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andrew lewis middle school 2011-2012 newsletter february/march https sites.google.com/a/salem.k12.va.us/alms 1

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dear parents i want to thank you for your support this school year several events will be taking place in the months of february and march scheduling for next year s classes will take place in late february to help you and your child with the selection of courses a program of study will be sent home with your child i encourage you to read this document and make course selections based on what is best for your child if there are questions concerning courses please contact our guidance staff either by email or at 387-2513 scheduling with eighth grade students will be done with the help of high school counselors through science classes secondly the first portion of sol testing will begin for the eighth grade students this test will determine writing skills and will be administered the week of march 7 parent/teacher conferences for the winter session are scheduled for february 9th and 15th from 3:30 until 6:30 please call the office to set up appointments i hope you will keep these events in mind and work with us to maintain success for our students sincerely forest i jones ed d principal 2

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note from the pta welcome to the new year if you are like me time is really flying by can you believe we are in the second semester of school it seems that just days ago we were preparing for school to start now thoughts are on registration for next year spring break and summer plans don t get too wrapped up in planning for those things that you miss what is going on now the pta has quite a few things going on we are currently in a membership push we need you our faculty and staff have graciously agreed to a blue hair day if our membership goal is reached by february 27 2012 our staff will sport blue hair one day we only need 122 additional members to realize this dream if you have not joined the pta i encourage you to do so you can join for other family members or friends pta memberships make great gifts for each membership purchased please send your name address phone number student s name homeroom teacher and grade level with $3.00 to pta mailbox in the school office we wrapped up reflections participation with 26 entries representing alms at the district level are elijah williams in dance caroline peterson in music composition isabel danstrom in literature sarah young in photography and isabel hill in visual arts thank you to each participating student you represent lewis well i was honored to represent alms south salem and the central council of salem ptas on monday february 23 by attending pta day at the general assembly in richmond va along with representatives from other salem ptas i met with senator smith and delegate habeeb regarding legislative issues directly affecting our student s education i also attended the house session of the general assembly the pta was recognized during the house session the pta is the largest parent advocate group for children your membership in the pta helps advocate for laws that provide a quality education safe environment for learning and the well being of our kids your membership is important and does make a difference 3

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our annual talent show is shaping up to be quite the show you will be pleasantly surprised at the eclectic mix of talents our students are presenting singing instrumental music dance martial arts drama our kids are very talented make plans to attend the talent show on tuesday february 14 2012 also on the horizon spring fling awards ceremonies 8th grade field day and the 8th grade dance as our thoughts wander from this school year to the next please consider being part of the pta board there are a variety of positions available each with different levels of responsibility if you are interested please contact me thank you for your continued support of the alms pta if you have not joined please take a few minutes to join we truly appreciate your participation amy young alms pta president 2011-2013 tasj.young@gmail.com 4

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counselor/guidance news the guidance office extends a happy new year to each of you we hope your holiday season was the best this time of the school year is always filled with several necessary activities please see the important dates below end of january/first of february sixth and seventh grade students will receive their registration materials january 24 academic planning and registration process meeting for middle school parents 9 a.m current 6th and 7th grade parents 10 a.m current 5th grade parents february/march dr helems will be visiting fifth graders at their schools april fifth graders will be visiting alms 5

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sol testing dates march 7 march 8 march 13 march 14 may may may may may 15 16 17 18 22 eighth grade writing 8 multiple choice writing 8 direct writing prompt writing 8 field test multiple choice writing 8 field test direct writing prompt world geography science 8 reading 8 algebra i algebra i algebra i part 2 students math 8 geometry algebra i part i and geometry students seventh grade algebra i algebra i full year students reading 7 math 8 algebra i part i students civics and economics math 7 math 7 students sol make-up day sixth grade math 7 advanced math 6 students sol make-up day math 6 reading 6 us history ii may may may may may may 18 21 22 23 24 29 may 24 may 29 may 30 may 31 june 1 6

