PARENTS – PLEASE use student drop off/pick up in REAR of our property to help insure student safety!

Parents/Guardians:  As the end of the 2012-2013 school year isapproaching, I would like to take this opportunity to list a fewreminders:  1)I will be sending Asthma, Food Allergy, andMedication Order Forms home in May. These forms will need to be returned when the 2013-2014 starts inAugust.  2)  If your childhas medication at school, please makearrangements to pick the medication up on the last day of school.  3)  Pleaseremember all students going into the 7^th grade in the upcomingschool year will need to provide proof of Tdapand Meningitis vaccine.  If your child has had the vaccine, please send in the updates report as soon as possible.  I would also like to wish everyone a safe andenjoyable summer!!  Nurse Connie

HFMS is emphasizing CITIZENSHIP for the month ofMay/June!!  Don’t forget POSITIVE ATTITUDE, FAIRNESS, CARING,TRUSTWORTHINESS and RESPECT!!  Please emphasize our Character CountsProgram as your children enjoy their summer!

**WESTEST” – MAY 13^TH !!**

Yearbooks will becoming in around the end of May this year and will then be distributed startingJune 3^rd thru the 7^th in Ms. Carvers art room.  Students will be allowed to pick up theiryearbooks during their lunch periods over the whole week, but may also stop bythroughout the day with their teacher’s permission.  If your child did not buy a year book at thebeginning of the year when presales were held, they can buy one now for $30.00but are at a first come first served basis. Please get your order in asap because yearbooks will probably sell outquickly!

Parents:  Besure to have your students do a quick search through family vehicles, bedrooms,etc. for textbooks and AR books – especially if she/he had a home copy of anytextbook.  Those books should startmaking their way back to school within the next week or so.

 PROGRESS REPORTS weredistributed at the end of April – have you SEENTHEM?

FREEPHYSICALS at Bolivar Medical Center, on Friday, June 14^th from 1:00-3:00PM.   A new physical exam is requiredto participate in athletics next school year. PARENT section MUST be completed and signed!  Line up starts at 12:30 PM, so wearappropriate clothing for being outside in the sun and/or rain, and a waterbottle for hydration.

A very special “THANK YOU” to all parentsand volunteers who helped make allof our activities successful this school year!! We have had many wonderful activities due to your efforts – activitiessuch as the Lock-In could never happen without your leadership.

Congratulations “HFMS Students ofthe Month:  Ronnie Owens, Caleb Cummings, Lauryn Fridley,Michael Will, Carley Smith, Zach Sexton, Mone Taylor, Hannah Zombro, AnneroseThompson, Rachel Rossbach, Skylar Reuschel, Katie Rice, Dalton Jackson and Morgan Bowles!   Way to Go!!

Congratulations to our top “Character Counts Winners” thispast month:  Aidan Boyer, Calvin Harder, Jackie Schneider, Jenna Wermers, Kylie Day,Kassidy James, Magaly Rodriguez, Hanna Holland, Tiffany Pitcock, Trevon Smith, and Alyssa Sowers!  Great Job!!  

P.E.Students for the Month:  6^th grade:  BradyHaden and Jayde Webster, 7^th grade:  BlairSchiffhauer and Kambria Price,   8^th grade:  JessicaDaughtery and Shane Eckloff!!  Way to Go! These students are “Tiger Athletes” who take health andphysical education seriously. All P.E. students chosen for the 2012-2013 schoolyear will be rewarded an afternoon of activities/food on June 5^th atMorgan Grove Park.

Studentsalways know one book they should take home for homework – AR (AcceleratedReading)

Parents encourage your child to readthis summer and keep a log of what they have read. They should bring it back inthe fall with them.  You should expectyour son/daughter to read a minimum of 25books each year!! 

ARNEWS:  The following students are at the top of theleader board for AR points earned during the fourth nine weeks:  JacobDempsey, Kristin Davis, Troy Cummings, Victoria Librizzi, Aaron Smith, MaxHall, and Makayla Hill.  Others NEAR the top include Jacob Biller, Zachary Knott, Shane Previll,and John Hardy.  WELL DONE!! We encourage EVERYONE to continue to read and take AR quizzes and tofinish strong.  At HFMS, “AR ROCKS” andwe prove it every day!!

Congratulationstoour 1^st place winner atthe WV State Social Studies Fair:  Katie Rice.   We are proud of you and your great project!!

IMPORTANTUPCOMING EVENTS IN MAY / JUNE:

May 6-10               BOOK FAIR – BUYONE/GET ONE FREE

May  9                    SpringBand Concert – 7:00 PM – auditorium

                                PTOMeeting – Room 102/104 – 6:00 PM                    

May 13                   WESTEST Begins – rest,eat breakfast, and do your best!!

