8th Grade Team December Newsletter
December 1, 2023
Stay Up-to-Date with our Classrooms!
Staying connected to our families is important to our teachers. In addition to the front page of our Canvas courses, we are excited to share this monthly newsletter with our families to keep you aware of upcoming events, activities, lessons, units, and materials from our classes! The 8th Grade Team has compiled this newsletter to share some of the upcoming experiences your student will be having with us. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's teachers! As a reminder, the end of the 2nd Quarter and 1st Semester will be Friday, January 5th.
8th Grade Electives
Art
Students have begun our tape sculpture artwork! This is done with a process called “tape-casting”. It basically involves using packing tape to make casts of classmates! Students can create duplicates of themselves or classmates using tape that will stay frozen in a position of their choice. Part of the fun is the process of making these, part of the fun is figuring out where you will be placing this thing in the school!
Choir
The JAJH choir concert is December 12th at 6:30 pm at the high school. Students should be there no later than 5:30 and should meet in the choir room.
We will also have Sugar Plum Lane that evening which is a holiday cookie sale. If you would like to donate baked goods to the sale, please sign up with the form that was sent home with students.
Band
December 2nd - Christmas Under the Clock
This is a volunteer student event where students have put together small ensembles of Christmas music to perform at Buckeye Brass in Plain City.
Permission slips for this event were due Wednesday, November 29th.
December 5th - Winter Band Concert @ 7pm in JAHS Auditeria (Students report @ 6:15pm)
Details for this event have been sent through Talking Points and are also on Canvas.
December 14th - Joint In School Performance with Choirs
The Band will perform one piece from their Winter Concert for the student body, during the school day. Thank you to Mr. Mayes for inviting us to perform with the choirs.
Engineering
PE and Wellness
Technology
Students are moving on to the final two projects in tech, which, when combined, focus on their ability to market themselves online. They’ll be creating a web portfolio that highlights the amazing projects they’ve finished this year, and then they’ll be creating a beautiful CV that calls attention to their best skills and accomplishments.
World Languages and Cultures
Students have wrapped up their Asia unit! They worked hard on creating a culture pamphlet for the country, Russia, to bring home and “inform” their parents. Those will be going home this week. Ask your students to see them! As we continue around the world, our next stop is Europe with a heavy emphasis on France. Students will come out of this unit with a brief understanding of both the culture and the language of France.
Teaching students the beginning of Spanish and French this semester is in regard to the foreign language offered at the high school. We hope that with this little bit of knowledge, picking a language class once they head to the high school is easier for them!
8th Grade Core Classes
ELA
8th Grade ELA will be wrapping up our “Ghost Boys” novel unit in the month of December. Throughout our unit, students have analyzed how theme is developed through characters, plot, and setting. Each section of the book has been paired with nonfiction articles that further develop the topics identified. The unit will end with a final essay that explores how the theme of a fictional text can connect to the central idea of a nonfiction text.
The accelerated ELA class is also exploring the connections between fiction and nonfiction, but through our historical fiction book clubs. Students have selected specific events in history to research and then compare to a historical fiction novel. Each group will complete a final project that shares this comparison and analyzes how differences in points of view and perspectives can impact the retelling of an event.
Math and Algebra
8th Grade Math
We have recently begun Module 4. The goal is to have this module completed by the time we leave for winter break. In Module 4, Linear Relationships and Slope, students will draw on their knowledge of unit rates and proportional relationships to understand slope. They will use similar triangles to explain why the slope is the same between any two points on a line. They will explore similarities and differences between linear and proportional models, and explore the linear equation y = mx + b.
How can you provide support?
Support your child’s understanding of linear equations by asking them to explain how they can use reasoning about slope in everyday life.
Price/Banking: Ask your child about price/banking rates increases and decreases - if something increases at a steady rate, where will it end up? What if it decreases?
Stairs: When you encounter a staircase, ask your child to estimate its rise and run. Discuss how the staircase might be different if the run was increased or decreased.
2. Encourage your child to have a positive, growth-oriented attitude towards mathematics and their learning.
Encourage them to ask questions – both at home and in class. Sometimes, an answer to a question will generate more questions. That’s how you know they are learning!
Encourage your child to embrace challenges and remind them that every challenge is an opportunity to learn something new.
Algebra
We are currently finishing up our chapter 5 unit on sequences. We are exploring patterns and how they compare to each other in terms of their growth, their graphs and their equations. This will be the last chapter before the end of the quarter and our midterm exam! The midterm is going to take place in class on Wednesday, 12/13 and Thursday, 12/14. Students will have two full review days in class but I will also be sending home a midterm review packet next week for them to do on their own time if they’d like to start studying early! We also have MAP testing coming up too - I know it’s a lot, but they’re doing an AMAZING job! Please let me know if you have any questions about the midterm or anything at all.
Science
8th grade science students are finishing up the Continental Drift/Plate Tectonics unit. Students will be engaging in a seafloor spreading lab this week and an edible tectonics lab next Monday (*why they need a snickers or milky way candy bar) to review for the upcoming unit test.
Social Studies
Students in social studies classes will begin investigating the causes of the American Revolution through our American Revolution Unit. Students will be assessed through a poster on research about the causes of the Revolution. Students will then begin to learn about the Declaration of Independence, and will return from break to continue learning!
Common Sense Media is an online tool that can help parents and students make informed decisions regarding media use. This tool can be used for many types of media, including books, movies, video games, and apps. Additionally, the “Parent Tips and FAQ” section can provide families with valuable support on facilitating social media, cell phone, and screen time use with their child.
