Quarter 3 Newsletter: 8th Grade
What's happening in January, February, and March 2019?
January Events and News
- CIMS Park and Play Yard Ribbon Cutting is on January 30th! We are excited to get to open our new play area!
2:30– 3:30—Playground Ribbon Cutting
- 1st Semester awards are all on January 30th.
8:45-9:30 AM—4th grade awards assembly
9:45-10:30—5th grade awards assembly
10:45-11:30—8th grade awards assembly
12:30-1:15—6th Grade awards assembly
1:15-2:00—7th grade awards assembly
- Week of January 28th-31st is the Great Kindness Challenge and we want all families to participate!
- January 29th from 5:30-7 is PTO's 1st annual Art Night.
February Events and News
- MYP Valentine's Dance is February 14th from 4:30-6
- February 14th is also the NJHS Pink Out! Where students can wear jeans and a pink shirt to support breast cancer research for NJHS. This yea'rs Pink Out! is in honor of Dan Lujan who sponsored NJHS for many years and who's service and kind nature inspired us all to take action.
- Talent Show is February 21st from 6-7:30
March Events and News
- Spring Book Fair is the week of March 11th-14th
- Spring Break is the week of March 18th-21st
The Great Kindness Challenge!
The Great Kindness Challenge is the week of January 28th-31st. We want all families to participate. Your students will be participating through school with spirit days, student checklists, and other activities, but you can get your family involved too! Pick up or have your student pick up a family version of the Great Kindness Challenge Checklist from the office and complete the challenge together! Students can submit their completed checklists into the office on Monday February 4th for student recognition.This week can be inspiration for all of us to choose kind all year round.
Current Units of Inquiry
Language and Literature
Concepts: Communication, purpose, and structure
Statement of Inquiry: Successful communication is achieved through a clear purpose and supported by meaningful structure in order to broaden awareness of human capability.
Inquiry Questions: What qualities of text structure reveal its purpose? How are ideas developed over the course of a text? Can texts help people maximize their own capability?
Summative Assessment: Students will research an occupation or individual in an area of their interest. They will use their research to develop a piece of writing that expresses information on the individual/occupation, opportunities that lead to these circumstances, and the impact this has on society with the intention that finding practical means to achieving personal dreams can positively impact society as a whole.
Spanish
Concepts: Culture, context, and audience
Statement of Inquiry: A Culture's histories of ideas as presented in television and movies provide context for the audience.
Inquiry Questions: What is a culture's history? How does the history of ideas of different cultures determine the context presented to an audience? Does your culture have an impact on how you see the context of history?
Summative Assessment: Students will use their knowledge of the Spanish culture and their own in order to create a movie review which demonstrates their understanding of the context of the history if ideas on the audience.
Individuals and Societies
Title: Go West, Young Man! or Where did all the Buffalo Go?
Concepts: Global interaction, resources, and sustainability
Statement of Inquiry: Global interaction over resources tests the sustainability of human impact on the environment.
Inquiry Questions: How did the United States expand its territory to the west? How did the concept of Manifest Destiny lead to global interaction over resources? Were the benefits of Westward Expansion worth the costs to the natural resources of the West? Why or why not?
Summative Assessment: The unit summative assessment task requires students to analyze the use of natural resources in the west as well as the sustainability of those resources as used by western settlers.They will make connections between the global markets that encouraged the use of these resources and the extent to which humans impacted their environment.
Science
Title: Energy Transformation
Concepts: Change, energy, and tranformation
Statement of Inquiry: Understanding transformations of energy can produce systems which lessen the impact of humans on the environment through conservation.
Inquiry Questions: How can we determine that energy can be transformed? What are indications of energy transformation? When energy transformations occur, is the transformation permanent?
Summative Assessment: Students will have the opportunity to explore, write and do a lab on transformations of energy from potential to kinetic and back to potential to understand the process. Lab includes data analysis component and final written piece. Students will do a final demonstration of knowledge through a School City Test.
Math
Title: We Built This City on Transformations (Transformations and Similarity)
Concepts: Form, simplification, and space
Statement of Inquiry: Manipulating form and design can be limited by space and adjusted for simplification and efficiency.
Inquiry Questions: What transformations yield a congruent form? What types of designs require specific transformations? How do some transformations contribute to efficiency and simplification?
Summative Assessment: City Plan Project: The goal of the assessment task is to create a city plan based on transformations where buildings are created as congruent or similar structures. The role of the student is as a city planner. The audience is the general public of the area of the country where the city is being built. The situation is that the student is to create a plan for a city in the country of their choice based on the resources and cultural aspects of that country. The product is a plan created on a coordinate grid and a piece of public relations media to get people to move to the new city. The standards to be addressed are those associated with Pythagorean Theorem, rigid transformations, dilations, and properties of similarity and congruency.
Drama
Title: One is the Loneliest Number
Concepts: Connections, expression, and presentation
Statement of Inquiry: Connections are influenced by the expression and presentation of our interaction with others.
Inquiry Questions: What are the different types of monologues How does the presentation of a monologue effect connections? Do monologues deepen the understanding of a character?
OR
Title: Lights, Camera, Action!
Concepts: Change and presentation
Statement of Inquiry :Social entrepreneurs use visual culture to develop presentation.
Inquiry Questions: What are the components of a production? How do lighting and sound effect a play? Which type of presentation more effectively communicates mood, action, character, and setting: Black box with single spot, use of lighting, sound effects and high tech assistance?
Design
Title: Money and the Real World
Concepts: Global interaction, form, and function
Statement of Inquiry: Form and Function of our Resources helps us to learn Fiscal Responsibility
Inquiry Questions: What is Fiscal Responsibility? What is the difference between resources and sources? Can a person live a comfortable life on a fix income? Explain why or why not this would be possible.
Summative Assessment: Students will explore the idea of living on their own through a budget simulation where they will research jobs and salaries, food and utilities costs, and discuss credit and fiscal responsibility.
PHE
Concepts: Change, perspective, and systems
Statement of Inquiry: Change occurs with the use of technology that can impact the function of body systems which supports physical and mental well-being.
Inquiry Questions: Why are fitness plans not a "one size fits all?" Which is more important: good nutrition or adequate sleep? Why? How can individuals who do not meet ideal standards for body weight be fit?
Summative Assessment: Students will develop a fitness program based on their height and weight and their personal goals and needs.
2018-19 Yearbook Sales
Don't forget to order your student's yearbook by Jan. 31st for Early Bird pricing. The price goes up after January 31st and online sales close on April 6th. Yearbook sales are limited on the day of distribution and are not guaranteed. Yearbooks are sold through online sales only, no money can be accepted in the office.