Week 8: Monday, October 23rd – Friday, October 27th

Advisory

We are excited to let you know that this week we started a mindfulness program in advisory. The program is comprised of once a week meetings.

The Program Goals:

• Provide students with the tools to create a space between stimulus and response and manage high school process more effectively.

• Help students to distinguish between reality and their own thoughts and foster an ability to observe and label their own thoughts without judgment.
• Discover roots of mindfulness within Jewish Text and Values
• Cultivate caring community members

• Create a time and space of quiet reflection.

We hope the children will benefit from the program and it will provide them with meaningful life skills!

Hebrew and Heritage

Dear parents,

This week students in HaKbatza Aleph continued to focus on the difference between teaching and learning. Students in HaKbatzaBeyt continued to discuss what kind of trips they like and what do people do on various trips.

In addition, this week, the middle school started a proficiency-based online assessment. 

Humanities

Literature and Writing:

This week in literature, students finished reading Act I of the Crucible. They created memes for important characters in the first act with a quote that represents an important moment or struggle they faced. Next week, students will take a short quiz on the plot of Act I and start reading Act II.

In writing, students received their second essay prompt of the year, asking them whether it is appropriate to continue honoring Christopher Columbus in light of the controversy his legacy engenders today.  Using Newsela, an outline newspaper website designed for students of all ages, they have begun to read both primary source material and news articles about recent protests surrounding statues in Manhattan made in Columbus’ image.  Next week, students will finish their preliminary research, set personal writing goals for themselves, craft their thesis statements and begin to outline their argument essay.

History:

In History, students learned about the founding of 8 British colonies.  They were asked to compare the differences and similarities between individual colonies and the colonial regions.  We continued to read primary source documents explaining the origins of the Mayflower Compact and the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and wrote postcards to imaginary friends in England trying to convince them to settle in our colonies in the New World. Next week, we will learn more about daily life in the colonies, the slave trade and take a map quiz on Colonial America.

Hope everyone has a relaxing and restful weekend,

Michael

Judaic Studies

This week the 8th graders completed our Parents and Children unit. Students translated and discussed verses from the Torah, a Mishna, and two sections of Talmud that focused on this topic. We worked on deepening our listening and discussing skills in chevruta. This means building our abilities to express our ideas; to respond to a friend’s ideas; and to include the text as an equal partner in the conversation. The 8th graders practiced these skills in a chevruta discussion about whether parents should be considered responsible for the bad behavior of their children, using both the Talmud text and their own experiences. For their final projects, 8th graders either wrote letters of parenting advice to you, their parents, or to their future selves.

We will have a vocabulary quiz on Monday, October 30th. The review sheet is posted on google classroom.

Shabbat shalom,

Jessica

Math

This week in eighth grade math we worked on Unit #2. The students worked on solving simultaneous equations. They learned three different methods on how to find multiple variables. Both classes have a test next week. 8Y will have their test on Monday and 8X will have their test on Friday. It has been a good week of math.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Craig

Science

This week in science students expanded their knowledge about atoms into the concept of molecules. They discovered that molecules are structures that have more than one atom. We conducted our first chemical reaction laboratory. This gave students the opportunity to discover how atoms get rearranged during a chemical reaction however never get destroyed. This allowed student to start thinking about how molecules are created and rearranged.

Mike Noll

All of us hope you enjoy your weekends,

The 8th Grade Team.