Theology of the Body: In class we have been continuing on in the Study of the Theology of the Body. The path we have taken so far has led to an understanding of what human persons were created to be, the recognition that we are wounded by both original sin and our culture, and that our desires for perfect love and respect still exist. Mrs. Osborn and I have been working hard and your students have been contributing and participating with amazing questions, discussions, opinions, and after class conversations. If you want to view the DVD or look through the parent guide they can still be checked out in the school office.


Confirmation is coming!!!

I am very excited to attend the Confirmation Masses for your students. They have worked so hard and learned so much to get to this coming weekend. Please know I continue to pray for your student every day in preparation for this Sacrament. They are definitely ready, and encourage them that if they feel any deficiencies in their faith before the big day that the Sacrament is meant to help strengthen and fulfill their faith. This Friday in preparation for Confirmation your students will have the chance to see Fr. George Komo and go to Confession. If there is anything else you or your student needs or if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Quick Reminder: Rehearsals are on Thursday. Please contact Deb Ryan about any Confirmation questions as she is in charge of the actual events and the collection of Confirmation materials. She can be reached in the parish office or by email.

Please remind your student that as the year is wrapping up they need to be checking infinite campus to see what assignments or tests they still need to make up from absences. This will be key for them to finish up strong.

Flowers for May Crowning: Mrs. Louise Mistry

DATE CORRECTION - MAY CROWNING

My recent post on the Mary Garden and May Crowning listed the date as May 6.  The correct date is this Wednesday, May 2.  If your children are bringing bedding plants they could bring them Tuesday, May 1 or Wednesday, May 2.  Sorry for the error!

Service Day Volunteers!

Our 8th grade service day will be May 10th. We are planning to split our time between the Homeless Youth Shelter and House of Mercy.  We will need several volunteers to help our students be productive in helping these organizations. Please consider joining us for our service day May 10th. Email: enennig@saintfrancisschool.org. Thank you in advance for giving to the eighth grade class in this way.

Social Studies - Nennig

Dear Parents

The eighth grade students have spent the past few weeks diving into their WWII research. I have been impressed at how well they’ve worked in class. Their maturity really showed as they worked independently and asked questions where they got confused. They will continue with the writing process with Ms. Mataloni next week.

This week and next we will be investigating the timeline, causes, and effects of WWII in social studies class. We have set the stage for the U.S. entrance into the war and will be discussing the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Monday. Fr. Hoefler plans to come in to talk to the students on Tuesday about his father’s service in WWII with the bombardiers.

I just wanted to congratulate you on your child’s performance in Godspell this week. It was amazing watching them do such a wonderful job. Thank you for your support of the music program here at St. Francis and for raising such responsible and driven kids. They are a joy to teach.

Miss Mataloni: Language Arts and Reading

The eighth graders are currently working on their WWII research papers. This has been an extensive unit for the students as they have just finished 75 fact cards, created an outline, and are now working on their introduction paragraphs. Next week, we will begin putting the outlines into a rough draft. I encourage you to read these drafts, as many students are extremely proud of their work so far.

In reading, the students are still working on their 2000 minutes. We will begin our final in-class memoir which will help the students complete their reading minutes. The memoir is titled Left to Tell. It focuses on the recent Rwandan Genocide which creates great discussion and connections to the Holocaust.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Mary Garden: Mrs. Louise Mistry

Every year in 8th grade we plant a Mary garden in front of the school.  We ask that 8th grade students bring bedding plants (a 4 pack of annuals) instead of cut flowers for the May crowning which is May 2.  If possible, please send these with your child to school on May 1 or 2.  Snapdragons, geraniums, marigolds, petunias and zinnias work particulary well in the garden.  The students will be learning about the meaning of the various flowers and they will be labeled in the garden. Christian flower symbolism orginated in Biblical times.  The flowers of Our Lady came to symbolize many aspects of  Mary's life and virtues.  If you are interested in helping plant the garden (probably at the end of next week) we could use some help!

