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Calendar
Weekly Update
Week of October 1st
01
Monday, October 9th: no school
Thursday, October 19th: 11:30 dismissal
Friday, October 20th: conference day
Middle School
Office Updates
From Ms. Amodeo
Thank you to all of the families who joined us for our Open House last week. A special thanks goes out to the MS PTO for providing the ice cream!
A number of important forms were sent to families via email over the last two weeks. If you have not already, please complete the following Google Forms:
The Field Trip Permission Form is HERE.
The Media Opt-Out (only complete if you do NOT want your child’s photo used) Form is HERE.
For Chromebooks: the Responsible Use Agreement is HERE and the Student Acceptable Use Policy is HERE.
From Mr. Megivern
October is National Bullying Prevention Month! Each week on the announcements we will highlight strategies and resources students can use to help Trumansburg Middle School continue to be a safe, friendly, and bully-free learning community.
You can find a link to the National Bullying Prevention Center HERE.
The Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) also has an anti-bullying website for kids (HERE) and for teens (HERE).
And finally, click HERE to read up on New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act.
School Nutrition
Though school meals are no longer subsidized for every student, free and reduced-priced meals are available to those who qualify. The application can be found HERE.
To add funds to your child’s school lunch account, you can use our online system at MySchoolBucks or you can send a check directly to the TCSD Food Service Department. Students may always pay cash if they choose to as well.
What’s for lunch? Check My School Menus
5th Grade
5th Grade Daily Planner (Please bookmark for your use).
Science: If the sun is shining, there are shadows on the ground. Know when the shadows are longest and shortest? Your student does - ask them! Thanks again for supporting your kiddo with nightly sky observations. Two more weeks!
ELA: This week students began reading Front Desk by Kelly Yang. There was a lot of excitement about starting this novel and many students came back on Tuesday reporting how much they were enjoying the text from the very first reading assignment!!!! Students will be given new reading (several chapters) to complete independently on Mondays--due Wednesday--and then new reading assigned on Wednesdays--due Friday. This will allow them time to complete the reading and then we will discuss/analyze their reading on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays in class. Students will often be offered guiding questions in the form of a bookmark to help them keep track of the happenings. We encourage you to check in with their reading at home using these questions too. Finally, many kids have asked if they can read ahead in this class novel, Front Desk. It would be best if they could stay on track with the class rather than moving too far ahead. That is also one reason why they still have that JRB responsibility to complete by October 15.
Math: This week students learned how compare decimals to the thousandths place and to round decimals to any place. Looking ahead, we will be having our first mid module test on Wednesday, 10/4. Students will be getting a short review packet to help them prepare. The assessment will cover the skills we've learned up to this date: multiplying and dividing decimals by powers of ten, word, expanded and standard forms, comparing decimals, and rounding decimals.
Social Studies: This week we looked at some of the Migration Theories for how people first arrived in the Western Hemisphere.
Band: Mrs. Posegate’s Lesson Schedule Lessons (with just the mouthpiece) are off to a great start! Hopefully you received the supply list and are working on renting an instrument and purchasing supplies. HERE is the supply list/info just in case it didn’t make it home. HERE is a link to sign up to rent. Students should practice their mouthpiece for about 5 minutes each day. Thanks in advance for your understanding of these unique sounds.
Chorus: Chorus Concert is December, 12th @ 7:00 PM in HS Auditorium (students report at 6:30 PM to the HS Chorus Room)
6th Grade
6th grade planner (please bookmark this link)
Social Studies: Students learn about Yom Kippur on Tuesday and were able to eat a sample of challah bread. We have been traveling back to Ancient Greece and studying Greek Gods and Goddesses. The students thoroughly enjoy reading Greek myths. Next week we will start investigating the following vocabulary words: peninsula, isolated, myth, polytheistic, oracle, prophecy, afterlife.
Math: Students took their first quiz last week. We will continue to work on decimals, this time with multiplication. We will also be solving algebraic equations. Students learned the following vocabulary-variable, constant, coefficient, term and factor.
Science: Science students have been investigating energy and how it relates to weather. We learned about thermal energy and the different way heat can be transferred. We did two investigations last week-one was measuring temperature at different heights and on different surfaces. We also made a closed air molecule system and studied how cold and hot temperature impacts those air molecules. Ask your scientist how the ground temperature impacts the air above it.
ELA: What a fun week in ELA. We have started writing the story behind our six word memoirs in essay form. Students also continue to reading Lightning Thief and we are looking for allusions to Greek myths.
