Drug and Alcohol Education Update

Listed below is the overview for the March program:

Assembly:

Basic information regarding alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs (including myths and risks)

Peer Pressure, including refusal strategies

Workshops:

Goals/Decision Making Skills

Valuing a Substance Free Lifestyle (long term impact of addiction)

For the 8th grade we will include what this all means as they transition into high school.

Activities:

Substance Use in the Media

Peer Pressure Scenarios

Substance Specific Worksheets (alcohol, marijuana & tobacco) 

In mid-March, PEER Services will be providing the Advisors with 5 the discussion topics/activities that we can use in the classroom to continue reinforcing the information. They recommend that this is done after all students have attended both the assembly and grade-level break out sessions so that the students have all had the same foundation curriculum. 

Elimination and inequalities

This week in 8th grade we are finishing up our unit on systems of equations.  This week we learned about the third way to solve a system of equations using elimination.  We have spent a lot of time looking at real world situations that involve systems of equations and I have asked the kids to make a 3 act math video that would use systems.  For the rest of the week we will be working on graphing systems of inequalities.

We will have a quiz on Friday Feb. 28 covering sections 7.3-7.5
A POW A custom of customs is due next Tuesday March 3rd
The alternative assessment will be passed out tomorrow and is going to be due next Thursday
Test next Thursday

Ask your child about the 3 act math they are making.

Drug and Alcohol Education

Hello all,

For our Drug and Alcohol (D&A) unit in advisory, we are going to bring in a group called PEER Services http://www.peerservices.org/  They are an Evanston based company that specializes in substance abuse education, prevention, and assistance.  In order to truly dive into the subject, we will be covering this topic throughout the month of March by bringing in PEER Services on 4 different dates: March 5th, 10th, 24th, and 31st.  Here's the overview of the four sessions:

March 5th: Introduction and large meeting.  6th grade will be gone on a field trip this day.  Therefore, Mrs. LaGorio and Ms. Hovey will be going over the material with 6th grade on the following day 2 during their study hall. 

March 9th: 6th grade Introduction.  As stated, Mrs. LaGorio and Ms. Hovey will cover everything that was shared on March 5th with the 6th graders during their study hall.  Advisors will let your 6th graders know about this make-up lesson, so they won't plan on using the time for homework, etc.  

March 10th, 24th, and 31st: Break Out Sessions.  Students will be divided into groups based on their class (6th, 7th and 8th) in order to discuss substance abuse topics that are relevant to them. 

On the days when PEER Services is not at NPES, the advisors will be facilitating discussion and helping to answer any questions the students might have.  Also, PEER Services is providing the advisories with handouts and activities that the teachers will lead within our smaller groups. 

According to the student survey completed at the end of last school year, drug and alcohol education is something our middle school students really wanted to see in advisory.  We want to help to best equip our students to make smart decisions as they leave NPES and go onto high school.  

Please contact Tiffany LaGorio, Middle School Advisory Coordinator, if you have any questions at lagorio@npeschool.org 

The War in Europe and the Pacific

This week, the 8th graders have learned about specific WWII battles in Europe and the Pacific.  Last week, the students worked together to create post-it timelines.  Each group became an expert on the battles in one country.  Then, they shared the dates from their country with their classmates, who added them onto their existing timeline.  On Monday, students began learning about the battles in the Pacific.  They will spend the rest of the week working on their World War II menus and preparing for their test next week.

Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday, March 4   WWII Menu Due
Friday, March 6           WWII Test

Questions for your 8th Grader:

-What menu items are you working on?
-What made the battles in the Pacific so difficult?

Week 24: 8th Grade Science

Week: 24

Topic: Life With Carbon

Students will be able to: 

List four main classes of organic compounds in living things.

Explain how the organic compounds in living things differ from one another.  

Essential Question:

What does food look like at the molecular level?

This week: The 8th graders this week are using their lab and chemistry skills to identify the three food groups.  In the experiment “Can’t Judge a Powder” students will be using their observation skills and different chemicals to see how different food groups react.  Example:  iodine turns starches black.  Then they will use these observation to test chemically carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.  They will begin to see how sugars and starches both carbohydrates react differently.  

