ments in motivation manage-

ment and helping your child

to develop interests and

skills that he/she will use in

their lifetime.

2. Provide boundaries

Provide and encourage

boundaries. Talk with your

child about certain TV pro-

grams, video games and mu-

sic. Be aware of your child's

friends and activities that

they engage in. Guide them

in helping to decide on how

to make good decisions

about their lives.

(Continued on page 2)

From The Principal’s Desk:

In order for your middle

school student to succeed

within the educational proc-

ess, it is important for par-

ents to work on motivation

management at home and in

so doing encourage their

children to do the best that

they can. Here I have pro-

vided seven simple steps

toward motivating your mid-

dle school student. By in-

stilling proper motivational

strategies, your student will

have the drive and desire to

achieve beyond their wildest

imagination.

1. Show love and patience

As parents, we need to make

patience and love a top pri-

ority. Displaying this love

and patience sets the stage

for how they as students

receive and retain educa-

tional information. Founda-

tional support and verbal

encouragement are key ele-

WHEN YOUR STUDENT FEEL ILL Students are NOT ALLOWED to text/call parents when they are ill .

Students must come to the nurse's office if they do not feel well. If it is determined a student needs to go home, parent/guardians will be contacted and the student will be released only through the office.

BULLPUP PRIDE

From the Principal’s Desk:

From the Dean’s Den:

M R . T O D D R H O D E S ,

P R I N C I P A L

M R S . B R A N D Y B U S C H E R ,

D E A N O F S T U D E N T S

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9

Calendar of events:

Dec 1—Wrestling Meet

Gothenberg, 6:30 PM

Dec 8—Wrestling Meet,

Ogallala, 4:00 PM

Dec 8—6th Grade Music

Concert, 7:00 PM

Dec 10—Jazz Band/Swing

Choir Concert, 7:00 PM

Dec 10—Girls Basketball

Jamboree @ NPHS, 6:00

PM

Dec 15—Wrestling Meet @

Adams, 5:00 PM

Dec 18—End of 2nd Qtr

Dec 19—Wrestling Meet @

Lexington, 9:00 AM

Dec 21—No School,

Teacher Work Day

Dec 22-Jan 1 Christmas

Break!

ADAMS MIDDLE SCHOOL

“Where Success is the only Option” V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 4

P A G E 2

!

The Counselor’s Corner:

From the Principal’s Desk: (continued

how are they saying it? Will the person on the other end know they are joking? Walk away from the computer

and “Take 5” before respond-ing to something that upsets them online. Avoid spreading rumors, as-sisting in cyberbullying or

The Internet is a wonderful re-source for students to use, but it can also be dangerous. The fol-lowing tips will help to keep your student safe: Encourage Your Student To: Think before they click: With whom are they chatting or e-mailing, what are they saying and

sharing private communications online. Follow the golden rule of cyber-space: Don’t do anything online

that you wouldn’t do in real life! (from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11030746/)

For more information on

Internet safety, check out the following resources: http://www.kidsnewsroom.org/safety.htm http://www.cyberbullyhelp.com/

ABCsofCyberBullyingfor-Students.pdf http://kidshealth.org/kid/watch/house/internet_safety.html?tracking=K_RelatedArticle

http://www.safekids.com/safe-blogging-tips/

education is not an easy task,

but once achieved can create

a lifetime of learning and suc-

cess. This is especially impor-

tant for middle school aged

children who are at such a

crucial time in their lives.

They are at a crossroads

where the decisions that they

make may dictate what level

of educational success they

experience in the future.

We all need to constantly re-

mind ourselves that we are not

perfect, nor does our child

expect us to be. But if we at-

tempt to utilize available re-

sources for guiding and en-

couraging our middle school

children, we hopefully will see

them succeed in the educa-

tional process and in life it-

self.

On behalf of Adams Middle

School have a safe and en-

joyable Holiday Season!!

A D A M S M I D D L E S C H O O L

3. Be a role model

Be an example for your child

by showing a continued inter-

est in their education. Encour-

age them to develop proper

and fruitful study and organ-

izational skills. Don't hesitate

to communicate to them that

you are also in a continual

process of education in your

parenting and career skills.

4. Teach responsibility

Teach accountability and re-

sponsibility. Provide areas of

attainable goals and teach

your child to complete the

tasks they have set out to

accomplish. Reward finished

tasks and encourage continual

growth.

5. Give variety

Offer a varied range of life

experiences. Life is never just

vanilla. Help them to realize

the wonderful variety of sub-

jects that education has to

offer. Utilize resources for

fresh and fulfilling educa-

tional memories.

