August 24-28

Happy First Day of School! 

NOTES FROM THE HEAD OF THE MIDDLE SCHOOL

GREAT START TO THE 2015-16 SCHOOL YEAR!

Life has returned to HDS campus!  It sure is great to have the students back in the building.  While we said goodbye to long time middle school teachers, we welcome Mrs. Huennekens (Science), Mrs. Guggenheim (Computer & Student Support), Mr. Morgan (Physical Education) and Grace Sotomayor (Spanish) to the Middle School team.  They bring lots of energy, ideas and experience to the Middle School.  

NEW PE CURRICULUM

Our curriculum has three major divisions, Cardio, Strength, and Team Games.  Each student has 115 minutes of PE each week.  There are two 30 minute classes and one 55 minute class.  PE classes will occur in one of three areas, the gym, the new Cross Fit area or the Middle School recess area and car pool lane (our “track!”).  We are excited about having the talent, Coach O’Hayer and Coach Morgan and the time to deliver a quality program to our students.

CARPOOL

Thanks to your patience and cooperation, our carpool process is off to a great start! Like anything, we can always grow and improve and we feel strongly that for the safety of our students there are a few areas that do need immediate attention from our school community. Please be aware of the following:

• There is no left turn into the school entrance! When cars make a left turn into the driveway it interrupts the required traffic flow on the street.  We must eliminate ALL left turns into the building during  carpool hours immediately.
• There is no left turn out of the school entrance! Please make a right and maintain the flow of traffic the city requires.  
• Please do not turnaround in the neighborhood immediately after the school driveway.
• The safety of the students is the most important thing.  It is critical that all cell phone use is ended once you move into the carpool process.  

We have no doubt that attention to these details will lead to moving you through the carpool line even faster and more efficiently! Our goal is to provide parents and students a safe and orderly process that ends the school day on the positive note we've started on - thank you for supporting that effort!

GRANDPARENTS DAY

This year the Middle School is excited to participate in the HDS Grandparents Day.  In honor of Grandparents Day, all Middle School students will conduct an interview with a grandparent/grandparents or special friend and create a personal response explaining the “Words to Live By” learned from the experience.  A description of this project can be found by clicking HERE.

We look forward to seeing everyone on Friday, September 18th to share this experience with the students.

School Lunches

Mrs. Cook will be taking any last minute lunch orders through the end of the school day Monday, August 24th. Please visit our website www.hancockdayschool.org to fill out your Lunch Order Form. ***Reminder: HDS Lunch Program starts Tuesday, September 1st. 

6TH GRADE NEWS

6th Grade English Language Arts with Mrs. Guggenheim
The focus in ELA will be on:
Literature: learning to annotate; continuation of Reading Reasons
Grammar: types of nouns - Quiz Friday
Vocabulary: Unit 1 Greek/Latin roots - Quiz on Tuesday, September 1
Writing: Why do we write?

6th Math with Mrs. Reardon

This week in Math 6, students received their syllabus and we reviewed all of the rules, procedures, and topics that will be covered. All students had this signed and returned it on Thursday (yay!!).  On Thursday we reviewed several prerequisite math skills (from 4th & 5th grade) that are important for students to have mastered before moving forward in Math 6.  Friday, students took a brief open notes quiz over the prerequisite skills that were discussed in class.  Next week we will jump right into the first chapter learning about patterns, variables, expressions, and exponents.  On Friday (8/28), students will have a quiz over lessons 1.1 - 1.3. Students will also receive their first challenge problem that will count as a project grade (see syllabus for details).

6th-7th Pre-Algebra with Mr. Lanfear

What a great start to a new year!  Next week we will be learning about Order of Operations (Chapter 1.3) and adding/subtracting integers (Chapter 1.4-1.6).  There will be a short quiz in the middle of the week covering sections 1.1-1.3.

6th Earth Science with Mrs. Reardon

This week in Earth Science, students received their syllabus and we reviewed all of the rules, procedures, and expectations for the class.  We also learned about lab safety, procedures, and equipment that will be used.  Next week we will explore chapter one by taking an in-depth look at the scientific method. Students will get to practice some of their lab skills on Thursday when we do a brief lab involving the scientific method.  On Friday (8/28), students will have a quiz over lab safety, procedures, equipment, and the scientific method.

6th Earth Science with Mrs. Huennekens

The sixth graders will start next week by reviewing the steps to the Scientific Method.  We will be reading Chapter 1 section 1.  They will have a quiz on Friday covering scientific method, lab safety and equipment.

6th Spanish with Ms. Sotomayor

We're off to a great start! This week we have covered greetings, classroom commands, and numbers. Next week we will continue communicating in full immersion, practicing how to present ourselves and friends, how to give out contact information (made-up contact information), and discuss the country of the week, Puerto Rico. We will have an unannounced quiz so please encourage your child to practice any videos or helpful posts that I have left for them in Google Classroom. 

6th Ancient Civilizations with Mrs. Hannah

We will begin to study Early Humans and analyze adaptation to environments and movement across continents. Students will compare and contrast communities on each different continent. We will have a quiz over Chapter 1, Lessons 2 and 3 on Friday. Students should use their notes packets to study for this quiz! I will be in my room daily at 7:45 for extra assistance. 

