March 3rd - March 7th

 


Dropping Off Bags at White Gate

If you place anything on the benches outside the middle school office, please let Mrs. Mannarino know what it is and where, or to whom, it should be directed. Thank you!


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.




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 & Events

Let's get ready to show our team spirit! All spring sports are now in full practice mode, and the season will officially start in about two weeks. Come out to the events and cheer on our Eagles—you won’t want to miss it!

We’ve got some exciting news for our students! This April, we’re hosting a Fishing Tournament for boys and girls in 5th to 8th grade. It’s a great way to enjoy the outdoors, and the winner will take home a $100 prize! Stay tuned for more details!

Also, mark your calendars for our Basketball Camp from June 4th to 6th! Local high school coaches will be there to help and scout future players, so it’s a fantastic opportunity for any aspiring basketball stars. You can find brochures online or talk to Coach Bellairs for more information. The camp will have sessions for different age groups at different times. If you invite someone from another school, you’ll get a 25% discount! Plus, students in grades 6-8 can earn community service hours by helping out at the Pre-K camp.

Uniforms
We’re still waiting on 3 football uniforms to be returned. If you have a basketball uniform, please turn it in directly to Coach B in a Ziplock bag with your name and grade written on it.

I’ve been asked if 8th graders can keep their uniforms, but since our uniforms are stocked items and the style changes every year, they’re no longer available. This makes them much more expensive to replace, so please make sure to return them. The replacement fee is $200, so we really appreciate your cooperation!

Enthusiastically,
Coach B

#17 Executive Functioning Skills: Understanding Organizational Skills.

Organization skills are important abilities that help you keep your things, time, and tasks in order. Being organized can make your school life easier and more efficient. Here’s a breakdown of what organization skills involve:

  1. Time Management: This is about using your time wisely. For instance, if you have a homework assignment due next week, planning to work on it a little each day instead of cramming it all in one night is a great example of time management.

  2. Keeping Track of Materials: This means knowing where your school supplies and assignments are. For example, if you always keep your books and notes in the same backpack pocket, you can quickly find them when you need them.

  3. Prioritizing Tasks: This involves deciding which tasks are most important and should be done first. For example, if you have math homework, a science project, and a book report due, you might prioritize the science project if it’s due first.

  4. Setting Goals: Organization skills also help you set clear, achievable goals. For example, if you want to improve your grades, you can set a goal to study for at least 30 minutes each day.

  5. Creating Systems: This is about finding ways to stay organized. For instance, you might use a planner or a digital calendar to keep track of your assignments and deadlines.

Examples to Understand Organization Skills:

  • Example 1: Imagine you have a big project due in two weeks. Instead of waiting until the last minute, you break it down into smaller steps, like researching, writing, and creating a presentation. Each day, you focus on one step, which helps you stay organized and reduces stress.

  • Example 2: Think about your locker at school. If you keep it tidy and only put in the things you need, like your textbooks and notebooks, you can find what you need quickly instead of digging through a mess.

Analogies to Help Understand Organization Skills:

  1. Backpack Analogy: Think of organization skills like packing a backpack for a trip. If you just throw everything in without thinking, it will be hard to find what you need when you get there. But if you organize your items, like keeping clothes in one section and toiletries in another, you can easily find what you need when you arrive.

  2. Puzzle Analogy: Imagine putting together a puzzle. If you start with the edges and sort the pieces by color or shape, it becomes much easier to complete the puzzle. Organization skills work the same way; by sorting and planning, you can complete tasks more efficiently.

By developing strong organization skills, you can make your schoolwork more manageable and enjoyable!



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
Next week, we will be starting our unit on solving quadratic equations. 


Advanced Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will continue Chapter 9 by learning how to find the surface area of prisms and cylinders (9.2), and pyramids and cones (9.3).  We will have a quiz covering 9.1-9.3 on Friday.  And then we’re off to Washington, D.C.!!


Geometry - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Geometry, we will complete Chapter 10 by having a quiz covering 10.1-10.3 on Monday, learning about angles inside and outside circles (10.5), and segment lengths inside and outside circles (10.6).  We will have a day of review on Thursday and the Chapter 10 test on Friday.  The test will only cover 10.1-10.6.


Physical Science - Ms. Harmon
We will be starting our lesson on Sound Waves.


ELA - Ms. Hall

This week, students have officially completed reading the novel Night! In lieu of making time for our Yom HaShoah community project, the test has been temporarily postponed. Instead, the Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance) contest Hancock enters into yearly will count as our major assessment for the time being. As we head into next week, students will be finishing their proposals for their contest entry and gathering the materials necessary to create their art work. They’ve been instructed to bring their own supplies from home as each student's project will be specific to their individual ideas.


US History - Mr. Saviskas
Greetings once again! We have completed the Holocaust unit and will be moving onto our unit covering WWI. I realize that this is taking a step backwards in time. This was done to ensure we covered the entirety of the Holocaust unit before we went to Washington D.C. Now that we have completed the unit we can return to our chronological lesson plans.


High School Spanish - Mr. De Cardenas

I hope you’re doing well! I wanted to take a moment to update you on what’s ahead in our Spanish class for next week. Based on the fantastic feedback from students about our current unit, we are excited to build on this momentum and continue to progress.

Next week, we will shift our focus slightly to enhance speaking and comprehensive skills. We will introduce a variety of activities designed to give students more opportunities to practice speaking and listening comprehension  in Spanish, which will help strengthen both their fluency and confidence in conversation.

