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| Gala & Auction: April 28, 2012 | Family Fun Night: February 24, 2012 | | www.barnesvilleschool.org | joy. support. excellence. | |
| Social Studies | | Each 8th grader chose up to 3 stocks and followed their rise and fall (and hopefully rise again) during the month of January. They were introduced to the basics of the stock market as they learned more about The Great Depression of the 1930s. I have read some interesting essays on the value of money on American culture!
President Hoover's response (or lack of response) and Franklin Roosevelt's action (or excessive involvement in daily life by a growing government) were explored. America's eventual involvement in World War 2 will occupy a good portion of our time through Spring Break. |  |
| Science | | We are concluding our discussion of the elements and the periodic table this month. What are the properties of metals, nonmetals, and metalloids? What characteristics do the elements in each group share? What is a noble gas and why are they so stable? What are these elements used for anyway? What happens when certain elements combine? These are the questions we will be investigating in the next few weeks. After that, we move on to acids and bases.
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| Honors Algebra | | Factoring, factoring, factoring! That is all we seem to be doing in Honors Algebra right now. We have learned many strategies to help us to factor equations to make them easier to solve. Right now we are learning how to solve quadratic equations by factoring and using the zero factor theorem. Once we master that, we will find out exactly how useful quadratic equations are. This is a time when math and science come crashing into each other. it may sound scary, but it really is not. Algebra in the real world... who knew?
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| Geometry | | Our study of geometry has been focusing on triangles and their properties recently. We have discerned how to prove triangles are congruent (equal in size and shape) and what other observations and conclusions those proofs can lead to. We have looked at exterior angles of triangles and how they relate to the angles within the triangles. We have recognized that a larger angle faces a larger side of the triangle and that the lengths of the sides of a triangle follow specific rules and limitations. When we complete this unit on triangles, we will begin our investigation of quadrilaterals and circles. | |
| Algebra | | Students will cover Chapter 6 in their text. Linear equations and their graphs will be the focus of instruction. Rate of change and slope, slope-intercept form, applying linear functions, standard form, point-slope form and writing linear equations will be covered. Parallel and perpendicular lines, scatter plots and equations of lines and graphing absolute value equations will round out the chapter.
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| Language Arts | | "It's a Sin to Kill a Mockingbird," claims Harper Lee! Students will be reading To Kill a Mockingbird over the course of the next month and learn about the message Lee conveys in her classic novel. A literary analysis of the novel along with a character project will help students dissect the information. Ongoing grammar, vocabulary and writing instruction continues! | |
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| | Art | | Eighth graders are doing a water based oil painting of one of the photographs they took in Frederick this month. They will also be working on a graffiti canvas project for the Spring Fling. | |
| Physical Education | | Even though the Winter Classic is done and over with, the hockey spirit is still alive in PE. Deck hockey has allowed them to showcase their dribble, passing, and shooting abilities. They are working well as a team, and building stamina and agility with each game! | |
| Music | | The New Year began with a belated performance of the Holiday Show. The enthusiasm and energy was alive and well and has continued throughout the classroom activities. The students have built up their repertoire of guitar chords and have branched out from playing basic nursery rhyme songs to A Horse with No Name by America, Right Here Waiting for You by Richard Marx and Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles, to name just a few. February wouldn’t be complete without a love song and the students will be playing an Elvis Presley rendition of Wooden Heart. | |
| Spanish | | Eighth grade students have learned many Spanish speaking countires so far and this month they will be learnign about Peru and Puerto Rico. Students will continue reading and answering questions of our book " Las Aventuras de Miguelito". As far as grammar, students will be reenforcing their knowledge of " regular verbs", practice writing paragraphs and start learning about past tense.
January and the beginning of February students get to exchanged ideas and interacted with our Peruvian exchange students which helped them learn about Peruvian culture. Eighth grade also memorized and performed a play in Spanish for the middle school students in the company of the exchange students. | |
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