This week, we will be very busy! Monday is our solar eclipse day, so some of our 8th graders will be traveling to Clemson to take part in the celebrations of the total eclipse. The rest of us will remain at school and continue our day as usual. Don't forget later dismissal! Middle school will dismiss at 3:30. If you wish to check your student out early Monday, please do so before 1PM in order to avoid traffic and interruption of planned eclipse viewing activities. Scholars are excused from school on Monday if they bring proof, or a letter, explaining an alternate educational activity for the day. Keep in mind that normal classwork will still need to be made up in a regular manner.
Our first test is on Wednesday, 8/23. It will cover vocab., puns, irony, as well as reading comprehension. Chick-fil-a biscuits will be sold for breakfast on Tuesdays this year, and you can prepay in order to ensure that you have breakfast. Our lunch program also kicks off this week. If you did not receive the information that went home, please let me know and I can send another packet with your student.
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Welcome to 8th grade. I am so happy to have each of you in my ELA class this again this year.
We will be covering a lot of exciting new material as well as reviewing a lot of material from last year. As always, please email me anytime with any questions. I am here to help whenever I can. Please remember to turn in all beginning of school paperwork no later than Wednesday, August 9! All library books are due this Friday, May 12!!! Please make sure your scholar has returned all borrowed books.
I can't believe it is May!
We are on the home stretch, and the end of the school year is upon us. Here are some important dates and information for the upcoming weeks. **We need pictures for the 8th grade graduation slide show!! Please send your pictures to Mrs. Beerbower via email no later than May 10th. 3 pictures: baby, elementary, and recent** 5/12 Middle School Field Day @ Unity Baptist Church 5/16 Team Gold Awards 1PM 5/18 8th Grade Graduation 6-8PM @Unity Baptist Church (Students need to arrive at 5:30) 5/19 Tiger Walk!! 2pm (Parents arrive at 1:30) Address for Unity Baptist Church 311 Smokey Rd Newnan, GA 30263 This week is our final stretch before Milestones testing. We will be reviewing important standards each day, and there will be homework most nights to help with review as well.
There will be NO LUNCH provided next week for students. All students need to bring their lunch each day. Chick-Fil-A biscuits will be available each morning. Order forms were sent home today. This Friday, April 14, we will be having an all day ELA and Math review day, and we are providing pizza for all middle school students for lunch. Please try to avoid absences that day! This will be very important review time for your students. Believe it or not, we are almost to GA Milestone test week. After Spring Break, we will have ONE WEEK to review and gear up for testing.
Please remember that attendance during these two weeks from April 10-April 21 is very important. We will be reviewing ALL of the main standards covered during that final week before testing. In addition, remember that students will need to get a lot of sleep and eat a good, healthy breakfast every morning! I can't stress how much of a difference it makes when they get a good night's sleep before a test. So, as we count down the days, hours, and minutes to Spring Break, we still have important things to accomplish. 8th grade has a test this Wednesday, March 29. They need to be studying their vocabulary! We will finish reading Night this week as well. 8th grade is working hard! We began our unit on Night by Elie Wiesel last week. This unit includes a lot of reading of informational texts as well as non-fiction literary texts. Our focus is vocabulary, language, and elements and structure of these texts. March Madness tutoring is underway, but it is NOT TOO LATE to join us! We have two Saturday's left, and all students could benefit from this review and preparation for the GA Milestones. Please let me know if you would like to have your scholar attend from 9am to 12pm on Saturday, 3/18 and Saturday, 3/25. Important Dates: March 17 NO SCHOOL (Teacher Work Day) April 3-7 Spring Break April 17-21 Milestones Testing April 24-28 BOGO Book Fair!!!! <3 April 28 8th Grade Six Flags Trip May 12 Middle School Field Day May 18 8th Grade Graduation May 19th 2pm Tiger Walk Calling all volunteers!
Many of you still need opportunities to reach your 18 annual volunteer hours. Mrs. Priser can help you meet your goal!! You can earn your hours by helping to prepare for the Academic Parent Teacher Team meeting later this month. The work that can be done at the school or at home! Please let her know if you are interested! Email: [email protected] Phone: 770-251-6111 ext. 206 We have so much going on in Middle School this week. First of all, I want to thank you all for your generous donations to the Pet Drive last week. We will be having donuts in homeroom on Tuesday :)
Don't forget our field trip this Wednesday to the Georgia Football Hall of Fame. Students need to remember to bring their money for lunch with them. We are finishing our argumentative essays this week, and we will be watching The Great Debaters on Thursday and Friday. This movie serves two purposes: one, it goes along with our argument and debate unit and two, it is in observance of Black History Month. Make sure permission slips are returned to me by Thursday or your student will not be allowed to view the movie, and they will have an alternate assignment. Progress reports will go home this Friday. Scholastic is offering free books! Click the button below to find out how to get yours. Beginning Monday, 8th grade students will be going through the process of writing argumentative essays. We will be doing the majority of the work in class; however, there will be small pieces that need to be completed at home in order to complete these in a reasonable time frame. Last week, we went through the process of preparing arguments for mini debates, which will set the stage for the thought process that goes into writing a good argument.
Students will choose their own topics, but they must have them approved prior to beginning their research. Don't forget our Help A Pet drive this week!!! Please send in blankets, towels, food, etc. to help the Humane Society provide for the homeless pets in our community. |
Mrs. Smith's 8th Grade ELA8th Grade is going to be an exciting year. This year in ELA, we will learn the skills necessary to communicate effectively, form logical, fact based arguments, and analyze higher level reading content. Archives
September 2018
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