Science Fair

Science fair judging and presentations will take place on December 17th! If you have any interest in judging, please let me know! We are in need of more judges.

Students will work on graphing and data analysis next week. Their presentations on the 17th will serve as a learning target grade.

The end of the semester is approaching and it is no coincidence that Commitment is our character key of focus this month! We know it is a busy yet festive season. We want to guide our students in ending successfully.

• Due date for all missing assignments and corrections is December 12th.
• December 16th-18th will focus on wrapping up our units and classes with assessments and/or projects.
• We do have plans in the works for a fun day on Dec. 19th. We will keep you posted on details as we finish organizing!
• Please encourage your child to follow up with absent work, so their work is completed and turned in by end on time per the hand book; 2 calendar days for every 1 missed school day.

Here's The Happenings:

Science:  We started the week by reviewing sound waves. We also explored the electromagnetic spectrum and light!  Our light content will continue next week; students will learn why we see color and how our eye works with light refraction.  Ask your child about the stations we did, and how the station objects modeled sound and light waves.  Students also received time to work on science fair tasks; experiment or data prep, data entering, and slideshows.  Data is due on Wednesday next week!  This will give the students time to graph, analyze, and conclude before the last week of the semester.

Homework: Science Fair Data Collection & Slides 1-12, DUE 12/10

Math: Chapter 3- Graphing Linear Functions

We talked about transformations with lines this week, this was a lot for the students to take on. We will continue with this concept as well as review standard form and slope-intercept form next week. Mid-year NWEA testing was also completed this week! Along with the review of concepts next week we will do our last lesson on Absolute Value functions before we review the chapter and Test, Wednesday, December 17th. All missings/corrections need to be turned in no later than Friday, December 12th.

Homework: Missing/ Corrections

Social Studies: Students will be learning about the Cold War. They will learn about McCarthyism, and the Cuban missile crisis, as well as Europe in the post war era.

English: The 8th graders have begun reading The Life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass grew up as a slave in the United States and later became one of the most influential voices in the fight to end slavery. The goal for 8th grade is to finish reading before Christmas break. To achieve this goal, your student may have some reading to complete at home. During this unit, they are learning to annotate for the purpose of a collaborative discussion called Socratic Seminars.

Some students may have reading homework this weekend. This reading will need to be completed by Thursday, the 11th. NWEA testing will take place on the 9th and 10th.

Writing & Research: Middle school is at the finish line for their science fair essays! It has been a long road, and I am proud of how much effort they have put into this assignment. They have worked on adding a thesis statement as well as topic sentences. On Monday or Tuesday, we will focus on completing the introduction and concluding paragraphs. Then, on Thursday or Friday, they will finalize and make finishing touches.

Essays must be completed and turned in no later than December 12th.

Eligibility for WCMS Sports is pulled on Thursdays. Missing assignments must be turned in to teachers by 7:30am Thursday morning. Missing flags can be removed from the gradebook before pulling eligibility, but assignments may not be graded. Most of the time, they will be graded along with other assignments from the week.

Please remind your athlete that they are expected to check in with their elective teachers/classes for their make-up work, due to leaving for practice and games. Depending on the class, material may need to be self taught using the teacher provided resources.