FAIRFIELD November 2015 MIDDLE SCHOOL Newsletter Reminder about school start times Reminder that school starts at 8:25. Please have your student at school 10 minutes or so prior to these times so they can take care of any business prior to class starting. Please see the student handbook for detailed information on our tardy policy, as it is our goal to minimize tardy events. Also, when the buses are out front (north side of FMS) dropping off students, please drop your student off on the west side of the building. Thanks for your cooperation! Parent/Teacher Conferences Conferences will be held on November 10 and 12 from 5:00 -8:30. These are Tuesday and Thursday evenings, respectively. Please make every effort to attend and chat about your child’s progress! We all know that communication between school and home is important for a student’s success. 5 th grade parents must sign up for a time. Please see this website for a video tutorial on how to accomplish this: http://www.fairfieldsfuture.org/vnews/ display.v/ART/525fffaa8b14a 5th grade parents may also contact the office at 472 -5019 for help in scheduling. There is also additional information available on this website for 6 -8 parents as well. FMS Celebrates Red Ribbon Week! From October 26 to October 30, FMS celebrated Red Ribbon Week (RRW). RRW is a national campaign that encourages students to live drug free. The red ribbon traces its ancestry back to the brutal murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena by Mexican drug traffickers in 1985. Camarena’s friends and family dawned red satin badges to honor his commitment to eradicating illegal drugs in the United States. In 1988, the National Family Partnership, an organization once chaired by Nancy Reagan, began sponsoring the Red Ribbon Celebration and it continues to do so today. This year, FMS had many Red Ribbon Week activities. The student council organized theme days for each day of the week and passed out small gifts during homeroom. Theme days included Future Day, Neon Day, Pajama Day, Mix -up Day, and Red Day. The school also held an assembly sponsored by the Fairfield Elks on Friday that featured a trivia game led Mr. Flattery, the FMS health teacher, and a talk by Ray Lozano, a nationally renowned drug and substance abuse specialist from California. Below are pictures from the assembly last Friday, 10/30. Box Tops, Pizza Ranch Wagons, and Pop Tabs What can you do to help Fairfield Middle School? By Lisa Greenig Collect Box Tops . Each box top is worth 10 cents cash! PLEASE trim on the dotted lines! PLEASE check the expiration dates. Expired box tops are thrown out. Turn in to your homeroom teach- er. The homeroom that collects the most each month will earn a small prize. Also, visit the website www.boxtops4education.com for money saving coupons, earn e -box tops for our school, and enter sweepstakes for chances to earn bonus box tops for F.M.S. Last year we submitted approximately $1200 worth of box tops. Please help us exceed that dollar amount this year. Ask relatives and neighbors to save box tops for you. If you have questions, please con- tact [email protected] Did you know the wagons on Pizza Ranch large pizza boxes and chicken boxes are worth 25 cents cash for our school? Collect the wag- ons from Pizza Ranch boxes and turn in to homeroom teacher. Each wagon is worth 25 cents for our school. This is a simple way to help F.M.S. raise money for projects and trips without having to sell anything. So easy to do! Ask Mrs. Greenig if you have any questions. Aluminum Pop Tabs : Save aluminum pop tabs. Turn in to your homeroom teacher. The class that brings in the most weight in grams will earn a small prize each month. At the end of the first semester, the homeroom with the most total weight will earn a FREE catered lunch from McDon- alds. Last month's winner was Mrs. Gookin's class. FMS Scholastic Book Fair By Dee Ann Lantz The Fairfield Middle School will host a Scholastic Book Fair from November 9 – November 12, 2015 in room 102. Throughout the week, all FMS students will have the opportunity to visit the book fair during reading or GOAL class. It will also be open each day before and after school. If you are interested in volunteering at the book fair, please contact Dee Ann Lantz, FMS Librarian. The book fair will be open during Parent/Teacher Conferences on Tuesday, November 10th and Thursday, November 12thfrom 5:00 -8:30 pm. Please come to the book fair and view the wonderful selection of books! Many times there are best sellers for adults as well as many books for students. If you are unable to attend the book fair, you can also support our school by shopping online. All online book orders will be shipped free to FMS. The online fair will be open from Nov 2 -Nov 20th. The online fair can be accessed at: http://tinyurl.com/fmslibrary11 . FMS is participating in the "One for Books" program during the book fair. Students and parents can donate loose change and bills to help raise money for the school library. Money raised will not only benefit our library but will benefit national organizations such as Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, Kids in Distressed Situations and the National Center for Family Literacy. Scholastic will match all money raised here for the na- tional organizations. Parents can contribute books to classroom library too. A bookplate will be added to the inside front cover of every book donated to the class- rooms. Don't miss this chance to light up a reader’s face with a good book! For more information contact Dee Ann Lantz, FMS Librarian at 472 Water Bottles For Sale at FMS We have just raised money for a water bottle refill station here at FMS, with the hopes of obtaining more stations. We now al- low students to carry and use translucent water bottles filled with water. We did this in response to growing research that shows that 3 out of 4 Americans are chronically dehydrated. We are selling a 22 -ounce water bottle for $10. It’s BPA free and 6th Graders Introduced To New Technology Tools by Justin Copeland Students in 6th Grade Social Studies were introduced to Canvas this week. Canvas is a learning management sys- tem that allows the teacher to simplify teaching and learning by connecting all the digital tools teachers use in one easy place. The students used Canvas to learn about the 5 Themes of Geography. In 6th Grade Social Studies we like to use a wide variety of technology tools. Students were introduced to a website called Quizalize. Quizalize allowed us to study for our quiz by creating review questions and putting them in to a game format that allowed the class to compete with each other. The students did an amazing job of learning the new technology tool, studying for a quiz, and having fun all at the same time! (See Picture attached) Speaking of technology, if you haven't connected with FMS on Social Media here is your chance. It is a great way to see the great things that are happening here at FMS! You Can't Hide That Trojan Pride! Like Us On Facebook - www.facebook.com/FMSTrojanPride Follow Us On Twitter - @FMSTrojans Follow Us On Instagram - @FMSTrojans Here’s a pic of the 6 th graders using Quizalize: News From the Art Room: 8th Grade Digital Photography Project Wraps Up As the first quarter came to a close the 8th graders wrapped up the digital photography project. This project teaches the stu- dents about different ways to compose professional looking photographs and gets them thinking like a photographer. Kids consider different types of photography like family photography, nature or wildlife photography, and sports photography. Then they choose subject matter to photograph based on what type of photography interests them the most. To end the project, students learn about different ways to edit and enhance their photographs editing software or applications. This year the kids used Pixlr, which is a free online web tool. This is always a fun project for the students and they really enjoyed getting to be outside taking pictures. The weather this fall was awesome for picture taking days! Many students took cameras home to take photos or used a camera from home and were able to come up with some very beautiful and amazing photographs. Ask your 8th graders about his or her photos. The students can access photos in their school gmail accounts. Here a couple of great student examples: Ella Phillips Harper Fiske Lindy Kaska 8th Grade Science by Mrs. Shirk We are getting into our chemistry unit and looking at different properties of matter. One of the first properties we explored was densi- ty. Students were given 50 grams of clay which does not float and were challenged to make the clay float for 30 seconds. The two rules they had were they could not alter the mass of the clay or use any other objects to help the clay float. After students were able to make their clay creation float and explain why their creation could float, students were challenged to make a clay creation that could hold up to 140 grams of weight and float for 30 seconds. Students could change their designs as many times as needed and were asked to reflect on their designs and their design process.