Jaguar Junction

Have a wonderful winter vacation and let's come back from the break rejuvenated and ready to tackle a great second semester.

As we approach the halfway mark of the 2024/2025 school year, it's hard to believe how quickly time is flying! With Quarter 2 concluding on December 20th, we encourage you to continue supporting students working towards their academic goals.

At JMS we integrate different strategies to support student's social emotional and behavioral components. I would like to address a couple of those strategies.

First, besides weekly rewards that are available to purchase with behavior points, students also have the opportunity to buy raffle tickets for big reward items from the Jaguar Store. This drawing is done quarterly. The following is a link to a wishlist for those “Big Reward” items if you would like to contribute: JMS Wishlist .

Second, the following is our policy for Eligibility Status. Each student receives 10 eligibility points at the beginning of each quarter. Eligibility status is for attendance/participation in any extra-curricular activity during the quarter, i.e., sports,

dances, musicals, etc. To determine eligibility, the following guidelines will be followed:

ELIGIBILITY POINT DEDUCTIONS

Points will be deducted from the total on the following criteria:

• Major Infractions = -1 point

• In-School-Suspension = -1 point (partial day); -2 points per day

• Out-of-School Suspensions = -3 points per day

Easily pay School Fees online! Create your free MySchoolBucks account to conveniently and securely pay for your student’s school fees online or with the mobile app.

With MySchoolBucks you’ll be able to quickly browse school items in our School Store, be notified when fees are due, and make payments from anywhere!

Get Started Today:

1. Go to myschoolbucks.com or download the mobile app

2. Create your free account and add your students using their school name / student ID

3. Add school items or invoices to your cart

4. Check out using your credit / debit card or electronic check
   
   

If you need assistance with your account, you can find helpful how-to videos and answers to commonly asked questions by visiting myschoolbucks.com. Or, you can contact MySchoolBucks directly by logging into your account to start a chat conversation or give them a call at (855) 832-5226.

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Click this link for a step by step with pictures!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qL34CZPfQvHPEog9rNYRTaYB1DmqG5eG/view?usp=drive_link

Mr. Falk and Mr. Barber will be working with 8th grade students December-February to select their 9th grade course requests and guide them to complete a 4-Year Plan in Xello. This information will be reviewed with parents of all 8th grade students at Parent/Teacher Conferences on March 12th and 13th. Parents of 8th grade students (last name A-M) will meet with Mr. Falk. Parents of 8th grade students (last name N-Z) will meet with Mr. Barber.

During February, a counselor from each high school will be coming to Jardine to review their 9 grade course requests in Synergy and answer any questions the students may have about high school.

Each high school will be hosting a meeting for parents and students to attend. This is a great opportunity for parents and students to meet the high school counselors and other high school staff. It also will provide information about the enrollment process and class offerings at each high school. Dates for each high school meeting are as follows: (Specific times will be announced at a later date)

Highland Park High School

Wednesday, January 22

Topeka High School

Wednesday, January 29

Topeka West High School

Wednesday, February 5

If your student is planning on requesting a transfer to attend a different high school, it is important that they apply once applications are made available on January 1st. The application link will be put on the students’ Social Studies class Google Classroom after winter break. If transfers are not approved prior to high school visits in May, students will only be allowed to visit their assigned high school based on their attendance area. Specific high school visit dates will be announced at a later date.

If you have any questions during this process, please email your student’s counselor: Mr. Falk: kfalk@tps501.org (Last Name A-M) or Mr. Barber kbarber@tps501.org (Last Name N-Z)

Hello Jardine Jaguars! The Holidays are going to be here soon and we all could use a little self care to survive the hustle and bustle.

The JED FOUNDATION is a resource that has some tips that I can share (2024)

Self Care Around the Holidays

By Jennifer Comppen

The holiday season is billed as a festive and joyful time of year to celebrate and be with family and friends. But for many, it can be overwhelming and even lead to feelings of loneliness, anxiety, or depression—sometimes referred to as the “holiday blues.”