May 16                   LSIC meeting – 7:00 AM – room102/104

May  21                  SpringChoral Concert – 7:00 PM – auditorium

May 27                   Memorial Day Holiday – NOSCHOOL

May 31                   WV Heritage Day – 8^thGrade

                                End of YearDance 3:00 – 5:00 PM

June  4                   8^thGrade to Hershey Park

June  5                   PEtrip to Morgan Grove Park                          

June  7                   LASTDAY OF SCHOOL – 6^th, 7^th, 8^th Grade Awards  -  8^thGRADE AWARDS @ 1:00 PM        

June 14                 FREEPHYSICALS at BOLIVAR MEDICAL CENTER 1:00 – 3:00 PM

June 14                 Reports Cards Mailed Home!!

Looking Ahead:

August 22^nd         ProjectedFirst Day of School for Students!!

Reminder to Parents::  FREE after schoolskills support (tutoring) in Math and Spanishfrom 3:00 PM through 4:00 PM! Tuesday: Math – Ms. McCauley – Room802, Spanish – Ms. Lynch – Room 301    Wednesday:  Mathematics – Mrs. Perks – Room 302. Noprior signup is required.  Students mustreport directly to the class after school dismissal.  Parents are responsible for picking up studentsat 4:00 PM. Please don’t wait to gethelp!  Tutoring will continue through May.   

SixthGrade “Students of the Week”:  Congratulations go to thefollowing students:  Jordyn Brown, Hunter Cogle, Kellie Fisher, Brady Haden, Caitlynn Hidgon,Samantha Hoffmann, Dylan McCartney, Emily Owen, Makenzie Philyaw, RussellPopkins, Aaron Smith, and KristinZombro!

SeventhGrade “Students of the Week:  Congratulations go to:  :David Bush, Brison Kimble, Dillon Liszkiewicz, Katie Koerner, Jasmine Burdine,Matt Holmes, Lauren Edens, Jordan Dixon-Gross, Sierra Walter, Garrett Damon,Spencer Delawder, Kami Price, andMorgan Killen!

EighthGrade “Students of the Week:  Congratulations to:  Taylor Green, Abram McClain, Kesli Ramirez,Ryan Simpson, Brooke Smoot, and Julie Thompson!

Please make sure your child has paperand pencils for class.  We will beworking extremely hard until the end of the school year and students need to befocused, dressed appropriately and have materials for class including homework.  Thanks for helping to make the end of yourchild’s middle school career phenomenal!!

MATH:  SixthGrade - we will be covering probability andintegers before we rock the WESTEST!

SeventhGrade -we will be covering measures of central tendency along with different datadisplays before we rock the WESTEST! 

EighthGrade- wewill be working on geometry including lines, polygons, angles, symmetry,reflections and translation before we rock the WESTEST!

Geometry, we are currently studying Chapter8 Trigonometry and then will study circles.

Algebra and Geometry students will betaking semester exams at the end of the school year.  This will cover all the material learned thissemester and will count as 1/7^th of their semester grade.  

LANGUAGEARTS:  Mrs. Burnette’ 7^thgrade students will be closing up a great year getting ready for the WESTEST inMay and continuing with our poetry unit.

Mrs.Welsh’s 8^th grade classes are currently reading Goodbye, Vietnam as part of ourobservance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May.

In these last weeks, please continueto monitor LiveGrades and any missing assignments that your student mayhave.  Even though lots of great thingsare happening here at HFMS, we still have learning to do.

Applications for WV Sheriff’s Camp aredue by May 17^th.  If any 8^thgraders need an application or help filling out an application, please see Mrs.Welsh in room 502.

Students in Miss Barnes’ 7^th Grade Accelerated Class are reading thenovel “Tuck  Everlasting.”  Throughout this unit, the students will beparticipating in Literature Circles. Students in Miss Barnes’ 7^thGrade BLOCK class are completing a poetry unit!  Students have been busy reading and writingdifferent types of poems.  We are alsoreading some very good short stories! All classes are busy preparing for the WESTEST!  Ask your student what they’re doing! 

Mrs.Sperry’s 6^th graders are finishing a Techstepsproject.  For this project studentsselected a foreign county.  Then theyresearched the history, geography, climate, attractions, and dining of theircountry.  The final step is to us thisinformation to write a research paper that explains why the student would want tovisit this country.

To end the year, Mrs. Sperry’s classeswill be reading “The Giver”.

SOCIALSTUDIES:  Mrs. Lamp’s 7^th grade classes will have atest on European colonization on Friday, May 3^rd.  The following week will be a review forWESTEST.  Ask your student if he/she iskeeping up with writing down their bellringers. We have one more bellringer and folder check scheduled for this year.

