Dear Families,

 

Welcome to the first edition of the weekly 8th Grade Family Newsletter!  This letter will update you regarding the 8th grade goings-on – both academically and in the classroom community.  It will be a nice way for us to stay in touch with one another.  On Mondays after school I will post this letter to the school website.  Beginning next week, I will email the letter as well.

 

Academic updates will be for those subjects I teach – History, Religion, Language Arts and Literature as well as for Science (Mr. Fairbank) and Math (Mrs. Riley).  Mr. Evans may occasionally contribute as well.

 

The Classroom Community section will let you know about the special contributions, kindnesses and accomplishments of our wonderful 8th graders.  Obviously, I can’t mention all 30 kids every week so my plan is acknowledge and highlight 10 kids per week.  In a three week cycle, I will have the opportunity to talk about each of the kids at least once.  I try to be detail-oriented but I make mistakes!  Please let me know if a few weeks go by without you reading about your child.

 

ť ACADEMICS

HISOTRY

Eighth graders study US History in the first half of the year and Washington State History in the second half.  We began our introduction to US History learning about the First Americans and the New World pre-1492.  This week we take on exploration and discovery and examining those events alternately from a Eurocentric and multicultural perspective.

 

RELIGION

Our focus this year is Church History and community service.  New this year: we are planning the first all-school Mass – the Feast of St. Matthew, Friday, September 21, 2007 at 9:00AM.  We’d love to have you celebrate with us.

 

Their artistic response to the prayer, “God of the Gathering” is due Wednesday 9/12.

 

LANGUAGE ARTS

We have been working on what I call “forced choice” or word bank short paragraph writing.  Students have a final draft of 2 short paragraphs (+ rough drafts) due Wednesday 9/12.  These assignments are preparing them for newspaper writing which begins this week.

 

LITERATURE

The students are reading and learning vocabulary from The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter.  We’ll have a test at the end of the week.

 

MATH

My name is Mary Riley and I am the new math teacher.  I enjoyed meeting all the students last week and look forward to working with them throughout the year.

 

The students will begin working out of the book this week, completing the first four sections. This year, there will be a quiz every Friday, and I will be sending home a progress report every two weeks. The first one will be sent the week of September 23rd.

 

I look forward to meeting all the parents this Friday, at curriculum night.

 

Mary Riley  maryr@saintbrendan.org

 

SCIENCE

No update.  Stay tuned…

 

 

ü CLASSROOM COMMUNITY

THANK YOU…

To Brianna and Sean B. who did the recycling for the entire school;

To Jake and Maria for helping our two new students navigate the building.

To Burton (our oldest 8th grader) and Ryan T. for help with the Music Room.

 

CONGRATULATIONS to Conor and Caroline (our youngest 8th grader) who were elected to serve as Patrol Captains.

 

WELCOME to our newest students, Rob and Liezl…we are glad you are here!

 

NEWS

8th graders DO have their pictures taken on Wednesday 9/12 for the yearbook and student ID cards.  Individual graduation pictures are taken in the Spring.  Most parents choose to purchase pictures at that time. Sorry for the confusion!!

 

Puyallup Fair Field Trip – Thursday, September 20, 2007.  We take this trip so kids can interview and write stories about fair exhibitors.  Please email me if you can drive.

 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!