Science: Mrs. Louise Mistry

The 8th graders are finishing up their study of astronomy.  They have currently been learning about stars and galaxies and they will have a test on Chapter 4 on Monday, April 30. They made star finders and dipper finders, so should be able to use these to locate many constellations.  They also have a star map that shows constellations that can be viewed in May and June.

The science fair projects are coming along nicely.  At this point the students have completed their background information reports and written their hypothesis and procedure (materials and method).  Most students have started performing their experiments and collecting data.  The display boards have arrived and students may pick up their boards as soon as they pay for them.  The boards are $4 each.  The final project is due on Tuesday, May 8.  Projects should be brought to the science room between 7:45 and 8:15 that morning.  The fair is open for viewing from 8:00-5:00 on May 8.  Your child will be with their project during their class time.  We would love to have you stop by!

Math: Mrs Cindy Streff

8th graders are finishing up Chapter 9, Geometry and Measurement.  We will quiz over the last part of the chapter on Monday, April 30.  We have spent the last several weeks calculating the surface area and volume of five different three dimensional shapes--rectangular prism, triangular prism, cylinder, pyramid, and cone.  They have had practice using their multiplication skills and are doing a great job.  We will spend some time in May going over Algebra concepts that they will need as they move on to high school next year.

Enjoy the spring weather!

MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCE

HELP! We are in need of volunteers and donations for our SFA middle school dance, which is next Friday, April 20.  This dance is the main fundraiser for the 8th grade class to cover their service trip and Adventureland Trip at the end of the year.  We need donations of gatorade or flavored water type drinks (no pop or energy drinks) and we need volunteers for the dance.  The volunteer schedule is attached.  Please e-mail Mrs. Mistry if you can help.    This is one of the main events for the students during the year.  We need many volunteers to run a successful and safe dance.  Thanks in advance for your help!

Math: Mrs Cindy Streff

8th graders just completed Chapter 8, Geometry with the chapter test on Thursday, April 12.  Chapter 9, Geometry and Measurement, will have students exploring solid (three-dimensional) figures and computating the surface area and volume of different shapes.  8th graders will learn formulas and how to substitute to find the surface area and volume.  It can be a difficult task, with lots of multiplication involved.

With the warm weather, a gentle reminder that there are many weeks of school left, that they need to stay focused and work hard.  Finish strong and head to high school prepared.

Math: Mrs Cindy Streff

8th graders continue working with geometry in Chapter 8, Geometry and Measurement.  This past week we learned about congruent figures, especially triangles and ways to prove that they are congruent.  If all three sides of one triangle are congruent to all three sides of another triangle the two triangles are congruent (SSS).  Two other ways to prove congruency is ASA (angle side angle) and SAS (side angle side).  It is sometimes challenging to find the angles and sides that we know are congruent.  8th graders also reviewed the different ways to classify a triangle; by the sides (equilateral, isosceles, scalene) and by the angles (acute, obtuse, right).  We also reviewed the special names given to quadrilaterals (trapezoid, parallelogram, rhombus, rectangle, and square).  After reviewing the names for different sided polygons (triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, decagon, dodecagon) we learned how to calculate the sum of the interior angles of each polygon and to find the measure of an angle in a regular polygon.  We will continue to work on Chapter 8 for the next couple of weeks, using formulas to calculate the area, surface area, and volume of different shapes.

Have a blessed Holy Week and Easter with family and friends.

8th Grade Religion

Hello!

Important events coming up in April:

• April 5th-7th/8th
• Easter Triduum!!!
• Celebrate with Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil Services at St. Francis in the evenings. 
• April 11th
• Confirmation Mastery Test taken in Class
• Final Checkpoint of Saint Project due. (In class work days given before this date)
• April 16th-20th
• Theology of the Body Unit with Miss LeDuc and Mrs. Osborne. (More information to come)

The 8th graders have been preparing in class for Confirmation for a while now and should be ready to go for their mastery test on the 11th. After this test we will go back into Morality and cover the remaining Commandments including the 6th and 9th with a study of the Theology of the Body. More helpful information will come as we get closer to these dates. 

We will continue through the year and end it with a study on how to live out the moral life through the virtues and the Beatitudes. A great way to end a year and send your students on to high school!