8th Grade Parent Newsletter Principal's Message The hybrid learning model will experience a transition to a full in-person learning model on Monday, March 15. We will focus on welcoming our in-person students back to school in this new format. With the increase in numbers we need to continue to be vigilant about a few practices: - Attendance - Our new schedule requires students to be in attendance 5 days a week.
- We will follow a Day 1 / Day 2 schedule: Monday, March 15 is a Day 1.
- Transportation: You should have received communication from the transportation department regarding your bus stop location and pick-up time. Please be at the bus stop 5 minutes prior to your scheduled time.
- Monitor your symptoms at home - if sick or have a temperature, stay home and input the absence in Skyward or call the Attendance Line at 763-745-6255.
- Wear masks at all times, including bus stops, buses, and school.
- Maintain social distancing as much as possible. We will attempt 6 ft distancing when possible, however a 3 ft. distance between students has been approved for classrooms.
- Wash and sanitize hands frequently.
- If quarantining becomes necessary, our district health services department will work directly with the school to communicate appropriate steps.
Our on-line distance choice learning model will continue to progress in much the same manner as we approach the 4th quarter. We will continue to work tirelessly to create a world class learning experience for each of our students. Thank you for all of your exceptional support. Spirit Week: March 15 - 19 Spirit Week at East is March 15 - 19! Let's celebrate being part of East and show school spirit by dressing up each day with the selected theme: - Monday: Wear your favorite sports team gear!
- Tuesday: Twins Day - find someone and dress alike, or wear Minnesota Twins gear!
- Wednesday: Wear green for St. Patrick's Day!
- Thursday: Color Day - wear the color assigned to your grade:
- 6th grade - Blue
- 7th grade - Yellow
- 8th grade - Red
- Teachers - Pink
- Culinary, Office and Paras - Stripes
- Friday: Show your school pride - wear Wayzata Blue & Gold!
Also, please show school spirit by following the dress code. Happy Spirit Week! Spring Sports - Registration Opens March 15 Wayzata East Spring sports registration will open on March 15. Students can sign up for Boys' Tennis, or Girls' and Boys' Track and Field. The season will start on April 12, after Spring Break. Schedules and start times are subject to change. Please contact Marc DeVoe if you have any questions. The Wayzata High School Synchronized Swim Team is starting on March 15 and is open to students in 7th and 8th grade. Middle school students are able to register through March 19. Information on how to register can be found in the team packet. The season's schedule is also available. Please contact Jeanie Faue if you have any questions. Order Your 2020-21 Yearbook Yearbooks preserve the events that happen each school year, and this year is so unique! The Yearbook Club has been working diligently to document and reflect this special year at East Middle School. If you would like to order a yearbook, please visit Jostens. The cost is $35.00. Media Center and Book Checkout Distance Learners library book pick-up (school days from 9:00 - 4:00 p.m.): It is important that distance learners check their Destiny account before coming to retrieve books. After the student logs in they will see the "my info" tab. Select that tab and then confirm that the book that has been put on hold is actually checked out to the student. There will be times when the book on hold is still checked out to another student and will not be ready for pick up on the designated day. If you have other questions, please email Beth Benezra. Enrichment Opportunities East now has an Enrichment Canvas page. This page houses academic enrichment opportunities that are open to all students. What We've Been Working On - 8th Grade math students just finished a challenging and fun unit on simplifying exponential expressions and scientific notation.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - Simplify the expression: (x^4)(y^-9)(x^3)
What We're Working on Next - Coming up in math, 8th graders will work on classifying rational and irrational numbers, estimating square roots, and using the Pythagorean theorem.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - Estimate the square root of 32 without using a calculator.
What We've Been Working On - We have begun the first of two unit on quadratics. The first unit covers factoring, the zero product property and characteristics of quadratics.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - How confident are you in factoring?
- How does the zero product property work?
What We're Working on Next - Quadratic equations for a graph called a parabola. Parabolas can open upward (smile) or downward (frown), they are always symmetrical. These characteristics play an important part in solving a quadratic.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - What does it mean to solve a quadratic?
- Why does a quadratic typically have two solutions?
- What does it mean if it has only one solution? or no solutions?
What We've Been Working On - We have spent the last two weeks reading short stories out of our And Justice for All text book and analyzing them for literary elements. We took a test last week that covered the stories and literary elements.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - What is the difference between social justice and legal justice?
What We're Working on Next - In the next two weeks students will be reading a book club novel that they have chosen. They will be annotating while they read and having group discussions with others reading the same novel.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - What is justice and What factors influence our view of justice?
- How is justice being served in the novel you are reading?
