News from 8-I

8-I Blog – March 17, 2014

Health:

Mr. Stambaugh’s class is finishing up the last of Growth and Development. We will finish up by having a partner assessment the next time we meet as a team. We will then begin learning about the other systems of the body. We begin with the Skeletal system learning all the bones of the body.

Mrs. Quinones’ Social Studies Class:

Oh say can you see?  Why yes!  I can!  Francis Scott Key, author of the poem The Defense of Fort McHenry, is one of a few new people we met during our study of the War of 1812.  The oyster ice cream loving Dolley Madison is another.  She saved the portrait of George Washington from burning to ruin in the White House when the British invaded DC.  Then there was Andrew Jackson!  Billed as the Hero of New Orleans, we found out that it was completely unnecessary to even have the Battle of New Orleans because the peace declaration had already been signed.  Students realized that communication wasn't nearly as efficient as today!

                                                                               We are finishing the Industrial Revolution today. I encourage you to take a few hours and visit the Agricultural and Industrial Museum on West Princess Street in downtown York.  It's a great place to see how transportation evolved in America and how YORK PA was instrumental in that growth.   https://www.yorkheritage.org/page.asp?id=3"https://www.yorkheritage.org/pag e.asp?id=3

We will be heading farther west as we take on the topic of Westward Expansion and the concept of Manifest Destiny.  Students are also building a foundation for the next big war, the American Civil War.  We have already begun traveling on the road to that war.

Ms. Eckert’s English Class:

Students just finished learning how to decode unfamiliar words through our study of root words, prefixes and suffixes. They are now starting to brainstorm on their fictional narrative stories. Students will be ready to dive into their narratives once PSSAs are over and wow you and their classmates by creating imaginary worlds and characters. We are also learning about writing conventions, such as pronouns types, verb moods, participle phrases and active and passive verbs, while gearing up for the PSSAs.

Mrs. Kelly’s Science Class:

We finished up our unit on weather this month and now we are onto the Earth's layers and plate tectonics.  We have enjoyed learning about the 7 layers of the Earth and how it is broken down into three smaller layers of the Lithosphere, Asthenosphere and the Mesosphere.  We learned about the different densities of the layers by doing a lab with different liquids and observing how they behave.

When we learned about the asthenosphere, we did an activity with corn starch and water where the asthenosphere's consistency is replicated.  

It is a liquid at first,

but when pressure is applied, it turns into a solid.

Next we will learn about continental drift, seafloor spreading and how fossils are found on multiple continents.  We have a plate tectonics quiz this Friday, March 21st.

Mrs. Morgan’s Math Classes:

All classes have been busy getting ready for PSSA's next week.  All classes learned the Pythagorean Theorem, Volume formulas, and Scientific Notation to get ready for our state assessment. Now that we are done reviewing for the PSSA's, Algebra AB is learning how to solve Systems of Equations.  By Wednesday, they will know all three methods and will be able to demonstrate this on their quiz Friday.  The Algebra 1A class and the Prealgebra 2 class are learning how to graph linear equations using different strategies.  First we learned how to graph using a table. Now we are learning what a slope is in math and how you use slopes and y-intercepts to graph lines.  The Algebra 1A class and Prealgebra 2 class will also have a quiz this Friday to demonstrate their ability to graph linear equations.  Then next week we will all take the PSSA's!

Academic Literacy:

Students are continuing to develop their writing and reasoning skills. Most recently students worked in groups to write a claim about a potential crime scene using the evidence and a close analysis of that evidence. Together they composed a focused, detailed and well organized written response by using color-coded sentence strips.  Each response included a thesis statement, topic sentences, supporting evidence from the text, an analysis of all the supporting evidence and a conclusion.  

Currently, students are working to find bias in media and print and using their newly polished thinking and reasoning skills to conduct a close article analysis of several texts.

Mr. Conover's Math Class:

We recently finished working on the Pythagorean Theorem and are diving into functions.  Students are learning what a function is, how to identify one, and then how to graph functions.  From there, we are delving into graphing linear equations, determining slope of a line, and writing equations of a line.  Lots of fun to be had in Mr. Conover's math class, the students are doing a phenomenal job at everything they have thrown at them!

Mr. McIntyre’s English Class:

Mr. McIntyre’s English has been very busy.  We have been working on punctuating our writing correctly, as well as punctuating dialogue correctly.  We are currently in the drafting process of a narrative we are writing, which will include dialogue between the characters.  We are also exploring how adding a prefix or a suffix to a word changes the word’s meaning or part of speech.  In addition, we are identifying the meaning of specific prefixes and suffixes and using that to help us determine a word’s meaning.