Winter Showcase is Coming!

The kids are working hard, learning their music, and getting ready for Winter Showcase! This year's Winter Showcase is December 3, 2014 at 7pm at Northside College Prep (5501 N Kedzie Ave, Chicago, IL 60625). Please have your child to NCP by 6:30pm.  

Winter Showcase is an all-school production where the students from Kindergarten through 8th grade, including our band program, showcase what they have been learning in music class.  We aren't able to include every activity and song, but we  perform a few of the students' favorites.  Also, families are able to see the progression of their child's music education by seeing older classes perform.

Attire is dressy, but comfortable enough to dance in for classroom performances. Band students are required to wear concert attire (black pants/skirts/socks/shoes and ALL white tops... no colorful designs). Please refer to the band syllabus if you have questions about band attire. The showcase begins at 7pm sharp and is about 90 minutes long.   If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. LaGorio at LaGorio@npeschool.org

Thank you advance for bringing your child and for enjoying all of our NPES students performances.

8th Grade Science: Newton's Three Laws

Week: 12

Hi Parents,

Week 12 is a short week with report cards being mailed, conferences, and the kids finishing their unit of study.  This week is mainly housekeeping.  The kids will be reviewing their first quarter goals and maintaining and/or creating new second quarter goals.  They will be creating new journals and reviewing their first quarter journals for parent conferences and to write their first quarter reflection.

The 8th graders are completing their Physical Science Unit by creating a Naked Egg Drop Crate.  The objective of this project is to have an egg drop from a designated height into a crate and have the egg survive the drop.  To create this crate they are using Newton’s Three Laws of Motion to support their design.  We will have our competition when I return, so ask them about it.

I will not be in school next week because of a long distance wedding in Key West.

Sincerely,

Mr. T

Art in Nature, Monsters and Calder Mobiles

The eighth graders had fun last week at the nature center doing a nature installation project inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy. It was a little chilly, but there are some nice results.

They are also working on the "Monster Project" with the pre-schoolers. The pre-schoolers made simple monster drawings and then each 8th graders took one of the drawings and had to make it more "believable" by adding volume, color and an background. This project is based on the work of the artist Dave DeVries. They will continue to work on these when they have down time during the next few weeks.

We looked at the work of Alexander Calder today to prep for the project fair Calder Mobiles. The students will be working in pairs and practiced with the wire cutters and the box cutters and did some nice sketches of their ideas. 

Week 11: Eighth Grade Science

Week 11

Topic: Friction and Gravity.

Students will be able to: 

Describe the friction, and identify factors that determine the friction force between two objects.

Identify the factors that affect the gravitational force between two objects.

Explain why objects accelerate during free fall.

Essential Question:

How does distance affect gravity?  How did Newton do it?

This week the kids discover how mass, distance, weight, acceleration, speed, and gravity are all related.

Key Terms:

friction

weight

gravity

free fall

air resistance

terminal velocity

projectile

Differentiated Instruction:

predicting

observing

math integration

measuring

data analysis

concluding

creating labs

compare and contrast

Upcoming:

The Laws of Newton, momentum, and Conservation of Momentum.

Inequalites

Hello 8th grade parents.  This is Mr. Hotaling and I am back to teaching your children.  This week in 8th grade we just finished working on the Math portion of the Calder Mobile Project.  They completed the math portion where they used rods, string, and alligator clips to create a version of a mobile and learned about how the fulcrum is really an equal sign and the equation is (length from fulcrum) * (weight of object) = (length from fulcrum) * (weight of object).  Today we finished it all up and watched a video on the Alexander Calder Circus.  We then started our next unit on solving inequalities.  We will be reviewing how to solve one step and multi-step inequalities.  We will also be working on some logical reasoning type questions as well.

1920s unit

This week, the 8th graders began their 1920s unit in Social Studies.  They began with a section about post-WWI turmoil in the United States.  They learned about the Red Scare, labor strikes, and the Chicago Race riot.  Then, they created menu items to show their knowledge of the section.  Later this week, the students will learn about politics during the 1920s and some of the political scandals that happened during the era.

Ask your 8th grader:

What is radicalism?  Do you think radicals were treated fairly after WWI?
What menu items are you working on?

8th Grade Language Arts: New Book Clubs

This week 8th graders started their new book club groups.  This quarter the genre is dystopian books.  The books being read this quarter include Sylo, Maze Runner, House of the Scorpion, and Fahrenheit 451.  Students received their books last week and met with their group members to develop the reading schedule and set goals and ground rules for the meetings.  Each book club group will meet for eight discussion sessions throughout the month of November.  During each meeting, students discuss reading log reflections, literary elements, opinions, frustrations, interesting quotes, predictions, etc.  The concluding assessment projects will be completed in December.  Students will create a book review individually and work as a group to develop soundtrack to connect to the events in their book.

Upcoming Due Dates:

Cause and Effect Essay:

1st Draft due: Tuesday, November 11, 2014

2nd Draft due: Monday, November 17, 2014

Final Draft due: Wednesday, November 19, 2014