Cortland Junior High School 
March 29, 2019
Junior High April Newsletter
Upcoming Events
  • 4/02 World Autism Day, Wear Blue
  • 4/05 Junior High Team 2 Reward Day
  • 4/06 NYSSMA Solo Festival
  • 4/11 Imagination Celebration in old music building in Homer, 6:30 p.m.
  • 4/15 - 4/19 Spring Break, No School for Students
8th Grade Course Selections
8th Grade Course Selections will take place in Science 7 classes the week of April 8th. All 7th graders should be ready to choose between Spanish or French to meet their LOTE credit by the end of 8th grade. Parents, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Pomeroy or Mrs. Constantino with any questions.
Seven Valleys New Tech High
Many 8th graders have taken the opportunity to shadow at New Tech High. All students interested in attend Seven Valleys next year, must submit a completed application to their school counselor by May 1st.
Hersey Park Trip Information
The second payment ($40) for Hershey Park is due on Wednesday, April 24th. Checks should be made out to Cortland Junior High School. If you have any questions, please contact Amy Sundheim ( asundheim@cortlandschools.org ).
Health News
All students in health class just finished the mental and emotional health unit by creating their favorite precepts and posting them around the junior high school. We are now beginning the sexuality and reproduction unit. We will cover anatomy, pregnancy. birth control, dating and relationships, gender orientation, sexual harassment, consent and abstinence.
Autism Awareness Month
The twelfth annual World Autism Awareness Day is April 2, 2019. Joined by the international community, hundreds of thousands of landmarks, buildings, homes and communities around the world, light blue in recognition of people living with autism. Wear blue on April 2nd for World Autism Day and show your support throughout the month. 
April is Poetry Month
Students in Applied English have been working on writing poetry as part of celebration poetry month. As a culminating activity, each student read one of their poems out loud to the class, while the other students sketched illustrations of what they visualized while listening. The beautiful poems and illustrations are now on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. We have also been reading excerpts of stories and answering comprehension questions. The students are listening to the stories and then going back in the text to find evidence needed to answer the questions. Students have learned test taking strategies such as predicting the answer and slashing the trash (the obviously wrong answers.) Student interest and participation is high--which makes for a fun English class!
Art Update
The 7th grade artists have been busy in the studio, focusing on figure drawing and portraits. We’ve learned to draw the figure using basic shapes as a starting point, then correcting the contours and adding details. Right now, we are working on a self-portrait drawing. We started with a photograph of our face and cut it in half. We’re completing the rest of the face using pencils and shading tools to communicate all of the shadows and highlights on our faces and the texture of our hair.

The Art department participated in the Prism Concert and Art Show on March 14th. Selected works by students across the district in grades K-12 were exhibited. The evening was a fantastic celebration of the arts in Cortland and we were proud to be a part of it.

Our next big event is the Imagination Celebration. The opening of that show is April 11, in the old music building at Homer High School. Selected works by students in grades 7-12 will on display there. If your student has work in the show, they will receive a letter to bring home. This is a regional show that lots of schools around the area take part in. We hope to see you there!
Topics Covered in 7th and 8th Grade Math
Math 7 is finishing a Probability Unit. We will work on combining algebra with geometry. Soon we will explore how inequalities can be applied to word problems.

In Math 8, we are finishing up our study on exponents and scientific notation. Soon we will explore functions, 3D geometry, and scatter plots. Students should be bringing their calculators to class each and every day.

Any parents who would like to support their students at home can find helpful hints on Open Up Resources and Khan Academy .
Foreign Language News
7th grade Foreign Language Exploratory: We are at the beginning of our French unit. Students are learning about the history, food and culture of French speaking countries. Students are also given, and practice, phrases, colors and numbers in the Target Language in order for them to have basic conversations.

8th grade Spanish 1B: Students are finishing up the plane unit and will be moving into the daily routine and reflexives unit.

8th Enriched Spanish: Students are starting the cooking unit with preterite y verbs and informal commands.
Social Studies Classes Explore Imperialism & WWI
The students just wrapped up a unit on American Imperialism in social studies. They learned about America’s foreign policy in the late 19th century in places such as Hawaii, China, and Cuba. This unit included a lot of work with primary source documents. It focused predominantly on the reading and writing of these sources which helped to enhance their literacy skills.

They recently started the unit on World War 1, where they will be put into groups and assigned a topic to research. Following their research, they will then teach these topics to their peers. This will help them to develop their research and presentation skills.
Physical Education News
The Junior High girls' PE classes have begun their weight room unit and have learned how to use the equipment. We will now start to plan, track, reflect and improve on our workouts/overall fitness during upcoming classes as well as implement some aerobics and dance lessons.

The Junior High boys' PE classes are back in the gymnasium after completing their time in the weight room and are starting off their recreational games unit with floor hockey.
Spring sports begin Monday, March 25th and include outdoor track, lacrosse (girls and boys), softball and baseball.
Home and Career News
In 7th grade Home and Career Skills students are finishing their hat sewing project. Our next unit will be Personal Development. Students will be learning about friendships, family and peer pressure.

In 7th grade FACS students are working in the money management and consumerism unit. Students are learning about advertising, influences on buying decisions, budgeting, income and expenses. Students will be completing a cookie advertisement project. The FACS final exam will take Place on April 5th.
Music News
All students performed beautifully on the prism concert in March. Junior high band students also went to New York City to see Phantom of the Opera. The NYSSMA solo festival will take place all day on Saturday, April 6th. Good luck to the following band students who are preparing scales, a solo, and sight reading for this event: Matt DeRado, Christian Compton, Lilly Call, Mya Romans, Gracie Wolf, Jack Phelan, Darius Lambright, Tori Steiner, Mya Willey, Emerson Johnson, Rileigh Madden, Marvin Bell, and Kaedyn Murphy.
Science Update
Continuing with our energy theme, our eighth grade scientists are making waves with the electromagnetic spectrum and sound! Have your student reflect on light by explaining how a rainbow works, or listen as they vocalize the events in this video .
Character Education
Our character trait of the month is integrity. Integrity means t he quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. Students will discuss what it means to have integrity and how to display integrity in different situations they may face both in and outside of school.

The picture shown are the students were given awards for exhibiting last months character trait, generosity.

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