The holiday blues are common, and although different from mental illness, should be taken seriously. There are many reasons why people might experience stress and sadness between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, including a lack of sleep and downtime, unrealistic expectations, financial stress, isolation and grief, and anxiety about the new year ahead.

Fortunately, there are ways you can address these concerns and ensure that you are taking care of yourself during the holiday season.

Get Enough Sleep, Schedule Downtime, and Nourish Yourself A hectic holiday schedule, with frequent travel or many social obligations to fulfill, can lead to exhaustion and a lack of sleep, which increases stress. There can also be pressure to wrap things up at school or work during this time. Some people turn to unhealthy coping strategies, such as disordered eating or using substances, to handle these feelings, often making them worse.

It is always important to prioritize your emotional health and well-being. Remember to take time for self-care and ensure that you are getting enough sleep, exercise, and nutritious foods. It’s okay to take a break from—or say no to—social gatherings, make time for hobbies you enjoy, and connect with what is most important to you about the holidays.

It is okay to trust yourself and set and stick to boundaries that make sense for you.

Take a Break From Social Media and Set Realistic Expectations Holidays are often seen as a cheerful time, which creates pressure for things to be “perfect” and leads to disappointment if they’re not. It’s especially easy to compare ourselves to others during this time as we scroll through social media and think other people’s lives and families are perfect. We might assume everyone around us is happy, and we’re the odd one out.

Being too connected to our phones, computers, and devices can put our brains on overload. Set boundaries for yourself to look at your phone less, and avoid screens before bedtime, so it’s easier to fall asleep.

Slow Down and Breathe It’s easy to get sucked into multitasking when you have a lot of things to cross off your to-do list. Whether you’re sipping your favorite hot beverage or folding laundry, try shifting your attention to just what you’re doing at the moment. Getting grounded in where you are at any given time can help you feel less overwhelmed.

When we experience stress, we also sometimes hold our breath, meaning less oxygen gets to the brain. When you take the time to focus on your breathing, it sends a signal to your nervous system that everything is ok and that helps calm down any stress we’re feeling.

Call a Loved One and Connect If you’re not able to spend time with loved ones for whatever reason—or you are spending time with your family, but wish you could be with your chosen family, remember that you can always connect with people over the phone. That can help you feel less alone if you’re not close to your family or if spending time with them often leads to conflict.

Whether you are feeling isolated, stressed, or any other difficult emotion, keeping it bottled in only makes it worse. Being able to vent to a trusted friend or family member can help you calm down and get perspective. Instead of texting, connect by phone — hearing a familiar voice can be calming and comforting.

Acknowledge Your Grief For people grieving the loss of a loved one, it can sometimes feel like the rest of the world has forgotten and moved on from something that was very painful for you. If it’s your first holiday without them, these feelings can be incredibly strong.

If you are grieving this time of year, realize that the holidays may look different going forward. You may feel a variety of emotions—upset that your loved one is gone, guilty over a lack of “holiday cheer,” a desire to continue old traditions or let them go. There is no right or wrong way to grieve or celebrate, and your grief matters whether you feel sad or find joy during this time.

Move Your Body Movement gets the blood flowing and brings your attention to the present moment (instead of worrying about the past or future). It doesn’t have to be a long run, but it should be something you enjoy, even if it’s just dancing to your favorite playlist in your room.

Meditate Taking the time to sit down and simply follow your breath can bring you into the moment and help you feel connected. Here are easy steps you can follow to meditate:

• Sit or lie down comfortably.

• Gently close your eyes.

• Don’t try and control your breath; just let your breath flow naturally.

• Focus your attention on the breath, observing the inhalation and exhalation. If your mind wanders, simply bring it back to the breath.

• Spend 5 minutes with this practice.

Feelings of isolation, depression, and anxiety may come and go with the holiday season, but if you notice they intensify or persist after the holidays end, please reach out to a trusted adult or mental health professional for support.

If you need help right now:

• Text HOME to 741-741 for a free, confidential conversation with a trained counselor any time of day.

• Text or call 988 or use the chat function at 988lifeline.org.

• If this is a medical emergency or there is immediate danger of harm, call 911 and explain that you need support for a mental health crisis.

