THE END OF QUARTER ONE IS OCTOBER 31ST
OCTOBER
10/8 PICTURE DAY!! SEE MORE INFO BELOW ABOUT ORDERING
10/8 HOME Volleyball ONLY vs Cross Creek MS 4:30 pm
10/9 SCIENCE 8 SCHOOLNET CHECK-IN testing schedule in RamPages
10/9 HOME Football VS Northern Granville MS 5:30 pm
10/10 HOME Volleyball/Soccer VS TLMS 4:30 pm
10/15 HOME Soccer ONLY vs Butner Stem 4:30 pm
10/16 UNITY DAY - WEAR ORANGE TO STAND AGAINST BULLYING
10/16 AWAY Soccer ONLY @ Bunn MS 4:30 pm
10/17 EARLY RELEASE - students released at 12:30 pm
10/18 NO SCHOOL TODAY (Teacher Workday)
10/22 AWAY Football @ TLMS 5:30 pm AND HOME Soccer ONLY vs Vance MS 4:30 pm
10/29 READING CHECK-IN #1 (testing schedule)
10/29 AWAY Football @ Hawley MS 4:00 pm
10/30 FMS BOOK CHARACTER DAY (see more info below)
10/31 LAST DAY OF QUARTER ONE!
NOVEMBER
11/3 Daylight Savings Time Ends
11/5 ELECTION DAY - GO VOTE! NO SCHOOL TODAY (Teacher Workday)
11/7 HOMECOMING Football vs Wake Prep 6:00 pm at FMS HOME field
11/11 NO SCHOOL - VETERAN'S DAY
11/12 AWAY Football @ Vance MS 5:30 pm
11/14 AWAY Wrestling @ CCMS 4:30 pm
11/20 MATH GRADE 6 & 7 NC CHECK-IN #1 (testing schedule)
11/20 HOME Football vs Butner Stem 5:30 pm
11/27 - 11/29 THANKSGIVING NO SCHOOL
Announcement: Book Character Day!
Attention students! In celebration of our love for reading, we are excited to announce Book Character Day on October 30! This is your chance to come to school dressed as your favorite character from a book. Show off your creativity and share your love for literature!
Here are a few important reminders:
Dress code still applies. No hoods, no face paint, and no weapons (including toy versions).
Be sure to bring the book your character is from, or at least a piece of paper with the book’s title and author.
Let's celebrate reading and inspire others to dive into new adventures through books!
We can't wait to see all your amazing costumes and discover the incredible stories behind them. Let’s make Book Character Day a fun and educational event!
Ms. Crudup, 6th Grade ELA
Policy Code: 4400 Attendance
PURPOSE: To provide guidance on matters of student attendance
The Board believes that regular school attendance is critical for educational achievement and develops patterns of behavior essential to professional and personal success in life. Regular attendance by every student is mandatory. The State of North Carolina requires that every child in the State between the ages of 7 (or younger if enrolled) and 16 attend school. Parents and legal guardians are responsible for ensuring that students attend and remain at school daily. School administrators shall communicate attendance expectations to parents and guardians and work with students and their families to overcome barriers to attendance.
B. Late Arrivals and Early Departures
Students are expected to be at school on time and to remain at school until dismissed. During the school day, students are expected to be present at the scheduled starting time for each class and remain until the class ends.
When a student must be late to school or leave school early, a written excuse signed by a parent or guardian should be presented upon the student’s arrival at school. Tardies or early departures may be excused for any of the reasons listed below in Section C.
Any disciplinary consequences for unexcused tardiness or unexcused early departures from school or class will be consistent with Section D of policy 4300, Student Behavior Policies. The superintendent of designee shall list in the Code of Student Conduct the specific range of consequences that may be imposed on a student for such offenses. Consequences may not exceed a short-term suspension of two days.
October is Bullying Prevention Awareness Month
Parent Guide to Bullying Prevention
What Parents Should Know About Bullying
What can students do if they are being bullied or see someone being bullied?
Always REPORT bullying to an adult at school (teacher, counselor, administrator). It is NOT “snitching” if you’re trying to help someone. Use this form as it’s confidential and goes straight to our school counselor: Counselor Request Form. What else can students do?
If they are safe, students can stand up to the bully.
- Keep a record of contact or harassment to establish a pattern of behavior.
- Save evidence from the bully (emails, texts, voice-mails, notes, internet postings, etc.).
- Avoid being alone with the bully.
- Walk tall, be confident, stay positive.
- Do not retaliate! (Two wrongs never make a right!)
- Wear ORANGE on Unity Day!
This year Unity day is on Wednesday October 16th! Plan to wear orange to stand up for kindness.
Spotlight on Students!
Each month, teachers will be selecting students for the Student Spotlight recognition. Students are selected based on showing kindness, consideration, and helping others, without being told to do so. Students will be receiving a certificate and special treat.
FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER, THE STUDENT SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON:
Sky S, Israel D, Jaran L, Bella W, Decker C, Ayanna Y, Wilmer G, and Dominic B
Thank you to these students for being a good example to others!!
