Thanks for reading our Room 8 Blog! A lot has happened since our past blog.
Tyler Blaszczak won the annual St. Pius Turkey Trot 2K run on November 19.
The St. Pius Girls Basketball Team placed 2nd place at the St. Stan's basketball tournament the weekend of November 20.
The St. Pius Boys Basketball team has a couple games under its belt. Still searching for that first elusive win, the Pirates take on Wyandotte Catholic this Saturday, December 4. Be the ball!
Our cheerleaders placed fourth in the Fall CYO Cheer Competition at St. Lawrence in Utica.
Our 7th and 8th graders will be front and center during the St. Pius Christmas Concert, to be held on Thursday, December 9. They have all been working very hard on their singing and performing duties as the show date nears.
The 8th grade class hosted the school's Thanksgiving Mass on Monday, November 22.
The seventh graders are currently handling prayer duties during morning announcements, while the 8th graders admirably handled those duties last week.
We will also be hosting a pointsettia sale the weekend of December 11 in the Social Hall after each mass. Proceeds will go to fund this year's 8th grade class trip.
Congratulations and Go Pirates!
In terms of academics...
8th Grade Vocabulary: We are currently studying Unit 6. Words in Unit 6 include: abashed, aloof, anguish, articulate, bask, defect, finesse, flaunt, forthright, genial, instill, ostracize, premonition, pseudonym, rehabilitate, repercussion, resolute, retentive, and scapegoat. Please try and "drop" these words to your 8th grader (in the appropriate manner, of course) so they become more comfortable with them. For online games and quizzes on these and all our words, please visit www.vocabtest.com . We are "Level C." The test will take place on Wednesday, December 8.
8th Grade Math: My math class is currently studying linear functions. For example, is 3x+4y=10 a linear equation? (YES) The test will take place on Wednesday, December 8.
8th Grade Literature: We are in the midst of unraveling the mysteries and tragedies of Romeo and Juliet. Summaries of each act are given to students each day we read to help improve their understanding of the text. The test on Romeo and Juliet will be on Friday, December 3.
8th Grade Language Arts: The class just turned in simulated memoirs of historical figures. This means a diary of a famous historical person. They were able to choose (with my approval) an historical figure and then create four to five memoir entries that person would have written at an important time in their lives. For example, Benjamin Franklin penning a diary during the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What would he have written in his diary on July 3, 1776?
7th Grade Math: We are currently studying Operations with Rational Numbers. For example, what is the decimal equivalent of 2/9? How do you multiply fractions? How do you divide fractions? The test is set for Tuesday, December 7.
7th Grade Literature: We are currently reading S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders." The Chicago Tribune raves that it is, "Taut with tension, filled with drama." It is a story of rival social groups in an urban area in the 1960s.
7th Grade Language Arts: Getting down to basics, the seventh graders are studying various parts of a sentence: Subject, predicate, linking verbs, etc. After starting out the school year writing stories and looking at the big picture of writing, we then broke down paragraphs and their elements. Now we focus on the sentence adn the various aspects of it.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
November 7
Here is the latest information from Room 8:
Subject Rundown
8th Grade Vocabulary
Unit 5 test on Wednesday, November 10. Please visit the words at http://www.vocabtest.com/vocabulary_word_test.php?grade=8&unit=5
8th Grade Literature
We will be visiting the computer lab on Monday and Tuesday of this week to give students a chance to publish their historical fiction papers. The guidelines for the assignments are as follows:
• Compare and contrast events and characters within an historical fiction book with the actual events of the time in which it took place
• Summarize the historical fiction book you read, describing its rising and falling actions, style, and the conflict within the story (explain opposing forces).
• Summarize the ACTUAL time and setting that your story took place. If your story took place around the Gettysburg during the Civil War, you would describe the battle, how many people lost their lives, a few main generals in the battle, etc.
• Turn it in by Thursday, November 11
• Complete it in more than 450 words
8th Grade Language Arts
We just began a unit on creating a simulated memoir of an historical figure. For example, what would Benjamin Franklin have written in his diary just before bed on July 3, 1776? We have read other memoir entries and have created our own simulated memoirs. We will continue to study simulated memoirs and the unit will conclude with a paper the students will write recreating an historical figure's "memoir."
8th Grade Algebra
Chapter Test over Linear Equations on Wednesday, November 10. Then we are off to studying Linear Functions!
7th Grade Literature
We just finished a unit on antagonists, protagonists, and conflict. Our quiz on this unit was on Friday, November 5.
We are now reading Thornton Wilder's award-winning play, "Our Town."
