Notes from the Head of Middle School
CONGRATULATIONS SOCCER TEAMS!
This week we celebrated the conclusion of a VERY
successful soccer season at HDS.
Congratulations go out to the players who practiced and played hard all
season. This was often done on top of
many other commitments. Special thanks
to the coaches for working with our students: Girls' coaches Meghan Hughes,
Megan Roberts and Candice English and Boys’ coaches Steve O’Hearn and Capers Martin.
SPORTS SIGN UP 2015 – 16
Forms were recently sent home to families to sign
up for our 2015-16 athletic teams. This
early sign up is a very important part of our planning process. It gives us an approximate count for each sport
so we can plan for and register the appropriate number of teams with our
league, SPAL. Please make sure to return
this form promptly.
ST. VINCENT’S MATH PLACEMENT ASSESSMENT
Many of our 8th grade girls planning on
attending St. Vincent’s Academy received letters announcing a math placement
test on Saturday, May 16th.
This would put our students at a distinct disadvantage as we have a
dance on May 15th. Mrs.
Sykes, the Academic Dean at St. Vincent’s has graciously offered to administer
the test to our girls at Hancock on Thursday, May 14th at 1:30. Please get a good night’s rest and pack a
nutritious lunch to be it top form for this important assessment.
IT’S A SPECIAL PARTY TIME!
Dig out your Hawaiian shirts and get ready for a
luau on Friday night (May15th)! Students will
dance in Hancock Hall from 7:30 – 9:30.
Lock-In planned! The Hancock community came together to
support two of its families in the fight against leukemia and lymphoma. If our community raises in excess of $5,000
to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, plans call for a “lock in”
as a reward for this Herculean effort. In anticipation of reaching our goal, we will extend the hours of our party from
9:30 to 12:00 midnight. During the
additional 2 ½ hours we will plan many extra special activities for the
students.
NATIONAL JUINIOR HONOR SOCIETY BYLAWS
Five years ago we began a chapter of the NJHS at
the Middle School. Recently, we
discovered that our Chapter was not totally in compliance with the National
Constitution of the National Honor Society.
Over the past two months we brought our paperwork into compliance and
our new set of Chapter By-Laws was passed by the members last week. These By-Laws will be available on the
Hancock Day School website by mid-week.
Next year, an explanation of the Society and a link to all important
documents will be included in the Student Handbook.
SUMMER ACADEMIC SUPPORT
From time to time we receive information from
local schools and agencies offering tutoring and other academic support
programs to middle school students. I
will be using the BLOG to make families aware of these opportunities. Ms. Gordon will include links when possible
and will keep the paperwork on file for your review. This week we received information about
summer programs from the Royce Learning Center.
This information can be found by clicking:
8th Grade Graduation Slideshow
Please make sure to have your photos emailed to Ms. Gordon no later than May 15th.
Driver Volunteers Needed
Monday, June 1st
10:15 – 2:00 – Community service with the Savannah Tree Foundation at Hull Park. Volunteer drivers are needed at 10:00 to transport students to Hull Park. Students will need to bring a bag lunch. Student pick up will be from Hull Park at 2:00.
Tuesday, June 2nd
9:00 – 2:00 Middle School Field Day at Skidaway Island State Park. Volunteer drivers will be needed at 9:00 to drive our students to the Park. Student pick up will be at 2:00 at the Park.
6:30 – 8:30 Graduation Exercises and reception
S'COOL Performance
6TH GRADE NEWS
6th Grade English Language Arts with Mrs. O'Connor
The sixth graders will continue reading and studying The
Giver next week. As noted on the reading calendar, students have a
quiz on Tuesday over chapters 11-17 and the contextual vocabulary words we have
practiced in class. We will be done reading the book by Thursday, and we’ll
spend class time reviewing on the novel on Thursday and Friday. Due to
the Middle School play, I am not giving assessments on Friday (5/15), so our
test over the novel will be on Monday, 5/18. After we finish this test we
will begin reviewing for our semester exam! I can’t believe the school
year is almost over!
6th Math with Mrs. Johnson
6th-7th Pre-Algebra with Mr. Lanfear
6th Grade math students are studying chapter 10
"Geometry." The chapter quiz 10.1 - 10.4 will be Wednesday,
May13th.
Next week we will finish our introduction to geometry by
learning how to find the area of various polygons such as triangles,
rectangles, squares, parallelograms, and trapezoids. We will also learn
about the circumference and area of circles. We will review geometry at
the end of the week and the test will be next Monday.
6th Earth Science with Mrs. Johnson
In Earth Science, the students are studying chapter 16
"Weather." The chapter 16 test will be Wednesday, May 20th.
6th Earth Science with Mrs. Blake
The sixth graders continue their chapter on weather next
week. They will continue their lab
activity dealing with local weather. The
students will look at fronts and the different types of severe weather, especially
hurricanes. They will also study station
models and learn how to read a weather map. At that point, they will have a lab activity
dealing with weather maps.
6th Spanish with Mrs. Dixon-Bender
Next week, we’ll wrap up Capítulo 4B. Students will visit
Latin Chicks restaurant on Wednesday and Thursday, May 13th and 14th
(4th & 6th periods respectively). We will have
our last chapter test for the year on Friday, May 15th.
