Middle
School
Reflections– Grade 8
Volume 12
Week of 2nd
November, 2012
Cybermania at Blue Bells Model School
Saturday, 20th October was unlike other Saturdays. It was a morning filled with
excitement as 16 Middle School students and 4 seniors school students boarded a bus to participate in an Inter School Competition ‘Cybermania’ at Blue
Bells School, Gurgaon.
Middle School students participated in multiple events.
Tara Nouri and Aashna Singh participated in ‘Cyber Artist’ where they had
to create a poster in Photoshop,
Parth Ahluwalia and Yash Dhume participated in ‘Cyber Crusade’ where they
had to create a Flash Animation.
Sameera Pant and Shaimay Shah took part in Tech talk where they debated on
the topic : ‘Social Networking: An Addiction to the Virtual World’ .
Vineet Grover and Armaan took part in ‘Majestic Mosaic’ where they created
a poster in Corel Draw. In all the events the topics were given on the spot.
The last event ‘ Rock IT’ was based on a dance presentation. Students danced
on various themes based on Technology. The team from our school comprised
of Yajur, Preksha Rinka , Shivyaan , Devin , Pallavi , Meghna from grade 6,
Koma from grade 7 and Bhavya from grade 8. Our team of dancers were the
youngest among the participating teams.
Senior school participated in two events. Gayaatri Bhardwaj and Sakshi Dagar
of grade 9 participated in ‘Scribble Splash’ where made a collage and a jingle.
Arjun Dadhich and Kush Wadhwa participated in ‘Director’s Cut’ where they
edited a movie.
The proud winners!!!
It was a proud moment indeed when the awards were announced
1st position in Cyber Crusade went to Parth Ahluwalia and Yash Dhume of
Grade 8.
2nd position in Scribble Splash went to Gayaatri Bhardwaj and Sakshi Dagar of
grade 9.
Well Done Pathways Gurgaon !
Gearing Up...
Poonam Kakkar– ICT Teacher
Rock IT
Debate on ‘Social Networking’
Halloween –Trick or Treat...
On 31st October, Middle School celebrated Halloween. The whole school
was a riot of colours , as many students and teachers arrived dressed as
witches and ghosts ! On display was creativity , imagination and the immeasurable differences in thinking ! In their classes, children received candy
from their teachers. At the end of the day , there was an ‘Inter house
Weird Fashion Show’ and an ‘Inter form Room Decorating contest’.
The Fashion show was judged by Ms Jenny, Ms Anvita and Ms Kanika and
the winners were Arman Goyal, closely followed by Parth Ahluwalia. In
the girls category, Suramya Bapna as the spider lady was placed first followed by Prachi Sharma.
After the fashion show, the Head of our Design and Technology department, Mr. Andrew Mcloughlin, paid each form room a visit to judge the
contest. He declared Form 7 Y as winners for the eerie Black Mass atmosphere they had created , followed by form 7 X with their spider decorations and the music they played and 8Y for their weird and imaginative decorations !
Ms Indu concluded the session and spoke about how the term ‘Halloween’
is a distortion of ‘All Hallows Eve’, celebrated earlier in the Catholic world
on October 31. November 1 is the ‘All Hallows Day’ i.e. All Saints Day, followed thereafter on November 2 by All Souls Day.
Though the origins of this festival are Celtic, from Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church adopted it for celebrating All Saints Day and All Souls Day with
the official heralding of the ‘dark part of the year’.
According to folklore the souls of the recently deceased, all had to leave
earth for their new realms by November 2, and in the days prior the ‘bad’
souls roamed around wreaking havoc by seeking vengeance. To counter
them the people started dressing up in scary costumes to drive them away.
Halloween, as celebrated now, is a mixture of the two streams; Catholicism
and Celtic, for commemorating its Saints and the dead.
It is indeed interesting that the timing of Halloween almost coincides with
the Hindu festival of ‘Shradh’, praying for the souls of its dead!
English—Ms. Indu
Projections for the next week :
Special Activity

Continuing with the unit, Cities

Halloween related activities
Discussed Turkey, Ottoman Empire and
Istanbul

Continuing with the novel

The students submitted their

The Noble Laureate, Orhan Pamuk discussed
Parental Guidance

Completed the lesson ‘Black and White’
and the Comprehension questions

Continued the novel
Concluding Week :


Book Reports for the
‘Reading Log’.
Please discuss the rise and fall of cities
down the ages
English—Ms. Elena
Concluding Week

This week some time was devoted to the middle school annual publication
“Expressions” – the students have selected the bet of their written work for
publishing and wrote second or third drafts if necessary.