MATH with MS. JENKINS:
Hello Ram families, our students continue to make progress with our Unit 1 study on Proportional Relationships. Students are learning to solve all kinds of problems using proportional relationships. Next, we will learn to reason about two quantities that are in proportional relationships and identify the constant of proportionality. Students will be able to recognize the constant of proportionality from a graph and table. We plan to take the Unit 1 assessment at the end of October.
Things to remember:
Be on your best behavior. Remember the school and classroom rules.
Bring your materials (Chromebooks(charged), notebooks, and pencils) to class daily.
Get a good night's rest and come to class prepared to work.
Remember to ask questions if there is something that you do not understand.
Believe in yourself, you can do it!
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at litishajenkins@fcschools.net.
SOCIAL STUDIES with MR. JONES:
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We are in the middle of our studies of the Renaissance and Reformation period. This week we are learning about the major artists of the time as well as their cultural impact as seen today. The next unit that will be covered in class will be the age of exploration and colonization of the Americas.
It is important that students are turning in their work on time and complete whenever they are given an assignment. The biggest struggle this year for students seems to be getting behind or not taking class time seriously. When students are behind on assignments, it becomes homework and there seems to be a lack of motivation to catch back up or complete assignments once they are marked as late. I will remind again that once an assignment is overdue, it loses 10 points of credit every day that it is late.
SCIENCE with MS. BRACKETT:
Dear Parents,
I wanted to update you on our current studies. We will continue exploring weather and climate until the end of the quarter, with a focus on weather fronts. Students will also be learning how to read and interpret weather maps. This hands-on approach will help deepen their understanding of these important concepts.
Please review your student’s grades in PowerSchool and make sure they don't have any missing assignments
Thank you for your support! Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Best regards,
Ms. Brackett
ELA with MS. BAECHLE:
Good evening students and families. We are currently in week seven of Q1, which means the quarter will be ending on Friday, October 31st. It remains critical that we remind our students to stay up to date with their work in class and located on Canvas, as well as their grades updated regularly on Powerschool. As a result, we continue to hold them accountable for their work and growth academically.
Growth and Accountability Agreement:
I will complete daily work (assigned in class)
I will finish any work that was not completed in class for homework
I will come to class prepared (work completed and a charged chromebook)
I will not disrupt the learning environment, or others
I will check Canvas daily for updated assignments and due dates
I will check Powerschool regularly for grades and missing assignments
I will always try my best
I will ask for further support from my teacher is I don't understand an assignment
I will maintain a growth mind-set for my academic and personal growth and goals!!
Expectations: Students are to come to class on time, prepared and ready to work. If they are not following the non-negotiables, they will receive a warning to correct their chosen behavior before they are sent to ALC with a write-up and a parent contact. Remember that each quarter every student begins with a 100% in their classes. What they decide to do with their grades and achievements are up to them. Sports and Grades: Please ensure your student is keeping up with their work and on their best behavior. Good grades and exemplifying positive behavior is key to being able to play sports throughout the school year.
New Curriculum: We have begun a new ELA Curriculum this year called: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Into Literature. The material is scaffolded in a way that is easy to understand while including detailed lessons/units including: anticipatory sets, clear standards, relatable topics, a variety of genres and activities, as well as various reading and writing activities with vocabulary throughout and plenty of application (practice) of content in order to master numerous skill-sets.
Note: A digital copy of the text can be located on students' Classlink and include each passage we read in class, as well as several comprehension checks (assignments), and several resources.
Please encourage your students to use this resource at home to compete and classwork that was not finished, or any homework that may be assigned. It is very beneficial for students to not only take accountability for their work, but to practice skills regularly in order to master academic goals.
Standards:
🎯Target Standards
*RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
*RI.7 Compare and Contrast a text to another text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject.
*RI.5 Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas.
🧱 Supporting Standards
*L.7.5 Demonstrate an understanding of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in word meanings. Distinguish among the
Connotations (associations/emotions), and the Denotations (dictionary
meaning) of a word.
L.7.4 Determine and/or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies: context clues, word parts, word relationships, and reference materials.
✏️Writing Standards
*W.7.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content
Last Week:
We read and annotated the non-fictional passage “Women in Aviation,,” and focused on the topic/central idea of the text, aligned with the author's purpose. We continue to have a strong focus on vocabulary acquisition both content and academics, as well as with a close focus on annotation strategies, unknown vocabulary, and text-based short response questions. In addition we continue to strengthen our writing skills by restating text-based questions before responding to questions in full sentences.
This Week:
Our focus is on Comparing and Contrasting a Fictional short story v.s.a Non-Fictional article where students will be differentiating among characters/individuals and their choices based off of challenging situations and how their actions not only affect themselves.but others. This will result in an Informational Essay and outline in two weeks.