- Tell me about the novel you are reading.
What We've Been Working On - Weather, Erosion, and Deposition
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - What is the difference between Mechanical weathering and Chemical weathering?
- Why are there so many potholes on Minnesota roads?
What We're Working on Next - Half Life and radioactive dating
- Geologic time laws and relative dating
- Fossils types and formation
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - What is a half life?
- How can geologist use rock layers to compare age of the rock?
- What are mold and cast fossils?
What We've Been Working On - For the past two weeks, students learned how the The Indigenous people of the Amazon Rainforest battle to protect their homeland from deforestation and how this issue affects the rest of the world, the issue of poverty with the Central and South American countries, and how South America's resources shapes its economy.
- Students continued learning about how humans adapt to living in difficult physical conditions, this time focusing on life in the Sahara Desert region.
- Students explored the stories of people victimized by conflict in Africa, and broadened this topic to include all of the major reasons why many people choose to move to the U.S. to seek refuge or a better life.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - What is deforestation? What are stakeholders?
- Define the term Indigenous.
- Define Gross Domestic Product.
- Define the term economy.
- What does the GDP tell you about country's economy?
- What is one interesting thing you learned from the "Lost Boys of Sudan" video?
What We're Working on Next - For the next two weeks, students will review the history of Africa's independence, the continent resources , Physical Geography and how they shape Africa's economy and the rest of the world. Students will also focus on African immigration to the U.S. and the issue of Child Soldiers in Africa.
- Students will be introduced to a tool called the Human Development Index (HDI), which is a collection of indicators of the quality of life in nations around the world.
- Students will use a variety of resources that use HDI data to develop a better understanding of what life is like in a given country.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - When did most African nations gain their independence from European control?
- What are some natural resources that Africa possess?
- Define Gross Domestic Product (GDP)?
- What are the three "categories" that are measured by the Human Development Index? (Answer: Health, Wealth, and Education)
What We've Been Working On - Over the past two weeks both classes finished their cardio kickboxing & fitness center introduction units.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - What is some exercise or piece of equipment you learned about in the fitness center?
What We're Working on Next - Over the next two weeks PE/Health classes will beginning our third Health unit.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - What is an important thing I should know when communicating in a social setting?
Notes - After our outdoor winter unit any leftover outside gear/equipment was brought up to the lost and found. Please have your son or daughter check there for anything missing.
What We've Been Working On - In the last two weeks, we worked on new choir songs, labeled solfege, and worked through our sight reading program.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - What is the name of the new song you are singing in choir?
What We're Working on Next - Expectations, order, and safety for our transition from hybrid to in-person
- Reviewing most material
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - Where will choir class be on the week of March 15? Answer: Stage, enter through the backstage door.
What We've Been Working On - Review Cut time
- Major and Minor chords and scales
- Worked on "Funkytown" and School Song
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned What We're Working on Next - Listening skills for playing in a full band after a year of not playing together.
- Blend/Balance
- Basic Music Writing skills
- How to have fun playing together!
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - What do you think it is going to be like to play together?
What We've Been Working On - High School Excerpt and scale Practice
- Peer and self critiques
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - What is something about the process of practicing you have learned by working on the high school audition materials?
What We're Working on Next - Combination Sixteenth Note Rhythms
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - How does your bowing need to adjust in order to play sixteenth note rhythms?
Notes - All in person violin/viola students need to bring their instrument to school on orchestra days starting March 15. Contact Ms. Dennis with questions.
What We've Been Working On - Students have been learning how to use GarageBand on their iPads.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - Show me the the drum tracks you are creating in Music Exploration.
What We're Working on Next - Students will continue to learn how to read drum set music and how to play and record a simple rock beat in GarageBand.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - Show me the rock beat you are suppose to read and play in Music Exploration.
Notes - Students: Be sure your iPad is fully charged at the start of the school day.
What We've Been Working On - Students have been Exploring the following essential questions:
- How can I tell my story using color?
- How can color represent my ideas?
- They have a table full of supplies and they are creating nonrepresentational self portraits.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - What characteristics are you illustrating in art class?
- What's been the most challenging part?
- What's been the easiest part?
What We're Working on Next - We will finish the Nonrepresentational Self Portrait Unit, which will require students to self-assess on a rubric ad turn in a slideshow that they have already downloaded.
- We will begin clay!!! Students will begin imagining and planning their ideas and making and refining their clay artwork.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - What are you making out of clay?
What We've Been Working On - Hybrid:
- Continue working on Wood project
- Graphic Design: Final your person Brand/logo
- Distance:
- Finishing Part 2 of Robotics
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - Show me your Final Design and explain why it's important to you and what Design Concepts you used to create it.
