The Pike Road Bulletin
Community 8 : January 31
Cinderella at Alabama Shakespeare Festival
Beyond the Glass Slipper
Africa
Caribbean
Greece
PRS Random Acts of Kindness Week
PRS Random Acts of Kindness Week is February 8th-12th
(Showing support for your favorite sports team.)
I- Inspire someone to by kind TUESDAY
(Dress as your favorite superhero and inspire others to be Kindness Superheroes.)
N- Neon bright WEDNESDAY
(Make the world a bright place by sharing kindness.)
D- Dive into kindness THURSDAY
(Dress in your favorite tropical wear as we dive into kindness.)
Friendly FRIDAY Twins Day
(Pair up with a friend and dress alike.)
Class Pets
In case you haven't heard, community 8 now has some very special class pets. Yes, they are actually rats named Millie and Ginger. These two adorable girls have helped us kick off our Respect Diversity campaign by breaking down stereotypes about rats, a concept easily transferred to stereotypes of various people groups. The learners have been surprised by just how smart and lovable the rats actually are. You are welcome to stop by for a visit if you would like to meet them in person. Better yet, we have several weekends available If you would like to schedule a home visit. These special visits allow the students to spend one-on-one time and bond with the animals in a way that just isn’t possible in the classroom. Just email Mrs. Kenny in you are interested.
Student Spotlight
Impact Award
Academic Achievement Award
Effort Award
Please Help Us Stock The Shelves
Upcoming Learning Objectives
English Language Arts/ History
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
As learners wrap up first drafts of their Cinderella remixes, they will begin participating in writing workshops to develop and strengthen their stories. We will be concentrating on the importance of strong leads, effective use of dialogue, descriptive details that show rather than tell, sensory details, transitions, various sentence structure, and figurative language.
- W.8.3- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
- W.8.5- With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
- L.8.5- Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
- L.8.1- Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
- L.8.2- Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
WORLD HISTORY
Learners will become active participants in the learning process as they become experts in a world history standard of their choice. Individuals or small groups of students will gather, analyze, interpret, and synthesize all aspects of life in a particular culture during different times throughout history. After compiling their research, groups will create a short unit of study to share the information with their classmates. Each unit of study should include a report of their research findings which fully address the standard, a bibliography, multimedia visual aids, an artifact, student resources, and a quiz.
- W.8.7- Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
- W.8.8- Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
- Link to ALEX 8th grade world history course of study / CCRS standards. http://alex.state.al.us/standardAll.php?grade=8&subject=SS2010&summary=2
Math
8th Grade Math learners have been working with solving proportions. Proportions play a big role in our everyday living, but many are unaware. These students have been applying proportions to real world applications such as going to the grocery store or buying tickets to a game or play. Throughout these next two weeks, these learners will work with proportions in some Geometry applications and other Geometry basics involving graphs.
Algebra I -
Learners in Algebra I have been working on finding the slope in various forms. Throughout these next two weeks, these learners will continue to work on processes involving graphs and writing equations for graphs. I also have 2 learners who will be teaching a lesson this next week.
Geometry -
Learners in Geometry have been working on proofs and similarity statements. Throughout these next two weeks they will be learning more proofs and application processes for Geometry in the real world.
Teacher for a day -
Many learners have approached me, with a desire for teaching the class for one day. So far, two learners have already taught a lesson. These learners were responsible to working with me to learn the lesson before presenting it and finding some practice problems to give to the rest of the class. The "student teachers" even walked around the room to help learners that were struggling. If your learner is interested in presenting a lesson, please tell them to see me so we can discuss it!
Science
This past week learners worked with a small group to calculate the kinetic energy of a marble, golf ball and tennis ball, analyze the data, and construct bar graphs to determine the effect of mass and velocity on kinetic energy. They did a great job graphing their data. Check out FreshGrade to see completed work.
To begin a small study of forces, students participated in an arm-wrestling competition to observe the result of balanced and unbalanced forces. Students were able to talk about their observations in class and describe how unbalanced forces cause acceleration while balanced forces do not.
