Muskego Lakes 8th Grade Newsletter
January 2022
Absent? 8th Grade Agendas!
Agendas are the tools students will use when they are absent to stay caught up. The expectation is that students access each agenda and complete the listed tasks for their classes. If your student is unable to complete the tasks for any reason, please have them contact their teacher directly to let them know. Click on the links below to check them out!
Literacy:
Math:
Social Studies:
Science:
CLASSROOM CATCH UP- LOOK TO SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING IN 8TH GRADE CLASSES THIS MONTH!
Literacy - Tome, Koeller, Lehmann
January in Literacy: Students in Literacy are finishing up our in-class reading of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and their independent reading book and projects. Students all were to create a comprehensive project based on their independent reading books and there were some really creative ones! We are going to continue reading texts in our Holocaust Unit that focus on high-level reading skills like close reading, note-taking and collaborating to determine the author’s purpose and point of view.
Current Standard we’re focusing on: “Determining the theme of a literary text and being able to summarize it using text evidence to support” This standard is review for our students as they have prior knowledge on theme. Students overall did very well with the pre-test and are focusing on reading rigorous texts to challenge them to find the theme and support it.
- You can track your students’ progress with the SOF tracker that students will be sharing with parents. You can see your child’s scores from pre-test, check-ins along the way, to our final “Standards Mastery” assessment. We’ll get there 8th graders!
Check in with your student on:
Filling out assignment notebook
Weekly homework- Tasklist
Independent Reading/Book Project
IC Grade and any missing work
Math 8 - Vogler & Michalski
January Recap:
We are finishing wrapping up Unit 4, which is our fourth Standard of Focus. This unit focused on being able to compare proportional relationships.
Targeted skills:
Finding slope from a table, graph, equation, and two points
Graphing in slope-intercept form
Writing an equation from a graph or table in slope-intercept form
Relating similar triangles to make sense that the slope will always be the same on one line
Identifying proportional relationships
Comparing proportional relationships
Upcoming in February:
Unit 5: Systems of Equations → It is important that going into this unit students feel comfortable solving equations. This unit focuses on solving systems of equations in two ways, graphically and algebraically. Students will choose whether to demonstrate their understanding algebraically by using substitution or elimination.
Important Tools:
Tool for students to familiarize themselves with vocabulary for each unit
Algebra - Vogler
Students are about to enter the most difficult Quarter of Algebra. We begin to learn about Polynomials and Quadratic Functions. Please make sure your child is staying caught up with their practice and advocating for themselves when they are confused. It is normal for students to have to work a little bit harder to understand these concepts, so if your child seems to be struggling more than normal, just encourage them to reach out for extra support.
Social Studies - Tsakonas & Koeller
December Recap:
The American Revolution
Valley Forge: Would you have Quit? - Our first DBQ of the year
MHS, College + Career Planning
We used Xello to match our interests and skills with possible career choices, and started thinking about how our MHS course selections in the coming years will be partly informed by our post-high school plans.
January:
Government Unit
We learn about the foundational pieces of U.S. Government from a historical lens.
Key Topics:
Articles of Confederation + its weaknesses
Constitutional Convention + Compromises
The importance of population and representation
Roles of the 3 Branches of Government
7 Principles of the Constitution
Bill of Rights
Unit Assessment on 1/26 or 1/27!
Science - Goldberg & Tome
In December, we began our chemistry unit and have already discovered the motion of atoms and molecules, state changes, and density. The chapters we will cover in January are:
Periodic Table
Bonding
Dissolving
We will be studying the first 20 elements on the periodic table in depth and learning about how the others are organized. Later in the unit, we will have a project where students choose a synthetic or man made product, recreate it or model it, and present how the atoms and molecules interact to form that substance. Example projects would be rock candy, lip balm, bath bombs, slime, crayons, gum, gummy bears, play dough, lava lamp, chemistry art, soda, filters, bouncy balls, and many more!
Daily Assignments
8th Grade Syllabus
8th Grade Website
This is a website worthy of being bookmarked! This is a great tool to get your questions answered.
Here are some items that are found on our website:
- Syllabus for each core class
- Rolling Agendas
- Contact Information
- Daily Assignments (What your students should have in their assignment notebook!)
- Monthy Newsletter links
Encore Newsletter
Important Dates Ahead
8th Grade HS Course Conferences- Jan 28th all day
8th Grade Pep Band Game with MHS Band- Jan. 28th at MHS
Muskies United Meeting- Feb 2nd during lunches/homerooms (5th period 9-10)
Muskies United Meeting- Feb 4th, 7th & 8th graders during Period 5-6
MLMS Community Day- Feb. 18th
Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences- Feb. 24th
Tuesday Emails from Your Child!
1. Current grades in Core Classes
2. Missing Work Updates
3. Areas students are proud of
We hope that receiving this communication will help you stay up to date on what is going on in your students 8th Grade world. As teachers, we feel it provides such a great talking point and area for parents to follow up with students and truly feel more in the know! If you have additional feedback regarding the Tuesday emails, please reach out to your child's resource teacher! Thanks so much for supporting!
8th Grade Staff Directory
8th Grade Staff Directory
Need to contact your child's teacher? Look below for a complete 8th grade staff contact list.
Cassie Vogler - Math 8 and Algebra: cassie.vogler@muskegonorway.org
Brittany Michalski- Math 8: brittany.michalski@muskegonorway.org
Heather Goldberg- Science: heather.goldberg@muskegonorway.org
Angela Janusz (Koeller) - Literacy/Social Studies: angela.janusz@muskegonorway.org
Amy Lehmann- Literacy: amy.lehmann@muskegonorway.org
Laura Tsakonas- Social Studies: laura.tsakonas@muskegonorway.org
Nicole Stevenson - Learning Strategist: nicole.lowe@muskegonorway.org
Kristen Thimmesch- Spanish: kristen.modica@muskegonorway.org
Beth Brown- Speech: beth.brown@muskegonorway.org
Stacie Capstran- Spanish: stacie.capstran@muskegonorway.org
Mitch Hasey- Phys Ed: mitch.hasey@muskegonorway.org