7th Grade Language Arts
We are in the middle of creating our own persuasive essays. The students have gone to the computer lab multiple times for research and publishing of their papers.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra
Chapter test on Tuesday, November 9 over Operations with Integers! Then it's off to the wacky world of Rational Numbers :)
Other Important News
8th Graders will be visiting the book fair in the library on Monday at 12:45 pm.
8th Graders were given Catholic School Open House and High School Placement test information on Thursday, November 4. Please let us know if you have any questions. Much more information will be forthcoming.
Practices for winter sports are well underway. Go Pirates Basketball and Cheerleading!!
Congratulations to Student Council Officers President Natalie Loewengruber, Vice President Griffin Burton, and 8th Grade Representative Hannah Cortese. May you guide us on the path to success and God's will.
Big Congratulations to Julia Eory, who won first prize in the class costume contest. She was a piece of candy! Ask her what kind.
Parent-Teacher conferences will take place between 1:30 and 8:30pm on Wednesday and Thursday, November 10 and 11. Hope to see you all there! Registrations is underway just outside the office.
We are creating a "Names of the Dead" book outside the office for all who have lost loved ones. Please write their name in the book just outside the school office doors and we will all pray for them.
Subject Rundown
8th Grade Vocabulary
Unit 5 test on Wednesday, November 10. Please visit the words at http://www.vocabtest.com/vocabulary_word_test.php?grade=8&unit=5
8th Grade Literature
We will be visiting the computer lab on Monday and Tuesday of this week to give students a chance to publish their historical fiction papers. The guidelines for the assignments are as follows:
• Compare and contrast events and characters within an historical fiction book with the actual events of the time in which it took place
• Summarize the historical fiction book you read, describing its rising and falling actions, style, and the conflict within the story (explain opposing forces).
• Summarize the ACTUAL time and setting that your story took place. If your story took place around the Gettysburg during the Civil War, you would describe the battle, how many people lost their lives, a few main generals in the battle, etc.
• Turn it in by Thursday, November 11
• Complete it in more than 450 words
8th Grade Language Arts
We just began a unit on creating a simulated memoir of an historical figure. For example, what would Benjamin Franklin have written in his diary just before bed on July 3, 1776? We have read other memoir entries and have created our own simulated memoirs. We will continue to study simulated memoirs and the unit will conclude with a paper the students will write recreating an historical figure's "memoir."
8th Grade Algebra
Chapter Test over Linear Equations on Wednesday, November 10. Then we are off to studying Linear Functions!
7th Grade Literature
We just finished a unit on antagonists, protagonists, and conflict. Our quiz on this unit was on Friday, November 5.
We are now reading Thornton Wilder's award-winning play, "Our Town."
7th Grade Language Arts
We are in the middle of creating our own persuasive essays. The students have gone to the computer lab multiple times for research and publishing of their papers.
7th Grade Pre-Algebra
Chapter test on Tuesday, November 9 over Operations with Integers! Then it's off to the wacky world of Rational Numbers :)
Other Important News
8th Graders will be visiting the book fair in the library on Monday at 12:45 pm.
8th Graders were given Catholic School Open House and High School Placement test information on Thursday, November 4. Please let us know if you have any questions. Much more information will be forthcoming.
Practices for winter sports are well underway. Go Pirates Basketball and Cheerleading!!
Congratulations to Student Council Officers President Natalie Loewengruber, Vice President Griffin Burton, and 8th Grade Representative Hannah Cortese. May you guide us on the path to success and God's will.
Big Congratulations to Julia Eory, who won first prize in the class costume contest. She was a piece of candy! Ask her what kind.
Parent-Teacher conferences will take place between 1:30 and 8:30pm on Wednesday and Thursday, November 10 and 11. Hope to see you all there! Registrations is underway just outside the office.
We are creating a "Names of the Dead" book outside the office for all who have lost loved ones. Please write their name in the book just outside the school office doors and we will all pray for them.
Monday, November 1, 2010
October 26
8th Grade Vocabulary: We study 20 words per unit. We will complete our fourth unit on Wednesday, October 27, with a test. For each unit, the students make study materials (flash cards), play puzzles and games with the words and their definition, create a story filled with unit words and (sometimes) act out the story for the rest of the class. The words can be found in each student's vocabulary book or online at www.vocabtest.com. Click on "Level C" and you can "peruse" all units we will be and have been studying.
8th Grade Literature: We finished our unit on nonfiction, where we read pieces from Maya Angelou, Eudora Welty, and James Herriot, among others. We also studied the elements of nonfiction, such as genres within it (biography, autobiography, essay, etc). We are currently engaged in a research project where we take an historical fiction book and compare/contrast it to the time it takes place. We will be doing research to find out more on the time period of our historical fiction books, then read the books, and finally put together a paper comprised of what we learned. Each student also should have read and taken tests on three books by October 26 for our Accelerated Reader program.
