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         Thank-you to Bridger, Nick, Roshika,  Mitchell  Isobel & Grace for babysitting during the parent conference.   We made an extra $16.00 plus what ever grace & Izzy made and the $100.00 the school paid us for the service.  (Thanks Francie!)

Thank-you also to Terry who is setting up a table for baked goods at Gallery Walk next Friday.  We will be working out shifts from 5:00 to 8:00 at the beginning of the week.  At this point I think the best plan is to bring the goodies to Brattleboro when you drop off the students.

We had a great parent meeting on Tuesday.  If you were not able to join us, please feel free to stop by the classroom to get a packing list and itinerary.

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          Please bring in your passport so we can double-check the names for the tickets.

          Parent conferences Monday 26^th.

Parent Meeting Tuesday 27^th   at 7:00 PM. 

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         Thank-you, THANK-YOU, to Polli, Kyle, Quinn, Cody, Max, KJ, & Mitchell for organizing and running the Town Meeting bake sale!   And, thank-you to all of you who baked and Roshika for selling bench tickets.  We raised another  $270.     Speaking of money for Costa Rica, we are requesting that you bring the first half of the money  you have pledged to Francie by March 16^th.   The rest of the balance will be due right before April break.

         Ah snow, isn’t it beautiful?   Thank you,  all of you with ideas for Costa Rica fundraisers.   Would it be helpful if there was a time here at school that parents could meet and talk?  Has there been any more thought to baked goods tonight at gallery walk?   Speaking of money for Costa Rica, we are requesting that you bring the first half of the money  you have pledged to Francie by March 16^th.   The rest of the balance will be due right before April break.  Thanks,   T & R

Please join us for the Independent project presentations!

Wed. Feb 15^th:

8:45:    Calvin on horror films:  what makes them scary?

9:15      Keith on Shephard Fairey and originality in art.

10:00:   Mitchell on nanotechnology

10:30:   Roshika on Pixar

11:00:  Grace on feminism

Thur.  Feb. 16^th:

10:00:  Max on physical anthropology and Otzi

10:30:  Isobel on dreams

11:00:  Quinn on the Mayans

Friday Feb. 17^th

9:45:   Daniel on Godzilla

10:15: Cody on deep sea life

10:45: Sheldon on the Coca Cola Company

12:30:  Bridger on doughnuts

1:00:    Josh on engines

1:30:    Nick on spirit animals

2:00:    Karl John on Old Faithful

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            Many thanks to all of you, especially Josh & Josh, who helped with the fundraiser last Saturday.   You raised enough for six zip line tickets!

Independent projects will be presented during the week before break. We’ll send out a schedule next week with the hope that you might be able to attend a few. The topics range widely:  deep sea creatures, dreams, power animals, Mayan civilization, nanotechnology, four stroke engines, Godzilla, Coca Cola company, horror film technique, Pixar films, originality in art, history of the doughnut, Old Faithful geyser, physical anthropology, and feminism.

We’re about to wrap up our unit on the Brain and Learning, and students will be writing a final reflection on how they learn, including their personal learning style. Should be an interesting read. We are also wrapping up our study of Cherokees, mill girls and slaves.   The journals they have been writing as they take on these characters are a great window in to 19^th century life.

Six JH students have chosen to compete in the national MathCounts contest, starting with the regional competition in Windsor on Saturday, 11 February. I hope the parents of Bridger, Grace, Isobel, Keith, Karl, & Mitchell received my email about this. Wish them luck!

The class was invited to be a part of the “Winter Festival” at the Hermitage Inn on Saturday 28^th, 8 am -4 pm, and they voted today to accept the offer. In a heated tent, they will set up to sell bags of coffee, baked goods and raffle tickets for the benches. They will have the finished bench from the hallway and parts of the benches underway, along with some tools to display. Josh Smith has volunteered to truck these things over and back, but we will need help w/ baking and getting students there to do shifts. More on that next week.

