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.

Olweus Anti-Bullying Program

Spartan students participated in the first classroom meeting of the Olweus Anti-Bullying Program on Friday, October 29th in homebase. CMS adopted this program this year to stomp out bullying at our school. Each month, students will join in a discussion in homebase to raise awareness of anti-bullying techniques and empower students to take a stand in stopping bullying at CMS. Here are some images of the shields we made and the pledge we signed as part of our commitment. Our Spartan Superheroes will Shield the School from Bullying!

Seeing Double in Red Ribbon Week

Here are some Spartans participating in Twin Day Red Ribbon Week. The week features theme days to remind students to say no to drugs!

Language Arts Update

FICTION SHORT STORY UNIT:
In language arts class this month, students practiced literary analysis of story elements while reading fiction short stories. We read the following stories this month: "Young Ladies Don't Slay Dragons,""Collecting Team," and "Three Skeleton Key."

Students got to demonstrate their plot-writing skills by completing a creative writing assignment on the short story "Collecting Team." Students wrote the next episode of the story, casting themselves as characters to help save the day for the Collecting Team!

We will be reading one additional story next week to conclude the unit before the end of the nine weeks grading period.

NOVELS FOR THE FIRST NINE WEEKS:
In addition to the short stories, students have been reading an independent novel from the library, due November 1st. When the books are due, we will complete a book project on the novel and take the Accelerated Reader test.

The SSR bell-ringer book that students have been reading for the first nine weeks is the novel Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. The novel is due October 27th, and we will be taking the AR test then. Many students have already finished this book and gone on to the second novel, So B. It.

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY:
Mrs. Wright's "Prepare-y for Harry: Reading Can be Magic Challenge" is underway. For the next month, students are invited to read the novels in the Harry Potter series to prepare for the seventh and final movie. Students were given the official rules for the challenge in class.

Spartan Tee-Shirt Sale

Spartan students are invited to purchase a tee-shirt to show their Spartan spirit! We will be wearing our shirts on School Spirit Days and during team activities such as our field trip. The sale ends Friday, October 1.

Fit Day

Spartan students participated in the annual Fit Day event for 7th grade students. We had a great day of fitness and fun!

Self Discovery Unit

Spartan students have started a Self-Discovery unit in English class. The students will be completing two assignments. The first is a 5 paragraph essay about themselves, their families, their friends, and various favorite possessions and activities. This essay is written at school and will be due on Friday, September 10th.

The students will also be completing a project entitled, "All About Me From A-Z". Spartan students will use each letter of the alphabet to think of one thing to describe them or tell about something important to them.

Both of these projects will be taking place over the next few weeks. I am looking forward to seeing the final copies and learning more about each Spartan student.

Welcome Spartans!

The Spartan team would like to wish a warm welcome to our newest group of Spartans! We are looking forward to a great 2010-2011 school year at CMS!

Spartans of the Month

Congratulations to Amber and Kyle, our May Spartans of the Month and Anna and Jake, our June Spartans of the Month!