8th Grade 1st Quarter Newsletter

The first nine weeks of choir focus on developing routines while also exploring many types of music around the world. Students learn many rounds, and we develop the ability to sing in two and three parts at once. In addition to this, students learn about the voice, how to warm it up, and how to expand the instrument. Lastly, students will work on music theory skills that translate to being able to read written music notation. Eighth Grade students will be able to Audition for JAM Fest, which is the grand opening of the Vocal Music Department on November 1st. They can audition with a song to be performed and compete for the grand prize of $250. Auditions are September 29th and 30th.

Greetings! The 8th graders are gearing up for concert season, kicking it off with our 8th Grade Night at the High School Football Game on Friday, September 19, 2025 . We will rehearse with the High School Band at the High School on Tuesday, September 16, 2025. Please see the details below for both dates.

Tuesday, September 16th - Band Rehearsal with the HS Band

LOCATION: Jonathan Alder High School (9200 US-42, Plain City, OH 43064)

TIME: 4:45pm - 7:30pm

DETAILS:

• The HS doors will open at 4:30pm. Students need to report to the CHOIR ROOM with their instruments. (Students must take their instruments home from school that day.)

• Students need to wear closed-toed tennis shoes and bring WATER. Most of the rehearsal will be outside in the football stadium, so students will need to dress accordingly depending on the weather.

Friday, September 19, 2025 - Performance at High School Football Game

LOCATION: Jonathan Alder High School (9200 US-42, Plain City, OH 43064)

Report Time - 4:45pm Pick-up Time - 9:30pm

DETAILS:

• The HS doors will open at 4:30pm. Students need to report to the CHOIR ROOM with their instruments. (Students must take their instruments home from school that day.) We will then do a short rehearsal in the football stadium with the HS Band, then relax inside until game time.

• Students need to wear their Red 8th Grade Band Shirt, jeans, and closed-toe tennis shoes.

• Our Boosters will be providing students with hotdogs, chips, and water during 3rd Quarter. If your student would like anything additional, they are welcome to bring money for concessions.

• The 8th grade band students will get into the game for free. All spectators must pay for tickets.

We will parade down to the field with the High School at 6:30. The 8th grade performance will begin around 6:35/6:40pm. Once finished the students will move with the High School Band to the stands, where we will help cheer on the team for the remainder of the game. Students will stay with the marching band for the entire football game.

Since this is a school sponsored event, students are held to the same guidelines as listed in the school and band handbooks. Any students found breaking any of the guidelines may be asked to leave the event and a separate consequence may ensue at the directors’ discretion.

Football games are unpredictable, all times given are an approximation. Students will be given plenty of heads up in order to communicate if anything changes! We use the Talking Points App in order to keep parents informed of changes in schedule or return times.

To start this quarter, 8th grade engineering students will be working on a really fun project: ping pong madness! Students receive an array of recycled materials (2-liter bottles, rubber bands, plastic utensils, etc.) to build a launcher and catcher for a ping pong ball. At the conclusion of this project, students will compete in several different tournaments/competitions to see who constructed the best design! Concepts covered include: project documentation (in design notebooks), statistics, calculating volume & area, angles & trajectory, and the design process. This project will conclude with a reflection assignment and peer evaluations.

After that, students will begin preparing for balsa wood bridges by spending ~3 weeks learning trigonometry, in order to calculate lengths and angles for their support beams. There will be daily assignments to monitor their progress learning these advanced mathematics skills.

8th Grade Math

We will cover 3 different (connected) topics in Algebra 1 during the 1st 9 weeks. We will begin the year with a brief review of skills necessary to succeed in Algebra 1 (rational numbers, solving, substitution, and graphing). Then we will dive into what is a function? From there, we start unit 2 on linear functions. We will look at linear functions using multiple representations (equation, table, and graphs) as well as a deep dive on linear functions in real-world applications. Unit 3 will be everything about exponential functions. We will learn what they are and how they work. Finally, we will finish the quarter with a research project on where linear and exponential functions show up in real life and how they are slightly more complicated in real life than in the classroom. I am looking forward to this year with these students! It has been a great start to the year.

Honors Geometry

In geometry, we are working on the first chapter of our curriculum, CPM! This curriculum encourages exploration and collaboration. The first chapter’s focus is on transformations (reflections, rotations, and translations) and what we can learn about shapes we create by using transformations. Chapter 2 has two sections. The first contains angle relationships and the Pythagorean Theorem, all of which will be critical in the proofs we will be doing this year. The second part of Chapter 2 is about composite shapes. We will use what we know about triangles, rectangles, and more to find the perimeters and areas of shapes that do not have a special name. In Chapter 3, we add transformation to our set of tools - dilations. We will apply what we learned in chapters 1 and 2 to prove triangles are similar. At the end of the quarter, we will use similar triangles to learn trigonometry. We are off to a great start!

In Social Studies, students are learning about the Precolonial, Colonial, Revolutionary, and new nation periods in American history. To start the year, we are reviewing certain historical thinking and geography skills, such as labeling major landforms and states on a map, finding credible sources, determining the difference between primary and secondary sources, and using the Nonfiction Signposts to actively read informational texts.

For our second unit, we will be learning about early Native Americans and how the first people arrived in North America. Students will work together with a small group to research a native cultural region, including what kind of tools they used, what their homes looked like, what clothing they wore, etc. They will then make a poster and teach the class about the regions that they studied. Following that, we will begin learning about some early colonies, including Roanoke, Jamestown, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Salem. Eventually, students will participate in a project where they make their own colony– determining what materials they would need to bring from Europe, their plan for building shelter and securing food, what they would name their colony, what the leadership would look like, etc. Students will learn about what life was like in the colonies from 1700-1776. We will discuss the French and Indian War and how the debts accrued during the war led indirectly to the Revolutionary War. We will discuss some of the other causes, including the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Tea Act, Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Lexington and Concord, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The last few things that we will be discussing in class include, the problems with the Articles of Confederation, the Constitutional Conventions, George Washington’s presidency-James Monroe’s presidency, and some government topics including the separation of powers, checks and balances, and responsibilities of each of the three branches of government.

We will read several primary sources and practice analyzing informational texts using the Nonfiction Signposts this quarter.