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"Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience."“Second Quarter News
Happy New Year to our students and families. May you receive God’s blessing throughout the new year.
It is difficult to believe, but the eighth graders are in the process of completing their high school applications. This is an exciting time for them as they will await their acceptances some time in February.
In English, the eighth graders have been working very hard perfecting their writing skills. They have been doing an excellent job thinking critically with their writing prompts. I can attest that they are well prepared for the rigors of high school writing. Students have completed another chapter in Thoreau’s Walden. They have learned how to answer short answer questions in sentence format. Students have also been reviewing punctuation and grammar through Daily Oral Language. We are presently beginning an introduction to the Holocaust and will be continuing with the Civil Rights Movement. Students will be reading “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau as well as “Letters from the Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. Students will be involved with numerous writing assignments throughout this unit.
Congratulations to sixteen of our eighth graders, who will have their original poems published in Celebration of Young Poets. In English, the students needed to write an original 20 line poem expressing feelings about growing up or the feelings of a toy watching them drift away from childhood. The notification from “Poetic Power” stated: “The teachers and students of your school should feel honored as only the top 50% of the entries submitted from across the nation are invited to be published! Publishing the accepted poetry from our contest creates a record of what is important to today’s students. Without this publication, the entries that reflect the unique creativity and talent of the youth today would be lost forever.” Congratulations to the following eighth graders:
Tre’Ana Williams
A’niyah Smith
Donnell Parker
Jeremiah Kreiger
Blake Benedictis
Ti’Nija Bonner
Kortnie Church
Janiya Byrd
Kimora Wright
Sanaa Brooks
Zachary Ade
Deona Byrd-Mims
Serenity Ellis
Abigail LaGuardia
Carlee Koerner
Gabielle Avery
The focus in Reading has been on applying various reading skills to an assortment of activities and different types of literature. We have used escape rooms to apply these skills to get through tasks. The students have read informational texts on the history of Christmas, real vs. artificial Christmas trees, the science behind snowflakes and most recently they explored New Year traditions around the world. Looking ahead we will be reading about Martin Luther King Jr., Valentine's Day, and more!
In the eighth grade, the students are learning about the history of the earth and how it has changed in the past 4.5 billion years--things such as the atmosphere, climate, terrain, plants and animals. They created their own timeline, and outlined major events that have occurred in their lives, beginning with their birth. They then learned about the many different types of fossils. They will then make their own fossils by using plaster parish and various objects.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Are these just hollow words, or are they the fundamental ideals of a new nation. Our eighth graders analyzed in detail, perhaps the most significant document in human history, The Declaration of Independence. These words formalized a rebellion that would lead to the founding of our nation. We then explored how a small burgeoning nation, America, defeated the worlds largest superpower. Looking forward, now that independence has been won, we will study the development of the American Nation in our Social Studies class.
The eighth grade has started focusing on algebraic concepts. Last unit students worked on mastering how to find the slope, writing the equations of a line in slope-intercept form, and graphing a line. This unit we are reviewing how to solve multi-step equations and building
towards solving systems of equations. The eighth graders are showing great improvement in their algebraic reasoning. Additionally, students continue to practice fraction and integer operations.
First Quarter NewsThe students in grade eight have been working hard in Language Arts. The have been reviewing
grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure daily through Daily Oral Language. Their writing
skills have exercised through writing responses to Henry David Thoreau’s journals. This
requires them to think critically and be able to express themselves in an organized manner. We
analyzed the lyrics to “House on Pooh Corner” by Loggins and Messina and the words of the
poem “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas. The song and poem deal with leaving childhood behind
and is used as a preparation to the reading of Thoreau’s Walden and the first chapter “Economy”.
Students then wrote an original poem about leaving their childhood behind. They have noiw
begun reading “Economy”. There is much discussion, and they are learning how to formulate
responses to a study guide.
In Religion, 8A is learning early church history and the years immediately following the
Ascension of Christ. 8B students have learned the characteristics of being Catholic. They
reviewed the beliefs as stated in the Apostle’s Creed. Students also discussed the seven Catholic
Social Justice Principles and applied them to today’s society. They look forward to Fridays
because Father Haren teaches both classes basic catechism of the Catholic faith.
In September, the eighth grade class went to the Got Prayer Retreat at Camp Christopher
sponsored by Trinity High School. It was a prayerful and moving experience for our students.
They were exposed to various types of prayer including walking in the woods looking at God’s
beautiful creation. The retreat concluded with a a wonderful prayer service.
In eighth grade the students began the year learning about all sorts of different scientists and
what their job entails. They then began their earth science unit studying the layers of the earth by
watching and reading excerpts of the book "Journey to the Center of the Earth," by Jules Verne..
They worked in groups and made amazing play doh replicas of the earth and all of its layers.
Each color representing a different layer of the earth. After a few weeks they became hard
enough to cut. We cut them in half and saw what the inside of the earth would look like if we
were able to cut it open. We then ventured outdoors and combined diet Pepsi with a stack of
mentos and created 30 foot geysers in the parking lot. They culminated the unit by working on a
Self Organized Learning Experience (SOLE) lesson answering the question, "What if
Pangagea never broke apart?" Their power point and slide presentations were amazing!!!!!
Math has been fun yet challenging. We just finished a geometry unit on transformations and
congruence. We learned that figures are congruent if we can slide, flip, or create a mirror image
that lies directly on top of the original figure. We also looked at different relationships of angles
when we have parallel lines and proved why vertical angles are congruent. Now we are learning
about a different type of transformation, a dilation. In addition to all the geometry we have
learned, we are continuing to build number fluency and problem solving skills
In Social Studies we have studied the earliest European settlements in the Americas. Students
were provided with primary sources from Christopher Columbus , and a Dominican Priest,
Bartolomeo de las Casas and asked to decide using evidence whether or not Columbus was a
hero. We have also begun to look at the British settlements of the original 13 colonies, and the
various groups and reasons for settlements.
In Reading we have been spending time looking at nonfiction text structures. The students
learned about different text structures and the signal words used to recognize them. They also
gained an understanding of the graphic organizer that could be used to represent the text
structure. Text structures include sequence/chronological, compare/contrast, cause/effect,
description and problem/solution.
Henry and I are excited about sauntering the 2022-2023 school year with each of you. It will be a year filled with great writing! I am looking forward to working with each of you and reading your wonderful writing. This will be a special and exciting year!
MRS. PRZYBOJEWSKI'S
SUMMER 2022 NEWS
Mrs. Przybojewski has had an exciting summer. In June, her children's book "Henry David Thoreau Who Can He Be?" was used as a story walk at Mugrage Park in Medina, Ohio. Mrs. Przybojewski dressed as Henry and led the children down the path as she read the book to them.
Mrs. Przybojewski as gave a presentation in Concord, MA in July at the Thoreau Society Gathering. She was very proud to speak about her students' writing during the past year. The topic was "Sauntering the Year Across Global Literature with Henry David Thoreau. She spoke about the ways she uses Thoreau to promote writing in global literature.
During the conference she had the privilege to see Jane Goodall receive the Thoreau Society Award for excellence in nature writing.
In addition, Mrs. Przybojewski had an essay published in a book published by the Thoreau Farm: Birthplace of Henry David Thoreau. Her essay explained what students learned from Thoreau during the past two years of the pandemic. She explained how he helped to inspire them to be uindividuals of authenticity and integrity. He gave the example of how to deal with adversity.
Also, Mrs. Przybojewski published and illustrated her eighth children's book on Henry David Thoreau--"Henry and the Runaway Pig,"
which is based on his journal entry of trying to catch his father's pig that escaped from its pen.
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