CENTRAL DAUPHIN MIDDLE SCHOOL
The Principal’s Page / November 2016 Edition
Mr. Jeffrey S. Matzner - Principal
PTA
Hersheypark Volunteers: Volunteers needed until the end of December to work Hershey Park in the Dark and Hershey Park Christmas Candy Lane. Volunteers can earn up to 4 ticket vouchers to Hershey Park per shift. If you are willing to receive e-mails or share e-mails about volunteer opportunities at Hershey Park please contact our Hershey Park Volunteer Chair, Dena Clare at .
Hospitality: The Hospitality committee is looking for volunteers to help provide special treats for the staff at CDMS! The committee provides treats to the staff throughout the school year. Please contact Nancy Ludwig if you are willing to provide a treat sometime this school year at .
8th Grade End of Year Party: The 8th grade end of year party will take place on Friday, June 2nd. Any 8th grade parent wishing to volunteer the day of the party will need a school district issued volunteer badge. Information on how you can be involved will be sent out in early 2017.
NURSE’S CORNER
6th grade physicals are due-if you have not turned in your physical form, please turn it into the nurse
7th grade dentals are due-if you have not turned in your dental form, please turn it into the nurse
Students that are provisionally enrolled due to immunizations-please turn in proof of immunizations to the nurse upon completion
Have a safe and healthy holiday season
As we enter into cold and flu season, please keep your student home if they are ill. Practice good hand-washing and coughing and sneezing into your elbow to reduce the spread of germs
CDMS SCHOOL STORE
The school store is open every morning and during your child’s academic enrichment period. We have tons of schooland locker supplies including folders, binders, pencils, lead, erasers and much more! We alsosell bottlesof water and a variety of tasty cakes, granola bars and pop tarts. We are also selling poster board and markers for all their project needs!For every purchase made, your child can enter towin a $5 gift card to the store.And all clothing is 25% off!!!!!
STUDENT COUNCIL
The 6th Annual Student Council Halloween Dance was held on October 22nd and was another great success! We had approximately 315 students attend, which is our highest attendance ever! Prizes were awarded for costumes in the following categories: best overall, most creative, scariest, funniest and best group. Students were also able to try to guess the number of pieces of candy in various containers and the closest guess won! Additionally there was dancing, basketball and an inflatable Hungry Hippos game. The next project in the works for Student Council is our winter holiday decorating contest which takes place the day prior to our Winter Break. Homerooms will compete to see who can come up with the best/most creative display. Last year we had many different types of entries, including door decorating, interactive activities, skits and videos and most decorated their entire classroom! Homeroom students and teachers come up with their idea and then the students bring in items (decorations, supplies, etc.) to make it happen. A winning homeroom will be selected for each grade level. Winning homerooms will have the opportunity to compete in a new activity, the “Champions Challenge” which will take place at the end of the school year.
CDMS CHORUS
The sixth grade chorus was selected to sing at a Harrisburg Heat soccer game on November 5th. The group will be performing ‘God Bless America’ to begin the game. That song was chosen because it is the work of the American composer, Irving Berlin. In addition, the piece utilizes diction and pitch skills. Both of these concepts are part of the sixth grade music and choral curriculum.
CDMS MOCK DEBATE
Central Dauphin Middle School held a mock debate and election on Nov. 1. The 8th grade gifted students worked hard during their academic enrichment period to prepare for this event since almost the beginning of the school year. Rob Teplitz, Pennsylvania State Senator and Ed Marsico, Dauphin County District Attorney, were guest speakers. There were 565 registered voters in the building; the results were 321 votes for Bella C. who portrayed Donald Trump and 192 votes for Ishana B. who portrayed Hillary Clinton.
CDMS/LMS MUSICAL INFORMATION
Auditions were held for the CDMS/LMS musical, Shrek Jr., in October. Thanks to all who auditioned and congratulations to the cast. Musical rehearsals will begin the week of November 7th and continue until March 9-11, 2017 when the show will be presented.
CDMS NATIONAL JUNIOR HONOR SOCIETY
59 NJHS members attended leadership training at Gretna Glen in October and are gearing up for their first community service project of the year. Students will donate and collect pet items to be donated to the Human Society of Harrisburg. NJHS officers for this year are:Nithika R. – President, Kyle S.- Vice President, Emma M. – Historian, Olivia A. – Historian, and Sophia H.-Treasurer
NOVEMBER CALENDAR OF EVENTS
01 End of Marking Period 1
08 Marking Period 1 Report Cards available on HAC
11 NO SCHOOL – Veteran’s Day Holiday
14 PTA Meeting @ 7:00 PM (CDMS Library)
24-28 THANKSGIVING/FALL BREAK
TEAM HIGHLIGHTS
Gray Wolves – In Social Studies, the students just completed their test for Unit 2-PA History. We are focusing on the current election for a few days, and then starting Unit 3 where we learn about the United States government. In unit 3, we will focus on citizenship, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Tomorrow the students will see a live debate, and we will also have a school wide election! In LA, we just finished learning about confusing words and made posters to help remind us throughout our writing. We will be learning about sentence variation next. In reading we are now focusing on Text Structure. We will be using different texts and trying to figure out which text structure is being used. We also just finished our personal narratives and photo stories. In science we just finished the Science Fair projects, and our unit test on Black Boxes / Scientific Method. We are currently working on the design process and will be building hum dingers in class. One of the exciting activities that we will be doing in class is designing a cell phone. In math we just completed our test on Chapter 5, Integers and Coordinate Planes. We will be bouncing back to Chapter 1 where we will be learning about Rates and Ratios. As always, math help is available every day if a student needs help.
