Day of caring!

Every Friday before spring break LCC middle school always has Day of Caring! Day of Caring is a day that we devote our time to help others in our neighborhood or help purify our envirnment. This year the 7th and 8th graders were able to go visit the little kids at Head Start and play with them for half a day. This was so much fun being able to play and have fun with all the little kids. I made so many friends that loved to play freeze tag, duck duck goose, and monster with me and a few of my other friends. Head start is a government funded school for the kids who's families are unable to pay for their day care or preschool so they can go there for free preschool. 5th and 6th graders I believe helped around the school and our envirnment. Some kids went to Fort De Soto beach to clean up some of the trash. Other kids stayed on campus and played with the preschoolers. This year Day of Caring was so much fun and the PDQ afterwards made the day even better. My last Day of Caring was amazing! 

Spanish

Delaney Crandall
Mrs. Hartney
LA 7A
31 March 2014
Recently in Spanish we started a new lesson. This lesson includes vocabulary and grammar. The vocabulary is based on two different things. One idea the spanish vocabulary is based on is taking trips. En tren, un viaje, and el cuidad are all words in our Spanish vocabulary that have to do with taking trips. The second idea our vocabulary is based on is your daily routine, and what you do everyday. This part of our vocabulary includes words like pienarse and afietarse. That is what our vocab is like this lesson in Spanish.
The grammar in this lesson was difficult at first, but now I have got the hang of it. This lessons grammar is to add -ando to —ar verbs or -iendo to —er and —ir to say if you are doing something right then. This is called present progressive. When you are using present progressive verbs you always have to have the verb estar in front of it. There are some exceptions when adding -ando or adding -iendo to verbs. The other thing we have been doing in grammar in Spanish is reflexive verbs, which is when you are doing something to oneself. When using reflexive verbs you have to make sure you have pronouns and that it actually is a reflexive verb, not just a regular verb. This lesson hasn't been that difficult overall. We have a test on it next friday, and I hope I do well on it!

Dance Marathon

The idea behind a dance marathon is to dance for those who can't.  Dance Marathon is meant to raise money and awareness for the "Children's Miracle Network". Children's Miracle Network provides care for children in hospitals. We are raising money for our local Miracle Network at "All Children's Hospital" in St. Petersburg Fl.  Dance Marathon will be taking place on March 20, 2014.  LCC Day School will be the first of hopefully many middle schools to come, to host such an event. The Miracle Network has raised over sixty-two million dollars for the kids! Leading up to this event, our school has been fundraising for "All Children's Hospital" by selling tee-shirts and balloons.  The profits from these sales go to the Miracle Network.  The event will start after school and finish at 9:30 p.m.  There will be an entry fee of five dollars. The money raised goes to the Miracle Network, and to cover the fees that it takes to run the event.  The seventh and eight grade students will take part in running the event.  There will be many activities to participate in as well as music!  The elementary students will come at different times, and participate in the event.  Like I mentioned earlier, the idea behind Dance Marathon is to dance for those who can't, so from 3:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. we will stay on our feet.  It may seem like a long time, but it is all to benefit others who need our help.  At times, you will be allowed to take a knee to rest, but for the rest of the time, you must stay on your feet.  I can not wait for Dance Marathon, and hope to see you all there!
                                                        


-Emma V.

Pobre Ana

Grace Weber
Mrs. Hartney
LA-8H
18 March 2014

Pobre Ana

During SAT week, the eighth grade students began reading a short book called Pobre Ana. The book is written in Spanish about a fifteen year old girl named Ana. She is constantly facing problems with her poor family and her friends. Because she is not as fortunate as her two friends, Elsa and Sara, she does not have the opportunity to shop at the same stores or enjoy the same expensive activities as them. In addition to the stress of maintaining a relationship with her friends, her mother often yells at her. Also, she faces tensions and struggles with her brother, Don, and her sister, Patty. Her brother rarely helps her, and her sister takes Ana's belongings without receiving permission from her.

After hearing about an opportunity to fly to Mexico and spend several months with a Mexican family, Ana becomes excited, and hopes that she can escape her crazy family through this trip. Ana accepts the opportunity, travels to Mexico, meets many new friends, and makes memories that will last a lifetime. Her new friends help her realize that her family really is fortunate and that every family has problems. With this advice, Ana returns to her home and family in California with a new outlook on her life.