Please contact the social worker or counselors at Jardine Middle School if you have any questions or concerns.

December is a busy month for Jardine musicians!

6th Grade Chorus classes, 7th and 8th Grade Choir will perform their Winter Concert on Monday, December 9th at 6:30 pm in the JMS Commons. The concert is free!

All JMS Band students will be featured at the Winter Band Concert on Monday, December 16th at 7:00 pm. The free concert is in the gym.

The 7th and 8th Grade Band will support the Varsity Girls Basketball team at the City Classic on Wednesday, December 18th at Highland Park High School. The time will be announced.

Jardine String Orchestras will perform in the board office of the TPS Burnett Center on Friday December 13th at 10:00 a.m.

Following that performance, we will try something new this season. We will perform musical selections in the Fairlawn Plaza Mall beginning at 11:00 a.m. on 12/13.

Jardine Orchestras will present their Winter Concert on Tuesday December 17th at 6:30 p.m. in the Jardine Commons Stage.

We would love to see some friends/family members come out and support us at these performances!

Rationale: Through learning experiences, students develop self-awareness through movement-related knowledge. Students use this knowledge to critically analyze environments, situations, and factors to apply appropriate movement concepts, strategies, tactics, principles, and health-related (fitness) through self-regulation of health and well-being. Self-care acquired through movement helps maximize potential and further develops individuals’ physical literacy journey.

Grade-Span Learning Indicators:

The successful Kansas student can:

Grades 6-8

2.8.1 Demonstrate knowledge of offensive tactics through creative thinking and developing space with movement.

2.8.2 Demonstrate knowledge of reducing open space with movement and denial.

2.8.3 Create space through variation and critical thinking.

2.8.4 Reduce offensive options for an opponent using problem-solving, tactics, and strategies.

2.8.5 Select and apply the appropriate shooting techniques.

2.8.6 Demonstrate offensive strategies in striking/fielding games.

2.8.7 Demonstrate defensive strategies in striking/fielding games.

2.8.8 Apply movement concepts to different types of dances, gymnastics, rhythms, and individual performance activities.

2.8.9 Identify and compare the components of health and skill-related fitness.

2.8.10 Implement the principles of exercise for different types of physical activity.

2.8.11 Apply knowledge of aerobic, strength and endurance, and flexibility training exercises in muscular strength and endurance.

2.8.12 Apply knowledge of personal health practices and self-care to select meaningful physical activities.

2.8.13 Apply dynamic and static stretching to exercise in warm-up, cool-down, flexibility, endurance, and physical activities.

In seventh grade ELA we are currently learning about connotation and context clues as we analyze the word choice of authors. We are applying these skills as we read our second-quarter novel: The Giver. This is a dystopian novel where students will explore themes about the importance of individual choice, the value of memory, and the potential dangers of a society that sacrifices personal freedom for stability.

We are also continuing to explore informational texts to help students write their first informational essay of the year. We are learning about the parts of an informational essay and applying this knowledge to our writing. Our current focus is on finding quotations and evidence to support our claims.

7th Grade - In 7th grade we are learning and will continue to work with distributive Property and combining like terms.The distributive property allows you to simplify expressions by distributing a factor across terms inside parentheses. It states that ( a(b + c) = ab + ac ), meaning you multiply the factor outside the parentheses by each term inside. For example, ( 3(x + 4) = 3x + 12 ). This property is particularly useful in algebra for expanding expressions and solving equations. Combining like terms is the process of simplifying algebraic expressions by grouping terms with the same variable and exponent. For instance, in ( 3x + 5x - 2 ), you can combine (3x) and (5x) to get (8x - 2). This technique helps reduce expressions to their simplest form, making equations easier to solve.The last step is to add a value for the variable and solve the expression.

8th Grade - December will be a quick and busy two weeks for 8th grade math students. They will be introduced to scientific notation, which is a convenient way to write numbers that

are very large or very small. Students learn to convert standard numbers to scientific notation and perform operations on numbers in many forms. Finally, students compare numbers written in various forms to put them in order or to determine which number has the greatest or least value.

