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11-22-11 newsletter

Ankeney Middle School

8th Grade Newsletter, Vol. VII

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

 

Homework Link

We all post our homework daily on the “Homework Quick Access” link found on the Ankeney homepage.  http://www.beavercreek.k12.oh.us/ams  

 

MATH

 

Mr. Busch – Math 8 & Enriched Math 8

We just concluded Ch. 6 (math 8) and Ch. 10 (enriched) with a test on Tuesday over half of the Geometry Unit.  Students will begin a Transformation Unit next week that involves translations, rotations, reflections, and dilations on a coordinate plane.  There will be a Transformation quiz early in the week of December 5th.  The Geometry Exam covering all material that students have learned will be on the week of December 12th.

 

Mr. Busch – Honors Algebra 1

Students are working on the last three sections of Ch. 5.  There will be a test over all of Ch. 5 on Friday, December 2nd.  Students will complete all of Ch. 6, which deals with solving and graphing linear inequalities before after Ch.5.  Also, students will finish their Geometry Project in the next couple of weeks before the due date of December 14th, 2011.  It is very important that students show all of their work on every problem in this project!!  There will be an exam over all of the Geometry concepts learned in the project before the holiday break.

 

Mrs. Lovewell – Math 8

Students have just taken their chapter 5 tests and should get their tests back soon.  We are spending these two days before Thanksgiving break going over Achievement test questions and practicing one-step equations.  After Thanksgiving break, students will start an equation unit.  They’ll be combining like terms, solving two step (or more!) equations, distributing and more!  This chapter is a great foundation for Algebra (the math class they will take next year).  This chapter will last a few weeks.  Students should expect a chapter 10 test sometime during the week of December 12. 

 

Mrs. Lovewell – Enriched Pre-Algebra

Students just finished chapter 5 and should have their tests back soon.  We have moved on to chapter 6 which is all about rates, ratios, proportions, scale models and dimensional analysis.  Look for a chapter 6 test sometime during the week of December 12.  This chapter has a lot of real world connections!  Students can use unit rates to get the better deal at the grocery store or to see if they want to go skydiving (now they know that they’d drop at an average rate of 120 miles per hour!).  We deal with percents every day in life and in this chapter we’ll investigate their meanings a little more.  Also, we’ll talk about how math can help us when we’re shopping or even out at dinner!  Students will be working on creating a map of the courtyard in charger period.  We’ve already been outside and students have sketched the courtyard and taken the necessary measurements.  Stay tuned for what’s next in that project….

 

Mrs. Lovewell – Honors Algebra

Chapter 4 tests were fantastic!!!!!!!  Both classes had really high averages and 10 students earned over 100% on the tests!  Keep up the hard work!!!! Now we are in chapter 5, which builds on the information we learned in chapter 4.  Again, this has been known to be a tough chapter for students in the past.  Students should be sure to see me as soon as they are struggling.  Please do not wait until the end of the chapter to ask for help.  We have learned slope intercept form, point slope form and standard form.  It is important for all students to have these forms memorized and for them to be comfortable moving from one form to another.  After Thanksgiving break, we’ll discuss parallel and perpendicular lines, and scatterplots.  The chapter 5 test will either be on Friday December 2 or Monday December 5.

 

ENGLISH

 

Ms. Hargrove & Mrs. Casanova – English 8

The kick-off to our “Fear and Suspense” short story unit began this past week with Walter Matheson’s “Button Button”, a psychological suspense tale that became a Twilight Zone episode in the 1985-1986 season and more recently  inspired the movie The Box. Today, students examined plot structure and theme in W.W. Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw”.  Students will continue application of the literary terms including analyzing suspense and style in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” and the development of conflict and character in “The Black Cat”.  We’ll analyze Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” for integral setting and irony, Rod Serling’s “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder” for irony and theme in addition to examining several  other stories that will leave readers on the edge of their seats with suspense!

 

Ms. Hargrove & Mrs. Casanova – Honors English 8

Students should be finalizing their Inquiry Glogs for Monday the 28th.  We are very excited to see their final products. Students have worked hard researching and analyzing their county and school to create interactive Glogs “selling” their ideas about how we can better serve our constituents.  We continue with our Edgar Allan Poe Author Study, examining stories for writer’s craft.

 

SOCIAL STUDIES / AMERICAN HISTORY

 

Mrs. Canfield

            We have finished up with Ch. 5, The Spirit of Independence.  Next we’ll cover Ch. 6, The American Revolution.  In this chapter we’ll spend a little time covering the challenges faced by the American revolutionaries at the outset of the war, how the U.S. gained allies and aid during the War, how fighting in the South affected the course of the War, and how the Americans gained their independence.  When finished with Ch. 6 there will be a combined test over Chapters 5 & 6.  Please check the 8th Grade Tests link soon as I’ll post the date of this test when it’s determined.  Please also check Home Access for updates as I’ll be posting the grades for the Ch. 5 Packet and Vocabulary when I have them completed.    

 

Mr. Vinson

The second quarter is flying by a s quickly as the first one did.  We just finished working on a project sheet over chapter  5 dealing with events leading up to the Revolutionary War. We had a total of 10 grades plus a test come out of this chapter.  Grades should be updated on home access.  The majority of the students did very well and are off to a positive start for this quarter.  We will start Chapter dealing with the Revolutionary War next week.  Remind your student to keep working as the holiday season approaches.

Also I run the intramural basketball program.  If your child would like to play it begins on December 8.  They must come to a mandatory meeting for girls on Wednesday Nov 30 after school until 5 ,and boys have a mandatory meeting after school until 5 on December 1.  All you need to play is an emergency medical form.  If you have questions let me know. 

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

SCIENCE

 

Mr. McAllister

In the last weeks, we have continued to learn about waves.  Students learned about sound, light, and color.  When we learned about sound waves, students were able to hear and explain how pitch, frequency, and wavelength are related.  Students also learned about the Doppler effect (shift in frequency caused by motion).  The Doppler effect can be observed when a police car, with its siren turned on, is passing you.  Last week, we learned about light and color.  Students learned about the properties of light and the electromagnetic spectrum.  One of the properties of light that we focused on was that light has color.  Students learned that white light is a mixture of different colors that have different wavelengths and frequencies.  We also spent some time learning about the electromagnetic spectrum.  Students were asked which electromagnetic wave was most important to them.  Many students wrote that microwaves were most important to them because they would not be able to communicate with others without having their cellular phone.  Other students said that radio waves were most important to them because they would not be able to watch their favorite TV shows. Last Friday, we ended the week looking at light wave behavior.  Students learned about the law of reflection during a laser maze lab. Yesterday, students completed a lab that demonstrated how rainbows are produced due to lights waves being refracted into their different wavelengths and frequencies. Next week, we will begin learning about Earth science. We will be studying the interior of the Earth, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, destructive processes, constructive processes, and the principle of superposition. If you have any questions, please contact me.  Have a safe thanksgiving holiday!

 

Mrs. Grothaus

In science we are starting the new topic of astronomy. We will be working on different tools used to study space over the next week.  Besides the regular extra credit board there is another extra credit assignment during astronomy. Student can fill out an article write-up form telling us about something new and exciting in astronomy. These articles can be found in journals, online, in the news or any other creditable source students find to use.  Also, over the break students may be doing test corrections on the quarter 1 exam or the waves test for more points. These test corrections are due Monday the 28th.

 

ESPANOL I

Sra. Barta