Grade Level Goodies Quarter 4
Piney Grove Middle School: 8th Grade
A Note from Mr. Reed
Hello 8th Grade Families,
It is hard to believe that we are beginning the 4th quarter of the year, and your student may already be looking forward excitedly to high school. While we are all working together to prepare them to be the best War Eagle, Dane, Avenger, or any other high school mascot they will become, we must still focus on finishing the 8th grade year strong. We have milestones testing upcoming so please encourage your student to stay off their devices late at night to get a restful night’s sleep during testing. Also, encourage them to eat a good breakfast before testing. Speaking of technology, I would like to remind you of our PGMS cell phone policy where the expectation is for students to place phones and earbuds in their lockers. This prevents distractions and will allow students to have time to listen, learn, and thrive. I would encourage you to have a conversation with your student about healthy technology habits outside of school. As the Administrator for this group of students over the last two years, I have seen so much growth and maturity from this group, and I am proud of them all. I cannot wait to see what the future holds.
David Reed
Assistant Administrator
8th Grade Trip
A C A D E M I C S
ELA News
We will begin the fourth quarter with Unit 6: What Matters. The skills focus will be reading and analyzing argumentative and informational texts. Students will be writing argumentative texts by generating research questions and anticipating conflicting viewpoints. Students will also be focusing on correct shifts in verb mood and voice. Students will have a cold read summative that will assess 2 texts and audio that contain conflicting viewpoints to assess the standards above. Students will also have an assessment over argumentative writing. Students will write the final draft of their argumentative rough draft/organizer for summative assessment including appropriate shifts in verb mood and active and passive voice. We will end the school year with our 7th Unit over Modern Fiction and Cultural Influence. Students will focus on the following skills: reading literary texts, narrative writing, and presenting the product. Students will have a literary analysis assessment that is a short constructed response. Students will also have an assessment of Narrative Writing and Traditional Stories: Presentation. After completing the work, students will create a product that is presented (website, presentation, video, etc.) that reflects their understanding of traditional stories. This should include elements such as: narrative rewrite of a myth or story, character analysis, and explanation of cultural significance.
Math News
8th Grade Math- Fourth quarter will focus on our last unit: Geometric Application of Exponents. Students will explain the Pythagorean Theorem as it relates to the area of squares coming off of all sides of a right triangle. Students will learn that given three side lengths with this relationship forms a right triangle. One application of the Pythagorean Theorem is finding the distance between two points on the coordinate plane. Students will also apply the formulas for the volume of cones, cylinders, and spheres and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems. The last part of the quarter will be spent reviewing for the Milestone, which will be Thursday, April 27th. After the Milestone, we will continue to review concepts that will be needed in highschool.
Algebra 1- After our test on March 8th on quadratics, we will be starting our Stat and Data Unit. Students will be using statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (interquartile range, mean absolute deviation) of two or more different data sets. Students will also be interpreting differences in shape, center, and spread in the context of the data sets, accounting for possible effects of extreme data points (outliers). Students will also summarize, represent, and interpret data on two categorical and quantitative variables. We will then begin to review for their EOC on May 1st.
Accelerated-Students have started the Geometry A material. They recently had a test on Transformations and will be starting angles. We will then move on to similar and congruent triangle and quadrilateral proofs, and finally right triangle trigonometry. We will start reviewing for the algebra EOC mid March. Students will have reviews to complete each week and then will be quizzed over the review material. Please help them be proactive with each review by starting early in the week.
Science News
Our fourth quarter will be spent wrapping up our final unit, electricity and magnetism. We will be exploring how we use both electricity and magnetism in our daily lives. The unit culminates in electromagnetism and how it supports our modern society. The students will have opportunities for hands-on work and demonstrations with static electricity, building simple circuits, and creating electromagnets! After electricity and magnetism, we will start reviewing content from all year for our state milestones test. We will review up until April 28th when students will take their High School Physical Science Milestones Test. After the state test, we will be doing enrichment activities for Physical Science and previewing Biology content for next year.
Social Studies News
In quarter four, students will be learning about modern Georgia, economics, and government. Students will wrap up our study of Georgia with three more summative assessments. Students will continue working on constructing responses using historical evidence to justify their reasoning. After Spring Break, students will begin to review for the Georgia Studies Milestones which will be taken at the beginning of May. After the Milestones assessment, students will work on a personal finance project and work on developing skills for high school.
Spanish News
Native Speakers-Students will start Unit 4, and will explore the following themes: Public Health Challenges, Actions to improve quality of life, and Natural Resources. We will discuss how we can help preserve the environment, and how science and technology influence the environment. Also, students will work on the following grammatical structures: Simple future, reflexive verbs, present/past perfect. We will start reading and discussing the novel called Cajas de cartón.
Spanish 1- Students will start Unit 4 called Travel to Argentina (land of the Gauchos), in which students will explore vocabulary related to travel and leisure activities. We will discuss why traveling is an important learning experience and students will continue reading and working with the novel Pobre Ana. Lastly the following grammatical concepts will be introduced: : the five senses verbs, reflexive verbs, future simple, present progressive and the past tense.
C O N N E C T I O N S
PE, Health, & Weight Training News
We are mixing up physical activity in various ways including fitness and exercise along with playing various games.
Our focus is displaying G.R.I.T. in the following Quarter 4 Units:
-Softball
-Ultimate Frisbee
Weight Training: Students will continue to work out and strive to achieve the goals they have set.
Health: Students will learn about the long term health effects related to habits that started in their teenage years. Students will conduct an advocacy project geared towards teens and how to curb bad habits and their long term health effects.
Fine Arts News
Band: Students will learn music literature and perform for a panel of judges for LGPE. They will also prepare for Solo and Ensemble which will be performed at our Dessert Concert in spring.
Drama: 7th & 8th grade drama students are continuing to rehearse for their upcoming production of “Newsies,” which will take place at Denmark High School on May 11-13.
Chorus: Students have completed their State Large Group Performance Evaluation. All grade level choruses earned Superior ratings in both their performances and sight-reading, a HUGE accomplishment!
Students will now begin work on music for the upcoming Spring Spectacular, which will take place in May.
CTAE News
Yearbook: Students will finish designing their spreads for the 2022-23 yearbook. They will be collecting pictures, interviewing staff and students, and writing captions. They will also be completing modules as well. Lastly, we will be working on marketing to sell the remaining yearbooks available.
PGTV: Students will continue to produce the bi-weekly news program for PGTV. We will have weekly meetings to discuss what current events are happening in and around the school to cover. They will submit segments that they have written for consideration, and will then produce their segment or skit. We will also work on anchoring skills as well.
Engineering: All grades start with learning the Engineering Process steps (steps to create design problem solutions). Then we apply them to various projects like CAD/3D modeling, Truss Bridges, and more.
Piney Grove Middle School
Website: https://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/pineygrove
Location: 8135 Majors Road, Cumming, GA, USA
Phone: (678) 965 - 5010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PineyGroveMS/
Twitter: @PGMSGrizzlies