You can help at home in many ways. Here are just a few tips to help you get started:

The idea of “how many times larger” comes up often in this topic. To determine “how many times larger,”you need to divide. For example, if the area of your living room is 330 square feet and the area of your bathroom is 110 square feet, you would need to divide 330 by 110 to determine that the living room is 3 times larger than the bathroom.

Discuss with your child why “how many times larger” indicates the need to divide. Perform some of these calculations together, gathering ideas from real-life numbers such as sports statistics and merchandise prices.

In January, students will begin working on slope and graphing linear equations to represent constant rate problems. The lessons in this unit introduce students to the three different forms: a linear equation in two variables can be expressed in- standard form, point-slope form, and slope-intercept form. They will be expected to be able to translate between the three forms, as well as write, interpret, and graph information from various situations.

You can help at home in many ways. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Point out activities involving rate in everyday life (i.e., things you do that can be measured in terms of the time it takes to do them, such as number of words typed per minute or number of hot dogs sold per hour). Have a conversation about whether those rates are actually constant or whether we simply speak of the average rate as if it were constant. For example, do you actually drive through town at a constant rate of 30 mph,or is that your average rate? We will use constant rate often in this topic to mean average rate.

We wanted to remind you that an email has been sent to all parents to give you a heads up about the Egyptian Diorama Project. Details have been sent and can also be found in your child’s google classroom. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

7th Grade - Social Studies is looking ahead to exploring the Amazon Rainforest. We will be examining the different groups interested in developing or preserving the rainforest and what each of those outcomes would mean for the rest of the world. Students will discover the impact the rainforest has on oxygen, animals species, and the many plants that make life-saving medicines.

8th Grade - Wow! The year is almost half over. In 8th grade, the students have been learning about the United States' early years. For December we will be discussing the expansion of America through our Manifest Destiny Unit

6th Grade - For the month of December, 6th grade students will apply their periodic table understanding by creating a model the scale of an atom. They will use models to describe molecules and analyze the arrangements of extended structures.

7th grade - The 7th grade science students are finishing up the Waves Unit. Next, we are moving to learning all about “Matter and its Interactions”- chemistry units. We will be learning about The Periodic Table of Elements, states of matter and their physical and chemical properties.

8th grade - The 8th grade science students are learning Space Science. We will investigate our Solar System, the Earth and Moon model, gravity and the Life Cycle Of Stars.

Newcomer 1 classes just finished their unit 2 test about food. We just started unit 3 called “On the Job”. This unit is all about learning about occupations, using verbs correctly in sentences, and developing more vocabulary. Newcomer 2 classes just finished a unit and took a test over women’s suffrage and civil rights. We just started a personal narrative writing project. Newcomer 2 students are to write a 3 paragraph story about themselves in English. I am challenging students to use more English as they pass through all the steps of the writing process. We should be finished with final copies by Friday, November 22nd.

Lastly, thanks to “Warm Little Ones Coat Giveaway” and the EL Department, all of my advisor base students in need received a brand new winter coat! Thank you!! We are so appreciative of community support!

Follow this link to become familiar with our student handbook! This should answer most questions you will have!

https://cdnsm5-ss11.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_8259061/Image/JMS%20Planners%20handbook%2024-25.pdf

We Support Equal Opportunities

The Topeka Public Schools, Unified School District No. 501 is committed to affirmative action and equal opportunity. No person shall, on the basis of age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability, national origin or ancestry be denied lawful access to any appropriate educational service, program, or activity provided by the school district. For students, the Title VI, Title IX, and Section 504 compliance coordinator is the General Counsel for the district. For employment, the EEO/AA and Title VII compliance officer is the general director of human resources. Compliance coordinators may be contacted at 624 S.W. 24th Street, Topeka, KS 66611-1294, (785) 295-3000. The clerk of the Board of Education has been designated to receive and redirect or handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies, regulations, and procedures. The clerk may be contacted by calling (785) 295-3059 or by writing to 624 S.W. 24th Street, Topeka, Kansas 66611-1294.