8th Grade Team February Newsletter
February 3, 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!
8th Grade Electives
Art
Students have finished up their zentangles and have moved on to scratchboards. The scratchboards are thick pieces of paper/cardstock that have a thin layer of clear plastic and black ink over top. The object is to remove the ink using metal scratching tools to reveal the white underneath. Through different layers and methods of scratching, each student must match the light/dark areas of their reference image. The focus is to recreate the values and textures of their photo, and also do creative designs in the background.
Choir
Students are preparing for their February 24th concert. We have been exploring and singing popular styles of music in class. Some of the songs they will sing at the concert include the 1926 jazz hit “Blue Skies,” “Circles” by Post Malone, and finally, “A Million Dreams” from the Greatest Showman.
Band
We have completed Phase 1 of our Small Ensemble Unit and will be moving on to Phase 2, where the music will be more difficult, and students will have more choices in their ensemble groups. We are continuing to learn new full-band music for our concert in the Spring.
Engineering
Students are hard at work in our “ping pong madness” project. Launchers and catchers have been designed and manufactured, and all of our groups are now in the testing phase. The competition begins next week!
PE and Wellness
This month in physical education students will be participating in frisbee games, soccer, and volleyball. In health class, we will be setting SMART goals.
Technology
8th grade students are working with Google Sheets right now to conduct a virtual shopping spree. They're learning skills in Sheets like creating formulas, formatting cells and borders, and whipping up professional charts and graphs. Later this month, they’ll be working on creating an actual app for Android phones!
Additionally, APN students are learning new concepts weekly in order to create the best newscast possible! As always, you can see all of our newscasts at https://www.youtube.com/@alderpioneernetwork8026!
World Languages and Cultures
It’s the start of a new semester, and we are learning Spanish! We started with basic words such as por favor / please; gracias / thank you; de nada / you’re welcome, and continued with greetings and the alphabet. We are learning how to spell our names in Spanish and ask simple questions such as What is your name? How do you spell your name? How are you feeling? and What are you like? We’ve been enjoying fun videos such as:
- Buenos Dias - Hello song in Spanish - Basho & Friends
- Learn Spanish alphabet and vowels with BASHO & FRIENDS - El Alfabeto
- Spanish alphabet song (military style) by Barbara MacAurthur
- Como Eres? rap
- Como Soy Yo - Spanish Adjectives Song
We will be moving on to numbers so we can say how old we are, colors and our favorite animals, among other topics. We practice speaking Spanish every day in class!
8th Grade Core Classes
ELA
8th grade ELA has stepped into our Argumentative Unit! Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be researching relevant topics of our choice and working on writing arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. Throughout this process, students will establish a clear thesis statement to present their argument, introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize their reasons and evidence logically. We will also be working on supporting our claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources. After the writing portion of this unit is complete, we will turn these topics into small classroom debates.
Math and Algebra
8th Grade Math
In our current module, Transformations, students will draw on their knowledge of graphing in the coordinate plane. By graphing transformations and identifying the coordinates of their images, students will understand how these transformations affect the x and y coordinates of a preimage. Students will apply this understanding of using coordinate notation to determine the coordinates of an image from the coordinates of its preimage.
Vocabulary:
- Students will translate (slide) figures horizontally and vertically on the coordinate plane and identify the coordinates of the translated image.
- Students will reflect figures across horizontal and vertical lines on the coordinate plane and identify the coordinates of the reflected image.
- Students will dilate figures on the coordinate plane and identify the coordinates of the dilated image.
- Students will rotate figures 90֯, 180֯, and 270֯ about a vertex on the coordinate plane and identify the coordinates of the rotated image.
- Coordinate notation - students will use algebraic symbols to represent the change in coordinates (x, y) → (y, –x)
Algebra
This week, students are wrapping up their unit on exponential functions. We are starting Chapter 8 Quadratics, this week and really diving into parabolas and all the real-world applications of quadratic equations. This chapter is quick, and we will have a unit assessment on Thursday, 2/16. Chapter 9 continues our study of quadratics and continues into inequalities. Because we are continuing to study non-linear relationships, things are getting challenging! Please feel free to visit my canvas modules and parent guides for help! Reach out as always with questions or concerns!
Science
In science, students are finishing the Plate Tectonics Unit and will be “moving” through a unit on Forces and Motion. :) Students will complete several labs to help them gain a more thorough understanding of Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion.
Social Studies
In social studies classes, we will continue to learn about the American Revolution. Students will show mastery over this war and then move into learning about the creation of the government with the United States Constitution. Students will show mastery by understanding the workings of the national government and how we still use this government today.
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.