6. Acknowledge peer pres-

sure

Keep abreast of life's hazards

of potential negative behavior.

Culture continues to offer

potentially harmful activities.

Know the pressures your child

does face on a daily basis.

Help them to distinguish be-

tween helpful and harmful

endeavors.

7. Talk with your child

Communication is key. Always

realize that your child faces

many issues that are of su-

preme importance to them. As

their parent, they look to you

for understanding and guid-

ance. Be honest and humble.

Never be afraid to communi-

cate to them that you don't

always know the answer. But

do assure them that you will

always search for a resolution.

Listen even if you don't share

their intensity. Motivation

management starts at home.

Teaching and molding our chil-

dren to be involved in their

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 4

Student Council

Help Adams Middle School

&

Get your holiday shopping done at the same time!

By purchasing items through our online store, you can raise

much needed funds for your child’s school. There are a vari-

ety of items to choose from like wrapping paper, jewelry,

personalized gifts, magazines, and much more. Adams gets

40% of all sales.

Simply go to http://tiny.cc/amsmagsales

Enter Adams Middle School

Your child’s name (or leave it blank),

Begin your one-stop shopping experience.

We have begun to live stream our concerts and other events. This is some-

thing new and we are learning as we go. Watch for the web link as these

events and activities come up. The link to view the live stream concert or

activity will be posted on the Bullpup Byte. Our goal is to live stream as many

activities as possible to allow family and friends that are unable to attend

due to time and distance to view the event or activity as it is happening. We

have limited equipment and hope to learn more and obtain better equipment

as we are able. If there is a parent out there that has experience with this

process and would like to assist us, please contact Mrs. Windham at twind-

ham@nppsd.org

December 8th—6th Grade Band, Music, &

Orchestra—7:00 PM

December 10th—Swing Choir and Jazz Band

Concert—7:00 PM

MUSIC NEWS ADAMS

LIVE ON THE

HAT DAY

1$ BUYS YOU THE PRIVI-

LEGE OF WEARING A

HAT ALL DAY LONG!

Proceeds go to

Charity

P A G E 4

Sit by the fire

and enjoy a

good book over

the holidays.

Media Center Results of Adams School Library Book Fair

We wish to thank all of the people who purchased items from the book fair in October. We earned over $300 in new books for the classrooms and library. A special thank you goes to our book fair vol-unteers, who were so helpful: Amna Al-Jumaily, Anna Baltz, Camerin Burtle, Kaylee Thompson, Jes-sica Wolcott and Haley Wright. The winner in the book fair drawing was Josh Tudor.

Teen Read Week “Read for the Fun of It" was the theme during Teen Read Week, which was celebrated October 21-23, 2009 at Adams School. Many students came and visited the library to return and check out books. They signed up for the contest, which gave away a lot of new books. The students, who had given the most Golden Sower booktalks in the library and chose a special prize, were Alexis Edwards and Haley Wright. It was also Amnesty Week. Students, who returned overdue books that week, were not charged a fine. Many students gave the fine money, that they saved, to Pennies for Peace, a program affiliated with the Central Asia Institute, which was started by Greg Mortenson from Montana to help promote education and literacy. Over fourteen dollars has been donated so far. We will keep collecting until Christmas vacation. We appreciate the generosity of our Adams students.

Alexis Edwards and

her special prize.

New Books at Adams School Library Media Center Many new books have been added to the library’s collection. Some popular ones are: Hunger

Games by Suzanne Collins, The Twilight saga : new moon : the official illustrated movie companion

book, books on hunting, and The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney.

A D A M S M I D D L E S C H O O L

6th Grade News

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 4

Reading

Second quarter reading skills that

are being taught in the classroom

through novel reading are: bias, point

of view, foreshadowing, plot develop-

ment, and conflict. Blue Team stu-

dents have finished their novel,

Freak the Mighty, and will be watch-

ing the movie and then will compare

the novel to the movie. Students will

also be working on projects next

week. Students also discussed the

literary elements of theme, symbol-

ism, and personification.

Gold Team students will finish their

novel, Weasel before Thanksgiving.

Students have been responding to

the novel by using a silent chalk talk

after they read the chapter. This

procedure helps students write what

they are thinking about while they

are reading like, asking questions and

making predictions, this practice

leads to better comprehension. Stu-

dents have been completing their

graphic organizers in class, and soon

the conclusion of our novel will be

read and all pages of the graphic or-

ganizers will be complete.

Students need to read three AR

books, pass the tests before Decem-

ber 18.

Please make sure vocabulary words

are studied before Friday’s test.

