Middle
School
Reflections– Grade 8
Volume 5
7-9-2012
Special Assembly on Ganesh Chaturthi , Ram Navmai and Onam
Ganesh Chaturthi , Ram Navami and Onam , the three important festivals of India were
celebrated by Middle School on Friday, August 31st in the form of a special assembly.
The assembly began with Ganesh Vandana performed in the style of Kathak, a classical
dance of North India. This was followed by a story presented by Grade 7y on the significance of celebrating Ram Navmi. The students of grade 7x sang “Chaupaiyaan”, verses from
the great Indian epic, Ramayana and mesmerised the audience with their melodious performance.
A folk dance from Kerala performed to represent Onam was followed by an address by
Ms. Padma who shared the reason why Onam is celebrated. Last but not least, we all
watched an educational video on the Vaman Avtaar.
The diverse nature of this special assembly as it marked three festivals celebrated in different parts of India was a reflection of the diversity in cultures that exist in our world . The
assembly conveyed the universal message of “ONENESS & TOGETHERNESS”.
Teacher’s Day Celebration– A day filled with fun
and frolic…..
Democracy in Middle School...
Grade 8 students presented their views and then Students of Middle School casted their votes to elect the 3rd Middle School Student
Council
Democracy in Middle School...
Leadership Program for Grade 8
The aim of the program was to introduce the characteristics of a leader and to let students identify themselves as leaders in their
own right. All students of Grade 8 went through this training .
During the course of the program they were given activities where their ability as leaders was honed. The various tasks were
designed to test their ability to take their team forward on a given task, the ability to understand the strengths and weaknesses
of the team members and act accordingly, the non- biased quality in a leader, the ability to handle stressful situations and be approachable. This program aimed to help student to examine closely the qualities of a good leader.
All the students were given an opportunity to stand up for elections. Contenders for the elections gave their speeches in front
of the middle school students and teachers. Students in their speeches shared their vision for the school, their strengths and
made some promises. After the speeches, Students and teachers casted their votes. On the basis of the votes the top 10 students were selected for a panel interview with The School Director, The Principal, The Senior School Counsellor and 2 Students
from The Senior School Student Council, Parakh Jain and Siddharth Chaman.
After the interview, 7 students were selected for the student council.
Some Glimpses...
English—Ms. Indu
Projections for the next week

Concluding Week




Completed the reading of ‘The Loophole
of Retreat’ and Looking Closely questions
answered
Students have been researching organizations like Amnesty International and Prisoner Action Group
‘A day in the life of…….’ (Page 34) to be
submitted
The novel continues
Start a Robert Frost poem; proceed with the
novel
Special Activity

Researching human rights organizations

The students submitted their Book Reports for
the ‘Reading Log’.
Parental Guidance

Please speak to them about the various international organizations dealing with Human Rights
English—Ms. Elena
Concluding Week
Page 5

The Loophole of Retreat – reading and
comprehension questions.

Grammar: Direct and Reported Speech –
drill work, worksheets, assessments on
Edmodo.

An interactive activity to reinforce and
improve writing flow.

Novel – “Same Stuff as Stars”. Making
predictions about the novel’s content and
themes using the cover and chapter headings. Use questioning as a reading strategy
for the opening of the novel.
Projections for the next week

Summative assessment will be conducted on
Monday.

Novel – “Same Stuff as Stars” (chapters 1 and 2)
REFLECTIONS– GRADE 8
ELS
Concluding Week

In order to achieve qualitative writing, a presentation on discursive writing was discussed step by
step and students were asked to present a piece of
discursive writing on the topic ‘Should we experiment on animals’.
The Students explored, collected facts and information about the topic “Should we experiment on
animals” and further engaged themselves in drafting
the discursive writing. It finally led them to a fine
piece of writing. They also learnt related vocabulary.
They re-read grammar lesson on Subject – Verb –
Agreement in order to avoid syntax errors.


Projections for the next week

The students would be reading “An interview with
President Obama”
They would be preparing questionnaire and would
be interviewing any one person.
Dialogue writing would be undertaken and thoughts
on education would be shared.