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library news ­ february/march 2012 don t know the name of the fourth book in the 39 clues series on the home page of our online catalog http library.salem.k12.va.us you will find a link to a site that offers assistance with the sequencing of book series want to find out what new titles were added to the library collection in the past few months take a look at the library catalog site noted above click on the catalog tab then go to the destiny quest link where you will see a list of new books as well as the top ten books that have been checked out from the library in the past 30 days news on tuesday january 24th 31st our 8th graders were treated to a coffee/cider and cookie event in the library the 8th graders were delighted by the surprise hopefully this will become an annual event many thanks to our parent volunteers barnes noble at valley view kroger at spartan square and tabernacle baptist church for all of their help and support in making our alms big blue coffeehouse a success mark your calendars for wednesday march 28 2012 the date of the library s annual fundraising proof-based spring picture shoot each student present on that day will be photographed during p.e there is no prepay no obligation to buy or return the proof and no makeup picture day call sherri mcguire at 387-2413 or email her smcguire@salem.k12.va.us if you have questions again this year andrew lewis students will have the opportunity to help select the virginia readers choice for middle school last year our qualified voters helped to choose breathe by cliff mcnish as did the rest of the state for more information about the excellent titles that are candidates for this year s award go to http www.vsra.org/vrcindex.html students must have logged four titles by march 23rd to be eligible to vote 7

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reminders students who need extra computer time may visit the language arts computer lab located beside the library every morning from 7:30am until 8:25am math department please remind your child to utilized the math labs for extra help or a quiet place to complete homework the schedule for both math labs are below math lab i monday ­ friday math lab ii mon wednesday friday tuesday thursday 7:25 8:25 am in room 131 7:25 8:25 am in room 209 3:25 4:25 pm in room 107 3:25 4:25 pm in room 109 8

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6th grade news sharpies team announcements and assignments for the sharpies team can be accessed at http sites.google.com/a/salem.k12.va.us/sharpies if for any reason parents or students need to contact teachers with questions/concerns mrs blankenship can be reached at tblankenship@salem.k12.va.us mrs bull can be reached at dbull@salem.k12.va.us mrs petersen can be reached at lpetersen@salem.k12.va.us mrs lucot can be reached at klucot@salem.k12.va.us additionally teachers may be reached via telephone at 387-2513 during school hours students in 6th grade language arts math and social studies will take an sol test in may exact dates to be determined later in the year students struggling with content will be pulled during tutorial or asked to come before/after school for additional help resources if at any time throughout the year a student has questions about an assignment and cannot reach mrs.lucot or just wants a quiet place to read he/she may attend the language arts lab in the library computer lab which is open monday through friday from 7:30-8:25 and staffed by an english teacher from alms if at any time throughout the year a student has questions about a math assignment and cannot reach mrs petersen he/she may attend the math lab in room 131 which is open monday through friday from 7:30-8:25 and staffed by a math teacher from alms 9

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finally if at any time throughout the year a student is assigned something which requires computer access and is unable to complete it at home the computer lab in the back of the alms library is available every morning monday through friday from 7:30-8:30 and staffed by a teacher reminders english just like any other skill becoming a good reader takes practice students are expected to be reading at home on a daily basis from books of their choosing the students have reading logs that should be signed a parent or guardian on a regular basis social studies ­ textbooks are online this year ms bull hopes that you enjoy your study of american history part two math ­ in addition to math lab mrs petersen is also available to help most mornings at about 8:00 in her room expect homework almost every day for math 6 students and every day and almost every weekend for advanced math/pre-algebra students assignments should be written in the agenda daily and can be checked online on the team website science we cover many sol s in sixth grade science although we do not have a test at the end of the year we will be reviewing all material that we learn throughout the year because students will be tested on it at the end of the eighth grade 10

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the twisters team mrs brown-language arts mr secor-social studies mr manning-science mrs smythers-math mrs wallace mrs gerrol collaborative teachers the twisters are back at work after a restful holiday in language arts we have been are reading from the literature textbook we have read fiction as well as informational texts we are looking at the literary elements of setting character theme and conflict as well as learning new vocabulary for each section we read we are also working on our sentence writing skills and the parts of sentences we are finding the subject verb infinitives and prepositional phrases we are beginning to learn about subject/verb agreement and pronoun/antecedent agreement next we will write a personal narrative during the second semester we will only have spelling every other week to give us time to concentrate on the reading standards that will be tested in the spring congratulations to the classroom spelling bee winners first place winners are alexis whitfield claire mitchell jill jariwala and robert royston alternates are dylan story audrey lewis jordan barker and laura st clair the first place winners will go on to the school spelling bee on january 26th since jill jariwala will be out of town for the district spelling bee she graciously gave her spot to the alternate jordan barker who will compete in the school spelling bee in united states history students will be studying world war i they will be writing a journal of a wwi soldier in the trenches students will also participate in a world war i tech cooperative learning activity and analyze propaganda posters in science we have moved on to a study of energy and energy resources following that we will be returning to the study of water as a 11