Language Arts

Sixth grade language arts students

will be finding their “voice.” They will

working on the writing trait “voice”

also known as style while their craft

formal letters to influential authors.

This activity is part of the Library of

Congress’s Letters About Literature.

The students will write to authors

explaining how their novels changed

their thinking or their lives. You can

read more about it at

www.lettersaboutliterature.org.

Science

After viewing our live specimen, we

have concluded our Microworld’s unit.

Although we’ve had a lot of fun with

the microscopes, we are looking for-

ward to learning more about Earth in

Space. For the first few weeks, we will

be working on better understanding

the relationships between the sun,

moon and earth.

Some of the activities will include

tracking shadows and making a scale

model of the sun’s size. If their foot

were the size of earth, then how many

feet would they need to equal the sun?

The visual of footprints down the hall

representing the sun is astounding! We

look forward to the learning that is

ahead of us.

Social Studies

We have entered the land of pyramids

and mummies. Currently the students

are learning about the physical geogra-

phy of ancient and modern Egypt. They

will learn about the history of ancient

Egypt and its impact on modern Egypt.

Soon they will be deciphering hiero-

glyphics and becoming “real” archaeolo-

gists. The religious practices and the

mummification process are always

highlights of the Egyptian unit. As a

culminating activity, the sixth grade

classes will team up to create a travel

brochure for anyone wishing to travel

back in time to ancient Egypt. Ask

your child what they are learning in

social studies this month. They love to

talk about the gory details they learn

when studying ancient Egypt.

Math

6th grade math classes will be focusing

on fractions for the remainder of the

year. We have started finding equiva-

lent fractions, simplifying fractions,

and turning mixed numbers into im-

proper fractions. December plans will

include ordering fractions and con-

verting between fractions, per-

cents, and decimals.

From Our Team To Yours

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

P A G E 6

7 GOLD

7 Gold Teachers are encourag-

ing students to check our

website http://

tiny.cc/7gold for assignments,

especially when absent. Stu-

dents also need to restock

their paper and pencil sup-

plies.

Language Arts students con-

tinue writing in the four

modes on a variety of topics.

One of the writings is chosen

for revising, editing, and pub-

lishing.In December, they will

be reading the next published

writing to the class for their

listening standard. We will be

working with the reading class

on activities related to Rikki-

Tiki-Tavi before winter break.

Reading students will continue

working on Greek and Latin

roots for vocabu-

lary. Students will have a

word list every week that they

will need to study and learn

before a quiz at the end of

the week.

Also, students will be continu-

ing to work towards achieving

their AR goals for 2nd quar-

ter. The goal for 2nd quarter

is 4 books, next quarter it will

go up to 5 books.

Math students are now finish-

ing the second half of Unit 2,

which involves working with

fractions, decimals, percents,

ratios, and proportions. We

have been learning how to use

the thinking strategy

"monitoring for meaning" to

ask ourselves continually if

the material is making sense.

Students have learned to

monitor for meaning by con-

necting to their prior knowl-

edge, checking answers in the

back of the book, completing

self-checking quizzes online,

teaching a skill to another

person, explaining their rea-

soning to another person,

checking another person's

work, and working out an ex-

ample problem while reading

it. In the coming weeks, stu-

dents will spend more time

practicing how to share their

work in front of the class and

will begin working more explic-

itly on the thinking strategy

"asking questions" in order to

create breakthroughs in

meaning when the material is

not making sense or when

learning situations could be

extended. Challenge students,

remember that your History

of Math papers and Challenge

Math Projects are due be-

tween December 11th and

18th -- only a few weeks left!

History is setting the table

for the War of Independ-

ence. We will be fighting that

in the near future. Please do

not send any gunpowder or

weapons, we are well sup-

plied!! As soon as we beat the

Bitish up, get a Constitution,

we will begin moving west

again. Coonskin caps and log

cabins can be donate

Blue and Gold students have

been learning about cells and

their parts. In conjuntion

they have been studying the

process of cell division (or mito-

sis) as it pertains to the growth

of an organism as well as how it

relates to cancer. In the near

future, the kids will continue

their efforts by discovering the

ideas assoicated with heredity

and genetics.

7 BLUE

Hooray! We finished our Inte-

ger Unit! This was a challenging

new concept and we really focus-

sed on visualizing the numbers

on the Algebra Game

board. Many of them learned an

awesome poem and got extra

credit. The poem is a feature on

the math blog http://

mathlady.wordpress.com !

