8th Grade Team October Newsletter

Staying connected to our families is important to our teachers. In addition to the front page of our Canvas courses, we are excited to share this monthly newsletter with our families to keep you aware of upcoming events, activities, lessons, units, and materials from our classes! The 8th Grade Team has compiled this newsletter to share some of the upcoming experiences your student will be having with us. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's teachers! As a reminder, 1st Quarter ends on Thursday, October 19th and printed report cards will be sent home with students on Friday, October 27th.

Eighth grade students will be working with a few different projects throughout the month of October! They’re starting off by doing some 2D animation within the program Frames, then moving on to creating a real Android app with MIT App Inventor, which will increase their coding skill, and finish the month off by doing a small pixel art unit to express their creative side! In November, we’ll be starting on a large cumulative unit about creating a video game!

ELA classes will be starting our research unit this month. Students will practice their nonfiction reading and writing skills, including evaluating sources, generating research questions, writing objective summaries, citing evidence, and working through the research process. This will all come together in a research blog on a topic of the student’s choice. We will end the unit with our annual “Bloggie Awards,” where students are able to showcase their research with one another.

8th Grade Math

We are in the middle of our Properties of Exponent and Scientific Notation unit, where we will learn about exponent rules and scientific notation. Students will use their prior knowledge of exponents to develop an understanding of the properties of exponents and scientific notation. By having a solid understanding of exponents and scientific notation, students will be better prepared to study more advanced mathematical concepts in later courses and within more advanced science concepts.

Ways to support your child’s understanding of exponents and scientific notation by asking them to explain how they are used in everyday life - News Articles or Media: Find a news article or other form of media that includes a number represented in billions or trillions, such as 1.2 billion. Have your child write the number in standard form and in scientific notation. Encourage your child to think about the advantages of each representation.

Please be sure to check Canvas to see how your student performed on their assessment and to make sure they have all their work turned in.

Algebra

This week, students finished up their unit on linear relationships! This was a great unit for connecting 7th grade content with algebra, and they did an AWESOME job. We will switch gears next week and start learning about all things solving. We will work with algebra tiles and use rectangles to multiply polynomials. We also do a full week on exponent rules which is TRICKY - but they got this! Things coming up - be on the lookout for a signup genius for a fun pumpkin lab! Every kid will get their own mini pumpkin to decorate. The designs are based on how accurately they solve some math problems! More info to come. Also, the current plan is for our chapter 3 unit assessment to be on the last day of the quarter: Thursday, 10/19.

We finished our unit on the scientific process and are investigating Earth’s history. Our final assessment is a comprehensive project that will be completed/constructed during class. Students need a posterboard to complete the assignment and will hopefully receive details by the end of this week.

This month students will be learning about The English Colonies in North America. Students will complete an analysis paper on the Lost Colony of Roanoke, researching different theories about where they could have gone! Students will investigate the Pilgrims, Mayflower, and Jamestown. Students will show mastery through the creation of a sales booth attempting to sell their colony as the best in the New World! Be on the lookout for fun jingles created by students about the Colonies!

Common Sense Media is an online tool that can help parents and students make informed decisions regarding media use. This tool can be used for many types of media, including books, movies, video games, and apps. Additionally, the “Parent Tips and FAQ” section can provide families with valuable support on facilitating social media, cell phone, and screen time use with their child.