7TH GRADE NEWS

7th Grade English Language Arts with Mrs. Hannah

We are beginning this year by analyzing the elements of a short story, focusing on plot, theme, and characterization. This week will read and discuss The Treasure of Lemon Brown and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, In grammar, we will begin by reviewing the parts of speech. I have begun grading the summer reading response journals and book reviews, and I am already impressed with the dedication and effort your students put into the assignment! I will be in my room daily at 7:45 for extra assistance. 

7th-8th Algebra I with Mrs. Reardon

This week in Algebra 1, students received their syllabus and we reviewed all of the rules, procedures, and topics that will be covered. On Thursday, we jumped right in chapter one by evaluating expressions and reviewing order of operations. Next week we will continue in chapter one with writing expressions, equations, and inequalities, as well as working on problem solving.  On Friday (8/28), students will have a quiz over lessons 1.1 - 1.5.  Students will also receive their first challenge problem that will count as a project grade (see syllabus for details).

6th-7th Grade Pre-Algebra with Mr. Lanfear

What a great start to a new year!  Next week we will be learning about Order of Operations (Chapter 1.3) and adding/subtracting integers (Chapter 1.4-1.6).  There will be a short quiz in the middle of the week covering sections 1.1-1.3.

7th Grade Life Science with Mrs. Huennekens

The seventh graders are refreshing their memories with lab safety and procedures, lab equipment and the scientific method.  There will be a quiz over the above material on Thursday.

7th Spanish with Ms. Hughes

Next week in Spanish class, the 7^th grade will begin Chapter 5A. This chapter covers possessive adjectives, description of families, and celebrations. There will be a graded listening over the new material later in the week.  The vocabulary quiz will be Friday, August 28^th.

7th American History with Mrs. English

Wow, what a great start to the year! I enjoyed getting to know your children the first three days of school. This weekend your child should read Chapter 1-Section 1 and take the homework reading check on Google Classroom. They may use their book and/or notes to take the reading check. The reading check must be completed by 8am on Monday. This coming week we will continue studying from Chapter 1-Section 1. Homework will come from this section.  We will have a quiz on Chapter 1-Section 1 on Wednesday.  Looking forward to a great week!

8TH GRADE NEWS

8th Grade English Language Arts with Mrs. O'Connor/Ms. Churchill

The eighth graders are off to a great start in English Language Arts!  Looking ahead, we will be engaging in a Socratic Seminar reflecting on concepts and themes from summer reading on Monday and Tuesday of next week.  This activity will count as our first quiz grade of the year!  Students also have a quiz over some basic grammatical concepts and unit 11 in their vocabulary books on Friday, August 28th.  We will spend class time reviewing both the grammatical concepts and the vocabulary words in preparation for this assessment.  Students should also remember that their signed syllabus is due on Monday!

7th-8th Algebra I with Mrs. Reardon

This week in Algebra 1, students received their syllabus and we reviewed all of the rules, procedures, and topics that will be covered. On Thursday, we jumped right in chapter one by evaluating expressions and reviewing order of operations. Next week we will continue in chapter one with writing expressions, equations, and inequalities, as well as working on problem solving.  On Friday (8/28), students will have a quiz over lessons 1.1 - 1.5.  Students will also receive their first challenge problem that will count as a project grade (see syllabus for details).

8th Advanced Algebra with Mr. Lanfear

What a great start to a new year!  Next week we will begin exploring how to solve quadratic equations by factoring (Chapter 9.4, 9.5, 9.7, 9.8).  There will be a short quiz in the middle of the week covering sections 9.1-9.4.

8th Geometry with Mr. Lanfear

What a great start to a new year!  Next week we will learn about the Midpoint and Distance formulas (Chapter 1.3) as well as some fundamental properties of angles and polygons (Chapters 1.4-1.6).

8th Grade Physical Science with Mrs. Huennekens

The eighth graders start next week off by looking at section 3 of Chapter 1, The Nature of Science.  The first week of school, we used Chapter 1, sections 1 and 2, to review the scientific method, discuss and learn about new types of lab equipment and we also went over lab safety and procedures. There will be a quiz on Thursday to cover all the above information.

8th Spanish with Ms. Hughes

Next week in Spanish class, the 8^th grade will begin Chapter 1A. This chapter discusses classroom rules, classroom items, stem-changing verbs, and Affirmative and negative words. There will be a graded listening over the new material later in the week. The vocabulary quiz will be Friday, August 28^th.

8th American Government with Mrs. English

It was great to see your children this week. We had a wonderful first three days!  This weekend your child should complete the homework on Google Classroom. They need to watch a 3 min video on the Civil War and answer questions on it.  This coming week we will continue studying the beginnings of the Civil War. I will give short answer worksheets for homework dealing with subjects like the Missouri Compromise, John Brown's attack, and division between the North and South.  We will have a quiz on Wednesday covering the Civil War Intro note sheet and the states in the Union and Confederacy.  Lastly, we will watch excerpts from Ken Burns’ The Civil War. If you would not like your child to watch these clips please email me and they will be exempt from watching them in class.  Looking forward to a great week!