November Happenings

It's been a busy few weeks and the fun never ends! 

History: 

We have concluded our unit on Government. Our next unit is on the decline of European Colonialism. We will be talking about India and Ghandi's role in ending colonialism there. 

Science: 

We are still working on physics. This week's lab (#10 of the year) will be on density and buoyancy. We will also be writing our hypothesis, materials, and methods for their science fair projects. Everyone should have summarized their 6 - 8 research sources on their science fair topic. 

Riggs: 

Students have learned over 200 words now. Vocab tests continue every Monday with games like Pictionary happening in class to help reinforce understanding. 

Writing: 

Last week we worked on writing a succinct paragraph that conveyed everything we needed to share. These were returned today with feedback. If students scored below a 2, they must edit and resubmit. The biggest errors I'm seeing at this point are failure to follow directions. Many students are not using a proper heading, double spacing, giving their work a title, etc. If your student asks you to edit for them, please look for these things! This week we will be writing our first character analysis. Students will be comparing and contrasting Olivia and Viola from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. 

Literature: 

We have completed our first reading of Twelfth Night! We are now working on memorizing our parts and staging it. If you have any free minutes during the day, we could use lots of parents to run lines with students. We'll take help anytime! Students with larger parts 100+ lines, should have a minimum of 50 lines memorized by now. I'm going very easy on homework so that students have plenty of time to work on their parts!

Important Dates:

Monday, November 18th - Board Meeting

Tuesday, November 19th - Language Usage MAP test for 8th grade

Wednesday, November 20th - Math MAP test for Course 3 and Advanced Math

Thursday, November 21st - All School Assembly 8:00 AM

Friday, November 22nd - Field Trip to CMC

Saturday, November 23rd - FACTS Class 8:00 - 4:00

Monday, November 25th - Science MAP test for 8th Grade

Tuesday, November 26th - Last day of school for Thanksgiving