Literature

We have begun a classic story of  a man who has been wrongly accused and his brilliant strategy for getting revenge.  We will be doing the majority of the reading in class.  There will be chapter assignments which may be done as homework.  If your student would like to purchase their own copy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" they can bring in $7 of cover the cost of their book.  This is a great book to add to their reading library.

Alumni Presentation

Today, the 8th graders had a special presentation from a couple of our alumni.  Renee is a senior at Liberty High School, and Tanner is a senior at Forest Grove High School.  They came in this morning to talk with the 8th graders about what to expect in high school and some of the things they have learned coming out of Forest Hills and going into high school.  Thanks Renee and Tanner for giving time on your day off!

Subject Update: Digital Literacy

This week in Digital Literacy, we discussed the art of building a slideshow.  We discussed some basic features of Google Slides, as well as some good do's and don't's in making a good slideshow for a presentation.  Our next class will be spent practicing the skills we discussed as they will be building their own slideshow on a specific topic.

Subject Update: US History

Yesterday, the 8th graders had a very unique activity in History class.  We reenacted the Revolutionary War through a game of Capture the Flag.  Using some very specific rules throughout the game, we were able provide a basic outline of the war that will be referenced throughout our studies this chapter.

Ask your 8th graders about the experience and some of the rules we used.  It was a memorable activity!

Subject Update: US History

(Above is a mural of the signing of the Declaration of Independence that hangs in the US National Archives.  There are three future presidents pictured here although only two signed the Declaration.  Can you find all three?)

This week, we discussed the creation of the Declaration of Independence and how the 13 colonies agreed to come together and unite in their fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  We also watched our last part of John Adams as we saw this debate come to life.

The signing of the Declaration of Independence was not the end of the fight, but actually the start.  Next week, we will discuss how a group of unorganized, untrained colonists were able to defeat one of the most powerful military presences of the time in Great Britain to win the Revolutionary War.

[DID YOU KNOW ... US Independence Day was almost July 2nd instead of July 4th?  They voted for independence on the 2nd, but due to a debate on some wording in the Declaration, the statement wasn't adopted until the 4th.]

Subject Update: US History

Tomorrow, we will wrap up our chapter on the events leading up to the American Revolution with a test.  Next, we will start to look at what went into the creation and signing of the Declaration of Independence, followed by how the newly-formed United States was able to win a war against the powerful British Empire.

As part of our study, it is good to find ways to bring history to life when possible.  With this in mind, we are planning on watching several parts of the HBO miniseries John Adams in class.  These parts follow John Adams through the hostility in Boston which led to the war, as well as the debate over whether declaring independence was the right thing to do.  We will start watching this on Thursday.  A permission slip went home for this viewing yesterday with some of the details about rating and what is shown.  If you have any questions about this, contact Mr. P.

Senior Center Service Project

Every year, the 8th graders have several opportunities to serve the community around them.  The first of these opportunities is to serve lunch at the Hillsboro Senior Center.  On the first Tuesday of every month, four 8th graders spend a few hours during the school day at the Senior Center helping out and being God's light in our community.

There is a permission slip coming home today for this service project as our first Senior Center trip is this upcoming Tuesday, October 4th.  This permission slip will give permission for your 8th grader to attend any of the Senior Center trips throughout the year.  Mrs. Patti White will be the chaperone that drives them there and back, as well as helps out when needed at the Center.

Let Mr. P now if there are any questions!

Literature: The Outsiders

Walking in Their Shoes

These past weeks eighth grade has been reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.  The setting is a 1960's small town where you are either a "Socs" living on the right side of the tracks or a "Greaser" living on the wrong side of the tracks.

 To help the class understand the characters better we acted out a few scenes from the chapter.  They needed to act out how each social group would have acted (body language, the way they talked) to help them better understand each group.

They found it challenging but they still had a great time roll playing these scenes.

Ask your child to explain what they are reading.  What have they discovered is the same and different between the "Socs" and the "Greasers"?

What do they think will happen next? 

Subject Update: US History

Yesterday, we completed out first chapter in US History for the new year.  We discussed the expansion of European nations into the New World of the Americas.

We looked at the importance of Christopher Columbus and the conquistadors as they claimed land for Spain.

We saw how New France was started by explorers looking for the Northwest Passage in the St. Lawrence and Mississippi Rivers.

We learned about the missing colony of Roanoke and the real story of Pocahontas when we talked about New England.

We discussed New Netherland, the ill-fated colony that turned into the British colony of New York.

Starting today, we are narrowing our look at US History by focusing on the 13 British colonies that will soon become the start of the United States.  The class is split into groups and will be researching a specific colony and creating a poster of information.

