The art classes have begun the unit on color. We have discussed the scientific theory of color waves and pigment. We will learn how to mix the three basic colors to make other colors and the relationship between colors and their complementary colors. The primary, secondary, intermediate, and tertiary colors will be put on graphic organizers. The values of the colors from light to dark and the intensity of colors from bright to dull will also be illustrated on charts. We will be studying color combinations such as monochromatic, analogous, and complementary.

Upon completion of the color unit we will copy a famous painting. Beginning with a drawing on 9”X12” paper, students will graph and transfer the drawing to a larger graph on 18”X24” paper. Next they will create a color combination chart to help decide what color combination to apply to their painting.
 The last couple weeks of the semester will be used to learn architectural drawing using a vanishing point. We will begin with a few simple boxes being put in 3-D and then move to a house or a city block, depending on the choice of the class.

Parents, please ask your art student to bring their art work home from the first nine weeks. They did some wonderful self-portraits of which parents can be proud.

Drama classes have finished studying the Medieval and Renaissance theatre history. The famous Passion Play of Oberammergau, Germany and the two passion plays in America helped in observing how medieval plays might have been. (http://www.german-travel-uk.com/oberammergau.html) (http://www.greatpassionplay.com), (http://www.blackhills.com/bhpp).

We studied Shakespeare and watched “Taming of the Shrew.” His theatre has been rebuilt to show Shakespearean plays today. (http://www.shakespears-globe.org).

We learned about the techniques of the Japanese theatre, Kabuki. Kabuki theatre is a form of theatre from Japan with wild and dramatic make-up and costumes. Performing a short Kabuki play and watching a Japanese comedy called a Kyogen helped us visualize what this kind of theatre is like and seeing a real kimono helped us to visualize the costumes. The final piece of history will be the study of theatre from the 1800’s to present day. 

Comedy and tragedy as forms of drama is the next unit to be studied. We will see “Arsenic and Old Lace” to help us understand the modern structure of plays.

Parents, please be ready to help with script memorization toward the end of April as we will be performing memorized group scenes in May.

Hello everyone! We will be extremely busy and active in April with several upcoming activities. 
Our pre-festival concert is on April 6, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. at Eisenhower Middle School. This performance will feature the seventh and eighth grade band, orchestra, and Jazz ensemble. 

We will be participating in the ‘Night of Percussion’ on April 4, 2008 at Goddard High School. This performance will feature percussion ensembles from throughout the district including the seventh and eighth grade percussion ensembles.

On April 17, 2009 the EMS Jazz band will perform at the Wichita Jazz Festival.  This event is really exciting and a tremendous venue for young ensembles. This will be our third year to perform at the festival.
Both the seventh and eighth grade bands will perform at the Pioneer League Band Festival which will be hosted by Maize Middle School on April 22. Students will also be performing solos and ensembles throughout the day so make sure you check the schedule if you have a group you don’t want to miss. 
On May 2 we will travel to World’s of Fun in Kansas City where the seventh and eighth grade concert bands will perform. After their performance they will enjoy the day in the park riding rides and having a great time. We look forward to this performance all year and it always is a very meaningful time for the students.

And finally on May 7 we will have our massed band concert with all the band students from the district at Goddard High School. It will be a performance to remember!

Also a final note on fundraising. There are a variety of ways your student can make money for their student account. Please visit www.goddardusd.com and click on the Goddard Pride Band link to find out more information.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me at 794-4150 ext 8220 or bmorrison@goddardusd.com.

• Students should check their account balance before filling out a Student Band Account Sheet.
• Student account balances are posted on the boards in the front of the band room.  If a student has money in his or her account, any redemption of money from the account requires completing a Student Band Account Form.  Please be certain the forms are filled out correctly.
• A student can only withdraw up to the total amount in the account.  Any spending above the account balance must be paid by check or cash at the time of the purchase.  No credit can be extended through the student accounts.

We have finished our first sewing project, the drawstring backpack and are beginning our PJ shorts or pants. Students are showing excellent progress in all areas of sewing as they become more comfortable with the machines and tools. In fact, if you ask, their best friend (or enemy) for the past couple of weeks has probably been the seam ripper! 