Band: Mrs. Posegate’s Lesson Schedule Lessons are off to a great start! Thanks so much!! 🙂 All Band 6 students have something assigned to practice. Look for the red flags sticking out of their Making Music Matter books. They also have 2 band songs we are working on that could be practiced.
Chorus: Chorus Concert is December, 12th @ 7:00 PM in HS Auditorium (students report at 6:30 PM to the HS Chorus Room)
7th Grade
7th Grade Digital Planner (Please bookmark this link.)
Please remind students to bring pencils and a water bottle to school.
In case you missed open house, here is a link to the slide show we shared.
Science: This week we examined things to determine if they were living or non living by using the characteristics of life. All the 7th graders joined their teacher in taking advantage of a cool fall day by going outside on Thursday to collect organisms from the pond and make a mini habitat (aka, biosphere jars). Next week, the class will be getting excited to learn to use the microscope.
ELA 7: We are working on making inferences with texts. This coming week, we will work on writing short responses where we make an inference and support that inference with two details from the text. All students should read 20 minutes daily and record their minutes on their bookmark.
Math: We are continuing our work with proportional relationships and Unit Rates next week. Pre-Algebra will also continue our work with exponents and scientific notation. We’ve been doing really well with working with visibly random groups on our vertical whiteboard surfaces. Students gave me permission to film them in action in period 5 and 7 so that I could share with you. Check out this short video (1 min and 18 seconds).
Social Studies: Hi everybody! Everyone has done so well on Native American Cultures unit! We are wrapping up our unit with a project on Native American cultural regions, where everyone will research a region of their choice and create a digital poster on Canva! I’ll be sure to share the finished products!
7th World Languages (Ms. Cederstrom) It was wonderful to see many of you last week at Open House! The students had a blast showing off their “Box of Awesome Projects”. These demonstrations of student work are currently on display and are drawing much deserved attention. Students will demonstrate their learning of the “Unit 01: Hello!” vocabulary (used in this project) this week by participating in a series of short performance assessments. We will practice for these assessments during class at the beginning of the week. Students can also use their notes and the online learning tools in Google Classroom to prepare for these assessments outside of class.
Health: Students rose this week as we discussed serious topics on mental and emotional health! We covered topics on stress, anxiety, depression, how to get help with troublesome feelings as well as ways to deal with grief and loss. Early next week is a unit review before venturing into our next focus, violence and injury prevention. Students will examine youth risk behavior data to better understand behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries & violence. Lessons will focus on brainstorming important safety rules to reduce risk, refusal skills for resisting dares, and applying decision-making skills to a variety of risky situations.
Chorus: Lesson Schedule MP1 (9.25.23) Chorus Concert is December, 12th @ 7:00 PM in HS Auditorium (students report at 6:30 PM to the HS Chorus Room)
Music: We are working on genre identification this week. Students will complete listening exercises in class as well as short in-class activities to help identify characteristics of each genre that we study. We are working towards creating a class genre trivia game!
7/8 Band: If your student uses a school-owned instrument, please see your e-mail for a short google form to fill out. This form needs to be filled out each year that your student uses a school instrument. If you haven’t already reviewed the concert dates for this year, please so so and either sign and send the form (attached below) into school with your child, or e-mail Mrs. Robertson as a receipt.
Music Boosters coffee sale info and order form SALE ENDS FRIDAY 10/6
Music Boosters Scholarship (money is available for student musical endeavors!)
7/8 Band Lesson Schedule/Groups- week of 10/2
8th Grade
Algebra: Students took the iReady math diagnostic this week. We discussed the formal math properties that we use to solve equations and then applied them to review solving multi-step equations.
Math 8: Students took the iReady math diagnostic this week. We also worked towards solving multi-step equations for a single variable. Techniques they should be familiar with are the distributive property, combining like terms, and problems with variables on both sides.
Rattenborg’s Small Class ELA: Students are writing their first essay this year, listening to two reading passages and identifying/supporting the articles’ common goal. Students continue to read Touching Spirit Bear (reading schedule). Students also have an independent reading book (ask what they’re reading!) and should bring their books to class Friday.
Social Studies: This week we reviewed ways to spot fake news on social media -- a continued conversation on using reliable sources. And we kicked off our Westward Expansion unit. We ended the week making connections with terms from the time period like: manifest destiny, transcontinental railroad, and the Homestead Act.
