The Middle Schoolers have transitioned their studies into empathy during their advisory time. Within these studies they learn what being empathetic means and how to be empathetic in a variety of situations. They have begun to use these studies in their daily lives when interacting with the people around them at school. It is really amazing to see them take a lesson from the classroom, understand it, and proceed to use their new skills with their classmates. 

Here’s a look at what is happening in each of the classes:

What’s happening in Social Studies?

This week the students dived deeper into their Industrialization unit. Students began to take a look at the different causes of Industrialization, and even took a small glimpse at the Scientific Revolution. As we know, without the start of advances in science, the Industrial Revolution could not happen. Students then took a step away from the Industrial unit and did a poster on a specific woman in history who made an impact on the Scientific Revolution. 

Next week, the students will be diving deeper into the Industrial Revolution. Students will be comparing different images of the revolution and the global transformation. 

What’s happening in ELA?

Eighth graders have completed their work on their “Critical Literacy” unit. Their reviews and visual representations of their books look great! They are also working on a “book slam” video promoting the book that they read. They are working on the script and will be recording their three to five minute videos. It is going to be wonderful! We will begin working on using figurative language in our writing and “Literary Essay” unit next week. This unit will continue in January. Your students also completed week ten in their grammar workbook. Remember,  there will be no reading log homework assignments from November 28th through December 9th. 

What’s happening in Science?

Eighth graders thought about stored energy and wave energy this week! Using slinkys, they were able to visualize the inverse relationship between frequency and wavelengths. They witnessed how high frequency of waves results in shorter wavelengths, which is an indicator of higher energy, so that the shorter wavelengths indicate high energy. Next week, they will continue their wave study by learning more about sound energy and how it travels as a wave from the source of noise to our ear.

What’s happening in Math?

Eighth graders have been busy working with statistics as we’re working through our Scatterplots Unit. We have become familiar with several calculator functions and they are able to input data, create a scatter plot with that data, calculate and graph the line of best fit, analyze and reason with the slope and y-intercept, find and interpret the correlation coefficient as they all relate to the context of the data. Next week, we will take a Unit 3 Assessment and begin some prep-work for Unit 4, which we will start after break! 

Important Dates:

• December 16th: Holiday Extravaganza- 11:30 Dismissal (Pajama Day)
• December 17- January 2: Winter Break