Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Scholastic Book Fair

Spartan students will have the opportunity to attend the Scholastic Book Fair at CMS! The Book Fair will take place December 1 - 10. Each homebase is assigned a date to attend the book fair. Students should bring cash or make checks payable to CMS Activity Fund.

Homebase Schedule to Attend the Book Fair:
301 - Mrs. Wright - Friday, December 3rd
302 - Mr. Gasbarrini - Friday, December 3rd
303 - Mrs. Drakeley - Monday, December 6th
304 - Mr. Cornali - Monday, December 6th
401 - Mr. LaSalvia - Monday, December 6th
Chorus/Band Students - Friday, December 10th

For further information, see the information packet sent home with students on Wednesday, November 24th.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Spartans are Thankful for TweenTribune





Thanksgiving arrived early on the Spartan team! Students in Mrs. Wright's Language Arts class and Mrs. Drakeley's English class were treated to a cross-curricular unit on 11/22 - 11/24. Students read articles on the online student newspaper, Tween Tribune, then created user accounts to post responses to the articles.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Language Arts: Survivor Reading Challenge






The following TRIBES were named the SURVIVORS in Mrs. Wright's SURVIVOR READER CHALLENGE:
  • Period 1: Tribe Sharks - Amanda, Jada, and Mia
  • Period 5/6: Tribe Whales - Dan, Matthew, and Kelly
  • Period 8/9: Tribe Sharks - Rhyder, Nick, and Taylor
  • Period 10: Tribe Fish - Paige, Michael, and Josh
  • Period 11: Tribe Waves - Dara, Julia, and Ian

Clash Day in Sparta!



Spartan students embrace Clash Day, held on November 19th.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Spelling Bee

The CMS Spelling Bee was held on November 18 during homebase.

Congratulations to Spartan Breanna W. for being the runner up in the school competition! Excellent job, Breanna!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Team Tee-shirt Day!






Spartan students show their team pride on November 12th by participating in Team Tee-shirt Day!

Language Arts: Nonfiction Unit

Students are beginning a unit on nonfiction to kick-off the second nine weeks. We started the unit by studying several nonfiction terms to review and expand our knowledge of this genre.

With a strong background in nonfiction terms, students are now competing to be the survivors in Mrs. Wright's Survivor Reading Challenge. We are reading a journal called "Survive the Savage Sea" about a family's struggle to survive after a shipwreck. Which tribe will be named the survivors of the challenge? We will find out soon! After the story, we will read several news articles of real survivor stories.

Before Thanksgiving Break, we will be joining Mrs. Drakeley's English classes to investigate on-line news writing on a website just for middle school students called TweenTribune.

When we return from the holiday, students will read a personal narrative called "Where Are You Now, William Shakespeare?" to explore this nonfiction genre. We will follow-up this story with some encyclopedia articles on Ronald Reagan, an important person in the story.

After all of this experience with nonfiction writing, students will have the opportunity to try their hands at writing a nonfiction book review on a library book. The book review will be written in the style of a news article, using features and techniques discovered in this nonfiction unit.

To wrap up the unit just as we are wrapping up our holiday gifts, students will participate in a Reference Material Scavenger Hunt in the library. This will be the perfect way to ring in the new year, with new knowledge from books!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Upcoming English Units

The Spartan students are finishing up their five paragraph essay about the Glopsnerch that they each created. These essays are due tomorrow, November 9.

We will be starting a unit on nouns, pronouns, and adjectives next. This should be a review unit for the students. This unit will begin on Wednesday, November 10 and take us through the week before Thanksgiving.

During the week of Thanksgiving, English and Language Arts classes will be teaming up to bring you an exciting project involving the use of editorials! Stay tuned for more information!

Friday, November 5, 2010

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Monday, November 1, 2010

Spartans of the Month: October


The Spartan Team would like to congratulate Zack and Kari, our Spartan Superheroes of the Month, for excellent work in October. Keep it up!

Spirit Day


Students in Mrs. Wright's homebase participated in a school spirit day by wearing the new 2010-2011 Spartan tee-shirt.