Additionally, we will continue with the current unit on the future tense in Spanish. Students will learn how to use the simple future tense to express actions or events that will certainly happen in the future. This will be a great chance for them to expand their grammatical knowledge and practice applying these structures in everyday contexts. I’m confident this will be both a rewarding challenge and a useful tool in their language learning journey.

Lastly, we are nearing the conclusion of the book mapping project. The students have demonstrated exceptional creativity and effort, and we will soon be communicating the final results after the judges have deliberated and selected the winning project. It has been a rewarding and creative experience for all involved, and we are excited to celebrate their hard work.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m looking forward to another productive week of learning!

Let me know if you’d like to adjust anything further!


Algebra I - Mr. Scordato
Next week, we will be starting our unit on solving quadratic equations.


Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning how to represent linear functions by graphing them.  We will learn how to form tables to plot points (8.2) and how to find the x and y intercepts and use those to graph (8.3).  We will have a quiz covering 8.1-8.3 on Friday.


Life Science - Ms. Harmon

Next week we will begin our lesson on the Respiratory/Circulatory System.


Life Science - Mrs. Swanner
Next week, we will conduct a frog dissection lab.

All students need to bring corded headphones to class on Monday and Tuesday!


ELA - Ms. Ferkol

Students will continue to work on building their persuasive arguments as to why people should read their novel. This essay asks students to address three aspects of their reading to prove their point: the novel features (Exciting plot? Interesting characters?), the theme, and the cultural impact. This essay is tentatively due on March 6 and will be taken for a test grade! 


ELA - Ms. Hall

This week, students officially finished their Theme Park Projects and submitted them for a final grade. As a result, we have been able to move into their persuasive essay, detailing why their VoW book should be read by more people. Next week, they will have multiple days in class to sharpen their claim, counterclaim, and rebuttal skills before being peer reviewed. This essay will be submitted halfway through the week and taken for a test grade.


American History - Mr. O’Hayer

Next week in American History students will continue our examination of the American Government/Economics Unit. Students are working hard on their Political Party Project. We will finish up our Government Unit next week and begin the section on What is an Economy and the various impacts on an economy. 


American History - Mr. Saviskas

Back again! We are moving onto the early years of the new American Government and talking more in depth about how the US government functions. This unit is meant to give us the background and understanding of the US as we begin approaching the Civil War.


Advanced Spanish - Mr. Jones

 We will continue working with the reflexive verbs while adding new ones. Next new bit of material will be to step into the past simple with the verbs we have at hand already.


X + 1 = Fluency

Advanced Spanish - Mr. De Cardenas 

 Working now to differentiate between the possessive pronouns and adjectives, we will begin adding in the demonstrative adjectives and pronouns to these structures. Our goal is to empower students to speak of nouns with specificity! We will add in the expression “to have to…” as well. We will test over this material on Friday, 14 February.


X + 1 = Fluency



Accelerated Math - Mr. Scordato

We move on from our Geometry to learn about polygons. We will use our knowledge of ratios to find the missing side lengths of similar polygons.


Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will continue Chapter 8 by learning how to represent linear functions by graphing them.  We will learn how to form tables to plot points (8.2) and how to find the x and y intercepts and use those to graph (8.3).  We will have a quiz covering 8.1-8.3 on Friday.


Earth Science - Mrs. Swanner
Next week, we will begin learning about Plate Tectonics. These concepts will segue into Earth Dynamics, which will segue into Earthquakes and Volcanoes. The “large” project for Trimester 3 will be building and erupting a “volcano.” Students will have a good deal of notice, but for this project, students will need to bring clay to build their volcano. I just want to make sure that you know in plenty of time.


ELA - Ms. Ferkol
Now that we have a knowledge base about the history and culture of Vietnam, we will begin reading our novel. We will be doing much of our reading in class, so it is imperative that students come prepared with their novels and binders every day!


Throughout this unit, students will be assessed on vocabulary (quiz grades) and novels will be checked for annotations (classwork grades) regularly. This novel 


World History - Mr. O’Hayer

Next week in World History we will continue our examination of the great Thinkers of The Enlightenment. We will move on to great Thinkers such as Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau. Students have started their next project- They will all become songwriters and create a song based on the thoughts and philosophies of an Enlightenment thinker. It should be interesting to see what they create. Later, they will be entertaining the class with their creations. 


Spanish Fundamentals - Mr. Jones
We will begin to add all of the reflexive verbs for the 6th grade. These will be taken head on only in the present tense with an emphasis on self expression!



Art Agenda next week

6th Small watercolor abstractions made using watercolor & embroidery thread. I still can not get over their beautiful impressionist clouds. Look for those on Artsonia online student gallery soon! 

7th Split Self-Portraits of self & species science connection-could be endangered animal or beloved pet. Students combine photography, slide editing & grid method by hand to produce. 

8th YomHashoa-Holocaust Remembrance Project. Students brainstorm the projects footprint beginnings. Students are grasping the content with compassion. Their initial ideas are on track with meaningful reflection and selection of materials. 

March is Youth Art Month! 

We are participating in St. Vincent’s Fine Arts Show Monday March 3rd.

8th 

Tyler and Carson

Coleman & Hudson

Mari Claire and Whitney

Nora & McCall

MG & Adair

Ella and Livy

Emma R and Bellemy

Charlie Butler & Graham

Anna Chase & Catherine


7th 

Sophie McKenzie

Sofia

Whitt

Ryves

Corbin

Sutton

Alton

Evelyn

Skylar

Cameron


6th

Hannah

Bentley

Olivia

Millie

Asholyn

Emery

Emmeline

Emma Kate

Noah

Cameron Howard

Lucy Mac



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