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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
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