NOTES FROM MR. CRAWFORD
Community Service
Please remember that students should complete ten hours of community service each school year. Service opportunities are advertised in the blog weekly. Additionally, if you know of any service opportunities that would be appropriate for our students, please feel free to send them to Ms. Ross so that they may be included here.
Completed service hours should be documented on the Community Service Form and submitted to your child’s homeroom teacher.
Brown Bag for the Elderly at Second Harvest Food Bank
Students and families can volunteer on the third Saturday morning of each month. Upcoming date is October 21st. Volunteers should wear closed-toed shoes and arrive by 7:45am. Those wishing to volunteer should contact volunteer coordinator Jason Brown (jbrown@helpendhunger.org) in advance.
NEW THIS YEAR!! Parent.edu
Parent.edu is our new initiative to get information out about topics of interest to middle school families. Each of these presentations is held on the last Wednesday of the month from 6:00-7:00pm in Hancock Hall. Presentations will be made by faculty and staff of Hancock, as well as local experts in their field. The schedule for the year:
September 27th:
High School Admissions - Which school is right for my child?
This presentation will be taking place on September 27th from 6:00-7:00pm for 7th and 8th grade parents. In this presentation, we will be discussing what to look for in a high school - how can you tell if it is a good fit for your child? We will touch on the social environment, sports and extracurricular activities, the learning environment, metacognition, school culture and your student’s future goals. There will also be handouts on each of the schools most frequented by Hancock Day School alums available. If you have any questions please reach out to Ms. Pedrick, the School Counselor at apedrick@hancockdayschool.org.
September 27th:
6th Grade Parent.edu
Supporting Your Middle School Student - a session for 6th grade parents on September 27th from 6:00-7:00pm (room to be determined). Presented by Tricia Guggenheim.
Topics covered include:
- Helping your child navigate homework
- Successful strategies for test/exam prep
- Effective use of Google Classroom
- Time management
These strategies are being discussed in 6th Seminar weekly. Come to the session to hear what your child is learning about and to discover strategies that will support your child at home.
October 25th:
Sports Wellness and Sports Injuries
All Hancock athletes, their families and coaches are strongly urged to attend this session presented by Memorial Sports Medicine. Memorial Sports Medicine works with athletes to prevent and treat sports-related injuries.
November 29th:
Annual High School Fair
January 31th:
Digital Safety - Savannah Chatham Metro Police Department
February 28th & March 28th:
To Be Determined
Please call Howard Crawford with suggestions!
April 25th:
This Is What a Middle School Student Is!
This evening will support the transition of our 5th grade students to the Middle School.
8th Grade Headed to Washington!
The annual 8th grade trip to Washington, D.C. will depart Monday, March 5th and return Thursday, March 8th. The students will be finalizing the itinerary this semester as part of their DC Seminar. An outline of the trip, the cost, and possible fundraising ideas will be discussed at the conclusion of the High School Admissions presentation (above) on Wednesday, September 27th.
Boy Scouts
Meeting time is 1:30 to 3:00pm on Sundays. Location has been at the temporary church office on 44th street, directly across from Blessed Sacrament School. Upcoming Events:
O September 24th – meeting at Bonitz (121 Prosperity Drive Savannah) to do inventory and work on the Troop supply trailer from 1:30-3:00pm
O September 30th – meeting at Blessed Sacrament School from 8:30am-3:00pm to help with the final move in from the temporary office to the new, permanent office. There will also be a cookout and skills session after the move
O October 1st – normal meeting
O October 6th-8th – meeting at Black Creek Scout Reserve in Sylvania, Georgia. Registration for the campout is $16 per participant, plus a small amount for provisions. The food cost will be based on the number of Scouts in attendance. Registration fees and RSVP will be due on Thursday, September 28th
8TH GRADE ASSIGNMENTS
8th grade Algebra 1 - Mrs. Reardon
Next week in Algebra we will wrap up Chapter 2 by applying the distributive property, finding square roots of numbers, and comparing real numbers. We will review all sections of the chapter on Wednesday, and students should expect to take the Chapter 2 test on Thursday, September 28th. Students will also receive their new challenge problem on Monday, September 25. It will be due one week later on Monday, October 2. Please remind your student that they can come see me for help on the challenge problem in the mornings at 7:45 or on Thursday afternoons.
8th grade Advanced Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week we will continue the second part of Chapter 10 by learning how to solve quadratic equations by completing the square (10.5). We will spend the shortened week learning and practicing this involved method.