What We're Working on Next - Dry Fitting Assembly: Gluing/Nailing Finishing
- Distance: Graphic Design Unit
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - Hybrid: Did you cut all your pieces to the correct dimensions?
- Distance: What was the hardest area of Part 2 and why?
Notes - Please check your email for important Skyward Grade information.
- There is a $10 lab fee for DL and $30 for in person, that is associated with making the Wood project. The fee can be made through EPay (a printed receipt would help me record it). If there is a financial hardship please feel free to send me an email. This was due February 26.
What We've Been Working On - Over the last two weeks, we have been working on our Interior Design Unit. Students have been learning about the elements and principles of design and color schemes. Students have put their knowledge to the test buy figuring out what color schemes match the descriptions. They have also designed their own color room design. Students are just starting their final interior design project where they are designing two different rooms of their choice and incorporating principles, elements and color schemes into the design.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - Ask your student to show you their design and what elements and principles did they use in their color room design.
What We're Working on Next - We are going to continue with our design unit and we will be moving onto sewing.
- In class this year we have taken on the challenge of sewing masks by hand!! Students will get the chance to sew their own mask by following the directions and videos we have put together. Students will be learning how to thread a needle, how to sew simple stitch, running stich and how to sew on a button.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - Are you looking forward to learn how to sew?
Notes - If students would like to bring their own supplies for our sewing unit, they are more than welcome. I will have what they need but some students have expressed they want to have their own.
What We've Been Working On - Restaurant foods, preparing for the Speaking Assessment (ordering in a restaurant where Ms. Rudolph is the server!)
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - What food creation phrases did you make up?
- What is one question you will ask for the Speaking Assessment?
What We're Working on Next - Speaking Assessment, introducing critiquing restaurants in preparation for the Reading Assessment
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About Upcoming Material - How did the Speaking Assessment go?
What We've Been Working On - We ended our high school transition unit with a lesson about volunteering and another about your digital footprint, both of which are important elements of college applications.
Question(s) to Ask Your Student About What We've Learned - How would you describe your digital footprint?
- What are your ideas about volunteering in your community?
What We're Working on Next - We will suspend with GT seminars as our hybrid students return to school full time on March 15, allowing core and encore teachers to have the majority of the time with our students.
Scholastic Art Awards Congratulations to Wayzata High School's Regional Scholastic Art Award recipients for 2021. Student creators of "Mug of Monstrosity," "Abstract Self," "The Pitcher" and several others earned honors and recognition for their works of art. View Art Awards Using Our Brains to Parent our Children Understanding the basics of brain science can help us be more intentional about how we parent. Discover the "science" behind what you are already doing to help your child grow and learn what more you can do. Community Education is offering a free class to parents: Using Our Brains to Parent Our Kids: How Love Becomes Matter That Matters. Register to learn more Parenting in a Pandemic Parents, if you feel like you are coming out of "winter hibernation" when it comes to in-person learning, distance learning, pandemic protocols, juggling work, life and everything else. You are not alone. Relate Counseling Center offers free pandemic tips for parents and much more. Pandemic Parenting Tips Culinary Express Meal Updates for March Learning models are shifting, which requires Culinary to shift as well. With more students returning to our schools for in-person learning, Culinary resources must be adjusted to equally meet the needs of both our in-person and distance choice students. Starting Friday, March 5th, Culinary will transition back to providing two meal services. Students will only have access to the meal service that is provided for their learning model and we will no longer be able to serve meals to the greater community. Meal Updates for March MDH recommends COVID-19 testing every two weeks The Minnesota Department of Health announced a recommendation for all school-age students returning to school, youth sports, or extracurricular activities, and their families, to get tested every two weeks through the end of the school year. While it is not a requirement, regular testing complements other safety measures already in place, such as masking and social distancing. Covid-19 Testing for Kids and Families
We have a big summer of youth camps planned! Join us at Oakwood Elementary School where your child can learn, grow, and play with friends all summer long. Youth camps include everything from science, engineering, arts and crafts, dance, theater, and more. With a wide variety of camps to choose from, there is something to spark your interest! Registration is now open. Sign up by March 20 for a 5% discount on all classes! Register now! Financial assistance is available for all our classes. Call 763-745-5200 for more information. Friday, April 23, 2021 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Saturday, April 24, 2021 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Monday, May 10, 2021 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM Tuesday, May 11, 2021 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Thursday, March 18, 2021 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Monday, March 22, 2021 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM 12000 Ridgemount Avenue, Plymouth, MN 55441 | 763-745-6200 |