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Welcome to the 8th Grade Team Page.
General Announcements
Washington, DC: Monday, March 23-Thursday, March 26, 2026
Second Payment Due: October 30th
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Course Information
For the week of October 6th - October 10th
Current Topics
Algebra:
Expressions and Equations
Pre-Algebra:
Dilations, Similarity, Introducing Slope
Mrs. Clarner
Mrs. Clarner
This will be my last week teaching your 8th graders. I have enjoyed the experience and hope that they have enjoyed math these last 6 weeks. Please welcome Mrs. Francoeur back on Tuesday, 10/14!
Algebra will have their Unit 1 summative on Monday, 10/6. Students can watch videos or do extra practice by going to their Google Classroom. If the test does not go as well as they hoped or they failed it, they may re-take it within 10 days following the reassessment policy. On Tuesday we will begin Unit 2 on Expressions and Equations.
Pre-Algebra will have their Unit 1 summative on Tuesday, 10/7 on Rigid Transformations. Students are encouraged to watch the Unit 1 math help videos (linked on the left side of this page) as well as watch videos and do extra practice found in their Google Classroom if they are unsure of any topics. Students who would like to re-take may do so within 10 days of receiving the test back following the reassessment policy.
Please keep checking Aspen for NHI assignments. Those will need to be completed if your student would like to re-assess a summative.
~Mrs. Clarner
Mrs. Monnat
Mrs. Monnat
Unit 3: Colonization
Our upcoming unit is Colonization. We will explore the 13 original colonies. We will examine the economic impact of geography and the legacy of democracy, republicanism, and rights that can be seen throughout.
Unit 2 Summative Reassessment Deadline: Nov 3
If you have any questions, please reach out to me at any time at smonnat@sau66.org
REMINDERS:
All assignments are posted daily on Google Classroom. Unit vocabulary can also be found in the materials section. Students should be studying 5-10 minutes a night EVERY night. Also, assignments with a 💻 emoji at the start are the only ones that are required to be turned in on Google Classroom.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Ms. Smith
Ms. Smith
Our first formative writing assignment, that has been an in-class assignment this week, is due on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
The first literary analysis essay, all the details are posted in Classroom, is due November 6. This is a summative grade.
We will begin reading To Kill a Mockingbird soon!
Mr. Williams
Mr. Williams
Next week we begin our second unit of the year: Chemical Reactions and Matter — “How Can We Make Something New That Was Not There Before?
This unit begins with an everyday mystery: what happens when a bath bomb is dropped into water? Students watch as it fizzes, breaks apart, and releases gas bubbles. They share and compare their ideas about where the gas comes from—some think it was trapped inside the bath bomb, others think it must have formed during the reaction. These initial ideas set the stage for a series of investigations that help students test their explanations and refine their models.
Next, students measure changes in mass in both closed and open systems to see if the gas was already in the bath bomb or made during the process. Once they establish that the gas must come from changes to the substances themselves, they turn to the ingredients of a bath bomb, testing each one in water. None produce bubbles alone, so students begin combining them in different ways to see what happens. When only certain mixtures create gas, students realize that something new may be forming. They then collect data on the properties of the gas—such as whether it rises or sinks, and whether it puts out or feeds a flame—to narrow down what kind of gas it could be.
In the next stage, students apply what they’ve learned to another reaction called Elephant’s Toothpaste, analyzing how properties can reveal when a new substance is produced. They then take stock of all their evidence so far, revising their class model to show how matter that goes into a system can differ from what comes out. This raises a new question: if something new was made, where did its particles come from?
Students move to a smaller scale, exploring whether new particles can actually be made from old ones. They test this by adding energy to water in two ways—first through heat, then through electricity—and compare what happens. These experiments lead to a discussion of early atomic models and how scientists represented the rearrangement of atoms in chemical reactions. Students use this historical context to refine their own explanations for how new substances can form while the total amount of matter stays the same.
Finally, students use all of their investigations to build a complete explanation for what happens when substances interact, drawing on evidence about mass, properties, and particle behavior. In the closing lessons, they explore how substances have unique odors based on their molecular structures, linking back to how we detect and identify different materials in everyday life. By the end of the unit, students have developed a complete picture of how matter can change form and structure—producing something new without creating or destroying what was there to begin with.
Please reach out to me with scheduling needs. I will coordinate parent/teacher meetings and 504 meetings. Please let me know if any your students needs more time to process the information we covered in the 8th grade Success Workbook.
Students in Health will be doing the SOS training in October. All 8th graders will be completing a career match assessment in English class mid October.
Make sure to check Aspen regularly and ask questions if you don't understand something.
Mrs. Gattie
10/15: Band students have really buckled down on their practice! I've seen a huge influx of logs and students coming in in the morning to meet with me. Thank you! Just a quick reminder in case you didn't see the parent square, check your students aspen page to know what they are missing for assignments and, as always, email me with any questions!
Mme Hill
Bienvenue parents to a fabulous 2025/26 year !
Mark your calendar: trip to Québec is May 14-16th 2026. Informational Meeting is Tuesday September 23 @ 6:00PM
It was so nice to meet the students, get back into learning and feel every students energy.
How is school in France different from the US? After the beginning of the year review, students will learn to talk all about school.
Students will also start writing more consistently in their cahier by doing our "Journal Quotidien" (our daily journal).
Studying vocabulary regularly is a good habit to continue. Students have the links to practice in Google Classroom.
Frau Olson
Frau Olson
Herzlich Willkommen zurück! It was so nice to see the students again after vacation. We started out just reviewing some of the basics before we get back into building our German-language foundation.
This year students can look forward to learning more about holidays, food and drink, restaurant etiquette in Germany, daily routines, fitness and health, and city life.
Please take the time to read through the syllabus with your student so that you all can be familiar with the ins and outs of our language classrooms.
*Assignments are posted to Google Classroom (Join code is: xadg2izs), and grades and assignment feedback are posted to Aspen.
REMINDER: If your student is absent from school, please ask them to reach out to me via E-Mail so that we can get them caught up. It is a great habit to get into before high school so that they are in charge of their own learning. If students are absent, I often ask them to come down during HawkTime.
Students should be reviewing new and old vocabulary 10-15 minutes per day.
To conclude our unit on La Feria, students made esquites, Mexican street corn. We discussed the importance of corn in Mexican culture. It is a fundamental ingredient in Mexican cooking, and the ancient Maya believed that humans were created from corn! Then, students invented their own version of esquites. They prepared them in class, we tasted everyone's creations, and students wrote detailed recipes in Spanish.
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15), we viewed one episode of John Leguizamo's PBS documentary series "American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos." A study by Johns Hopkins University showed Latinos represent 25% of schoolchildren in the U.S., but 87% of key topics in Latino history were either not covered in US history textbooks or mentioned in 5 or fewer sentences. Leguizamo's documentary sought to make Latino contributions to US history more visible. Next, we'll describe significant Latino individual's careers and contributions. Students will learn how to discuss professions and how to express their future goals ("Quiero ser ___ porque..." = "I want to be a ____ because...").
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