Middle Schoolers dove headfirst into content in each of their core and special area classes this week. They learned how to organize their materials, their planners, and their lockers. Organization is a skill that is so important to explicitly teach in Middle School, as it doesn’t always come naturally. So, here are some things that we introduced this week that you can help support at home:
- Executive Functioning (daily block after third period right, before lunch) is a time where homework is written in planners, plans are made for studying, and materials are organized in binders, book bags, and lockers.
- Planners are to be used to help keep track of important dates, deadlines, and daily homework. They are to be taken home and brought back to school everyday.
- Google Classroom is our lifeline! Here, they’ll find study guides, rubrics, extra math practice, etc. Your child has access to everything they need for school all on one Google Classroom page – which they can access from home (computer, tablet, phone, etc) using their school Google Account. Reach out to your child’s advisory teacher if you need help getting logged in at home!
- Linked via Google Classroom, students can access their grade level Google Calendar to see their daily homework assignments, test/quiz dates, and due dates. These Google Calendars will be linked in the weekly newsletter for parents to access, as well! It will be updated frequently with important dates and assignments. Students copy their assignments for the week in their planners during Executive Functioning! Teachers will also send reminder emails about big dates like tests and projects when the time comes.
- Graded tests, permission slips, and other handouts will come home in your child’s blue take home folder.
Utilizing these organizational skills and tools will not only ensure a successful academic middle schooler, but also guarantee that your child feels calm, collected, and prepared for school!
-AG
ELA- This week in ELA, 8th graders dusted off their persuasive writing tools to tackle our ‘position paper’ unit. Writers dissected real arguments for and against violent video games to inspire how they might bolster their own rhetoric within a topic they care about. They began research on a topical issue (ranging from AI in art to gendered education to social media age limits) and set out to develop a thesis with a thoughtful position and reasoning. These papers will be due September 9th!
Next week we will continue to flesh out arguments with outlines, evidence, first drafts, and consideration of counterarguments! Be sure to encourage your 7th grader to begin studying their vocabulary + greek and latin roots for next week’s test on 8/28.
Science- In science this week, 8th grade jumped into their investigation of gravity and kinetic energy. We started out by exploring different tracks and gathering and graphing data to discover the equation for speed. We then repeated our investigation with different tracks to discover the equation for acceleration. Next week we will use video analysis to explore gravity and spring scales to explore the differences between weight and mass .
Social Studies- Eighth grade has begun our study on world history and why many historians think it truly began in 1750. This is an important time in human history and it will allow them to learn more about human connections and how those led to the revolutions and world changes of the 18th and 19th centuries. Next week we will begin working on our first project which will have them researching and creating a project on “the ideas of revolution.”
Math- This week in math, 8th grade geometricians explored new math tools such as protractors and compasses and used them to construct precise polygons like equilateral triangles, created parallel lines and perpendicular bisectors, and learned how to write conjectures to prove these to be true.
Next week, we’ll wrap up this first short unit by using circles to construct precise squares before we begin connecting these skills to real-life applications in construction.
