7th and 8th Grade
PCCS Newsletter 10/19/2020
Good Morning and Happy Monday,
We are already halfway through October! I hope everyone has been able to get outside and enjoy some fall activities. If you weren’t able to watch the Natural Leaders Assembly live on Facebook, you can head over to PCCS’s Facebook page and watch it to see how some of the staff have been enjoying their time outside.
Math with Mr. Hershiser:
Every week in Mr. Hershiser’s math class, each student is expected to complete 60 questions on IXL and if they complete 80 questions for the week they receive extra-credit! Ms. Weber sends out reminders to the students during the week to help keep them on task. Any math-related questions students may have, they can come to office hours in Mr. Hershiser’s Zoom room from 2-2:30, daily.
Math 7AB/8AB
All 7/8 A and B math classes have started a new unit this month. We have been analyzing many graphs and data sets. As the unit continues, 7th grade will look at data about hurricanes while 8th grade looks at data related to the US census.
Science with Mrs. Jackson:
7th Grade Science:
Thank you so much for your patience with drop off last week! These projects are amazing and I can tell that many of your children spent a lot of time and effort on this project! These will be graded as soon as possible. If your child’s assignment has not been sent in yet, please send it in with next week’s drop off. This week, we are looking into the difference between weather and climate, climate change, and the effects climate change is having on our environment.
8th Grade Science:
Last week in science we finished up our sound and light unit by looking at the parts of an eye via a virtual cow eye dissection. Students watched as the dissection was modeled for them. While I wish we were in class to dissect eyes, this was a great way for students to get the virtual experience. This week we looked at how our eyes perceive color before finally moving on to our end of the unit project. This project will be an assessment grade. Students will be doing a self-designed research project where they look into a topic related to sound and light that they are interested in. From there, they will create their own rubric and decide how they would like to share the information they find. The only catch is that the project cannot be digital! I am looking to get the kids off of the computer and make something! Rubrics and directions are posted to Google Classroom. Projects will be due at Materials Drop off next Friday.
ELA with Mrs. Stewart:
7th Grade ELA:
In ELA, we will continue with our novel study unit on The Graveyard Book, focusing on theme, conflict, and resolution, and how these elements interact with setting, plot and character. The students also will continue polishing their short stories and graveyard map projects for final submission on October 23rd. Finally, we will conduct a close examination and review of relevant vocabulary words that appear in the readings.
8th Grade ELA:
We have finished reading The Outsiders and students are starting their literary analysis essays. Right now, they are hard at work deciding on their topics and gathering evidence, and we will begin writing next week. Once we have finished that, we will watch the movie of The Outsiders in class to celebrate their accomplishment! Looking forward, we will be switching to reading nonfiction, starting with some current articles and issues, and then beginning our unit on the Holocaust later in November.
Social Studies with Mr. Flood:
7th Grade SS:
Seventh Graders have completed amazing Medieval Manors! We are now jumping forward “in time” and learning about the US constitution in time for the 2020 elections. Students are now learning the basic foundations of our government and will start learning about the major components of it. Start having conversations with your kiddos about how the government works! We are going to be working hard on having all assignments started or completed in class— so if anything may be missing from your child’s grades, it will be primarily in-class work!
8th Grade SS:
8th Grade just finished their first CER of the year. We did almost all the prep in class and they received feedback if they turned in a rough draft in time, so they should turn out great! We are now starting a short unit on Imperialism before we start WWI. Each unit will have a CER on it, so we will start prepping for another one soon!
Next week, students will have an early release day on Wednesday, October 21st. Wednesday will be an asynchronous day for the 7/8 students. Students are expected to attend their specials class and FLEXplore class for attendance. From there the students are expected to work on the materials posted for their core classes. Some of your children may have meeting with teachers, please encourage them to attend those meetings!
Materials pick-up Friday, October 23rd. All 8th-grade students should have a science project to drop off. Materials pickup will be run as it has in the past, carpool style, starting at 3:30.
We are already trucking through the second half of this first trimester and we have all learned so much throughout this e-learning experience. We cannot wait for the day we can have the kids back in the classroom. As always, be sure to continue checking with your kids to see how they are doing with e-learning and please let us know if there are any concerns.
Have a great day,
The 7/8 Team