Homework:
Students should expect homework two to three times weekly in order to continue to develop their skill-sets and to see growth. Please ask your child what work they have for homework, or have not completed on a regular basis to help keep them on track. Work is updated regularly for access on Canvas. Grades are also updated weekly and viewable on Powerschool. Students should expect classwork (homework if not completed) in order to maintain an understanding of reading both inside and outside of class on a weekly basis. The application process is so critical to close gaps in comprehension and to apply to later content**
Grades:
Student grades are present (updated regularly) on Canvas, and are now viewable to students and guardians on Powerschool. Students are expected to check their grades on a regular basis and reach out to their teacher for make-up work, or additional time to complete an assignment if they have been absent, as well as, emailing them a reminder once completed. I allow a one week timeframe to make up work before an assignment becomes a zero.
Thank you parents and guardians for your continued support throughout the school year with what promises to be a successful year full of growth and achievements.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any further questions or concerns: kimberlybaechle@fcschools.net
******************************
MATH with MS. CUNNINGHAM:
We will be taking our second unit assessment (Reasoning with Exponents/Scientific Notation Cluster) on Friday, which will test exponents and scientific notation. We will begin our third unit, Reasoning about Similarity and Transformation next week. In this unit, students will build on their understanding of similar figures and graphing on the coordinate plane to describe and perform translations, rotations, reflections, and dilations on a grid. Then, after performing a transformation(s) on a figure, students will determine if two figures are congruent. Lastly, students will identify similar figures and properties of a similar figure using transformations. By determining congruent and similar figures, students will compare and contrast which transformations create similar and congruent figures and justify their reasoning.
Unit Vocabulary:
Clockwise, corresponding, counterclockwise, image, reflection, rotations, sequence of transformations, translation, congruent, rigid transformation, center of dilation, dilation, scale factor, similar, coordinate plane, x axis, y axis, preimage, ordered pair
Sports and Grades:
Please ensure your student is keeping up with their work and on their best behavior. Good grades and exemplifying positive behavior is key to being able to play sports throughout the school year.
We could use some boxes of tissues if anyone would be willing to send a box or two in for our room. Thank you in advance.
Wow, quarter 1 is going by fast- it ends on Thursday, October 31st. There are many students with missing assignments- get them turned in ASAP. I will not take any LATE work after Thursday, Oct. 31st..
There are many students coming to school without charged chromebooks, notebooks, and pencils. These materials are needed in each and every class. Please make sure your child is prepared and ready to learn. We are also experiencing many disruptions and students not following the non-negotiables. We are wasting valuable class time dealing with these disruptions. Please speak to your child about putting their best foot forward and giving us their best behavior while at school.
Please feel free to contact me at michellecunningham@fcschools.net
ELA with MS. FROST:
We are off to a good start to the new school year entering October and yet there are areas for significant improvement. As a team, we have established team expectations that apply to all four classes (ELA, Math, Social Studies, and Science). Expectations will continue to be revisited in each classroom to ensure all students are on the same page thus avoiding disruptions in and outside the classroom.
Again, there are areas in need of improvement. Click this link to review expectations with your child… Expectations are high as our ultimate goal is to prepare students for both academics and behaviors in preparation for high school. It is important to note that behaviors that distract others from learning will be addressed immediately. This year is a tremendous and critical transition for students and parent support is most welcomed.
We are Reaching the End of Unit 1:
Guided Reading with Informational Text titled, “Are Bionic Superhumans on the Horizon? (HMH WorkBook)
Guided Reading with Informational Text titled, “Go Humans” (HMH WorkBook)
“All The Light We Cannot See” HMH Independent Reading Assignment with Text-Dependent Questions Commonlit Informational Article - Focus: Context Clues (IDEAS)
Unpacking the Essential Question, “How can we evaluate the strength of an author’s argument and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation?
Access to the FCS ELA Adopted Curriculum Online:
Curriculum: HMH
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Into Literature
Students can access the online curriculum via ClassLink and click on the Icon titled, “Ed: Your Friend in Learning”.
Target Areas Include Based on the Exact Path Diagnostic Results Include:
Continued Focus on Context Clues using the acronym (IDEAS)
Making Inferences
Identifying and Writing Theme Statements
Character Traits
Three Types of Irony
Connotation / Denotation (Vocabulary)
Writing Area of Focus:
Writing Summaries
Argumentative Writing (Comparing Arguments)
Grades: Grades close the last week of October.
Check PowerSchool frequently to ensure your child is up-to-date on assignments. The protocol for submission of late assignments is to send an email to me with the titles of the late assignments completed. Please encourage your child to check PowerSchool for missing assignments. Also, ask your child to go to Pear Assessment.com (Links to an external site.) for past assignments / assessments to make-up missing work. Note: assignments close after two weeks and students cannot make up work after the assignment closes. Students are not penalized for submitting late assignments within this two week period. Again, it is the responsibility of your child to email with the title(s) of completed work after the due date.
Please contact me with any questions at annafrost@fcschools.net
ART with MS. CLIFTON
What elevates a photographer from the millions of people taking snapshots and uploading them to social media?
TAKING vs. MAKING
As a photographer, you must pay attention to what is making up your photograph.
Which elements are coming together to create a successful work of art that goes beyond a snapshot?
Your students learned about the elements of photography and went on a scavenger hunt to photograph them. They were asked to take 11 different images. I will attach some of their images. I am so proud of the work they are doing!!!