Monday, September 23, 2013

Picture Day

Picture day is this Tuesday, September 24. Students were given the order forms to bring home. Remember to send in your order form on Tuesday.

Field Trip to Northern Lights Rock and Ice

House C has scheduled a field trip to Northern Lights Rock and Ice on Thursday, October 17. We will spend the day under the guidance of the staff of NLRI, as we meet the challenges of their ropes course and climbing walls. The purpose of this trip is to strengthen our teamwork, to support each other as we challenge ourselves, and to have fun together. This is a special opportunity we don’t get every year.

We will be leaving the school at 8:30 A.M. and will be returning at approximately 2:30 P.M. Bus transportation is provided. Supervision will be by teachers and staff members. Your student's share of the cost of the trip, $25, is due before Friday, October 4. Make checks payable to Milton Middle School. If paying the full cost is a financial hardship, please consider paying what you can, and requesting a scholarship to cover the balance.

This is not an optional school day. Students who do not participate in this field trip will be expected to attend a regular day at school.

Parents - All House C students have been given a permission form for this trip. If you have not yet seen the information, please ask your child about it.

Monday, September 16, 2013

8th Grade Boston Trip Update

Dear Families,

At the end of your student’s middle school experience, he or she will have the opportunity to participate in the 8th grade field trip to Boston. This field trip is three days and two nights and for many students it is the highlight of their middle school years. During this trip, students get to witness the culture of Boston, visit a few of Boston’s best museums, and they get to stay at Emerson College. This is a unique opportunity that every student should experience. In order to make this trip affordable for all families, we offer numerous fundraisers throughout the school year. Each student is given a field trip account. Students earn money for this account by fundraising. This money will be put towards the cost of the Boston trip and can also be used to fund other school based field trips as well. I have created these accounts so that students can earn their trip to Boston. This year the cost of the trip is $325, if your students participates in a couple of fundraisers each year, they will not have to fund raise all of the money during 8th grade.

For 8th and 7th Graders, your student will be getting a summary of their account on Monday 9/16.

Tentative list of this year’s fundraisers:

September – PTA Fundraiser – If your student participates, 50% of the profits from their orders will go towards Boston.

October – Dan’s Chocolates

November – Thanksgiving Pie Sale

November – Dan’s Holiday Cards, create your own custom cards for the holidays

December – February – Calendar Raffle

March – Spaghetti Dinner

April – Fire Truck Pull

Please address any questions about the Boston trip to our trip coordinator, Joe Smith <jsmith3@mtsd-vt.org>

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Information from House C and the Nurse's Office

Dear Parents:
You’ve all read the headlines and seen the news stories: food allergies are a growing concern in schools across America. Millions of children-children who are perfectly healthy and normal in every other way must watch every single bite they eat, or risk suffering a severe or even life threatening reaction. In fact, food allergies claim an estimated 150 lives and are responsible for more than 125,000 emergency room visits each year. A major health issue such as this must be taken very seriously, and it has always been the policy of this school to make the safety and well-being of our students our top priority.
A student in your child’s class has a serious peanut/tree nut allergy-the food allergy that claims more lives each year than any other. Tree nuts include: walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios, and Brazil nuts. A child with a serious peanut/tree nut allergy can suffer a reaction by touching a peanut/tree nut-containing food. Therefore, we are putting the following safety guidelines into effect:
    • Please do not send peanuts/tree nuts, or foods containing peanuts or tree nuts to be eaten as snacks in the classroom. It is fine to send these products for lunch, which is eaten in the cafeteria.
    • We will not be doing any classroom projects that involve peanuts/tree nuts. Please do not send any of these projects into the classroom with your child.
    • Birthday parties are a special time for children, but can be a difficult time for the food-allergic child. If you would like to send in baked goods, please be careful about the ingredients. Please list the ingredients on the outside of the package (or send in the ingredient label from the package) and when preparing "treats" please pay close attention to cross contamination in your kitchen. To prevent cross-contamination, it is necessary that cooking utensils and preparation surfaces be carefully washed after each food is toughed. It would be especially helpful if you could let your child’s teacher know a few days ahead of when you’d like to celebrate your child’s birthday, so that the food-allergic child can provide his/her own safe treat.
    • We will try to keep the food at holiday parties to a minimum. As with birthday parties, we must be extremely careful about the ingredients in all of the food items. Please do not enclose candy or other treats with holiday cards.
    • We will keep a box of wipes in the classroom, and may request that all children who ate peanut butter or tree nuts for lunch use a wipe to clean their hands when they return from the cafeteria. Similarly, if your child ate peanut butter or tree nuts for breakfast, we would greatly appreciate your making sure that his/her hands are washed with soap and water before leaving for school. Water alone does not do the trick!
This is a learning process for all of us, but we trust that you understand how deeply important it is to respect and adhere to these guidelines. If throughout the course of the year, you have any questions or concerns about food-allergy-related issues, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Wishing you and your family a safe and healthy school year.
Sincerely,
 
Alice Daley, Nurse grades 5-8

Grade 7 Math

Grade seven has started the year exploring algebra.  Students are working on identifying variables and creating and interpreting tables and graphs.                                                                                          

Please check with your child daily to see what homework is; they are working on ACE questions and they change day to day.

Grade 6 Math

Grade six has begun their year with a review of finding factors and multiples of a number.  We will also explore the traditional method of multiplication, prime and composite numbers and Least Common Multiple (LCM) and Greatest Common Factor (GCF).  We will explore many of these concepts through problem solving.

This week the homework is to complete assignment 1.1 pages 1-2 problems 1-3.  It is due Friday September 6.