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natural resource our trout fry are doing well all 250 of them we look forward to letting them go in april in pre-algebra we have been busy translating expressions combining like terms using the distributive property and solving one-step and two-step algebraic equations we even solved some inequalities which had several answers your child has to show you a graph in order for you to see all the answers next we will move on to the world of finance tax tip and discount all solved with a proportion in math 6 we have been working with the bits and pieces of everyday fractions we have converted flipped found common denominators and drawn models to our hearts content then to top it all off we changed all of our fractions to decimals and percents soon we will get to move on to formulas and find area and perimeter of all different kind of shapes reminder the math lab is open every morning 7:25am 8:25am in room 130 across from the office feel free to drop in for a little extra help the regal eagle team mrs budd mrs gilpin mrs nester mrs turner as the first semester comes to a close students are reminded to keep their grades up keep their ar reading assignment current and come prepared for class parents please check with your child and replenish paper pencils and other supplies as needed in addition a reminder to both students and parents that recording assignments in the agenda is required incomplete homework may affect your child s progress 12

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language arts ­ we are currently reading freak the mighty and the regal eagles seem to be enjoying all of the fascinating characters in the story congratulations to our classroom spelling bee winners they are blake davidson brice jenkins wesley pritchett and nick anthony congratulations to all of you social studies congratulations to our geography bee winners they are nick anthony tyler barnett nathan rigney and zach mason our most recent studies are about the spanish american war and world war i but we will soon take a break from the wars to learn about the roaring twenties and all that jazz math 6 ­ we are busily trying to finish up our unit on fractions keep doing homework and don t forget about the math lab daily 7:30-8:25.we have taken the algebra prognosis test and will be getting the results back soon on that it is but one filter to help us choose the right math course for 7th grade prealgebra ­ our prealgebra students are hopefully enjoying finally getting to solve equations we have mastered the one-step equations and now are trying our luck with two-step equations we have taken the algebra prognosis test and will be getting the results back soon on that it is but one filter to help us choose the right math course for 7th grade math lab daily from 7:30-8:25 to get help with homework or finish assignments science ­ whew our chemistry unit was completed mid december now we are into energy and will be for several months one last remnant of our chemistry study was the extra credit crystal projects due january 20 we all were treated to a gorgeous display of crystals 13

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7th grade news akins simmons shupe and penn team the atkins team continues to make progress and keeps moving in the right direction we would like to thank those of you that are checking the agenda books and our team website regularly and providing support for your young people at home this really helps reinforce the responsibility that we are trying to foster each day at school here is a bit of what we ve been doing in class lately all math classes have been busy solving equations and inequalities students have been concentrating on math vocabulary in order to begin preparing for the sol test in the spring the algebra i class has just started a new unit on functions in science students have been studying water and land biomes and the relationships of organisms in the environment next they will study natural resources in the environment and how we can protect them and use them wisely many labs and activities are planned to make learning fun in language arts students have been doing many exciting activities we just finished a comprehensive poetry unit where students wrote their own poetry notebooks and learned about some of the classic american poets we then read the drama brian s song during the nfl playoffs and will eventually see the disney version of the movie furthermore we will begin to prepare in earnest for the spring writing predictor over the next several months this is a wonderful opportunity to gauge students writing ability before the eighth grade test the seventh grade predictor will be administered in march early winter was a busy time in civics class our students learned about the bill of rights and completed a collage of pictures that could 14

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represent those rights and freedoms that we all hold so dear we moved from there to the legislative branch where students learned about the legislative process of turning a bill into a law we then turned to the presidency and the executive branch of government and several students have shown presidential candidate potential look for them in 2036 when they become age eligible regardless of your political orientation i hope everyone will discuss with your child the economic and foreign policy challenges facing both the democratic and republican parties in congress as well as president obama lastly the students are doing a great job on the s.a.c.k project so far but please review their progress regularly between now and the april due date we want them all to earn an a as well as showing they are already good citizens thanks for all of your support gallion benson simpson and romano team benson students in mr benson s class are reading the wednesday wars by gary d schmidt this is a wonderful book which tells the story of a young man s experiences as he goes through his 7th grade year in english class during the 1967-1968 school year students are enjoying the book along with weekly discussions the students seem particularly interested in learning the ancient history from the 1960 s during the second semester of the 2011-2012 school year students will begin an intensive sol review along with units in writing and literature as always each six weeks students are expected to read and get 15 ar points students should always be reading ar books and home in preparation for ar tests the library is also open every morning and students are encouraged to go there to either read or take ar tests when they need to do so mr benson and his language arts classes are very pleased to welcome ms 15

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