As a part of the cultural aspect of learning, we have read and talked about
Halloween origins and traditions, followed by a celebration involving the entire Middle school. That day’s classwork was writing an autobiography of their
Halloween character. The structure and main features of an autobiography
were revisited for that purpose.

Projections for the next week

Unit “Weather”, vocabulary pertaining to the environmental issues.

Argumentative writing

Novel “Same Stuff as Stars”
To start a new unit, “Weather” and make connections to the upcoming Diwali celebrations and the environmental issues that come with it, new vocabulary
was introduced and used extensively in class. The students have revisited the
strategies of argumentative writing and conducting an oral debate. The concept of induction and deduction in argumentation was introduced and practiced with real life examples. The students received an assignment to use both
deduction and induction in their argumentative essays next week.
ELS
Page 4
Concluding Week
Projections for the next week


Extended and practice exercises for Dialogue writing were covered
this week. The students worked on the second draft of their respective dialogue writing pieces. The articles given by students for
Expression (Story and Poems) were discussed in the class individually. The students were guided to make required alterations.
Speaking and Listening
R E F L E C T I O N S - G R A DE 8
Page 5
VOLUME 8
Humanities
Geography
History
Concluding Week
Concluding Week

Students learnt the difference between Free and Fair Trade

Students learnt about the League of Nations, with a
starter activity creating the Class League to handle
problems.

They were given reading material to understand Free and
Fair Trade

They brainstormed the problems which a League
would have generally faced

They have been asked to prepare a poster on products
promoted through Fair Trade

They watched a Power Point Presentation to understand the success and failures of the League

They were asked to give an online test to check
the understanding on the League.
Physics
Projections for the next week:

Concluding Week
Heat technology – Solar Heating
Students were introduced/discussed:

Heat technology – Hot Water Air Heating
Biology / Chemistry
Concluding Week
Projections for the next
week :


Exchange mechanisms of a cell with its
environment

the periodic table
Concept of Cell Energy (process of
cellular respiration), Fermentation and
its application in our life

Introduction to Cell Cycle, need for cell
Activity:

Introduction to the laws of genetics-
Demonstration of diffusion using potassium permanganate crystals in cold water
division, types of cell division

Revisit atomic structure and

Watching video on YouTube on the exchange mechanisms in the cell
Work of Sir Gregor Mendel

Introduction to “Genetics” through a video
clip
Parental guidance:

Discuss about family traits that
have displayed interesting patterns of inheritance in your family line. You may consider talking
about blood group, eye colour,
hair type, type of ear lobes,
shape of nose and size of
toes. It will be a good idea to
put down the findings on paper
together and let your child share
it in the class!
Math—Ms. Gagan
Concluding Week :
Projections for the next week:
Students were introduced to/discussed:

Simple Interest

Discounts

Profit and Loss

Compound Interest
Math—Ms. Nidhi
Concluding Week :
Projections for the next week:

Introduction of profit, loss and discount

Application sums based on VAT, Simple interest

Word problems based on profit, loss and discount

Compound interest and word problems based on that.

Meaning of simple interest
Hindi
Concluding Week :

Projections for the next week :
They did some left over exercises from lessonChithiyon Ki Anokhi Duniya.

The poem-Bhagwan Ke Dakiye was recited and the
underlying meaning of the poem was explained.


They will complete summary writing.

Picture writing

They will also learn to write their own poem .
Summary of the poem was written
Spanish
Concluding Week :
Projections for the next week:

Assessment on Verb Ir.

Role play .

Listening and speaking activities.

Role plays.

Vocabulary related to cinema.
ICT
Concluding Week :
Projections for the next week:

Understanding Networks.

Benefits of working in a networked scenario.

Sharing of data and resources on a network.

Types of networks : LAN and WAN with the examples.

We will continue with the topic—”Networks’