8th grade Geometry - Mr. Lanfear
Next week we will complete Chapter 2 by having a day of review on Tuesday and our Chapter 2 test on Wednesday. We will then spend a day on Thursday reviewing some key concepts from Algebra 1: simplifying rational expressions and radical expressions.
8th grade Physical Science - Mr. Cooper
Next week we will go over the Periodic Table Assessment in class. We will start using our textbooks to cover Atomic Theory and conservation of mass. We will have an in class lab covering the topic of conservation of mass.
8th grade English Language Arts - Mrs. O’Connor
Next week students will continue to practice working with the vocabulary words from unit 12 and the rules of pronoun antecedent agreement. Students will take a quiz over this material on Wednesday, September 27th. Additionally, we will also continue our study of point of view as we read Stephen Crane’s short story, “An Episode of War.” Remember to be reading independently in your free time and logging minutes in the reading log document!
8th grade History & Gov’t II - Mrs. English
I was excited to see all of the students this week! We’ve been so fortunate to have Ms. Churchill for the last six weeks while I enjoyed time with my newborn. I’ve been very impressed with the work they’ve accomplished in my absence. Next we we will continue our studies with Reconstruction. Students should prepare for a short quiz on Thursday. Looking ahead, we will have a Reconstruction test on Thursday, October 5th.
8th grade Spanish - Ms. Hughes
Next week in Spanish the 8th grade will continue to work with the vocabulary and grammar from Chapter 1B. Students will use comparisons of equality, hacer time expressions, and saber vs conocer through different reading and speaking exercises. The grammar quiz will be Wednesday, September 27th.
7TH GRADE ASSIGNMENTS
7th grade Algebra 1 - Mrs. Reardon
Next week in Algebra we will wrap up Chapter 2 by applying the distributive property, finding square roots of numbers, and comparing real numbers. We will review all sections of the chapter on Wednesday, and students should expect to take the Chapter 2 test on Thursday, September 28th. Students will also receive their new challenge problem on Monday, September 25. It will be due one week later on Monday, October 2. Please remind your student that they can come see me for help on the challenge problem in the mornings at 7:45 or on Thursday afternoons.
7th grade Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week we will complete Chapter 2 by solving equations that involve decimals (2.7), having a day of review on Tuesday and our Chapter 2 test on Wednesday. We will then begin Chapter 3 by learning how to solve two-step equations (3.1).
7th grade History & Gov’t I - Mrs. English
I was excited to see all of the students this week! We’ve been so fortunate to have Ms. Churchill for the last six weeks while I enjoyed time with my newborn. I’ve been very impressed with the work they’ve accomplished in my absence. This week we will put finishing touches on our causes and effects paragraphs (final draft due Tuesday, Sept. 26th). We will also begin our Explorer research projects. Students will have an opportunity to pick an explorer and create a trifold and artifact about their explorer. The project is due on Tuesday, October 6th, which is when we will present our research to elementary students. Looking forward to a great week!
7th grade Spanish - Ms. Hughes
Next week in Spanish class, the 7th grade will continue to work with comparisons of inequality and superlatives. Students will begin a writing activity where they will design and describe the ultimate bedroom using the grammar and vocabulary from Chapter 6A. There will also be a graded listening activity at the end of the week. The vocabulary quiz will be Tuesday, September 26th.
7th Grade ELA - Mrs. Boyer
7th Grade ELA Parents! Next week we will be finalizing our short story rough drafts, continuing our conversation on verbs (simple tense, perfect tense, progressive tense, active/passive voice, transitive/intransitive, etc.), discussing dialogue, imagery, and transition sentences with regards to writing short stories, and finishing our conversations on Treasure of Lemon Brown, Rikki Tikki Tavi, After Twenty Years, and H-ey Come On O-ut. There will be a Unit 2 vocabulary quiz on Tuesday, 9/26 and a Short Story Unit Test on 9/27. Your students have flashcards to study their vocabulary words/definitions; please be mindful of their utilization of their study materials. There are multiple resources that have been categorized on google classroom with regards to their Short Story Unit notes. If your student would like extra help, I am available every morning at 7:00 am and after school on Thursdays. (We will be starting The Hobbit on October 4th.)
7th grade Life Science - Ms. Hoffman
Students are learning about the history of cells, cell types and the different cell organelles and their function. We are focusing on the Eukaryotic cells of plants and animals. The quiz for this information will be on Wednesday, 9/27. This Friday, 9/22, we will create our own slides during a microscope lab. Students will also be given a rubric on Friday 9/22 for their Create-a-Cell project. This at-home project will allow the students to use the information we are learning in class to create a 3-D model of a cell. The projects will be due on Thursday, 9/28.
