Year 8

Yr 8 Newsletter Update

The year 8s have had a busy term with a range of activities. You can see (and smell) the energy within the students when you walk into the lockers. There's been many smiles and high fives in the lockers as the year 8s smash records, tests and every sport imaginable. So what have these busy year 8s been up to? 

Science

In term 1 science the year 8’s did cell biology. Cells, Cells, they're made of organelles, was playing in all of the year 8s heads for weeks. We finished the unit with our KLT with some epic cell models, posters and don't forget the bibliography. We then moved on to Geology and I’m sorry to say there's not a catchy song for that but we learnt all about the different types of rocks and how they are formed and got to participate in some epic pracs with fire. Don't worry, we followed the safety rules.

English

If you were around in 2002 or a student at Coburg High, you’ve probably watched Bend it Like Beckham. This term we studied Bend it Like Beckham, looking at the film techniques used and writing an analysis. Following that we looked at themes within the movie before completing our KLT essay. If you have a kid in year 8 you might want to suggest the family watches Bend it Like Beckham for movie night. We're sure they’ll love that.

Maths

Good old maths, it's been around since before 3000 BCE. This term we started off with good old place value, then moving on to fractions, rates and ratios. We finished off the term with more fractions though this time with decimals and percentages.   

Art 

Year 8 classes have been working on perspective this term creating their own two point perspective drawings- all of which look fabulous up on building B’s walls.

PE

We started off PE with a recap of the track and field events that make up Athletics in preparation for the athletics carnival. We got to use equipment that was originally invented as war weapons. Though they were a safer and undeadly version. We then moved on to fitness testing where we saw great improvement from year 7. We did the commonly dreaded beep test (it's not that bad), jumping tests and push ups, lots of push ups (even when we weren't meant to be doing push ups). We finished up the term with volleyball, getting to play volleyball with the less painful and ten times as big yoga ball.

Dance

This term two dance and drama classes joined together for their dance unit. In year 8 dance we do ensemble pieces with the joint class voting on  ‘Be Prepared” from the Lion King. With over 5 weeks of rehearsal the tension was building for Tuesday week 10 when they performed in front of the other dance and drama class as well as some year 7’s. With fantastic dancing, acting, lights and costumes the performance was a hit and one that won't be forgotten anytime soon.

Drama

Throughout term one, some of our year eights learned the elements of melodrama! After learning to understand the elements of drama we used the elements to the best of our abilities. We created a whodunnit based on a prompt. The 100th birthday of a man named Mr Jameson, his murder, and who did it. There were 3 separate groups, all with their own twist on this old fashioned story.

Hums

In humanities we looked at urbanisation and made slideshows about urban cities and issues they face such as overpopulation and crime, we then moved on to our Civics unit where we held mock elections where we made another slide show. I think the humanities team really likes slideshows. We each choose an issue to target from clean water to racism, coming up with catchy slogans that remain in peoples heads for the rest of the week.  

Music

In year 8 music they started off with African drumming making up their own songs with some sick beats before moving onto the blues and despite the name they didn't have the blues when they came out of class.

Health

Throughout the term 1 health unit, we learned about the world of nutrition, the function of carbs, fats, protein, dietary fibre and so on. Students engaged in multiple activities surrounding the benefits of 3 meals a day, storing fat and burning carbs. This unit was extremely helpful in assisting our year 8’s to develop healthy eating habits for themselves that will hopefully spread to their friends and family.

Plank Record

Year 8s very own Blake H broke not only the schools but also the basketball academy's record for longest plank hitting ten minutes, but he didn't stop there. 3 weeks later he doubled his record which had many draws dropped especially when he said he wasn't sore the next day! This feat led him to be called Blake the Machine H by Player First Basketball. Blake shows no signs of stopping anytime soon so look out for number 21 in this year's academy tournament.

Lunchtime soccer

One of the most loved sports across year 8 is soccer and boy has there been a lot of it this term. At lunch and recess students from across the year level banned together in the hopes of beating the year nines in epic soccer matches. From what I've seen we usually come out on top but I might have a slight bias. But one thing I do know is that the year nines don't always follow the rules at points throwing the ball from one to the other. So it is really impressive seeing my fellow classmates stick to the rules even when the other team isn’t. Lets go year 8’s

Jemma O and Samira P