Happy Holidays from the 8th Grade Classroom!

Happy Holidays from the 8th Grade Classroom

8th graders singing at the K-12 Holiday Singalong

Thank you to Calysta Phillips for organizing the Advocates Holiday Gift Program!  The 8th graders organized by

advisory to purchase a gift or gifts for local residents through The Advocates organization.  The Advocates

provide safety and services for people affected by domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking in Blaine County

and surrounding areas.  Visit The Advocates website for more information about this amazing organization. 

Students have begun researching the background and history of their 8th grade project topics.  After a lesson on the

Dewey Decimal system, Naomi led the students on a field trip to the Community Library.  Students had to find

and check out books related to their topic. (Please help them return these books to the Community Library on time!)

Back at school students have begun to formulate their outlines and dig into their resources by taking notes and

tracking work cited.  In addition, students are learning to carefully evaluate the reliability of website resources. 

To help students gain first-hand information about their topic and give them access to first hand experiences early in their process, they are required to interview a professional in a field related to their topic by January 9th.  Some students are still working on making a connection with an adult in their topic area. Click here for a list of student topics.  Please email Reggie or Naomi if you are or know an expert in one of these fields and would be willing to have a student contact you.

In Math, we have been problem-solving with ratios and proportional relationships. Students have practiced finding unit rates to determine the best deals at the grocery store, the carnival, and the gym. Please ask them if you are unsure which sale price is best! In addition, we looked at architecture plans to estimate the costs of tiling a kitchen floor. Students were surprised to find out that, based on Disney's assertion that Olaf is 5'4'', Elsa is actually 9'9"! This week we began with virtual holiday shopping in which students used percents to calculate th sale price of items. Lastly, we investigated a percent change including different percept population increases in Blaine County, decreases to available moose tags, the potential impact of the Epic Pass, and how a math rap can really help you remember an important math process.

In Writing, we are continuing to work on gathering information and "research" about our own identities as we work

with the We Are America program to explore what identity means to us. We will start to work on our final We Are

America submissions for our book in January.

A few housekeeping items: 

• Don't forget to check our weekly schedule document if you want to know what your child is doing day-to-day in school.
• We have officially started the Winter Schedule! This means that Tuesday through Friday, MS and US students are dismissed at 1:30pm. We do offer a variety of after-school clubs that run from 1:30-2:30, so make sure to check those out (Sam sent an email about them a couple of weeks ago) if the early  dismissal does not work for your family.
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On Friday morning students participated in the annual K-12 Community School sing-a-long. It was a fun way to welcome the holidays and winter break. We hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year. As many of the students have noted, this is the last blog post of the decade! See you in 2020!

Locker clean out!

More locker clean out

Performing at the K-12 Sing-along

Secondly, we have officially started the winter

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NEXT UP in the ARTROOM

IN THE ART ROOM... WE JUST COMPLETED our unit, How to CAPTURE THE FALL? 

The Art, 

The Reflection,  

The Critique: 

ALL DONE!!!

WHAT'S NEXT? 

        IDENTITY THROUGH OBSERVATION AND EXPRESSION

WHO AM I?

Branching off of the "We Are America" project with Naomi, in the art room students will investigate how their IDENTITY has been shaped through memories. Our starting point will be a nostalgic, personal photo of a moment in time when a specific aspect of their Identity was formed...the search begins.                                      

To stretch and explore the possibilities and potential we spent the week researching artists who use Identity to shape their art.

HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH AN 8th GRADER... WHO IS THIS MAN? 

HOW DOES HIS IDENTITY SHAPE HIS ART?

Discuss a time when you fell short...experienced pressure to be something you were not...

Want more? CHECK OUT THESE ARTISTS:

YaYoi Kusama          Kehinde Wiley

T.S. Abe          Jung Lee

December Update from the 8th Grade Classroom

Welcome to the Winter Term! The weather outside is cooperating with our seasonal shift, and we hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week with plenty of family time, relaxation, and maybe even a little skiing!

Because this is a new term and we have a number of exciting projects going on, this is going to be a long blog post. Two highlights that you don't want to miss:

1. Students are starting to work on their 8th Grade Projects. We are looking for professionals in various fields who would be willing to speak with an 8th grader in the next three weeks about their experience and help them brainstorm ideas for hands-on opportunities related to their topics. Click here for a list of student topics, and please email me if you are or know an expert in one of these fields and would be willing to have a student contact you.
2. We are also starting work on the National We Are America project. Stay tuned for more information about the project through the course of the term, and check out the The National We Are America Project website for information. We are really excited to be a part of this.

