8th Grade Pullout Class

November 8-12 was STEAM Week. STEAM stands for Science Technology Engineering Art Math. Students chose from a variety of STEAM activities that week including KEVA planks and Makey Makey kits.

On days students were not practicing for Quiz Bowl, they are “un-inventing.” Students brought in broken items and electronics to “un-invent” and take apart. They asked many questions and have discovered a lot about items they’re taking apart. I loved seeing their reactions when they discovered a new component of an item they were taking apart.

These two 8th graders took apart an old boombox and even recovered a CD that was stuck in the drive!

Ellie took apart a toy original Simba.

Ava and Kristina took apart a toy newer version of Simba. This one was still functioning!

Taking apart a toy unicorn

Eighth graders are still working hard creating their business plans and prototypes of their products. This month, students took a break from their work and visited a local West Fork business called Shire Post Mint. This business operated online until they opened their brick and mortar building this month. We are blessed to have such a unique business in West Fork! Here is a link to their webpage https://www.shirepost.com

Students were introduced to Quiz Bowl and the buzzer system. We started to practice for the Quiz Bowl once a week. We will have a combination of 7th and 8th graders competing on January 14, 2021.

This month, students chose between creating a Google Site or working together to create a business plan. Several students were challenged to make their own Google Sites. They added many things to the site including information about their family, their likes/dislikes, sports, extracurricular activities, books read, hobbies, and much more. These students did a fantastic job and put 100% effort into their personalized sites. We plan to use the GT portion of their website as a live portfolio to document each student’s journey through the GT classroom.

The rest of the eight graders competed in the Y.E.S. for Arkansas Business Plan competition. This project gave students real-world experience in which they had to come up with a brand-new product that could make them money. Then students had to create a business plan, keeping in mind how much money they could make compared to their expenses. This entrepreneurship project took a lot of work and is due in early November. Here is the link for more information about the competition. https://arcapital.com/yesforarkansas/

We started off the new school year with several team building activities and STEM challenges. We spent time going over expectations and the students discussed what they wanted to learn and do this year. Students also created “Selfie Sculptures” to help them understand their social and emotional needs and their learning styles.

8th graders enjoyed learning about themselves during this activity. They were very creative and great self-evaluators.