GRADE EIGHT

In Grade Eight, students are encouraged to form opinions, take positions, and assume responsibility for themselves in the wider community. The students are in the process of completing their passage through childhood and are entering young adulthood, an achievement that provides a broader viewpoint, sharper powers of observation, and growing critical faculties. These skills help students develop the scope and the perceptive abilities to recollect, to connect, to see relationships – abilities which make it possible to build a comprehensive picture whether the subject is history, physics or math.

The students are increasingly experiencing themselves as individuals with tastes and impulses of their own. They rightfully challenge accepted practices and ideas in order to understand and participate in a more independent way. The goal is for the student to experience a stronger sense of self-mastery and responsibility.

Language Arts

• Writing
• Reading
• Spelling
• Grammar
• Research Skills
• Composition/Creative Writing
• Speech Formation/Dramatics
• Literature
• Short Story
• Shakespeare

Mathematics

• Geometry
• Algebra
• Review of solids and measurement

Sciences

• Physiology
• Human Anatomy
• Organic Chemistry
• Physics

As grade eights, wonder, reverence and curiosity is suddenly matched by a need to discover new things and a hunger for the relevance and meaning of what they are studying. They are still expected to observe phenomena and participate in the many hands-on activities, however, relating principles and observations to how it affects them and the world around them is needed in order to keep them engaged and interested. In anatomy and physiology, the students make use of their artistic experience in modelling and drawing to sharpen observations of the forms of the human bone structure. Organic chemistry has students diving in to the world of sugars, starches, proteins, fats, and oils, and how they are used within our own bodies. The study of sound, light, heat, and magnetism is now extended into the areas of hydraulics, and aeromechanics. The students are encouraged to connect the phenomena studied in physics with their manifestations in nature and with practical applications wherever possible.

Earth Sciences

• Geography
• Anthropology

World Geography includes a survey of the landforms, ocean currents, atmosphere, climates, and life zones of the entire earth. World industry and transportation are included, as is an ethnographical look at a few representative remote cultures, still mostly dependent on terrain and climate for their ways of life. Historical references and biographies enliven the understanding of how people relate to their surroundings, and shape the cultural and political direction of a particular place.

Social Sciences

• 19th and 20th century History
• Reformation
• French Revolution

The French Revolution and the Reformation begin the study of history in this grade detailing the struggle for artistic and religious freedom and its role in developing the concept of universal human rights.

Second Languages

• French
• German

Fine Art

• Painting
• Drawing
• Woodwork: dovetail and mortise joints, inlay
• Drama

While drama has been a part of the curriculum every year, in this year the class develops a play that may range from a Shakespeare comedy to an operetta or musical, and is based on the teacher’s insight into the character of the particular class.

Music

• Band Instrument
• Recorder
• Singing

Physical Education

• Cooperative Games
• Sports
• Eurythmy