Subject Preview: Memory

Today was a great first day of school!  One of the topics of discussion today in 8th grade was how memory is going to work for the year.  We will be using a method for memory called, "BIBLE to BRAIN to FAMILY to HEART."

The purpose of memory work is to give the students Scripture that they can appreciate and take with them as they shine the light of Jesus in the world around them.  The way we will be accomplishing this is by having the students memorize 3-5 verses per week (BIBLE to BRAIN).  These verses will be memorized at home and recited to you, the parents.  On their memory sheet, there is a spot to initial that they completed their memory work and for you to date when they completed it.  Turning this in by the due date will earn them 80% for their memory grade.

To earn 100%, they must complete the next step of this memory process.  That step is to sit with their parents and discuss what these verses mean and how it can apply to their lives (BRAIN to FAMILY).  Once this conversation has taken place, either the parent or the student will write some short notes on the back of their memory sheet before they turned it in to show the conversation and discussion took place.  The notes, combined with the initials stating they said it and turning it in by the due date, will give them 100% in memory.  By memorizing and having a chance to discuss it with their family, we pray the Scripture and its message is able to root itself in their hearts and help them understand more about our great God (FAMILY to HEART).

The memory will be handed out monthly with each month broken up into weekly assignments.  Today, the 8th graders received the list of verses they will be memorizing this year as well as the memory assignments for the month of September.  Memory will be due every Tuesday, starting next Tuesday, September 6th.  Memory can always be completed and turned in ahead of time if they choose to do so.

I pray this experience helps open some conversations at home about God's word and his message for us.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

School Year Welcome from Mr. P!

Hello everyone!

I am so excited for this upcoming school year to get started!  Whether you have been at Forest Hills since kindergarten or this is your first year here, this will be a memorable 8th grade year for all.

My name is Terry Plucknett.  I will be the 8th grade home room teacher this year, as well as teaching 8th grade Christian Studies, US history, Digital Literacy, choir, and upper level math.  This is my 9th year teaching at Forest Hills, all as the 8th grade teacher.  I graduated from Concordia University - Portland in 2008 with my Bachelor's Degree in Education with a minor in music.  In the spring, I will be finishing my Master's degree in Educational Design & Technology through Concordia University - Wisconsin.  My wife Cassie (Mrs. P) serves the school as our handbell director.  However, the most important member of our family is little Atticus.  He is 10 months old and enjoys walking, giggling, eating, drooling, and keeping his parents on their toes.

That is just a little bit about me.  I can't wait to start this school year and get to know each of you more!


Here is a short prayer for all of us as we start our year...

Lord,
We thank you for the many blessings you have given us.  We thank you for the coming school year and for every family that is a part of our Forest Hills community.  We pray you bless the year ahead of us as we seek to glorify you in everything we say and do.  In your precious name we pray.  AMEN!

See you all Tuesday!!!

What to Expect Next Week: 5/16-5/20

What Your Child Can Expect This Week

James & the Giant Peach in Portland on Thursday

Mysteries

Vocab Unit 15 Due Wednesday

Review energy for Quiz

World War II

Nearing the end of The Hiding Place

Ask Your Child About...: 5/13

Ask Your 8th Grader About...

Mysteries

Renewable and nonrenewable energy

Advantages and disadvantage of energy sources

Paul’s Arrest

Roaring 20’s

Great Depression

What to Expect Next Week: 5/9-5/13

What to Expect Next Week

Spring Event on Friday - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!!

Lots of play practice

Vocab Unit 14 Quizzes Wednesday

More Story Writing

Energy math problems

Possible energy quiz

Ask Your Child About...: 5/6

Ask Your 8th Grader About...

National Day of Prayer

Run for the Hills

Mystery Story Writing

Kid President

Renewable vs Non-Renewable Energy

Spanish-American War

World War I

What to Expect Next Week: 5/2-5/6

What to Expect Next Week

Vocab Unit 14 Due Wednesday

More Story Writing

Lyric Poetry

Energy problems

Energy quiz

Run for the Hills - Friday

Ask Your Child About...: 4/29

Ask Your 8th Grader About...

Talent Show

Mystery Story

Comic Dialogue

Roller Coasters

History Projects

What to Expect Next Week: 4/25-4/29

What to Expect Next Week

Talent Show - Wednesday Afternoon

Continued Mystery Story Brainstorming

Begin writing Mystery Stories

Vocab Unit 13 Quizzes

Roller Coaster building

No School Friday

Ask Your Child About...: 4/22

Ask Your 8th Grader About...