Dance Marathon

LCC is doing something called Dance Marathon. It is supporting the All Children's Hospital Miracle Network program. We are dancing for those who can't because they have illnesses. We are hosting a 6-6 1/2 hour dance marathon on March 20, 2014 where we don't stop dancing for those 6-6 1/2 hours. We get to talk to some of the patients that have illnesses and can't dance. They are not physically able to do it. Everyone in the school is participating! Even the pre-schoolers are participating! We have done many fundraisers to help raise money for this. We have bought "balloons" and made videos about the Dance Marathon. I am so happy to be participating in Dance Marathon and I know it is going to be a lot of fun!

   

New Lunch Line

The final touches have now been put on the new Life Center. This past week the kitchen was finally completed, and Rainbow Catering now occupies the kitchen. This means that everyone is now allowed to order food right from a lunch line, instead of having to purchase it ahead of time.

Even if you don't want to order a lunch, the line also serves snacks and drinks. One big hit with students is the fries. They usually sell out within minutes. Overall, the new lunch line is a great addition to the Life Center. It makes ordering lunch much easier.

Spanish Test

Today the honors class has two tests in Spanish and everyone is very nervous.  One is on the culture of España and the other one is on the book Pobre Ana which we read in class.  Señora Bosco is combining the tests into one but it seems like two tests.  There are a lot of culture notes so that makes me really nervous!  We read the book two weeks ago and it was very short.  We just got the culture notes on Friday and had to study over the weekend and last night. Our culture notes was just a packet of info. We have to answer most of the questions in Spanish which is more difficult because we haven't had to really do that.  Hopefully the test will be easy.  Wish me luck!

Egg drop

Kaitlin Carmichael 

We have been doing an egg drop in science and math class. Every group we were assigned to had to make something that can hold eggs and drop them without the eggs breaking. Today was a test round, and my eggs didn't break. Some peoples eggs broke and they got to re do their projects for the final one tomorrow. 

Sydney Ahlquist
Mrs. Hartney
L.A. 7-A
14 March 2014

Pi day

 

Today is pi day. We celebrate by bringing in different food items in the shape of a circle. I personally like pi day because I get to eat different food. But I am pretty sure no one in our grade brought anything. But usually we have a big feast of different junk foods. I think it's fun.

 

 

We usually have a challenge that we can do fro extra credit, but she never told us anything. Last year Lindsey Winzeler learned the most numbers of pi, so she got a homework pass. For extra credit, we could write a song about pi and sing it to the class. Lindsey and I made up a song to Daylight by Maroon 5. We still remember it to this day. I hope this year we get to do something fun like we did last year.

 



Science Lab- Mystery Mixture

Callie Friske
LA7A
Mrs. Hartney
3/12/2014

Recently, we have just started a new lab because have been learning new and different things in Science. We started a lab called "Mystery Mixture." Using charts, graphs, mixtures, and different containers. You have 6 different mixtures. On the board, Ms. Miller placed a chart with all the different mixtures and the affects they have with different liquids. The mystery substances you have are sugar, corn starch, baking soda, alkaseltzer, salt, and borax. The liquids we useed to know what they are were vinegar, iodine, and water.

Now you have all the tools you need, next is how you do the lab. First, you have to get a partner. Then, you get this little mini test tube trays and feel each of the six ingrediants three times. Make sure that you know which one is which so that when you make the final graph you can tell which one is which. Then, you put a few drops of water in each one and record what happened. Then you put a few drops of vinegar in each one and see what happened. Lastly, you put a few drops of Iodine and you find out what happened. Then you make a final chart of your answers and what mixtures you found out.

Night Presentations

Brooke Jaffe
Mrs.Hartney
LA-8A
2 March 2014
As Kalen stated in an earlier blog, the eighth grade recently wrapped up reading Night by Elie Wiesel. Its a nonfiction novel written from the first person point of view of Elie, a young boy who survives the Auschwitz concentration camps during the Holocaust. We had a test on the book on Wednesday which consisted of multiple choice, matching, true or false, and three essays based off of quotes from the book. But, that wasn't even the hardest part! On Friday we had a presentation due based off of the book. The presentation had to be at least ten slides long and could be presented using key note, prezi, power point, or even in movie form! One boy in class decided to do a movie that wasn't only educational - but hilarious as well! Another boy had a presentation twenty five slides long! For traditional students, the presentation had to include characters, plot, and the setting. For the advanced students, the presentation had to include the themes and connections of the book. I went first which was very nerve wracking especially because I'm already anxious to begin with, but it was good to get it over with! I really enjoyed watching all the other presentations though! Everyone had their own unique spin on the project assignment which was extremely interesting to view. I hope we have another project like this one soon! (Below is the entrance of Auschwitz)