Key Terms:

carbohydrate

glucose

complex carbohydrates

starch 

protein

amino acid

lipid

fatty acid

hydroxyl & carboxyl group

isomer

Differentiated Instruction:

observing

developing hypotheses

inferring

interpreting

creating models 

classifying

Upcoming:

Our digestive system, and acids and bases

Oil paintings

The eighth graders are almost done with their oil paintings. One more week of exploration and then we will move on. We have really been pushing them to experiment with the medium and explore blending to create shadows, highlights and brush strokes. Here are some examples of works in progress.

Week 24: 8th Grade Science

Week: 24

Topic: Life With Carbon

Students will be able to: 

List four main classes of organic compounds in living things.

Explain how the organic compounds in living things differ from one another.  

Essential Question:

What does food look like at the molecular level?

This week: The 8th graders will use their knowledge of chemistry and use food chemistry to identify different food groups.  

Key Terms:

carbohydrate

glucose

complex carbohydrates

starch 

protein

amino acid

lipid

fatty acid

hydroxyl & carboxyl group

isomer

Differentiated Instruction:

observing

developing hypotheses

inferring

interpreting

creating models 

classifying

Upcoming:

Our digestive system

Systems of Equations

This week in 8th grade we are continuing to learn about systems of equations.  Last week we started looking at systems as graphing two linear equations and seeing where they intersect as the solution.  Today we learned that sometimes when graphing the intersection is at a place that is hard to identify so we need to have other methods how to solve them.  Today we started looking at the substitution method for solving systems.  We watched two videos today and used substitution to solve them.  We will continue to work with substitution tomorrow.  By the end of the week we will learn about solving systems of equations by elimination.

We will have a quiz on sections 7.1-7.2 on Thursday Feb. 19.
POW A-Phone-y deal due Wed. Feb. 25

America joins World War II

The 8th graders have spent the last few weeks learning about the progression of World War II.  Last week, students worked together to create "tension timelines" that tracked Hitler's movements in Europe and then discussed how America might react to each action.  Then they learned about Pearl Harbor, the event that finally brought the United States into the war.  Later in the week, they learned about what life was like on the Home Front after the country went to war.  The students read primary sources about how women and minority groups influenced the war and discussed their roles during a Socratic Seminar.  This week, they will learn about how the entrance of the United States affected the war in Europe.

Questions for your 8th grader:

• Do you think the United States would have joined World War II if the Japanese had never bombed Pearl Harbor?

• What surprised you the most about the primary sources you discussed during your Socratic Seminar?

Oil Paintings of Trees

This week the 8th graders had their first experience with using oil paints.  The subject matter was determined by the photos they took last week of bare trees. Each student used a view finder to isolate an interesting area of their tree photo and then sketched it on their canvas. For many of them this will be their only exposure to using this really fun and sophisticated medium. Oil paints dry very slowly and so they allow for more experimentation with blending, layering and using visible brush strokes. It is very forgiving in that you can keep working it for several weeks to achieve the desired affect of showing light and shadow. I think they are enjoying themselves so far.

 

Week 23: 8th Grade

Week: 23

Topic: Life With Carbon

Students will be able to: 

List four main classes of organic compounds in living things.

Explain how the organic compounds in living things differ from one another.  

Essential Question:

What does food look like at the molecular level?

This week: The 8th graders will use their understanding of carbon and build organic compounds.  They will see how carbon builds simple sugars (glucose) and how each food group (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) become more complex both in size and shape. 

Key Terms:

carbohydrate

glucose

complex carbohydrates

starch 

protein

amino acid

lipid

fatty acid

hydroxyl & carboxyl group

isomer

Differentiated Instruction:

developing hypotheses

inferring

interpreting

creating models 

classifying

Upcoming:

Our digestive system

Systems of equations

This week in 8th grade we are starting our next unit on systems of equations.  Yesterday in class we went over the unit 6 test and did a little preparation for the mid year final that we took today.  Yesterday we also did an activity where the students read riddles and tried to figure out how many coins were in a can using guess and check and equations.  The goal of the riddles was to get the class to start thinking about having multiple linear equations.  Tomorrow we will discuss graphing systems of equations and discuss what the intersection of two linear equations mean.  We will be watching a lot of videos in this unit to help make connections to what we are learning.

