Greetings TMSA 8th Grade Parents:
We would like to begin by thanking you (our amazing parents) and all of our 8th grade students for your unfaltering support during these different times. We look forward to continually working with you throughout the school year to provide the best educational experience possible for our students. We will use the newsletter to provide you with an update on what is going on in the classroom and what will be coming up in the future.
Social Studies – Mr. Lotfy
We just finished our first historical unit (SS8H1 Evaluate the impact of European exploration and settlement on American Indians in Georgia). Students have taken their exams for the unit and the grades are posted in Infinite Campus. We have begun our second historical unit (SS8H2 Analyze the colonial period of Georgia’s history). The students will be receiving their unit and vocabulary study guides next week (October 12th). The study guides will always be posted in OTUS under the bookshelf tab. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Math – Ms. Asekere
Math 8 : We are currently working in Chapter 1 from Volume 1 textbooks. Standards MGSE8.EE. 1 and 2. This is presenting information containing square roots, cubed roots, and properties of numerical expressions. In Alg. 1 we are focusing from chapter 2 in their textbooks. The standards that are being covered are CED.A.1, and REI.A.1. Students are asked to complete practice in IReady weekly that shows that they spend 60 mins a week for practice. All Powerpoints, notes and assignments are posted in OTUS (lessons and blog), and SAVAAS.
Science – Ms. Stepp
Both the 8th Grade Science and Physical Science classes will be entering into the "Forces on Objects" portion of the Motions and Forces Unit. One of the major concepts in this unit is Newton's Laws of Motion". These laws are fundamental to knowing how forces affect the motion of objects. We will build upon the concepts that were introduced in the "Motion of Objects" unit. For this unit, students will be involved in conducting demos and labs to prove the laws to be valid.
Below is a link to a demonstration that families can do at home to observe Newton's First Law in action.
https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/newtons-bottle/
ELA – Ms. Griffith
Students are working on Narrative Writing in the form of a personal narrative.
They have completed the following steps:
- Reading examples/models of short stories that have strong story arcs
- Brainstorming their own topics
- Selecting their topic
- Planning their story arc (plot diagram)
- Creating a lead that grabs the reader
- Writing an ending that leaves the reader thinking about the narrative
- Learning how to write dialogue
In the coming weeks, we will learn about sentence variety, how to use modifiers appropriately and we will draft our stories!
Parents should stay tuned because at the end of this unit, there will be a virtual publishing party!
Writing Strategies’- Ms. Griffith
7 Habits of Good Writers:
- They read a lot!
- They write every day.
- They try out new ideas and strategies that they see in books they read.
- They do not edit their writing until they are finished getting their thoughts down.
- They get ideas from books, from others, and by noticing the world around them.
- They identify their audience, purpose, organization, style, flow, and presentation before they write.
- They complete the writing process in its entirety: prewrite/brainstorm, research (if needed), draft, revise, edit/proofread, and publish.
PSAT
PSAT pre-registration for TMSA 8th graders. The deadline to register is October 21, 2020. Click here for more details and to register.