Besides sewing, as part of our unit, each student has been taught the proper procedure to perform laundry duties. Part of this unit includes complete responsibility for laundry duties at home for one full week. PARENTS: If you have not received your week long break from the laundry (including collecting laundry, sorting, switching loads, and folding/hanging), QUICK, talk to your son or daughter before it is too late! The laundry assignment will be due in class signed by April 17.  (Please refer to my website for more information regarding this assignment: www.goddardusd.com/staff/jbuchanan) 

In May we will be busy preparing for the last unit, foods and nutrition. In the food unit we will prepare cookies, mini pizzas, as well as prepare dishes using a pound of beef. The students have the ability to earn extra credit during this unit by preparing food at home and completing a worksheet asking a few brief questions about the experience.  The worksheet is available both in class and online on my district website listed above. Each student may complete three papers which are all due no later than Friday, May 15. 

Thanks for the wonderful semester!
Jessica Buchanan
jbuchanan1@goddardusd.com

As this final newsletter goes out, we are busy preparing for Contest on April 29 at Prairie Hills. 
As a reminder, all choir shirts will need to be washed and returned ON A HANGER after contest on April 29. Any damaged or lost shirts wil be $25 to replace.

Our final event for the year is our Pops Concert on May 15 at 7:30 p.m. Students will wear their new t-shirts (coming in April).

Please plan to come and celebrate the end of a successful year! The students have worked extremely hard! See you then!

We have started a new unit in which students are learning about drafting and design. Students have drawn thumbnail sketches using border, object, center, hidden, extension, and dimension lines to layout the design of their Co2 car. Upon completion of their design, students will begin cutting out their cars. Once they are prepared for finish and painted, the students will race them and figure the car’s speed in miles per hour.
In the next unit, students will begin work on designing and building a rocket. The students will split into small groups and work as a team to complete the project. They will be required to research and design a nose cone, fins, and a recovery system for their 2 liter pop bottle rockets. During this activity, students will learn how aerodynamics and mass can affect the rocket’s flight. At the conclusion of the activity, classes will spend two days outside testing and launching their rockets. Most of the student’s rockets should fly between one hundred and one hundred fifty feet into the air.

With warmer weather on the horizon, the PE classes will begin to venture outside for activities.  Tennis, golf, Frisbee, softball, flag football, speedball, and soccer will be just some of the upcoming Spring activities. The physical education classes will also be taking the post test for the President’s Challenge Program and Fitness Gram. We are looking forward to seeing the results and any improvement in each individuals fitness.
 

EMS HEALTH TIP OF THE MONTH: Choose something fun - find something you enjoy, and mix it up. Easy does it to start - keep your first sessions light. Stick to a schedule - start with moderate activity for at least 30 minutes a day. Raise the bar - gradually increase over time. Manage sore muscles - a little stiffness is normal, constant pain is not. Reward yourself - celebrate milestones, but stick with your program.

The students in seventh grade reading have begun their class novel, “A Single Shard.” This story takes place on the west coast of Korea in the small village of Chulpo during the mid-to-late twelfth century. The novel’s protagonist is an orphan boy named Tree-ear. Tree-ear becomes an apprentice to an elderly potter, Min, and must make a dangerous trip to Songdo on Min’s behalf.

Once the this novel is completed we will begin our literature circle unit. The literature circle unit allows students to work cooperatively in book study groups where they divide the daily tasks of reading and discussing their novel. Each group will be responsible for presenting an “out of the box” performance for their peers. Their presentations will be designed to create interest for their novels.

Students are continuing to work towards their Accelerated Reading goals. They should be bringing their AR books home for homework if needed. 

8th Grade
Mary Kloefkorn

The reading classes are well into their literature circle novels. Ask your student to share which book they chose to read and why. This project will take us to the end of the year. Please encourage your student to keep reading and make their AR goal for the last nine weeks! Don’t forget  - AR tests must be taken by May 15! A great way for students to keep their skills and enjoyment level up during the summer is to keep reading. Whether that’s joining the public library summer reading club, or making a few trips to a bookstore, the results will be well worth the time and effort! Please take a minute to look at the article from Scholastic magazine about summer reading:

Many children, especially struggling readers, forget some of what they’ve learned or slip out of practice during the summer months. Try these strategies to help your reader improve his/her reading during the summer and beyond:

1. Six books to summer success: Research shows that reading just six books during the summer may keep a struggling reader from regressing. When choosing the six, be sure that they are just right — not too hard and not too easy. Take advantage of your local library. Ask for help in selecting books that match your child’s age, interests, and abilities. Libraries often run summer reading programs that motivate kids to read, so find out what’s available in your area.
2. Read something every day: Encourage your child to take advantage of every opportunity to read. Find them throughout the day:
• Morning: the newspaper — even if it is just the comics or today’s weather.
• Daytime: schedules, TV guides, magazines, online resources, etc. For example, if your daughter likes the food channel, help her look for a recipe on the network’s website — then cook it together for more reading practice.
• Evening: End the day by having your child read to you from the book he is currently reading (one of the six books mentioned above). Have him rehearse a paragraph, page, or chapter before reading to you. Rereading will help him be more fluent — able to read at an appropriate speed, correctly, and with nice expression.
3. Keep reading aloud: Reading aloud benefits all children and teens, especially those who struggle. One benefit is that you can read books your child can’t, so she will build listening comprehension skills with grade-level and above books. This will increase her knowledge and expand her experience with text, so that she will do better when she reads on her own. 

As the semester comes to an end, the students continue to learn a great deal of vocabulary in Spanish.  They will use all of the vocabulary that they have learned this semester to complete a final project the last couple of weeks. They have also started to work on basic verb conjugation and will continue to work on it until the end of the semester.

Students will continue to enjoy activities both in and out of class and will continue using their Spanish in class and at home as much as possible. Also, the students will be having an annual Cinco de Mayo fiesta at the beginning of May. They will get to cook authentic Mexican, Spanish, and South American cuisine and bring it to class for each of their individual fiestas and possibly receive some extra credit points!

If you have any questions concerning the class, please feel free to call me at 794-4230, ext. 2707.
cgabbert@goddardusd.com.

TECH 7
The purpose of this class is to teach students basic computer operations and applications. Keyboarding technique will be the emphasis the first two weeks and continue throughout the semester. We will use a textbook titled Computer Concepts in Action (Glencoe). This textbook has been aligned with the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). It is an introductory course for students who are learning computer concepts, and how to productively use computer hardware, software, and the Internet. Students will learn about fundamental concepts and key application skills for using Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint as well as related social and ethical issues. We will be using Microsoft Office 2007.

TECH 8
Students work in modules that connect Technology with life. Each module is seven school days long. Each day brings a significant amount of hands-on activities. Day 1 starts with a pretest, days 2-5 start with RCA (Research, Challenge, Assessment) activities, day 6 starts with a test review game and day 7 starts with the post test. This class is highly dependent upon students working together in pairs and solving problems.
We have 18 modules including Applied Physics, Audio Broadcasting, Natural Disasters, Engineering Bridges, Flight, and Weather. Students will complete approximately ten modules during the semester.
All modules were updated this summer and we replaced four modules with new topics.

Hello everyone! We will be extremely busy and active in April with several upcoming activities. 
Our pre-festival concert is on April 6, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. at Eisenhower Middle School. This performance will feature the seventh and eighth grade band, orchestra, and Jazz ensemble. 

We will be participating in the ‘Night of Percussion’ on April 4, 2008 at Goddard High School. This performance will feature percussion ensembles from throughout the district including the seventh and eighth grade percussion ensembles.

On April 17, 2009 the EMS Jazz band will perform at the Wichita Jazz Festival.  This event is really exciting and a tremendous venue for young ensembles. This will be our third year to perform at the festival. 

The EMS orchestra and string ensembles and solos will perform at the Pioneer League Music Festival which will be hosted by Maize Middle School on April 22. Students will also be performing solos and ensembles throughout the day so make sure you check the schedule if you have a group you don’t want to miss. 

On May 2 we will travel to World’s of Fun in Kansas City where the seventh and eighth grade orchestra and concert bands will perform. After their performance they will enjoy the day in the park riding rides and having a great time. We look forward to this performance all year and it always is a very meaningful time for the students.

And finally on May 12 we will have our massed orchestra concert with all the strings students from the district at Goddard High School. It will be a performance to remember!

Also a final note on fundraising. There are a variety of ways your student can make money for their student account. Please visit the Goddard Pride Band link to find out more information.

As always if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me at 794-4150 ext 8220 or bmorrison@goddardusd.com.