A few housekeeping items: 

• Firstly, we wanted to re-share our weekly schedule document. We use this daily, and it's a great resource if you want to know what your child is doing each day in school. 
• Secondly, we have officially started the winter schedule! This means that on Tuesday through Friday, middle school and upper school students are dismissed at 1:30. We do offer a variety of after-school clubs that run from 1:30-2:30, so make sure to check those out (Sam sent an email about them a couple of weeks ago) if the early dismissal does not work for your family. 
• Finally, we welcomed new/returning 8th grader Sacha Stern-pre back to school the week before Thanksgiving. He spent the fall term in France, and we are excited that he's back!

We finished up our Food Unit at the end of the fall term. Students shared their learning through a number of final projects that they presented to the 6th and 7th graders during lunch on Friday, Nov. 22. They created everything from a satirical newscast that explored different methods of farming to a side-by-side "cost" comparison of local versus organic or local versus conventional food.

Students work on final projects.

Students experimented with plant growth using modified soils.

   

Food writing requires a lot of eating!

Students peer review their personal food narratives.

December marks the beginning of the winter term and our Identity Unit, a unit that focuses on defining aspects of identity and personality formation. In addition to exploring a passion through 8th Grade Projects, our 8th grade class has been selected to participate in The National We Are America Project through the organization We Are America! We Are America’s goal as an organization is to help spark national conversation around American identity, led by the young and bright members of the current generation of students. After applying, Naomi and the SVCS 8th graders were one of 36 classes from 23 states across the country selected to participate! 

During this project, Naomi will work with students to plan, edit, and publish a book of student stories and recordings for the We Are America Project national website. These stories will center on student perspectives about and experiences with American identity and will be shared with families, with the school, and with our communities. The project consists of multiple lessons that will be taught during Writing and Humanities classes starting in this week and running through the end of the winter trimester, with a possibility of an extension of the project into the spring. For the national project, the school will receive copies of the printed book of stories to share with students and families. We are so excited about this opportunity, and will be sure to share more about the project in future blogs.

Before the break, we also introduced the 8th Grade Project, the long-term project that 8th graders will be working on throughout the winter term. The 8th Grade Project assignment can be viewed here, so please take a moment to read through the expectations with your child. We have also provided students with a general calendar of the term that they can refer to or make a copy of to organize their own time and work. This week, students will be working on proposals for their projects. Please talk to your child about his or her ideas! We are hopeful that all students will have their topics chosen by the beginning of next week. The final presentations of the projects are scheduled for the week of March 16-20, 2020. Yvonne will be in touch with you to schedule those presentations starting in February.

Here's where you can help: One of the requirements of this year's projects is a preliminary interview with an expert in the field each student is studying. We are hoping that by connecting with professionals, students will get ideas about how they can "live" their topics through hands-on experiences. Click here for a list of student topics, and please email me if you are or know an expert in one of these fields and would be willing to have a student contact you.

A final aspect of our Identity unit that began this week is our Human Sexuality class. As part of the Life Skills curriculum, students will learn about human anatomy and physiology, reproduction, sexuality, safe and healthy relationships. These classes will be taught primarily in single-gender groups by Naomi, Reggie, and Sam Herrick.

We are so excited to be jumping into a new term and new topics with this group! I will publish a list of topics in my next blog right before Winter Break, so check back then to see what 8th graders have chosen to study.

We Learned to Code Using Scratch!

Our main academic focus of study this trimester was learning Scratch. Invented by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Scratch is an online programming language that enables students to program interactive stories, games, and animations. Instead of typing code, Scratch uses visual blocks like puzzle pieces to create a program. Scratch is very similar to LEGO in that there are an endless number of ways to arrange the myriad blocks. Learning to code improves logical and critical thinking, as well as strengthening communication, in both verbal and written skills.

Composing Music for Video Games!

Composing Music for Video Games!

The fall term in 8th grade music was focused on creating and composing music. Students learned about a variety of styles of music and the elements that make up different genres. Most recently, we've explored the music of video games! Students chose a 30 second clip of a video game and were tasked with composing background music that illustrated what was happening in the game. For instance, if a character jumps, how can you show that with music? Will the notes go up? If someone is running, will the notes go faster? Students were asking fantastic questions such as "what instrument sounds like FIRE?" and exploring all the different ways they could tell their story through music. We used a program called NoteFlight that allows students to write music using whatever instruments their hearts desire, all through their laptops.

Below you'll find some snapshots of different musical compositions and a video example from an 8th grade student. Ask your child to show you his or her composition! They're very proud of their work.

Example of Compositions: 

Charlotte A Video Game Composition
Mia H Video Game Composition

Changing seasons, changing units!

Changing seasons, changing units! 

Along with the changing seasons, we are shifting sports in PE from our soccer, volleyball, and orienteering units to our rock climbing and ultimate ball units. In addition, we have changed our P.E. groupings and are now in groups split by gender. These groups allow for increased participation in our new units and encourage students to work with different classmates than they worked with in the fall. 

