8th Grade Team September Newsletter

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!

We finished Zentangles. These bold patterns and designs are visually stunning and very relaxing to work with. Students have done a great job with these!

We are now working on watercolor paintings (painting soon!). Students will paint an object, person, or animal of their choice. The goal is to match the values and textures of their source image. In addition to that, students will be able to make creative choices with their color selection and use of splatters, drips, and more!

8th grade engineering students are in the midst of our first major project: Ping Pong Madness! Students have been diligently documenting their planning phase in their engineering design notebooks, and now have received materials to build their launchers and catchers! After we’re done manufacturing our prototypes, topics such as launch angle and statistics will be discussed as we test our designs. It is vital that students continue documenting progress in their engineering notebooks and complete their reflection assignments when the project has concluded.

Assignments & other anticipated dates:

“About Me Blog” (8/25, past due)
“Objectives, Needs, & Constraints Assignment (8/25, past due)

Round Robin Tournament (9/7, anticipated)
Elimination Tournament (9/11, anticipated)
Notebook Checks: “Objectives, Needs, Constraints”, “Brainstormed Sketches”, “Finals Sketch”, “Overall Notebook Grade” (9/14, anticipated)
“Ping Pong Madness Reflection” (9/22)

In technology, students are concentrating on a few aspects of being smart digital consumers. We’re researching what websites are relevant and useful for online purchasing and then moving to a purchasing project that crosses over with spreadsheet software and budget creation. Afterwards, we’ll be discussing what makes a good digital citizen and working towards making a 2D animation that represents those ideas!

The first week of school has been great as we’ve spent time getting to know your students! We’ve started the year with a narrative reading and writing unit. We’ve worked with students in our classes to establish habits of good readers and writers, and we will be wrapping up our first unit next week with a narrative essay. Our next unit of study will be a short story analysis. Remember to check Canvas for the specific materials we’ll use in this unit! All students have an independent novel at this point for the first quarter. Please talk with your student about their book choice and encourage them to continue reading at home.

8th Grade Math

Students will be starting Module 1 this upcoming week. Module one covers real numbers. By having a solid understanding of real numbers, students will be better prepared to study more advanced mathematical concepts in later courses as well as making mathematical connections in everyday life. The module will include the following concepts: terminating and repeating decimals, roots, irrational numbers, and different kinds of estimation. Please help support your student by doing the following:

• Irrational Numbers: Discuss the necessity to use approximations of irrational numbers and when you might use those approximations, such as using to find the circumference or area of a circle.

• Square Roots: Have your child explain how they would find the dimensions of a square floor, if they knew the area in square feet.

Algebra

In algebra class, students kicked off the school year by investigating all different types of functions. They made team posters and compared the similarities and differences in multiple function families. We also reviewed solving for x from 7th grade and how to use order of operations with complex expressions. This week, we did our first round of MAP testing and everyone did an amazing job. It can be a bit of a stressful time for some kiddos and they handled it beautifully! We have our first unit assessment coming up Tuesday, September 12th so be on the lookout for a practice test and study materials! If you were unable to attend parent night this week, I have sent out a video overview of my presentation in talking points and I have linked it here!

Students are examining parts of and utilizing scientific inquiry in order to solve problems and answer scientific questions. We are having fun discovering how many times a day we actually utilize the scientific process. :) Up next, students will be investigating Earth's history and the processes that shaped and formed our planet.

If you were unable to attend curriculum night this week, here is a link for the 8th grade science overview.

During the month of September, students will begin investigating the first arrival of people into North America. They will learn about Native American tribes, regions, cultures, and ways of life. Students will then begin to learn about European Exploration into the Western Hemisphere led by Christopher Columbus, the Spanish, and Portuguese. Students will be tested over these materials and will complete in-class activities to further learning. During this month, students will also complete a special activity involving September 11th, 2001. If you were unable to attend parent night this week, you can view my presentation here: Link

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.