Welcome to the
8th Grade Team Page
General Announcements:
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Washington, DC: Monday, March 23-Thursday, March 26, 2026
Please see Parent Square for more information.
Course Information
Parent Resources
Algebra:
Pre-Algebra:
IMPORTANT DATES
Algebra:
Unit 5 Retake Deadline: 2/9
Pre-Algebra:
Unit 3 Retake Deadline: 2/13
Algebra 1
Unit 6 - Exponents & Polynomials
Students develop fluency with polynomials by interpreting and rewriting expressions and performing addition, subtraction, and multiplication. They use the structure of expressions to make sense of terms, factors, and coefficients, and extend exponent rules to rational exponents to rewrite and simplify expressions involving radicals.
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Pre-Algebra
Unit 4 - Linear Equations & Linear Systems
Students write and solve linear equations and systems of equations, interpreting solutions in context. They learn to identify and represent solutions graphically, understand key terms like "system of equations" and "infinitely many solutions," and analyze scenarios involving one, none, or infinitely many solutions.
Unit 8
We have begun our Holocaust unit. Please speak to your student about their responsibility to take this unit seriously and be mindful of its sensitive and difficult content. We have begun with learning a little bit about Jewish life prior to the Holocaust and watching The Wave, which is about a real-life experiment conducted in a high school class in the 1960s.
We will continue by learning about the Rise of Hitler and the Nazis, the Steps of Genocide, and how they can be seen in the Holocaust. The unit will conclude with a Socratic Seminar as the summative assessment after the Washington, DC trip, during which we will visit the Holocaust Museum.
(Students not attending the DC Trip will work on a virtual tour of the museum.)
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.
On Friday this week, we will have a quiz (formative grade) on some background information and vocabulary related to the Holocaust.
Students will receive their Night books and begin reading to page 9 (11 for period 5) and have a few reflection questions to start off. I hope to be a few chapters in before we leave for DC.
As with our last class novel, the entire PDF along with audio files will be posted, and those with access to LearningAlly already have it.
The third literary analysis essay has been postponed as we will begin an argumentative essay unit soon, but that doesn't mean that students should stop reading! The expectation is still 20 minutes every night.
Sound Waves – How Can a Sound Make Something Move?
Our next science unit explores the question: How can a sound make something move? Students will begin by investigating a puzzling phenomenon in which loud music from a truck causes nearby windows to visibly shake. From this shared experience, students will generate questions and develop explanations about what sound is, how it is produced, how it travels, and how it can affect objects at a distance.
During the first portion of the unit, students will investigate how sounds are made. Through hands-on investigations, they will examine what happens when speakers and musical instruments produce sound. They will analyze patterns in vibrations and explore how differences in loudness and pitch relate to how an object moves. Students will represent these ideas using motion graphs and models.
In the second part of the unit, students will explore how sound travels from one place to another. Through experiments and simulations, they will examine what is happening in the matter between a sound source and a receiver. Students will develop and revise models to explain how sound moves through solids, liquids, and gases, and why sound cannot travel through empty space.
In the final portion of the unit, students will investigate how sound transfers energy and how this energy can cause other objects to move. Students will also study how the human ear detects sound, examining how vibrations are ultimately translated into signals the brain can interpret.
Throughout the unit, students will engage in scientific practices such as developing and revising models, analyzing data, amd constructing arguments from evidence. By the end of the unit, students will revisit the original phenomenon and use their accumulated understanding to construct a comprehensive explanation of how sound can make something move.
Mrs. Gattie
11/25: REMINDER: Our concert has moved to DECEMBER 18th still starting at 7:00pm Students need to arrive by 6:45pm.Practice Logs will be due Tuesday 12/9.We had quite a few chorus students try out for solos yesterday! We can't wait until the concert to show you all the great work we have been doing!
If you are looking for holiday gifts please remember to outfit your instrumental students with the following:
Holiday Instrumental Purchase List
Music 8 is working on drumset basics. They also work on guitar chords (G C D Em) and learn a bit of bass guitar. We quickly revisit piano and then students combine into smaller groups to play popular songs. We use a curriculum called Modern Band.
Students who are not going to DC have the opportunity to go horse back riding. Please return the permission forms by March 5th.
The transition to high school can feel over whelming. School counselors are available as well as therapists from Cartwheel.
Mme Hill
This is the special time of the year when students are going to discover the musical world of French speaking countries.
Manie Musicale is an International music competition that is propelled from New England! It takes place between February and early April.
Student will practice sharing their opinion about songs, discovering the culture of a variety of French speaking countries. They will be able to invite friends to a concert.
Studying vocabulary regularly is a good habit to continue: 10 minutes practice a day!
Hawk Time is taking place everyday from 2:20 until 2:50. Students can get the help they need by coming to Hawk time in 207.
Herzlich Willkommen zurück von den Ferien!
Students have been working on discussing activities: things they are good at, not good at, and things they want to do.
We have been comparing talking about people versus inanimate objects and using direct object pronouns (Ich sehe ihn/sie/sie. I see him/her/them).
We are nearing the end of our unit and we will be writing about best friends and describing them (Ich finde ihn/sie...) using direct object pronouns.
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.
In January, we discussed current events in Venezuela, and students read a Venezuelan teenager's description of her life in Venezuela. They compared their lives in Hopkinton to her life in Venezuela. A specifial emphasis was placed on possessive adjectives ("mi escuela" vs. "su escuela").
In February, we will dive into one of our favorite units. It centers around a very unique collaborative activity in Cataluña, Spain that UNESCO has identified as an "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity." To kick off this unit, we divided students into small teams and presented them with this challenge: Which team can build the tallest tower out of playing cards? Which team can build the tallest tower out of plastic cups? Then, students tried to put the world's tallest towers (i.e. La Torre Eiffel) in order, from shortest to tallest. Most of the world's tallest towers are made of stone, cement, steel, or glass. But, in Tarragona, Spain, there are towers made of humans! This month, we will study los castells de Tarragona. Check out this National Geographic mini-documentary to learn more!
To get ready for Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance, we studied his use of the sapo concho (a Puerto Rican toad) and two empty plastic white chairs on his album cover. What could these chairs and this animal symbolize?