Just like last year, the 8th grade class was assigned tea and coffee for the school's annual food drive to benefit HNOM Parish Outreach's pantry. Therefore, 8th graders donated warm beverage options - from tea bags to ground and instant coffee - so that the Valley Stream community will be able to warm up and caffeinate this winter season! Thank you for your generosity, 8th grade!

Our students collected food donations to restock the parish food pantry after Thanksgiving. Thank you to all who donated.

8th graders demonstrated class spirit with their purple-and-blue "gratitude feathers," deriving inspiration from their homeroom class colors to stand out from the colors they assumed would dominate the school-wide turkey: yellows, oranges, browns, and reds. By filling in the phrase, "I am thankful for...," 8th graders expressed gratitude for family, technology, and school. The 8th graders' feathers will be added among the feathers that other grades designed and colored to create one unified, massive bulletin board turkey!

Chamber Theatre Productions filmed their live-action plays for Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Annabel Lee," and "The Raven" so that they could still bring their premier educational theatre to classrooms in our new COVID reality. With an audio production of "The Bells" and an animated biography video to supplement the plays, the company's "Edgar Allan Poe: The Midnight Collection" brought drama into 8th grade's English classroom to conclude an October author and horror study on the classic Gothic writer. 

With googly eye book art popping up on blogs and in libraries, the 8th Grade participated in a Poe-inspired spin-off! Instead of adding two traditional googly eyes to characters on book covers, 8th graders received a single, blue googly eye, which was meant to be reminiscent of the old man's "pale blue vulture eye" from Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart." Students were challenged to scour their home libraries for a book cover on which to place their "vulture eye." Click the article's title to read more about the assignment and to view the 8th grade's "vulture eye" book art!

As the 2nd Annual 8th Grade Pun Costume Challenge, students created their own costumes based on similar-sounding or multiple-meaning word play. From inflatable accessories and up-cycled materials to costume-relevant COVID masks, the 8th grade's pun costumes both transcended and embraced the times to design original and creative costumes! They enjoyed explaining their costumes to the class in a short presentation and voting for the most creative and most humorous costume through a Google Form! The 8th grade were able to realize that most of the costumes were a play on multiple-meaning words!

To support Breast Cancer Awareness Day, the 8th grade class participated in a school-wide $2 Dress Down Day. 8th graders incorporated pink into their dress-down attire in many different ways. From pink stripes and neon pink T-shirts to pink masks, the 8th grade showed their support! The proceeds will be donated to the Susan G. Komen foundation. 

Since Edgar Allan Poe leads the 8th grade's October E.L.A. curriculum for an immersive study of the horror genre, biography text structure, unreliable narrators, and tone, the 8th grade class collected cat food for a Poe-inspired pet food drive that embraced the spooky spirit of Poe's literary pet: a black cat! Through the Henry Waldinger Library's "Great Give Back Event," the 8th grade's donations went to the Valley Stream-based organization, "Paw It Forward Pet Pantry." Therefore, the cat food collection was a local community outreach project! Thank you Mosiah, Zachary, Mianna, Jalil, and Ms. Brown for your generous donations!

Kellenberg Memorial HIgh School hosted HNOM's 8th grade students over Google Meet for an informative and engaging virtual visit. During the Q&A session after the presentation, 8th grade showed interest in the school's acadmeic standards, sports, and the building layout by asking questions in the chat! Kellenberg Memorial H.S. mailed the 8th graders bags of promotional items, which included pens and full-color brochures. The 8th grade class had fun looking through the catalogs during homeroom! The virtual visit sparked genuine interest in Kellenberg, since some students were even spotted leafing the pamphlets while they ate their lunch!

For Mrs. Powell's science class, the 8th grade class got some fresh air and hands-on experience with chemical changes. In an outdoor lab, students used simple supplies - plastic bottles, water, baking soda, and vinegar - to experiment and inflate yellow balloons! After measuring out the water and vinegar into the bottles, the 8th graders scooped spoonfuls of baking soda into their balloons, careful not to let any spill into the water mixture as they stretched the balloon's neck over the bottle opening. The 8th graders enjoyed watching their balloons puff up because of the acid-base reaction created when they finally released the balloon's baking soda into the watery vinegar!

To launch the school year with the COVID-19 guidelines in mind, the 8th grade class received pun-adorned pounches for individual access to supplies that - in previous years - have been communal. Band-Aids, travel size tissues and hand sanitizers, and some mints helped students transition to the new rules that will help them stay safe during the ongoing pandemic. The vinyl - as opposed to canvas - pouches are also an ideal material for easy disinfecting! The 8th graders are looking forward to a pun-filled year thanks to New York State's language standards! See all the pun designs by clicking on this article's title!