Red Phoenix – Congratulations to our Students of the Month, Rachel D. and Joshua B. for Red Phoenix. These two students are great examples of the people we have on the Red Phoenix.
Language Arts: Our team is beginning our lesson on Text Structure and ending our first Language Arts unit for the year. Students have completed their Personal Narratives and may be creating a Photo Story to share with their classmates. We will be beginning Unit 2 for Language Arts this month.
Science: I would like to thank all parents who helped their children with their Science Fair projects. They turned out wonderfully and I am amazed at all of the ideas and projects presented! We are currently working with the Design Process. After finishing the design process, we will move on to our Forces and Motion unit.
Math: We flew through Integers and Coordinate Planes and will be landing in the land of Ratios and Rates. Please feel free to share your experiences with your kids. This is an especially good time of year as we head into the holidays. Our holiday meals, the amount we spend on decorations, food, gas and travel are excellent ways to assist in reinforcing these concepts. As always, your assistance is appreciated.
Social Studies: We have completed our PA history unit and our moving into unit 3- The formation of the United States government. The students will be learning about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and citizenship.
Blue Dolphins – Congratulations to the Blue Dolphin October Students of the Month: Sophia S. and Connor O. In Language Arts with Mrs. Klos, students have begun writing their personal narratives. They will take this writing piece through the entire writing process. Students have also been working on grammar skills such as determining the difference between commonly confused words and editing their peer writing. Our class continues to work on reading skills in Unit 1 such as comparing and contrasting different media and determining text structures. In Social Studies students are wrapping up Unit 2 on Pennsylvania History with a test and little picture booklet. Next up is Unit 3, which studies the United States. In Mrs. Klick’s Language Arts we are finishing up Unit 1 with our final area of focus being text structure. Students are busy composing their own magazine that includes articles written by them in each type of text structure format. Up next will be Unit 2 with a focus on theme, plot elements, and generalization. Coming up in grammar is a focus on different types of sentences as well as continuing to work on edits within our writing such as punctuation, commas, and sentence structure. In Science we are wrapping up Unit 1 with a look at the design process. Students did a wonderful job on their Science Fair Projects and they were very enjoyable to see! Unit 2, Forces of Motion, is up next. This will include learning about simple machines and Newton’s Laws of Motion. In math we are beginning chapter 5 on Integers and the coordinate plane. We will be graphing integers, calculating with integers, comparing and ordering integers, and graphing on the coordinate plane. In Mr. Neagley's Language Arts class we are finishing up punctuation and commas, and working on adjectives. We will be starting our study of inference. We will also be starting our next novel which is Tuck Everlasting.
Red Raptors – The Red Raptors would like to congratulate Rosa W. and Andre N. for being selected as the students of the month for October! In World History, we welcomed our student teacher, Mr. Christ. He will be with us until the middle of December.
We are currently studying Greek culture. We have created a Greek gods yearbook and built Greek temples out of paper, paper clips, tape, and other ordinary supplies. We will be studying the famous philosophers and scientists of Greece very soon. In Science class, we are ending our first marking period with an experiment on junk food! Ask your student to tell you why we love it so much! Next we will be looking at nucleic acids, also known as DNA. As the new marking period begins, we will be starting Narrative writing and sentence structure in English class. In Academic Literacy we will be exploring theme in a variety of text. We will also concentrate on determining the central idea in various types of text. In Pre-Algebra, we are learning how to use algebraic equations to solve problems. Afterwards, we will begin using algebraic inequalities to solve problems.
7thgrade Reading students continue to work on Greek and Latin root words each day. In a weekly Reader's Workshop, students have just finished reading and journaling with the novel, The Moderator by Dwight Kopp. In addition, students have just completed a large vocabulary unit, which culminated with students designing the packaging for a unique invention of their choice. Students then had to compose a sales pitch, present it to the class and hope their invention would be one of three selected as the winner. Students have received their first TedTalk assignment and will identify central idea and supporting details from an informational topic of their choice.
Gold Stars – The first marking period is quickly coming to a close, and the Gold Stars students have put in a lot of hard work already this year. Over the next month, the students will continue the study of narrative by writing personal narratives in their English class. They will also review concepts of sentence structure to help improve their writing. In World History, the Gold Stars are learning about the Greeks. Congratulations to Period 3 on winning the Egyptian World Championship. The next class competition will be a Greco-Roman poster. In Science, the students will continue to explore biochemistry, first looking specifically at DNA then exploring the role of molecules throughout our bodies. In Pre-Algebra, the students are completing a review chapter on operations with fractions and decimals. While the concept isn’t new, the students will be challenged with higher-level word problems, with negative fractions and decimals thrown into the mix. They just finished their second short project on graphing ordered pairs, and were excited to use the Chromebooks to edit their work. The Gold Stars team looks forward to continued learning and success in the second marking period. 7thgrade Reading students continue to work on Greek and Latin root words each day. In a weekly Reader's Workshop, students have just finished reading and journaling with the novel, The Moderator by Dwight Kopp. In addition, students have just completed a large vocabulary unit, which culminated with students designing the packaging for a unique invention of their choice. Students then had to compose a sales pitch, present it to the class and hope their invention would be one of three selected as the winner. Students have received their first TedTalk assignment and will identify central idea and supporting details from an informational topic of their choice.