6th Ancient Civilizations with Mrs. Hannah
We are almost finished studying ancient Rome! Students have a quiz over daily life in Rome and Roman entertainment on Tuesday 12 May, and we will conclude our unit with the fall of the Roman Empire this week. Next Tuesday 19 May will be our unit test, and since we have studied so much information with Rome, I suggest making flashcards to help study for the final assessment. I am in my room at 7:45 each morning for extra help or to clarify any questions.
We are almost finished studying ancient Rome! Students have a quiz over daily life in Rome and Roman entertainment on Tuesday 12 May, and we will conclude our unit with the fall of the Roman Empire this week. Next Tuesday 19 May will be our unit test, and since we have studied so much information with Rome, I suggest making flashcards to help study for the final assessment. I am in my room at 7:45 each morning for extra help or to clarify any questions.
7TH GRADE NEWS
7th Grade English Language Arts with Mrs. Hannah
We will finish reading Across Five Aprils next week!
The test over the novel will be Monday 18 May. We are also concluding our study
of clauses by comparing adjective and adverb clauses, and will have a quiz over
grammar Thursday 14 May. I also plan to show the movie version of Across
Five Aprils in class, so students can compare and contrast the novel with
the film adaptation.
6th-7th Grade Pre-Algebra with Mr. Lanfear
Next week we will finish our introduction to geometry by
learning how to find the area of various polygons such as triangles,
rectangles, squares, parallelograms, and trapezoids. We will also learn
about the circumference and area of circles. We will review geometry at
the end of the week and the test will be next Monday.
7th Grade Life Science with Mrs. Blake
7th-8th Algebra I with Mrs. Johnson
In seventh grade, the students continue their study the
heart & blood. They have followed
the pathway of blood through the body and learned about the functions of
blood. They will be reintroduced to
blood types. When they studied blood
types previously, it was in connection to the inheritance of your blood type. At this point they will be learning about antigens
and blood compatibility for transfusions.
They will perform two labs—one on heart rates and one on blood typing.
7th-8th Algebra I with Mrs. Johnson
Algebra classes will complete chapter 9 and have the chapter
9 test Wednesday, May13th. We will begin chapter 10 Thursday, May 14th.
7th Spanish with Ms. Hughes
Next week in Spanish class, the 7th grade will
continue working with the future and conditional tense. The quiz over this
material will be Tuesday, May 12th. Students will also finish and
present their short stories on Wednesday, May 13th.
7th American History with Mrs. English
This week we will continue our study of Northern Industrialization (Chapter 11.2) and have our last quiz of the quarter on Wednesday, May 13th. On Thursday and Friday, we will see how the South turned to the farming, the plantation system, and slavery rather than industrialization. Homework will come from Chapter 11-Sections 3 & 4. Looking ahead, students should expect to have their last test on Wednesday, May 20th. For this course, exam review will begin on Thursday, May 21st. Looking forward to a great week!
This week we will continue our study of Northern Industrialization (Chapter 11.2) and have our last quiz of the quarter on Wednesday, May 13th. On Thursday and Friday, we will see how the South turned to the farming, the plantation system, and slavery rather than industrialization. Homework will come from Chapter 11-Sections 3 & 4. Looking ahead, students should expect to have their last test on Wednesday, May 20th. For this course, exam review will begin on Thursday, May 21st. Looking forward to a great week!
8TH GRADE NEWS
8th Grade English Language Arts with Mrs. O'Connor
The eighth grade is concluding their study of Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Juliet in the week ahead. On Monday students will take a short
quiz over Act 2, and on Wednesday they will take a quiz over Act 3. Next
Monday (5/18) students will receive their take-home test over the play.
Students will have until Wednesday (5/20) to complete and submit the take-home
test. We will begin reviewing for our semester exam on Tuesday,
5/19. I can’t believe the school year is almost over!
8th Grade Physical Science with Mrs. Blake
The eighth graders have started their final chapter on
motion and momentum. They have already
learned the difference between distance and displacement and how to calculate
average speed. Over the next week the
students will cover acceleration (positive and negative) and momentum.
7th-8th Algebra I with Mrs. Johnson
Algebra classes will complete chapter 9 and have the chapter
9 test Wednesday, May13th. We will begin chapter 10 Thursday, May 14th.
8th Advanced Algebra with Mr. Lanfear
Next week we will complete our algebra review by learning
how to solve and graph inequalities and systems of inequalities. There
will be a review day on Wednesday and then the unit test on Thursday.
8th Geometry with Mr. Lanfear
Next week we will complete learning about surface area and
volume by learning how to find the volume of pyramids, cones, and
spheres. We will also learn about the surface area of a sphere. We
will review surface area and volume at the end of the week and the test will be
next Monday.
8th Spanish with Ms. Hughes
Next week in Spanish class, the 8th grade will
continue working with the future and conditional tense. The quiz over this
material will be Tuesday, May 12th. Students will also finish and
present their “cooking show” projects on Thursday, 14th.
This week we will continue our
study of Protest in the 1950s-1970s. Discussion will cover the Civil Rights movement
and the Anti-Vietnam War protests. Readings and homework will come from
Chapter 26.3 and Chapter 27.1. Looking ahead, students will have their last
test on American Protest from the 1950s-1970s on Wednesday, May 20th. For
this course, exam review will begin on Thursday, May 21st. Looking
forward to a great week!