Physical Science Energy Standard 8:
Use Newton’s third law to design a model to demonstrate and explain the resulting motion of two colliding objects
- construct and calculate the average speed of mousetrap car cars
- analyze speed graphs (constant speed, acceleration, deceleration, no motion)
- explain the energy transfer through the mousetrap car
- describe the motion of two colliding objects
- define momentum and use the formula p=mv to solve
- discuss Newton's 2nd Law of Motion
Respect Diversity Project
Many of the students are unable to tell us about their family history, so we hope you will find time to speak with your child about your family's cultural heritage. If you are willing to come speak to a small group of students about your cultural heritage, that would be even better!
Instructional Tools
Edmodo is our learning management system where assignments are posted. Here, you will see assignments, due dates, late notifications, tutorial and resource links.
Parents may access this through a unique code found on your student's Edmodo home page. Signing up is easy-just go to www.edmodo.com, sign up as parent, enter your access code and fill in the required information.
Composition Notebooks
While our learners have laptops, we continue to use Composition notebooks for notes, assignments, practice work, lab work and journaling.
Please make sure your child has a composition notebook for their respective classes.
FreshGrade is the reporting tool used to communicate what skills are being introduced and how our learners are performing on these skills. As lead learners, we continue to attend professional development opportunities and collaborate with our peers on the most efficient ways to use FreshGrade and ensure that you are provided with a clear and accurate view of what your child is learning. One thing we have recently discovered is that parents are not seeing the lesson descriptions and additional resources that teachers are adding along with the title of the activity or standard being assessed. To view these, just click on the blue "show" in the top right hand corder of the box. We hope you will find this information to be helpful.
While learners may not have formal homework assignments other than reading nightly, there my be times when your child will need to continue working on an assignment they didn't complete in class or work on a project which will span over a longer period of time. Learners are also encouraged to identify skills that "have not met expectations" and review the learning notes, tutorials, and practice activities. Once students believe they have a better understanding of the concept/material, they should speak to their lead learner about the best way to reassess that particular standard.
HOW CAN I BEST SUPPORT MY LEARNER AT HOME?
*READ! READ! READ!
All learners should be reading daily. Find something your child is passionate about and fuel that passion by encouraging them to read about it. Get them to describe what they've read to you in detail. You might even want to read the same book and discuss it.
Some of the many benefits of reading daily include...
- increased knowledge
- vocabulary expansion
- exposure to a variety of quality writing styles
- improved writing skills
- mental stimulation
- stress reduction
*Ask your child SPECIFIC questions about their learning.
Examples:
"I read in the Smore newsletter that you are learning different world cultures through the reading of Cinderella. What are some of the versions of Cinderella you have read in class, and in what ways have you learned about other cultures?
I read that you are analyzing the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass and speed of an object. What activities did you do to learn about this? Which activity did you enjoy the most? Can you tell me how speed and energy are related?"
*PLEASE REMIND YOUR LEARNER TO BRING HEADPHONES AND CHARGE THEIR COMPUTER EVERY NIGHT.
Upcoming Events
- Friday, February 5th- Mrs. Kenny's Multicultural Expo project group will travel to Pike Road Town Hall to discuss future plans for a Pike Road multicultural center and brainstorm ideas for our upcoming Multicultural Expo.
- Friday, February 19th- The art students of community 7 and 8 will be going on a field trip to Troy University for Trojan Art Day, the VAAP (Visual Arts Achievement Program) workshop.
A Day in the Life of an 8th- Grade Patriot
12:30-1:00 Lunch
1:00- 2:00 PE, art, drama, or music elective
2:00-3:00 Project time
Classroom Wish List
- pencils
- electric pencil sharpeners
- Loctite fun-tak mounting putty to hang posters to walls
- double-sided tape
- construction paper of various sizes and colors
- higher level fiction and nonfiction books for classroom libraries (new and used)
Please feel free to contact us anytime.
Mrs. Kenny mailto:catherine.kenny@pikeroadschools.org
Ms. Kitchens mailto:samantha.kitchens@pikeroadschools.org