Friday, November 10, 2017

Fusion Communication: November 10

Hi all,

Frigid weather is here! Please make sure your child comes prepared to be outside at recess - and for all other news on Team Fusion keep on reading.

School Dance Total - Wow!
Team raised $800 from the dance - wow! Thank you for the food and beverage donations.  We continue to sell them on a snack cart that makes the rounds of the upstairs on Friday afternoons.

Movember and Food Shelf
BRMS is starting the Movember campaign.  Several staff members have joined the effort, developing personas to raise awareness around mental and physical health during the winter months. As part of this awareness campaign, students are asked to contribute a non-perishable food item; BRMS helped restock the Jericho/Underhill food shelf last year after their “Thanksgiving” food stock was handed out.

On Team Fusion, Ms. Barnier, Mr. Keblin and Mr. Pless are all participating in the Movember campaign - students “vote” for their favorite Movember persona by placing food items in boxes beside the front office bearing the name and likeness of the staff member.

Connections
8th graders not involved with the band/chorus programs have been using the last hour on Friday afternoons to “connect” with their community through community service projects.  To date, students have done a lot of great work but one project came to fruition today.  It was inspired by the artist Mary Lacy’s style and is located in Ms. Windhausen’s room:
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All Laptops are at school over the weekend
No school issued laptops should be at home over the weekend.  In the event a laptop does make its way home, please store it in a safe place for the weekend.

Calendar
December 1 - 7th grade field trip to Vermont International Festival ($5 fee - looking for a few chaperones) - permission form is attached
December 13 - Two Hour Delay
December Break - December 25-29, January 1, 2018!
January 10 - Delayed Start
January 15 - Martin Luther King Day; No school for students
February 14 - Delayed Start

Reading
Books should be brought to all study halls and LA class each day.

Curriculum Updates…. Science and Math will be back next week.
LA
7 - *** Reading Journals are due today! *** Students were reminded each day this week to add to their writing about reading in journals and to place special emphasis on this week’s assignment as it is the last graded reading journal before report cards.

***Important Upcoming Dates***
Process Piece Due: Tuesday, November 14th -- we have been working on these for a few weeks in class.
On Demand Assessment: Thursday, November 16th -- this writing piece will be compared to the pre assessment taken at the start of the unit to determine student growth in writing over the course of the trimester

To prepare for the writing assessment, students will be given time to research and plan in class on Wednesday, November 15th. They are welcome to plan and research outside of class as well, but ALL writing MUST be done here on the assessment day.

8 - *** No reading journal due this week for 8th grade. *** Students needed time to plan for their on demand writing assessment, which they completed in class today. Next week we will return to working with our class read aloud novel, Chains.

SS
7 - Students have begun the district assessment for the culture unit - they are creating slideshows, websites or Thinglinks! related to their view of their culture.  Please check in with your child about the progress. The assessment is due at the end of next week.

8 - Queen’s Candy Activity was a huge hit! Ask your child about their role and what they learned about the Stamp Act. Otherwise, the students are continuing the formal assessment for the American Revolution unit.  They will be using structured notes they take from online reading to support Thinglinks! about major events leading to the American revolution.  The Instagram and Facebook discussion experiences are off the ground and functioning. Mr. Pless encourages families to check in (or even follow) the Instagram accounts if your child has one.

The Fusion Team