8th Grade Language Arts: We finished a unit on creating better sentences (using revision, style, elaboration). We are currently creating autobiographical incidents. Each student will be writing a story about one time in their lives. They will explain why it is important to them, capture the reader's interest, detail what happened, describe their feelings, and have great punctuation.
8th Grade Math (my class): We just finished studying expressions, equations, and functions. Our current studies include understanding linear equations. Homework grading update: each student gets credit for each correct answer given on their homeork. If there are 25 problems and they respond correctly on 24, they receive a 96% (24 out of 25). Students must still show their work to receive full credit.
7th Grade Literature: We just finished our unit on nonfiction, where we read pieces from Russell Baker, Ernesto Galarza, a biography on Nolan Ryan, among other stories. We also studied the elements of nonfiction and the genres within it (biography, autobiography, essay, informational text, etc). We are currently studying the relationship between antagonists and protagonists. Each student also should have read and taken tests on three approved books by October 26 for our Accelerated Reader program.
7th Grade Language Arts: We just finished studying how to create better senteces (using elaboration, revision, and style). We are currently studying persuasive essays. Each student will create an essay attempting to persuade his/her audience in one direction or another. Students will focus on using facts to support their opinions.
7th Grade Math (my class): We just finished studying the tools of algebra (variables, properties, ordered pairs) and are currently learning about operations with integers. Homework grading update: each student gets credit for each correct answer given on their homeork. If there are 25 problems and they respond correctly on 24, they receive a 96% (24 out of 25). Students must still show their work to receive full credit.
Other activities:
We had a great time at the spelling bee at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Allen Park. We had 18 participants. Andre Cabalang and Elaine Spaminato took home brand-new dictionaries and earned the right to participate in regional competition because of their success at the bee. Congratulations to all!
The 8th Grade Halloween Party has been set for Friday, October 29. We will play board games, card games and hold a potluck brunch in class from 9:00am to 11:15 am. We will be visiting the library from 9:40-10:25.
Go Pirates!!
8th Grade Literature: We finished our unit on nonfiction, where we read pieces from Maya Angelou, Eudora Welty, and James Herriot, among others. We also studied the elements of nonfiction, such as genres within it (biography, autobiography, essay, etc). We are currently engaged in a research project where we take an historical fiction book and compare/contrast it to the time it takes place. We will be doing research to find out more on the time period of our historical fiction books, then read the books, and finally put together a paper comprised of what we learned. Each student also should have read and taken tests on three books by October 26 for our Accelerated Reader program.
8th Grade Language Arts: We finished a unit on creating better sentences (using revision, style, elaboration). We are currently creating autobiographical incidents. Each student will be writing a story about one time in their lives. They will explain why it is important to them, capture the reader's interest, detail what happened, describe their feelings, and have great punctuation.
8th Grade Math (my class): We just finished studying expressions, equations, and functions. Our current studies include understanding linear equations. Homework grading update: each student gets credit for each correct answer given on their homeork. If there are 25 problems and they respond correctly on 24, they receive a 96% (24 out of 25). Students must still show their work to receive full credit.
7th Grade Literature: We just finished our unit on nonfiction, where we read pieces from Russell Baker, Ernesto Galarza, a biography on Nolan Ryan, among other stories. We also studied the elements of nonfiction and the genres within it (biography, autobiography, essay, informational text, etc). We are currently studying the relationship between antagonists and protagonists. Each student also should have read and taken tests on three approved books by October 26 for our Accelerated Reader program.
7th Grade Language Arts: We just finished studying how to create better senteces (using elaboration, revision, and style). We are currently studying persuasive essays. Each student will create an essay attempting to persuade his/her audience in one direction or another. Students will focus on using facts to support their opinions.
7th Grade Math (my class): We just finished studying the tools of algebra (variables, properties, ordered pairs) and are currently learning about operations with integers. Homework grading update: each student gets credit for each correct answer given on their homeork. If there are 25 problems and they respond correctly on 24, they receive a 96% (24 out of 25). Students must still show their work to receive full credit.
Other activities:
We had a great time at the spelling bee at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Allen Park. We had 18 participants. Andre Cabalang and Elaine Spaminato took home brand-new dictionaries and earned the right to participate in regional competition because of their success at the bee. Congratulations to all!
The 8th Grade Halloween Party has been set for Friday, October 29. We will play board games, card games and hold a potluck brunch in class from 9:00am to 11:15 am. We will be visiting the library from 9:40-10:25.
Go Pirates!!
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