HNOM 8th graders were featured on the Catholic Faith Network as part of a special program, "CFN Celebrates Catholic Education, Part 1," which aired prior to the Baccalaureate Mass from St. Agnes Cathedral. The program and mass were meant to honor the Class of 2020 - both graduating 8th graders and 12th graders - in Catholic schools across Long Island. Airing at 7:00 PM on the night of the 8th grade's graduation, the televised event included group photographs of HNOM's 8th grade class and a videotaped speech from Valedictorian, Makayla, about her academic experience at HNOM.

At a socially-distanced graduation ceremony, the Class of 2020 came together outside HNOM church to receive their diplomas. While the smiles were masked, students joyfully celebrated their graduation through the traditional procession and tassel-turning from right to left. They listened to the valedictorian and salutatorian speeches, as well as uplifting words from Bishop Henning (whose home parish was HNOM). Congratulations, Class of 2020! We are so proud of you!

To ensure the 8th grade graduates' academic success and extracurricular participation were recognized, HNOM held a virtual awards ceremony on Zoom at 10:00 AM on the morning of students' graduation day. With a slideshow to guide the award presentations and silent clapping to honor the award recipients, the virtual ceremony combined the extracurricular and service awards with the academic honors for a safe ceremony that respected COVID-19 guidelines. To uphold the breakfast tradition during the morning awards ceremony, Mrs. Sanders sent home gift cards for families to purchase a breakfast treat of their choice!

Through a Google Meet, 8th graders celebrated the conclusion of their English class with Ms. Brown through a Pun Awards Ceremony. Although the award titles were a little zany, each student recipient was thoughtfully chosen and, therefore, was honored beyond the humorous pun. After each award was announced, Ms. Brown provided a brief explanation of why the specific award was chosen. Then came the cutest round of silent clapping from their classmates! Along with the award certificates, 8th graders also received pun graduation bookmarks! From punny awards that highlighted student personalities to ones that commended academic diligence, the E.L.A. ceremony recognized the diversity in student talents and strengths! See below for a small snapshot of the distributed awards!

Through a Google Meet, 8th graders celebrated the conclusion of their English class with Ms. Brown through a Pun Awards Ceremony. Although the award titles were a little zany, each student recipient was thoughtfully chosen and, therefore, was honored beyond the humorous pun. After each award was announced, Ms. Brown provided a brief explanation of why the specific award was chosen. Then came the cutest round of silent clapping from their classmates! Along with the award certificates, 8th graders also received pun graduation bookmarks! From punny awards that highlighted student personalities to ones that commended academic diligence, the E.L.A. ceremony recognized the diversity in student talents and strengths! See below for a small snapshot of the distributed awards!

To put themselves into Eddie's shoes, 8th graders twisted and tied pipe cleaners to form either a bunny or dog just like the protagonist did for Annie/Amy and Tala - respectively - in Mitch Albom's THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN. Then, students used their own imaginations and creativity to design an animal of their choice out of the pipe cleaners. From sharks and snails to bees and cats, the 8th graders rose to the challenge. Click the article's title to see the pipe cleaner animals!

To put themselves into Eddie's shoes, 8th graders twisted and tied pipe cleaners to form either a rabbit or dog just like the protagonist did for Annie/Amy and Tala - respectively - in Mitch Albom's THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN. After mimicking Eddie, students used their own imaginations and creativity to design an animal of their choice out of the pipe cleaners. From sharks and snails to bees and cats, the 8th graders rose to the challenge. Click the article's title to see the pipe cleaner animals!

After novel units in Ms. Brown's English class, a celebration occurs with snacks - all of which must be mentioned in the book - and a screening of the movie adaptation! The COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly swooped the 8th grade away from that tradition when school closed right at the end of THE OUTSIDERS. Therefore, when the 8th grade read Mitch Albom's  THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN during distance learning, Ms. Brown knew that another movie screening party could not be sacrificed. As a special surprise when they drove up to HNOM to collect their belongings, the 8th grade also picked up gift bags packed with Eddie's birthday cupcake, Marguerite's bag of taffy, Ruby Pier cotton candy, and Cracker Jacks from Eddie's childhood baseball enthusiasm!

After novel units in Ms. Brown's English class, a celebration occurs with snacks - all of which must be mentioned in the book - and a screening of the movie adaptation! The COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly swooped the 8th grade away from that tradition when school closed right at the end of THE OUTSIDERS. Therefore, when the 8th grade read Mitch Albom's THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN during distance learning, Ms. Brown knew that another movie screening party could not be sacrificed. As a special surprise when they drove up to HNOM to collect their belongings, the 8th grade also picked up gift bags packed with Eddie's birthday cupcake, Marguerite's bag of taffy, Ruby Pier cotton candy, and Cracker Jacks from Eddie's childhood baseball enthusiasm!