8th Grade

Trinity Lutheran School

Offering Quality Christian Education Since 1893

Course Description

GRADE EIGHT

Bible Study: This course in New Testament history unfolds God’s plan for salvation, emphasizes God’s unending faithfulness toward His people, and focuses on the power of the Holy Spirit working through God’s Word to fortify His people for the challenges of living and sharing their faith in an adversarial world. It also assists students in applying God’s Word to their lives and into the students’ homes.

Curriculum comes from the textbook: Voyages: Exploring God’s World ---New Testament History published by Concordia Publishing House. (St Louis, MO)

Units included are as follows: 1. The Four Gospels

Jesus’ Early Ministry

Jesus’ Ministry Expands

Jesus’ Suffering, Death, and Resurrection

The Early Christian Church

The Epistles and Revelation

Memory verses, which coincide with each session, are assigned and recited each week, with additional verses selected from students to consider at different times of the church year.

Literature: Six different novels are read and studied during each school year. Students read quality literature in original, rather than edited or abridged form. As each book is read, there are sessions that include reading comprehension activities, vocabulary exercises, as well as different reading and writing opportunities. The good reading habits, formed by practice in focusing on interpretive comprehension and literary techniques, will hopefully be transferred to the books students read independently.

Current books read during the school year are: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Red Badge of Courage

The Miracle Worker

When the Legends Die

The Old Man and the Sea

Farewell to Manzanar

Spelling: Curriculum comes from the text Everyday Spelling published by Scott Foresman—Addison Wesley. The spelling curriculum focuses on targeting frequently misspelled words and building a better vocabulary for writing skills. Keeping a personal journal will also be a part of our class. Personal journals will be incorporated and will aid in sparking many of our creative writing assignments. Last, but not least, oral presentations will be expected for some of the writing assignments when opportunity arises.

Science: Curriculum comes from the text Science: Matter & Motion in God’s Universe published by A Beka Book of Pensacola Christian College. This text emphasizes very effectively that God is the Creator and Originator of its order, reason, and reality, and that science is one way for man to control and master the physical world for the benefit of mankind. This book is a fascinating study of God’s physical creation from the perspective of the founders of modern science. Areas of study include: Consider the Heavens (A study of the universe), Man and the Universe (Astronomy), Solid Matter in Motion, Fluids in Motion, Heat: molecules in Motion, Bird: Efficiency in Motion, Science vs. Evolution, Magnets and Magnetism, and Electrons and Electricity. There are typical assignments, quizzes, reviews, and tests in all areas of study.

Math: Curriculum comes from the text Math 8+: An Incremental Development published by Saxon Publishers, Inc. Algebra 1 helps the students transition from arithmetic to algebra. This course is designed to integrate secondary mathematics into plane geometry by teaching the Concept of Incremental Development. This curriculum is geared toward long-term retention of processes required for solving multiple-stepped mathematical problems. Facts practice is also worked on every day. Major lessons studies are as follows but not limited to: Rules for Multiplication of Signed Numbers, Inverse Operations, Division by Zero, Reciprocal and Multiplicative Inverse, Order of Operations, Evaluation of Algebraic Expressions, Surface Area, Factors and Coefficients, the Distributive Property, Exponents, Angles, Quadrilaterals, Circumference, Powers of Negative Numbers, Volume, Functional Notation, Factoring, and Polynomials.

History/Geography: Curriculum comes from the text America: Land I Love published by A Beka Book. Geography Workbook is entitled World Atlas & Geography Studies of the Western Hemisphere published by A Beka Book as well.

These two texts combined present the history of the United States from a Christian perspective as part of a well-rounded program designed to give students a deeper understanding of our nation’s history and a working knowledge of the geography of the Western Hemisphere. The many illustrations, maps, and photographs invite students to explore the past and learn about the people behind the events of American history. Above all, Land I Love emphasizes the providence of God in America’s rise to greatness in a patriotic and positive approach. There are five main units of study in this book:

Exploration and Settlement in a New Land

Birth of the United States

Building an American Character

Times of Testing and Triumph

Times of Challenge and Promise

There are daily assignments, quizzes, reviews, and tests in all areas of study as well as highlighted units during our course study. One such example is that during the study of the Civil War, the Literature book “Red Badge of Courage” is also studied. Another is during our study of the World Wars, where the video “The Holocaust” is viewed and the Literature book “Farewell to Manzanar” is read.

English/Writing: Curriculum comes from the workbook/text Grammar and Composition II published by A Beka Book. The curriculum in this class contains daily lessons on sentence structure, capitalization and punctuation, developing paragraphs, parts of speech, diagramming sentences, and the Writing Process. Along with many other writing assignments such as phase autobiographies, character sketches, observation reports, and story writing, eighth graders will be required to write a research paper. In addition, two 300 point book reports are required to be completed outside of classroom time. This class will also be reading some Shakespearean poetry and a selected play. Study guide pages will be given out for each selection as well as many creative activities that apply. In addition, eighth graders will be involved in writing a school newspaper. They will also have a reading program which is called “Love to Read a Whole Latte.” This program will entice them to read by offering free drinks from Starbucks!

Speech: The purpose of this class is to introduce students to spoken communication as well as theatrical forms of communication. Students will be presenting a variety of speeches, which will include Informative Speeches, A Speech to Persuade, A Speech to Demonstrate, Special Occasion Speeches, Oral Interpretation, and Pantomime.

P.E.: Physical Education classes are held twice a week, using either the gymnasium or the playground. The chief goal of this class is to give each student an awareness of the importance of physical fitness, as well as using their physical gifts as a way to also glorify God, recognizing that their body is a temple in which Christ dwells. A variety of team games are played to encourage all students to work together and help them enjoy physical activities in a relaxed, team environment. Warm-ups and cool-downs are used and taught to show the significance of proper care for the body before and after physical activity.

Once a week for an entire semester, we use and develop many motor skills by using the sport of Cup Stacking. Students are timed while doing a wide variety of activities with the cups, both individually and in team games. Cup stacking is widely used and is useful for helping children become more ambidextrous, and is known to help children use both sides of their brain, thus helping students with coordination in other sports and activities as well as improved reading skills.

Art: Once per week---45 minutes per session..

Computers: Eighth grade students begin the year researching for DAR essay or Future City essay. (See Electives). As the year progresses, the future city participants continue to work on essays, presentations, and city design for competition in January. Non-future city students prepare a Christmas Power Point, design an animated Disney book, and create a yearbook page. All class members are required to prepare a Power Point with fifteen slides as a year end project. Keyboarding and accuracy are strongly encouraged.

Current Events: This special course is designed for students who do not elect to participate in the Choir elective. Emphasis is on what is currently making news in the world and how these events affect our lives in God’s world. Students do National/International reports, State/Local reports, and chosen editorials for reports and for special class discussion. The Pueblo Chieftain is predominately used for this activity.

Extras (Projects): The eighth grade highlight and major activity of notoriety is the Santa Fe, New Mexico trip, which takes place in April. It is a three day, two night excursion which the class takes virtually the entire year to raise funding. Throughout the year, the 8^th graders serve Subway sub sandwiches and Little Caesar’s pizza on Tuesday and Wednesdays. In December, students sell live Christmas wreaths as a special fundraiser. Then, in March, a live dinner theatre is performed with the eighth graders doing a special melodrama. The event is truly a learning experience, with students learning a lot about the theatre experience, as well as working as a team. All of these together help send the students to a great experience in Santa Fe. They learn much about Native American and Mexican culture, working with ceramics, visiting several prominent Santa Fe art galleries, shopping, and enjoying delicious food, and spending time together as a class after a long year of hard work together.