Run for the Hills Kick-off Assembly

Mystery Stories

Comic Dialogue

Paul’s 2nd Missionary Journey

History Projects

Potential vs Kinetic Energy

What to Expect Next Week: 4/18-4/22

What your 8th grader can expect in the next week

Book Orders Due Monday

Creative Writing

Beginning the Mystery Unit

Vocab Unit 13 Due Wednesday

Work, Power, and Energy

US History Test - Wednesday

Paul’s 2nd Missionary Journey

Ask Your Child About...: 4/15

Ask your 8th grader about...

ITBS

Creative Writing Warm Up

Diagramming Sentences

Corrections for science quiz

The End of Reconstruction

Jim Crow laws

Voter eligibility test

The Hiding Place

Graduation powerpoint

Baby picture

Special Religion Class

Special Religion Classes

As the school year winds down, the 8th graders will be doing something a little different on Friday mornings during Christian Studies class.  We will be looking ahead to high school and discussing some topics that will help prepare them to be a Christian in the bigger world outside the walls of FHLCS.  Josh Nix, the DCE at Trinity Hillsboro, has volunteered to come in and help with these classes as we cover topics like what it means to be Christlike, relationships, and witnessing.  This last Friday, we started by talking about being a counterculture and what it means to be in the world, but not of the world.  My prayer is that these classes give the 8th graders a tool moving forward that helps them shine the light of Christ and build on the strong foundation they have started here at Forest Hills in whatever places the years to come take them.

What to Expect Next Week: 4/11-4/15

What Your 8th Grader Can Expect Next Week

ITBS - Your child can bring…Gum, Book to read

Diagramming Sentences

Creative Writing Warm Up

Magnets

Movie in Literature

Middle School Dance - Friday

Ask Your Child About...: 4/8

Ask Your 8th Grader About...

Partner Fiction Stories

Fluid forces quiz

Paul’s First Missionary Journey

Reconstruction after the Civil War

What to Expect Next Week: 4/4-4/8

What Your 8th Grader Can Expect Next Week

Curriculum Night Monday

Persuasive Writing

Vocab Unit 12 quizzes Wednesday

Literature Test - Wednesday

History Test - Tuesday

New Memory

Ask Your Child About...: 4/1

Ask Your 8th Grader About...

What boat held the most weight?

What is the object of the preposition?

What is an ode?

Paul’s First Missionary Journey

Civil War

The end of And Then There Were None

What to Expect the Week After Spring Break

Here is what the 8th graders can expect the week after Spring Break

No School Easter Monday

Finishing And Then There Were None

Civil War

Bernoulli and Pascal Principles

Prepositions

Ask Your Child About...: 3/18

Ask your 8th grader about...

... God’s teleportation system

... Dred Scott

... How they think And Then There Were None will end

... Density and buoyancy

... How many types of pronouns are there?

... What is the limerick rhythm?

FHLCS Alumni Presentation: High School Prep

As we get to the end of the 8th grade year, the 8th graders use some Christian Studies time to talk about things to expect for high school next year.  We focus on what high school will be like, what they will experience, and how to be a Christian in the much bigger world high school provides.  Starting in mid-April, these "Special Religion Classes" will happen once per week.  However, we got an early start on this subject this week.  A few seniors at Forest Grove High School, that are alumni of Forest Hills, came by the class Tuesday morning during religion time to talk about things they have experienced in high school.  As alumni of our school, they were able to relate to where the 8th graders are at and discuss some of the things they felt were important to our specific situation.  This was a part of a high school Senior Project as one of them is considering becoming a teacher.  It was a positive and beneficial experience for the 8th graders as some of the "mystery" of high school was revealed by someone who was once sitting in the same spot they currently are.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

What to Expect Next Week: 3/7-3/11

What Your 8th Grader Can Expect Next Week

Vocab Unit 11 due

Field Trip to Hagg Lake

Problem & Solution Writing

Conferences

Density / Buoyancy

Ask Your Child About...: 3/4

Ask Your 8th Grader About...

Pentecost

Ananias & Sapphira

Auction Project

Zen Doodle - due Monday

Differences between the North and South in USA in the 1800’s

Air pressure

What You Can Expect Next Week...

• End of Trimester
• Vocab Unit 10 Quizzes Tuesday
• Archimedes principle and density
• Pentecost
• Events that led to the Civil War
• Book Report - due Thursday
• February Memory - due Monday

Ask Your Child About...

• Engineering Week Activity
• Spring Play
• What is sequence writing? What procedure did you choose to explain?
• What is renga?
• What is haiku?
• Stump the Pastor - what was your favorite answer?
• Pressure
• “Son of God” movie
• “And Then There Were None” - what do you think will happen?
• Abolitionism

Marble Races!! Which course is the slowest?