Now we are working on some

very functional, practical

math: Proportions, Percents,

fractions, and decimals. We'll

be working on store discounts,

finding how to do proper tips,

how to find the appropriate tax,

and converting between the

forms of a number to use the

best form for the job. Watch

for sales fliers in the classroom

and a "unique dining experience"

at "La Casa de Matematica"!

N E W S L E T T E R T I T L E

7th Grade News

When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ring-ing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know. Ella Wheeler Wil-cox

8th Grade News

P A G E 7 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 4

8 Gold History: We have finished looking

at How Does An Historian Work? Cuban

Missile Crisis and we have studied the

assassination of President John F. Ken-

nedy. We are next going to examine U.S.

government. We will start the govern-

ment unit by discussing where our Found-

ing Fathers got all of their ideas about

democracy and government. We will talk

about ideas coming from the Greeks,

Romans, Magna Carta, Mayflower Com-

pact, English Bill of Rights, etc. This will

lead to take a close look at the United

States Cons

Language Arts: The holiday season in

8th grade language arts will include a

virtual tour of Switzerland, the setting

of a realistic fiction book. We

will incorporate our "thinking culture"

strategies, and redesign the old

unit. Students will be required to: 1)

read the novel , Banner in the Sky , by

James Ullman 2) participate in thinking

literature discussion groups 3) create a

travel brochure using multiple litera-

cies 4) design an author passport using a

variety of notetaking and writing strate-

gies. 5) create a mountain climber's

handbook.

The purpose of these activities are to

review "realistic fiction" as a literary

genre, and to connect to the

author by examining his life and his ad-

ventures.

Students in 8 Blue History have just fin-

ished a unit on the settlement of the

West. We have discussed the history of

the time period and the culture of the

various groups on the Great

Plains. Activities have included map

work, role playing, creative writing of a

cowboy song, an editorial cartoon about

pioneer farmers and conducting an inter-

view. Students then were able to share

the story they wrote from the interview

in the style of the Native Ameri-

cans. Students sat in a circle to show

that no person is first or last, but all

are equal. During this section of the

unit whoever was speaking was to walk

around inside of the c

8th grade Reading classes have just

finished reading The Devil’s Arithme-tic. Ask your favorite 8th gold student

to tell you all about it! They are busy

reading their third novels and will com-

plete a special project at the beginning

December. This will be an exciting cul-

mination to a semester of learning.

We’ve also been busy increasing our

vocabulary and reading skills. We’ve

collectively learned almost 200 new

vocabulary words this semester! Great

job, 8 Gold!

We are coming to the end of our time

together in first semester Spanish.

The Blue students will be moving to

Reading in January and the Gold stu-

dents will start Spanish. We still have

LOTS to learn. The students will be

learning vocabulary words for their

family members. They will learn how to

express likes and dislikes of family

members and age. Your student will

need to bring a family picture to

school. We will end our Spanish study

with foods, colors, and agreement. We

will have a comprehensive final exam in

December. We end our semester with

a study of Spain. ¡Hasta luego!

Algebra: What do slope, y-intercept,

y=mx +b have in common? They tell us

what a line graphed on the coordinate

system should look like. In December

we are studying graphing linear equa-

tions and functions by setting up ta-

bles, finding out where the line crosses

the x- and y-axes and finding slope (by

counting or calculating).

Math: This month we are finishing up

the equation unit. Next, we are study-

ing inequalities as an extension of

equations because they are solved

the same, but use different signs.

Before Christmas vacation we’ll also

be taking our first state standard

which is 8.6.3 about solving equations.

8 Gold Science has just finished

their study of Monster storms. We

now understand a little more about

how our weather works. Did you

know there are huge convection cur-

rents in the air and water? Did you

know that a hurricane needs warm

water and that water heats and cools

slower than soil? Why do we have so

many tornadoes? The gold students

have learned this and so much more.

Ask them what causes the wind. We

will begin our study of Earth’s struc-

ture as we learn about volcanoes,

earthquakes, and rocks between

Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas

in the air.

W. T. Ellis

ADAMS MIDDLE SCHOOL

1200 S. McDONALD ROAD NORTH PLATTE, NE 69101

1200 S. McDonald

North Platte, NE 69101

Phone: 535-7112

ADAMS MIDDLE SCHOOL Mission Statement

“The mission of Adams Middle School is to empower students

to attain a high level of academic achievement through district curriculum based on National

and State Standards measured by a variety of assessments.

Students will be given multiple opportunities to learn through

support and intervention.”

ADAMS MIDDLE SCHOOL

VISIT THE NORTH PLATTE PUBLIC

SCHOOL WEBSITE AT:

WWW.NPPSD.ORG

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage

PAID North Platte, Nebraska

Permit No. 29