8th Grade 3rd Quarter Newsletter

8th Grade choir is finishing a unit about Polynesian Music. Students are writing their own “meles” which is a form of Hawaiian chant. Ask your student to see their song that they wrote in choir. After our song-writing unit, students will begin rehearsing music for their next concert in February. Students will soon have information on the King’s Island trip for May and the music program large trip for 2026. Please keep on the lookout for updates on the Vocal Music Program through our newsletter as well!

8th Grade Band will be working on rhythm, scales, technique, new repertoire for the Spring Concert, and chamber music. We will continue working through our warm-up packet for scales, technical exercises based on those scales, and chorales. We will be introducing the “40 Rhythmical Studies” book to grow our music literacy skills. We will explore music reading through multiple concert band pieces, both traditional and modern, to develop our Spring Concert Program, which is May 8th. We will also do a unit on chamber music (small ensemble) playing, where students will work together to learn music in small groups to perform for the class.

It is highly recommended that students take private music lessons on their instrument. Music and Arts in Hilliard is a great place to get your students involved in this. Please reach out to me if you have questions or desire more information. hostetre@japioneers.org

8th Grade ELA will start the quarter by continuing to read “The Outsiders.” In this unit, students collaborate to analyze character development, develop themes, and examine text to identify the meaning of unfamiliar words. After the novel, we will move into our argumentative writing unit. Students will research and evaluate information to develop arguments, select the strongest evidence, and identify counterclaims. This will be used to write an essay that students will share with peers.

In the next week, students will be selecting their independent reading book for the 3rd quarter. They will have the quarter to read and prepare a book talk that will be presented to the class. Please talk with your student about their choice of book and continue encouraging them to read outside of class.

8th Grade Math

The 8th graders recently started our Transformations unit, where 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 the pre-image. Students will apply this understanding of using coordinate notation to determine the coordinates of an image from the coordinates of its preimage.

Ways to support your child’s understanding of transformations by discussing transformations in everyday life.

• Video Games: Discuss with your child how video game designers and programmers use geometric transformations when creating video games.

• Architecture: Discuss with your child how architects and engineers use geometric transformations when designing buildings and bridges.

• Interior Design: Discuss with your child how interior designers use geometric transformations when decorating spaces for commercial or residential use.

Algebra Class

In Algebra, we are beginning Chapter 7, which focuses entirely on Exponential Functions. We will spend the better part of 3 weeks diving into properties and real-world usages of exponential functions. There are lots of real-world applications with this topic as it is so prevalent in financial topics - such as investment options, loan/credit card debt, depreciation/appreciation, etc.. As always, we will be focusing on conceptual understanding of the topic and students will be pushed to consider similarities and differences of exponential functions vs. linear functions, where we have spent most of our time together thus far.

We will then dive into quadratics (as well as some inequalities) for the reminder of the quarter. Chapter 8 focuses on the overarching properties of quadratic functions. Lots of graphing and understanding of how quadratic functions work. Then Chapter 9 dives into solving quadratic functions as well as graphing and solving systems of inequalities.

It is also worth noting that I am very proud of the students for closing the first semester well. Students did exceptionally well on their midterms. They worked very hard to prepare for them, which showed based on their scores. Lots to be excited for and proud of amongst the JAJHS Algebra group!

Honors Geometry

The honors geometry students have completed the first seven chapters of the curriculum! We are now taking a break from triangles and other shapes to study probability, particularly conditional probability. Probability is one of my favorite topics! Students are familiar with calculating the probability of independent events, like rolling dice or flipping a coin. Now, we will learn how having some type of knowledge can change probabilities.

Once we complete the probability unit we will return to geometric shapes. We will use what we have learned about triangles and quadrilaterals to study polygons with many sides. This will lead us to our circle unit by the end of the quarter.