Welcome to 8 Blue Social Studies! In 8th grade, Social Studies is a history course - World History I. In preparation for the change to a new Civics curriculum next year, we will be adding some history at the beginning of the year (Greece) and including more government-themed work than in previous years.
This curriculum mostly covers Ancient Rome through Exploration, with a focus on the events that directly impacted our government and our daily lives. You can click through the syllabus slides I provided to the students here. This year, 8th grade Social Studies will not only be implementing HOWLs standards, but new skills-based curriculum standards. You can see them in the above slideshow link, along with my contact information if you have any questions. I'm looking forward to a great year :)
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Hello 8 Blue Community! Please check here often for team news, curriculum updates, important information, and more! Today, students saw this short presentation below on 8 Blue with quotes about the team from last year's students. We welcome you to take a look and ask your son or daughter what 8 Blue is all about. We are looking forward to a great year! P.S. We are still in need of tissues! Please send in two boxes with your child if you haven't already done so. Thank you to everyone who sent in supplies already!
Our final investigation of the year will involve the foamy cola & Mentos geyser reaction. The students are writing their own investigation and will carry out and analyze the data.
I am asking your help in purchasing needed supplies for your students' investigation. They will be generating the material list of soda and candy and dividing it among their group. It should be VERY specific. If this is a difficulty for your family, let me know and I can access school funds to purchase some of the needed materials. We will be testing our geysers on Wednesday, May 29th. What is it?
The celebration is a moving up ceremony to recognize the end of middle school and the transition to high school. There will be an individual recognition of each student by name, academic awards, one or more musical selections performed by the students, an opportunity for students to say a few words, usually some comedy, usually a slideshow or video of the year, and personalized remarks about our students/team by teachers and administrators. When it it? Tuesday, June 11 from 12:30-1:30. You can take your child home after the celebration. Where is it? The Oak Middle School auditorium. What should your child wear? Students are encouraged to dress their best. Who can attend? There is plenty of room for family and friends. Feel free to email your child's homeroom teacher if you have questions. We have been learning about the distribution of natural non-renewable resources on our Planet. The students created a map of these resources with lots of information. Please click on the pins and see what we have learned. You can also compare the maps from each of the classes. Here is the link to B Block's map:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AtG24BQhAtE9w2PpYe4LzaKeno7RxH6w&usp=sharing Here is the link to L Block's map: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QJ6rw9nzBXmObLmCa2HamITc4X0ePsBx&usp=sharing Here is the link to U Block's map: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wCsa-lOMy_2zX51twAnVk7_tqsZzF8d1&usp=sharing Here is the link to E Block's map: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QJ6rw9nzBXmObLmCa2HamITc4X0ePsBx&usp=sharing Enjoy! Shakespeare Unit informationWe are starting our final unit of the year, the Shakespeare unit! During this unit, students will be reading and performing A Midsummer Night's Dream. We kicked off the unit with a birthday party for Shakespeare! During the birthday party, students participated in activities to gain background knowledge about Shakespeare, The Globe Theater, and the play. The essential questions of the unit are:
I've attached the unit overview, and a link to a really great version of the text that has modern English translations. If your son or daughter is struggling during the unit, please encourage them to check in with me during project block or after school. www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/msnd/
Ask your student about the physical and chemical changes that happen when a candle burns. We made observations before, during and after the candle was lit.
Now that trimester two is over, we are moving out of the Middle Ages and into the Early Modern Period of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Age of Discovery. Students did an excellent job anticipating changes that might occur following the decline of the feudal system, and we were able to take a couple of days to examine Magna Carta and make parallels between it and some of our more modern documents that limit the powers of our leaders and give us basic rights.
This week, we started specifically looking at the Renaissance and reviewing Greco-Roman achievements to explain how this "re-birth" paved the way for the modern world. We spent some time with Petrarch and examining how the (often complicated for 8th grade) idea of humanism will affect this time period. I was really impressed with how well students are able to identify the new themes we are working with. Today, students are working on creating seals or logos for humanist thought. I can't wait to see the final products :) Thursday, April 4 |
The 8 Blue TEamMs. Amaral - Social Studies Archives
August 2019
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