L.A. Blog-Research and Scrapbooks!

Good afternoon, parents! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

This week, the students are very busy working on two different projects: one, their research paper, which is moving along quite quickly, and the other, their book club scrapbook project. After receiving their grades outlines and works cited pages, the students know where to begin on their first draft. We also had a lesson on how to create in-text citations and when it's appropriate to add these in.

The scrapbook project is really exciting! The students are coming up with some amazingly creative journal entries, along with some well-researched artifacts to accompany their writing. The scrapbook project is due Thursday, February 12th.

We are using class time this week to work on both projects, as well as a couple of spelling sheets and Writer's Notebooks.

Here are this week's/next week's due dates:

Scrapbook Project: Due Thursday, February 12th
Rough Draft of Research Report: Due Tuesday, February 17th

Have a great three-day weekend coming up!

Happy Presidents' Day!

L.A. Blog-Happy February!

It's hard to believe we're already into February, and we had our first official Snow Day! I hope everyone had a good three day weekend because of it.

This month, we are wrapping up some big projects. The eighth graders have completed their WWII  books and are currently working on their Scrapbook. This project requires a lot of collaboration as well as self-management. Mostly, the students will be working on it in class, but they may have to do some at home. This project is due Thursday, February 12th.

Next, the students are working hard on their research papers. They just turned in their outlines and works cited page, both of which are essential to the final draft. Any errors they make on these should be corrected for the final paper. The final paper is due Tuesday, February 24th.

The most important thing to remember for this month is that the students need to balance their time between doing work in class and at home. I often give them a lot of class time, so they should be using it wisely!

Wrap Up:
Mosaic Project due Thursday, 2/12
Final Paper due Tuesday, 2/24

Have a wonderful week!

World War II

This week, we began our World War II unit.  Students began the unit by brainstorming what they already knew about the war from books, TV, movies, etc.  Then, we talked about questions that they want to explore as we learn more about the time period.  Today, the students researched and taught mini-lessons about what each major country was like before the war.  They learned that the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression led to the rise of dictators all over the world.

Questions for your 8th Grader:

• Who were the "bad guys" in World War II?
• Why did so many people follow the dictators that came to power in the 1930s?

Week 22: 8th Grade Science

Week: 22

Topic: Carbon Compounds

Students will be able to: 

List properties of organic compounds.

Identify properties of hydrocarbons.

Describe the kind of structures and bonding that hydrocarbons have.

Identify characteristics of substituted hydrocarbons, esters, and polymers. 

Essential Question:

What does organic mean?

The 8th graders have put a great deal of time into their atomic and chemistry units.  Now we will take a look at the properties of carbon and what defines an organic and non-organic compound. 

Key Terms:

organic compound

hydrocarbon

isomer

saturated & unsaturated hydrocarbons

substituted hydrocarbons

hydroxyl & carboxyl group

organic acid

ester

polymer

monomer

Differentiated Instruction:

developing hypotheses

inferring

interpreting

creating models 

classifying

Upcoming:

Molecular structure of food

Linear equations and systems of equations

Sorry if you got the 7th grade post, I was on the wrong page.

This week in 8th grade the class is finishing up our unit on linear equations.  We finished a quiz today on parallel lines, perpendicular lines and how to use point slope form.  We then reviewed absolute value graphs, what they looked like, and how to translate it around the coordinate plane.  Tomorrow we will have a review day and on Thursday we will have the unit 6 test on linear equations.  On Monday we will begin our next unit on systems of linear equations, which is basically finding the point where two equations cross.  On Tuesday of next week we will have our Mid Year Final which is a 50 question multiple choice test over everything covered so far this year.

Test on Thursday Feb. 5
Alternative Assessment due Thursday Feb. 5
Mid Year Final Tuesday Feb. 10