We started rock climbing at the YMCA Students will get to participate in rock climbing once a week until winter break.  Here are a few pictures (and yes, the girls climbed too. Pictures will be here next week!) 

August through October in 8th Grade: The Food Unit

Through the "8th Grade Portal" way back on August 26!

It hardly seems apt to "welcome" you to 8th grade, since we've been in school for two months already, so instead I welcome you to the 8th grade blog! This year, we will be doing our best to post a new blog post every two weeks or so. The top of the month will feature blogs by me and/or Reggie, focusing on our thematic units, class trips, and projects going on in specific Science, Math, Humanities, and Writing classes. The mid-month posts will be written by various specialists, including Erika (PE and Enhancement), Megan (music), Cara (art), Sean (tech), Nira (life skills), Nancy (French), and Calysta (Spanish). 

Please take some time to subscribe to this blog (there's a link on the righthand side of the screen) so that you get automatic emails every time the blog is updated. You can also use the links on the righthand sidebar to access our full photo albums (the blog will only include a few highlights), our daily schedule, and upcoming dates.

This first blog post will likely be longer than usual, as we'll be recapping our thematic unit during the first couple of months of school! As you hopefully know by now, our first thematic unit of the year is the Food Unit. This year's focus for the Food Unit centers around exploring how we choose our food, and how we use scientific information to help us make those choices. This unit is student-led and inquiry-based, meaning we spend a great deal of time throughout the unit working with students to develop questions that they will then explore through various modes of learning, including hands-on projects and experiments, book- and Internet-research and writing, teacher-directed lessons, and immersion into topics through field trips and interviews with experts. 

We started the unit during the first week of school, when students planned, prepared, and then analyzed a lunch meal of their choice. They used these first meals as a jumping-off point for posing questions about the food system.

      

From there, we headed off to Wyoming for our fall Teton Trip, half of which focused on visiting food production facilities in the Teton Valley (460 Bread, a sheep ranch, Jackson Vertical Garden, and Cosmic Apple Farm), and half of which was devoted to team-building and outdoor skill development while backpacking and trying to stay warm and dry in the Alaska Basin. (See all photos in the Teton Trip Album by clicking here!)

First group at 460 Bread in Driggs, Idaho.

Ty is an amazingly generous baker and business owner!

Vertical Harvest in Jackson, WY

High Ropes course in Jackson, WY

Meredith's sheep ranch in Alta, WY

Cosmic Apple farm in Victor, ID

Alaska Basin backpacking group

Dinner in the big group camp

   Upon our return, students began exploring the questions that they generated related to food and wrote research papers focused on one specific question of personal interest. These papers ranged in topic from diabetes to genetic modification and everywhere in between. During this time, students also began designing and conducting food experiments both to answer additional questions about food and to learn about how to develop testable questions and high quality scientific experiments.

Tyler's spice experiment

Isabelle and Alex's blind taste test

Next, students completed individual projects to more fully explore questions about food. Again, student projects varied widely in scope and form. We had students grind their own flour and interview Brett Stevenson, a local farmer who recently opened a commercial flour mill. Some students chose to conduct "America's Test Kitchen" style experiments to try to make the "ideal" version of a food. Some students sent out surveys to students in other states and countries to gain a better understanding of how our diets differ by region. A number of students made documentary films and podcasts, exploring everything from the history and mission of our school's Cutthroat Cafe lunch program to the human digestive process. Students then presented their projects to the class, and their peers took notes on and asked questions about their topics.

Timeline of agricultural history

More timeline work

  

Most recently, students have been learning about the history of industrialized agriculture and are examining some of the costs and benefits of producing food in this way. In addition to in-class readings and presentations, students traveled this past Monday to various food production facilities throughout the Wood River Valley and Twin Falls to explore questions about how we produce and access food in our communities. One group of students visited Bigwood Bread, a local flour mill, and Kraay's Market and Garden to see and hear about some of our local food vendors, while the other half of the class visited the Independent Meat Company in Twin Falls and the MART Produce potato storage and distribution facility in Rupert. 

Tour of Bigwood Bread with Carly

Kale at Kraay's 

Watching Ap the dog chase a falcon at Kraay's with Sherry

Tasting nasturtium flowers. Spicy!

The mill at Hillside Grain with Brett Stevenson

   
In the next few weeks, we will come back together to synthesize some of the learning students have done about problems that they identify in the food system and will plan a final event that aims to solve some of those problems on a local level. Stay tuned for information about this final event. We believe that the best learning culminates with a public celebration of knowledge, so our final event will certainly involve an invitation to all parents and interested community members!

Beautiful produce bags that we helped Sherry Kraay put together.