the basics of income, careers and taxes. We will be diving into lessons in savings, investments, financial risk and budgets. We will have a short quiz on the material we covered last week on Wednesday before continuing on in preparation for our trip to Junior Achievement’s Finance Park in late January.

Advanced Spanish - Mr. Jones

Continuing with the present indicative, we will begin working with irregular and stem-changing verbs. This will lead us into beginning to express obligations with the irregular verb tener in the structure tener + que + infinitivo (to have to do something*). We will use days of the week, parts of the day, and the preposition por to express them together (ie. Mi momento favorito de la semana es el domingo por la mañana / My favourite moment of the week is Sunday morning). Quiz on Tuesday, 14 January.

X + 1 = Fluency

Advanced Spanish - Mr. De Cardenas 

Upon returning from the holiday break, we will continue working with the prepositions para and porque interactive games. Then, we will continue in Unit 3 using geography and weather as topics of study for vocabulary and cultural exposure to new content. We are working toward the function tener que + infinitivo to express what we have/don’t have to do. Enjoy time with family and friends everyone, gobble gobble!

X + 1 = Fluency

Accelerated Math - Mr. Scordato

Students will spend some more time with the coordinate plane. They’ve been loving to play Coordinate Plane Battleship. There will be a quiz on Wednesday 1/15.

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will have our Chapter 5 test on Monday.  We will then begin Chapter 6 by learning about ratios and unit rates (6.1) as well as writing and solving proportions (6.2-6.3).  We will have a Math Facts Quiz on Wednesday and our 2nd STAR Test of the year on Friday.

Earth Science - Mrs. Swanner
Next week, we will continue studying Earth’s structure. We will focus specifically on Earth’s surface. We will have a vocabulary quiz on Friday, January 17 covering the vocab words on pages 17-32.

ELA - Ms. Ferkol
Students have done a great job transitioning back into the school year with vigor and determination! This coming week, students will practice skills related to identifying themes and creating thesis statements for their novels. Students will be creating their own reading schedules with their reading groups in addition to some nightly practice with skills taught in class. Lastly, students should be preparing to discuss their findings and thoughts about their novels in their second book club toward the end of the week!

World History - Mr. O’Hayer
Next week in World History students will continue on to our study of  Europe during the 17th century. There they will find the Age of Enlightenment. We will study the great Thinkers of the period: Hobbs, Locke, Bacon, DesCartes, Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu and others. Students will see how the Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle influenced these great thinkers and how the Age of Reason influenced Revolutions across the globe. 

Spanish Fundamentals - Mr. Jones
We will use days of the week, parts of the day, and the preposition por to express them together (ie. Mi momento favorito de la semana es el domingo por la mañana / My favourite moment of the week is Sunday morning). Students will be quizzed orally over on Friday, 10 January based on the days of the week/moments of the day and are expected to answer : ¿Cómo se dice _____ en español? / ¿Cómo se escribe _____ en español? / ¿Cuál es tu día favorito de la semana? / ¿Cuál es tu momento favorito del día? / ¿Cuál es tu momento favorito de la semana? (Responses to these questions vary slightly, students are expected to comprehend and respond to the subtle semantic differences, demonstrating familiarity with the content and spontaneous production of the language when asked.)

Happy New Year! 

Elements of Art are evident at the start of this New Year. Sixth graders are using Each contour line, color, shape, texture and value are put into place to create depth and movement. Sixth will continue 2D & 3D shoe production, 7th will develop their Tree House Architecture and 8th will expand in Kinetic Sculpture. Excited for their progress and thoughtful engineering!!