Eighth graders last week constructed roller coasters for a marble. The goal was to make the marble go through the coaster, but do so taking the most amount of time; in other words, they wanted to be the slowest. Our times ranged from 3.5 seconds to 2 minutes 13 seconds. Take a look at the some of the creations and watch a couple of the races.

What to Expect This Week: 2/22-2/26

What the 8th Graders Can Expect This Week...

Sequence Paragraphs

Limericks

Book Orders

Pressure

Stump the Pastor

Vocab Unit 10 Due

Christian Studies Test - Tues.

"Son of God" Movie

American Social Reform in the 19th Century

8th Grade Math with Mr. Schiemann

Hi everyone.  Today in math was intense!  We only got through 3 problems in 45 minutes.  Just to help you out, here are pictures of the steps we took with those three problems.  You'll need to make sure you have your formula sheets handy!  Tomorrow, I'll be assigning homework, so get ready to calculate :)

LEST 8th Grade Registration

LEST is just a week away!  It is incredible how quickly this has come.  Part of LEST every year that they ask of 8th graders is that they fill out a registration form for LEST.  The information provided on the registration helps Concordia keep track of all students that have participated in LEST as they go through high school.  It also gives them an opportunity to provide information that can be helpful in choosing a college when that time comes.  The link to the LEST 8th Grade Registration is below.  You can fill it out electronically and return it to Mr. P so he can send it to Concordia.

http://www.cu-portland.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/8th_Registration_2016.pdf

What to Expect Next Week: 2/1 - 2/5

What the 8th graders can expect next week...

Vocab Unit 9 Due

Reviewing Verbs

Reading Time for our Read-A-Thon

Quiz on Newton’s Laws

February Memory Assigned

Merchant of Venice Test Thursday

The Last Supper

Jesus’s Death and Resurrection

Ask Your Child About...: 1/29

Ask your 8th grader about...

...Amazing Race

...Toothpaste & Deodorant

...Poetry Friday - Annotating “The Brook”

...Noun Review

...“Read-In” Time

...Balloons and Newton’s 3rd Law

...Holy Week

...Merchant of Venice Projects

...Andrew Jackson

What to Expect Next Week: 1/25-1/29

What the 8th graders can expect next week...

National Lutheran Schools Week

The Amazing Race

Vocab Unit 8 Quizzes

Reviewing Nouns

Holy Week Study

American Life in the 1800’s

Ask Your Child About...: 1/22

Ask Your 8th Grader About...

...Descriptive Narrative
...Poetry Friday - Rhyme

...What was in the gold and silver caskets?

...War of 1812

What to Expect Next Week: 1/18-1/22

What the 8th graders can expect next week

No School Monday

Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion

Descriptive Narratives Are Due

Poetry Friday - Rhyme Scheme

Vocab Unit 8 Due

Early American Foreign Policy

Ask Your Child About...: 1/15

Ask your 8th grader about...

... Descriptive Narrative

... Poetry Friday

... Merchant of Venice projects

... American Isolationism

... Newton’s 2nd Law of motion

... Jesus and the Transfiguration

What To Expect Next Week...: 1/11-1/15

What the 8th graders can expect next week

Newton’s 2nd Law of motion labs, Newton’s 3rd Law demo

Descriptive Narratives Begin

Poetry Friday - Figurative Language

Vocab Unit 7 Quizzes

Israel Map Quiz Tuesday

Starting to read The Merchant of Venice

US History Test - Ch. 11

Ask Your Child About...: 1/8

Ask your 8th grader about...

... Newton’s 2nd Law of motion; Motion graphs

... Poetry Friday

... What did you choose for your descriptive paragraph topic?

... Book Orders (due Thursday)

... Auction Assembly

... William Shakespeare

... Merchant of Venice Projects

... Israel Map

... Alexander Hamilton vs. Thomas Jefferson

Subject Update: Literature

With the start of the New Year, the 8th graders will be starting a new book in literature.  Today, I handed out copies of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.  This will be a fun read for everyone as it is a play that we will read through in parts as a class.  Along with reading this, the 8th graders will be assigned some book projects to be done throughout the next month.  They will be hearing more about this in the coming days.

The copy of this book we use in class has some unique features we will be using.  First, it has a parallel translation between Shakespearean English and modern English.  Since, for most of the 8th graders, this is the first time reading Shakespeare, we will be reading the modern English version in class and referring to the Shakespearean English as we go.  Also, our copy has study and review questions in the back that will help throughout the reading of the play.  It is definitely a copy meant to be read in a middle school classroom.  Because of this, the 8th graders will need the exact copy we make available in the classroom (the cover is seen above).  If your 8th grader takes one of the classroom copies, your TADS account will be billed the $7 for the book.

If you have any questions, let me know.  This is always a fun unit to go through every year with the 8th graders!