8th World Languages (Ms. Cederstrom): It was wonderful to see many of you last week at Open House! The students had a blast showing off their “Box of Awesome Projects”. These demonstrations of student work are currently on display and are drawing much deserved attention. Students will demonstrate their learning of the “Unit 01: Hello!” vocabulary (used in this project) this week by participating in a series of short performance assessments. We will practice for these assessments during class at the beginning of the week. Students can also use their notes and the online learning tools in Google Classroom to prepare for these assessments outside of class.
Chorus: Lesson Schedule MP1 (9.25.23) Chorus Concert is December, 12th @ 7:00 PM in HS Auditorium (students report at 6:30 PM to the HS Chorus Room)
7/8 Band: If your student uses a school-owned instrument, please see your e-mail for a short google form to fill out. This form needs to be filled out each year that your student uses a school instrument. If you haven’t already reviewed the concert dates for this year, please so so and either sign and send the form (attached below) into school with your child, or e-mail Mrs. Robertson as a receipt.
Music Boosters coffee sale info and order form
Music Boosters Scholarship (money is available for student musical endeavors!)
8th Grade D.C. Trip
8th graders - Plans for this year’s Washington DC trip are underway. The dates for this year’s trip will be June 12-14th. Our hope is that ALL 8th graders will be able to attend this year’s trip. There will be a meeting with all 8th graders to present the trip, behavior expectations for the year, and ways that you can help with the trip. If you have any questions see Mr. Begeal in room 306.
Also - the PTO is looking for 8th graders willing to volunteer to babysit during PTO meetings. PTO will donate money towards the 8th grade trip for the volunteer shifts.
STEAM Salsa Challenge
In STEAM class, we made test batches of our salsas, created logos, and gave each other feedback for improvement. Our next step is to use that feedback to craft our final recipes and make larger batches of salsa for tastings during lunch next week.
Clubs & Activities
Student Council
The first Student Council meeting will be held on Tuesday October 3rd after school in room 306. All students are invited and encouraged to attend as we begin planning our annual Spirit Week and dance. We will also start gathering ideas for the year ahead. Hope to see you there.
Any student who needs to ride the late bus needs to fill out a late bus form by 1:30 on the day they want to ride. Contact advisors Bill Begeal or Nadine Salib to get signed up for the bus.
Yearbook
Yearbook Club will begin meeting in the Media room (Next to the Tech room) on Thursday, October 12th, from 3-4:00pm.
*Students who ride the bus will be dismissed at 3:35pm to get on the late bus. Students getting picked up/walking home will be dismissed at 4pm.
Any student participating in Yearbook Club who needs to ride the late bus must email advisors Lisa Magee or Tammy Parker by 12:00pm on the day of the meeting -OR- sign up on the goldenrod paper copy outside of room 211 or in the Counseling office (also by NOON the day of the meeting).
Meeting Dates:
October 12th & 26th
November 9th, 16th, and 30th
December 7th & 21st
Athletics
Modified Boys Basketball and Modified Girls Volleyball will start on October 23, 2023. Registration is now open on Family ID. You can find more information on our Athletics homepage at tburgschools.org; just click on the basketball towards the bottom of the page and look for a big blue box titled Winter Sports Sign-Ups. There you will find registration information.
Modified Boys Basketball will be coached by Michael Rocco (7th grade) and Andrew Burton (8th grade)
Modified Volleyball will be coached by: Rebecca Dann and Zoe Golden.
Please feel free to email coaches for sport and team specific information
Ski Club
Ski Club information will come out soon. In the meantime, mark your calendars! There will be a Ski Swap at Greek Peak on October 6th.
PTO
Questions? Please email tburgmspto@gmail.com
Follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with all of our events.
Community
Youth Theatre Forum
- Tuesdays from 4:30-6:30pm from Sept 26 - December 12
- FREE and we’ll have a meal at every rehearsal
- Open to anyone in 7th-12th grade (or if not in school, of equivalent age)
- Meets at the Tompkins County Public Library
- Want to be involved but don’t have a way of getting there? Contact us and we can help brainstorm options.
- SIGN UP
Building Contacts
Main Office: Brenda Everhart, 607-387-2825
Attendance: Lauren Conners, 607-387-7551, x1425
Nurse's Office: 607-387-2827
Student Services Team: 607-387-7551 ext. 1449
Bryce DeSantis, School Psychologist
Lisa Magee, Administrative Assistant
Brian Cobb, LCSW, Social Worker
Claire Valletta, Guidance Counselor
IT Help: help@tburgschools.on.spiceworks.com or 607-288-2821 (Monday - Friday 8 am to 4pm)
Newsletter items/help/unsubscribe: Gail Brisson, gbrisson@tburg.k12.ny.us