Meanwhile, we are continuing our science unit,”Learning about Learning” which explores memory, the brain, learning styles, and creativity. We also will be starting a mini-unit on animal tracking to augment our ongoing work on Hogback, where we will be returning this winter to look for signs of porcupine, fisher, and snowshoe hare.

In social studies the students are taking on the characters of Cherokees, mill girls, and slaves.  Writing letters or journals, they will share their understandings with the rest of the class.

And we are starting new literature books and continuing with our independent projects.

Life is busy in the junior high.

Notes Home

We are getting ready to purchase our plane tickets to Costa Rica!    Please bring in students’ names as they appear on their passports.   We need to have these names as they appear on the passport so that the correct names will appear on the ticket.

      
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         Here’s a quick reminder about passports.  If you haven’t submitted your application yet you should do so as soon as possible.  When we book our tickets, which we will do soon, we will need to know the names of those going as they appear on the passport.  I still have application forms and the extra form if both parents can’t be present when the application is submitted.  We also have funding for those who need help with the cost.

Below is John’s PE report which we didn’t manage to get into the report cards.

This trimester in Physical Education, Junior High students have worked on an exercise circuit designed to build their cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and flexibility (and to be Fun!).  We have worked on soccer and basketball skills and learned several different games designed to build those skills.  We have been assessing their overall fitness and will fitness test again in the spring to document their improvement.  All the students have demonstrated enthusiasm and consistent effort.

            Hey Folks,

This is  a reminder that student led conferences will be held Monday the 28^th   after 3:00, a few times during the day on Tuesday the 29^th and Wednesday the 30^th after 3:00. Please sign up if you haven’t already.

Those of you who haven’t told Francie what money you can put toward the Costa Rica trip, please do so ASAP.   Thanks!   T & R

We are getting close to the end of our trimester.  In the next week and a half students will be finishing up mini projects on medieval trade, finishing literature books and narratives, and wrapping up water studies.  Student led conferences will be held Tuesday the 22^nd  after 3:30, and Wednesday morning.  Next week there will be a signup sheet in the office.  Please sign up as the students will be working hard putting together portfolios to show you their work.

Those of you who haven’t told Francie what money you can put toward the Costa Rica trip, please do so ASAP.   Thanks!   T & R

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            Thanks to all of you who helped with such successful cider sale. I know that some of you put in very long hours.  We  grossed over $4,700!

We will be taking a field trip to Hogback Mtn. on Monday afternoon, 12:30 – 2:30 to conduct water monitoring activities in a small stream on the NW side. We will collect data on stream flow discharge, pH, temperature, & dissolved oxygen, and inventory macroinvertibrate species.  Students should come prepared to work around and in a stream in the woods. Bring puddle boots if possible (we do have a few pairs here).

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We will be doing more NECAP testing this upcoming week.  Please try and make sure you child gets a good night sleep and has a good breakfast before s/he comes to school.

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            Tomorrow we will be picking apples and next weekend is the cider sale! Thanks to all of you who have been helping get this big event organized. Next week is as close to a regular academic week as we come, with no days off or field trips,  although  we will be spending part of Friday afternoon setting up for the cider sale. We hope at least two parents can join us for that.

On a more academic note, we are wrapping up our study of Hogback and Chocorua while moving forward in our study of water.   In math and writing students are willingly tackling the challenges we pose.  At the end of next week and the following week they will be using these skills on the NECAP tests.

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Here we are!  We had a great first week despite the rain.  As you may have guessed we never did a mystery day because of the weather.  Now we are on to many new things and have postponed that activity indefinitely. As you may also know the Marlboro Fair was also postponed  to the 24^th .  Unfortunately this is the day after out trip to Mt. Chocorua.  There is just no way that we can get ready to have a booth at the fair this year. Finally, remember our Parent Night on Wed. 14^th at 7:00PM here in the JH.