6TH GRADE ASSIGNMENTS
6th grade Accelerated Math 7 - Mrs. Reardon
Next week in math we will wrap up Chapter 2 by diving into scientific notation and measuring and converting metric units. On Wednesday, students will complete a scientific notation activity and briefly review for a short quiz over 2.5-2.7 that will take place on Thursday, September 28. Students will also receive their new challenge problem on Monday, September 25. It will be due one week later on Monday, October 2. Please remind your student that they can come see me for help on the challenge problem in the mornings at 7:45 or on Thursday afternoons. Students should expect their Chapter 2 test on Tuesday, October 3.
6th grade Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear
Next week we will complete Chapter 2 by solving equations that involve decimals (2.7), having a day of review on Tuesday and our Chapter 2 test on Wednesday. We will then begin Chapter 3 by learning how to solve two-step equations (3.1).
6th grade ELA - Mrs. Guggenheim
Literature: We will be working to complete our short story unit in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned next week for a date for the unit test. It is tentatively scheduled for 10/3.
Grammar: Subjects/Predicates - 4 Types of Sentences - Coordinating Conjunctions. There is a grammar quiz over sentence types, coordinating conjunctions, and subjects/predicates scheduled for 9/27. We will then begin to practice writing dialogue.
Writing: We will continue to discuss the importance of proofing written work and using proper paragraph form. We will shortly begin preparing to write our own original short stories in a couple of weeks.
Vocabulary: No list for next week.
Reading Log: Some students have been very diligent about beginning their reading logs. Others have not yet turned in any minutes. As stated in the syllabus, all middle school students are required to read 360 minutes during the course of the trimester - reading that is outside of their regular assignments. They have a form on which to keep track of their minutes, and on Mondays in class I post their minutes in a spreadsheet. They need to obtain a parent signature to verify the minutes read. This counts as a project grade. The grading scale is written in the syllabus.
6th grade Earth Science - Ms. Hoffman
We reviewed and discussed our graded test on states of matter and the students were very diligent on checking the questions they did not get correct. This week we also began learning about heat and heat transfer (conduction, convection and radiation). Students were given a rubric today (9/21) for an “in-class” project to create a heat transfer booklet. This will count as one classwork grade and one test grade. We will work on these during class on Friday, 9/22 and Monday, 9/25 and it will be due Tuesday, 9/26. Please do not do research for this information at home. Students will use their notes, worksheets, textbooks and other resource books during class time. Our 10 question quiz will also be on Tuesday, 9/26. Then, our next unit of study will be weather.
6th Grade Ancient Civ - Mrs. Boyer
Ancient Civ Parents! We are heavily into our Chapter 3 studies; we are learning about Ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerian culture to be specific. Your students will be having drafts of their Ziggurat Project due every Friday with specific instructions each week. If your student is struggling with the Ziggurat Project please feel free to call or email me at any point. Lastly, there will be a quiz on Thursday, 9/28 over Chapter 3, Lesson 1 & 2. Because of the amount of information in Chapter 3, there will not be a Unit Test, only a Chapter 3 Test. The same idea will apply to Chapter 4 as well. If your students are struggling with quizzes and test in Ancient Civilization, I highly suggest making flash cards, creating their own study guides, making their own/using Quizlet, having you quiz them with their fill-in-the-blank note packets, and printing out blank maps in order to quiz themselves. They also should be coming in for extra help in the mornings and Thursday afternoons; I am in my classroom by 7:00 am every morning.
6th Grade Spanish - Ms. Dubick
Hello parents! The 6th graders are continuing to work on using personal pronouns and the verb “Estar” this upcoming week, this time with feeling words. They’ll use what they know to write short skits, and they will have a quiz on Thursday on using feeling words with Estar and personal pronouns. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning before school I’ll be doing review sessions, any students who feel they could use the extra help are welcome to come. These students are starting to be able to understand basic storylines en español, I’m very proud of them!
MS Ensemble - Mrs. Cookson
The 6th graders have received their 2 or 3 person scripts and will begin working on prepping them for an in class presentation. We will explore character development and give and take. The 7th and 8th graders will continue to study poetry and master presentation skills.
MS Art - Mrs. Cookson
All classes will take a trip to our local media center to meet with Mrs. Hill to learn about the resources available for inspiration. Students will also pick a theme for their next drawing. They will work with a partner to create a collaborative work.
