Cortland Junior High School 
November 30, 2018
Junior High December Newsletter
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Upcoming Events
  • 12/12 District Band Concert
  • 12/18 JH Select Choir Concert
  • 12/24-12/28 Winter Recess
  • 1/25-1/26 Junior High Musical
7th Graders Visit Syracuse Stage
The 7th Grade will be traveling to Syracuse Stage to see Elf: The Musical. This will be our fourth year going to Syracuse Stage for their holiday season performance. It is always a highly professional and entertaining theatre production our students really enjoy.
Physical Education Update
The Junior High boys' PE Classes have begun their Basketball Unit which will continue until the Holiday Break. The boys are working on dribbling, passing and shooting which will lead up to game play. The Junior High girls' PE Classes have moved on to Volleyball. The girls will work on the skills of passing and serving and get into game play. This unit will continue until the Holiday Break.
Topics Covered in 7th and 8th Grade Math
Math 7 will be exploring proportionality. The unit will include charts, graphs and tables. The unit will include work with scale maps and drawings.

Math 8 is beginning our unit on Linear Equations. Linear Equations are an essential topic that will span about 40% of our school year. Students will have independent practice nightly - please encourage your child to build their mathematical skill set by completing this.
Foreign Language News
We have new groups for Foreign Language Exploratory! These students are currently reading and discussing why learning languages are important. We will then start our learning about Spanish culture and language.

Spanish 1B is finishing up the well-being unit and will be moving to the vacation unit. Students will be able to talk about weather and what activities they like to do on vacations.

Enriched Spanish is finishing the restaurant unit and will be moving on to the festivals unit.
Social Studies Classes Explore Industrialization
In social studies we have been busy learning about the Captains of Industry and the importance of inventions, especially mass production and assembly line manufacturing. To better understand mass production and assembly lines students participated in an in-class activity forming an assembly line to mass produce ice cream sundaes. This is a lesson were students are eager to come in during lunch or after school for “extra” help in the hopes of eating another sundae!

In addition we are looking closely at the working conditions that many workers faced and showing empathy for their plight. Topics such as child labor, the Triangle Factory fire, and the growth of unions are also being learned.

Coming Soon : Immigration and a fun project about their family! 
Guest Speaker Coming to Health Classes
In the month of December Mary Dykeman will be guest speaking in our health classes. The topics this time include the history of HIV/AIDS and STD’s. Students will become knowledge about the different STDs and learn how to prevent HIV/AIDS.
Make Sure to Catch a Music Concert this Winter
Music is in the air! There are many concerts going on at the high school auditorium. Please visit the music website to see a complete list of concerts. The Junior High Band will be playing on the District Bands Concert on Wednesday, December 12th at 7:00 pm.

Mrs. Phetteplace's and Mrs. Rafferty’s students will be working together to bring music, holiday cheer, and smiles to clients at the J.M. Murray Center and patients at the Cortland Park Rehabilitation Center on Wednesday, December 19th for the Harmony Bridge trip.
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Art Update
Seventh grade artists have completed their skill building assignments and begun their independent projects. We are using a TAB curriculum (Teaching for Artistic Behavior), which involves a great deal of student choice. Assignments are based on four big ideas: Identity, A Social Issue, Heroes, and Storytelling. Artists use these big ideas as the springboard for creating an artwork that communicates their thoughts, feelings and experiences related to them. They choose the media to use, the methods and techniques to employ, the size and format of the artwork and the message they want to convey. The art studio is buzzing with creativity, with everyone working on something different. There is much brainstorming, experimentation, creative play and production going on everyday and it’s really exciting!

Our end-of-the-semester ART SHOW is scheduled for January 25, 2019, from 5:30-8:00pm in the West Commons. More information will be coming soon on our website, on Twitter and in invitations sent home with students. Everyone is invited and we hope to see you there!

7th Graders Explore Careers
7th graders in FACS are building their online Naviance account. They are discovering how their strengths and personality traits relate to careers. They have created a slide presentation to share information about themselves and their skills, characteristics and personality traits as it relates to a career interest that they have.
ELA News
7th and 8th graders in Applied English have just finished the book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, a story about a young Vietnamese girl at the end of the Vietnam War transitioning to a new life in Alabama. The students also took time to write about what they were thankful for in their lives. Each student also did a visual representation of their story and we laminated the stories and pictures. Students brought them home for the holiday. Now we have started The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, a story about teenagers and social class. Current discussions have been on characterization--how the author describes the characters using both physical appearance and personality traits.

ELA 7 just completed a unit which was centered around the book A Long Walk to Water.  Next we will be exploring the theme of social justice through writing and reading comprehension.
New Traffic Pattern at the High School Starting January 1st
There has been an increasing need to ensure our buses get out in a timely manner from the High School. When our buses leave on time, our students arrive home sooner and the amount of time spent on the bus is minimized. Therefore, all traffic leaving the the high school at dismissal will be routed toward South Main Street from Valley View Drive starting January 1. This will occur for a brief period of time each afternoon.
Bus Safety Tips
School bus transportation plays a critical role in the education of our nation’s students. More than 25 million children ride the yellow bus every school day. Here are some tips from the  National Association for Pupil Transportation  to keep our children safe at the bus stop as well as on the bus.
Getting Ready for School
  • Have your children put everything they carry in a backpack or school bag so that they won’t drop things along the way.
  • Encourage them to wear bright, contrasting colors so they will be more easily seen by drivers.
  • Make sure children leave home on time so they can arrive at the bus stop before it is due, ideally at least five minutes early. Running after or in front of a bus is dangerous. Read more...

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