Parental Guidance

Please discuss the topic ‘Should we experiment on
animals’ in order to revise and exchange views
about it.
Math—Ms Gagan
Concluding Week


Ratios
Dividing a quantity in given Ratio.
Projection for the
next week


Activity
Students will go through the
following link on Ratio.
http://www.aaamath.com/B/
g62b_fx1.htm#section2
Rates
Proportion
Math—Ms Nidhi
Concluding Week
Projections for the next week


Simplify ratio and express ratios as
fraction.
Finding ratios between like and unlike quantities.

Dividing a quantity in a given ratio.


Rates.
Equivalent ratio.
Activity
Enhance student learning in conversion of units.
For ex -: how many grams are there in 1 kilogram, how many minutes are there in 1 hour etc.
Page 6
REFLECTIONS– GRADE 8
Page 7
VOLUME 5
Humanities
Projections for the next week
History
Concluding Week

Students read about the ‘Life of the soldiers’ at the trenches during the WW1

They watched video clippings and had a
formative on the life of the soldier at the
Western Front

Geography
In the coming week they will analyse the
Treaty of Versailles
Projections for the next week
Concluding Week


Students learnt about types of Aids during Natural Disasters

They shared and discussed about the organisations and the support provided by them ath the
time of need
In the coming week we will begin with the
new Unit 80:20
Physics
Chemistry
Concluding Week:
 Discussed the summative paper given last week and corrections were done
Projections for the next week



Classification of elements
Dmitri Mendeleev and his periodic table
The Modern Periodic table
and classes of elements
Concluding Week:


Buoyancy
Factor affecting buoyancy - Density
Projections for the next week

Factors affecting Buoyancy- Shape and Size.
Page 8
VOLUME 5
Spanish
Concluding Week
Projections for the next week

They were introduced to verb
tener.

We will continue with the same topic of making time
table in Spanish.

They learnt how to make class
time table in Spanish.

We will do more vocabulary related to class subjects.

They learnt names of different
subjects.
Hindi
Concluding Week

Read the lesson Jab Cinema Ne bolna Sikha.

Finalise their power point presentation on their favourite
freedom fighter.

Assessment based on suffix was self assessed by the students themselves.
Enjoying presentations
Projections for the next week



They will present their power point presentations in the
class.
Celebrate next week as Hindi week.
Many activities are planned like poem recitation, extempore, skit presentation and story writing.
Parental Guidance

Parents can have a talk about our National Language
and its importance in our life. They can also discuss
about our Freedom fighters, who laid their lives for
the country.
French
Concluding Week


Power point presentation
given by students on different
ways of greetings in Europe,
Asia and different regions of
France.
Definite and indefinite articles.
Projections for the next
week


Poetry recitation
Contracted and partitive articles
Inter School Basket Ball Match
First Saturday of September was a symbolic day… the Pathways Gurgaon girls basketball team had their very first match.
All of us gathered on Saturday morning in the school filled with excitement and anxiety, hoping to beat our opponents,
Pathways Noida. We eagerly awaited the arrival of our Guests. The minute we spotted them, we were overcome by a
huge cloud of uncertainty and fear ! They were confidently entering the court dressed in professional jerseys and looking
quite good!
The match began and by the end of the first quarter the pathways Noida players had dominated us and were leading with 4
points. We were quite worried as the match had just started and they had already gained a big lead. The second quarter
came and went without any goals being scored. However, we were improving our playing gradually. The second half of the
match begun and within the first 20 seconds we had immensely improved our game and scored our first basket! After that
we were on a roll and Pathways Noida just could not keep us in check. Basket after basket, our team became one and was
playing extremely well. The third quarter and the fourth went by with ease as we had gained more confidence and the
match finished with the Noida team lagging behind with 8 points.
This game was a great experience and we went through a roller coaster of emotions, from anxiety to worry to hope to
victory !! We were far behind in the first half but made a terrific comeback and took the Noida players by shock. I would
say this was a truly memorable day and it has encouraged and motivated me to take part in more matches. GO PATHWAYS GURGAON GO !!!
Tarini Lal
Three Cheers to our Basket ball
Team...