Mr.Banas’ 6^th Grade:   Your child’s Social Studies project will be due sometime the week ofMay 6^th or May 13^th. This assignment was given March 5^th.  Please be sure to check with your child onthe progress he/she is making.

With the end of the year so close, wewill not be starting a new unit in social Studies.  Instead we’ll be taking a look at severaltopics such as Renewable vs Non-renewable energy sources, the Suez Canal, anextension on our time zone maps, and examining population data from the U.S.Census Bureau and inferring reasons for changes.

SCIENCE:  Mrs.Lowe’s sixth gradestudents are finishing up light and sound energy experiments.  We have also started our WESTEST PowerPointreview projects.  This is an in classproject that each student will be creating and presenting to the class as areview before WESTEST.

Two local crafts people visited usduring Ear week, Martha Ehlman (from Ten Fold) and Kweli Kitwana from (ArtShack, Baby!) helping us make pop top crafts. Thanks to all the classroom volunteers who helped out last week.  We will be finishing up the year with simplemachines and astronomy.  Please continueto check LiveGrades and make sure your son/daughter is staying prepared forclass with assignments and pencils.

Ms.Correviou’s 7^th grade classes have been studying thedifferent types and sources of energy. We will be studying and preparing for the upcoming WESTEST.

Dr.Good’s 8^th grade classes have been studying genetics andmicrobiology.  Recently, her studentshelped out with the planting of trees along Route 9 (to help prevent erosion).

Guidance Department:  May is a busymonth for Harpers Ferry students.  Allschedules should be turned in for the next year.  At this point, your student’s future high schoolhas the schedules so they will need to be contacted regarding any schedulechanges from here on out.  However, ifthere are any questions regarding scheduling; please make us aware so we canhelp!  In addition, we have been giventhe date for the administration of the WESTEST2.  This window is from May 13^thto May 17^th.  Please keepthese dates in mind when making plans regarding out of school appointments.

 Informationon summerschool is just around the corner. This year it will be held at Charles Town Middle School.  High School summer school will take place atWashington High School.  More informationwill be provided as it becomes available.

 Finally,if your son or daughter is interested in attending any camps or academies thissummer, give us a call in the guidance department and we can provide you with alist of engaging camps that may be of interest. If you have any questions give us a call.  We will do our best to help.  Looking forward to a great May!  Mr. Slye, Guidance Department.

Media Center News:   Our annual BUY ONE/GET ONE FREE BOOK FAIR is scheduled for the week of May 6 – 10.  There will be an “open house” for the community on Thursday, 9th, from 5:30– 7:00 PM.,preceding the spring band concert.  Wewant everyone to have some good books to read – at an especially good price –on those hot afternoons of summer!  HAPPYREADING!!

We received another check from GeneralMills for the boxtops we recently submitted, which brings the total to $485.80  for this school year.  This money will be used for rewards for ourtop AR (Accelerated Reader) students and for our WV Reads 150 participants..  A BIG THANKS to all who clip boxtops and sendthem to school.  Please continue to savethem during the summer months and send them in when we return in August.

WVREADS 150:  Students and staff of HFMS have formed tenteams to participate in WV Reads 150, a reading challenge which celebrated WestVirginia’s 150^th birthday in 2013. Our teams each expect to reach the goal of reading 150 bookscollectively by May 24^th. Teams are comprised of 15 members and the books can be in any format(printed, e-book, etc.).  Books can be onany topic, fiction or nonfiction.  We areexcited that 150 of our HFMS family have “stepped up to the plate” forreading!  We’ll be celebrating oursuccess during the last week of school. 

Chorus News:  Tuesday, May 21:  HFMS SpringChoral Concert at 7:00 PM in the Ranalli-Wiltshire auditorium. Students reportto the band room by 6:30 PM already dressed in Formal outfits with props and appropriate extra outfits!  **Please note that this and all performancesare a graded portion of allchorus students.

Tuesday, May 28:  Field tripfor 7^th and 8^th grade chorus.  Blue Ridge Elementary School assembly (10:00AM).  With potential Ranson Senior Center& Willow Tree Manor performance in Charles Town to be determined.  Informaloutfit.  I will need some chorus parents tohelp transport percussion instruments. If you are interested, please call Mrs. Robeson at HFMS.

Friday, May 31:  Dulcimer workshop sessions for 8^thgrade students during the morning in the auditorium as part of West VirginiaHeritage Day.  Guest artist is MadelineMacNeil of Berryville, VA. 

BandNews:  Thursday,May 9^th, Spring Band Concert at HFMS at 7:00 PM (all bandmembers).  Monday, May 27^th, Memorial Day Parade and Ceremonies atHarpers Ferry at 8:45 AM (all band members). Tuesday, May 28^th, Concertat Blue Ridge Elementary – 10:00 AM (7^th and 8^th gradeband members).

SummerReading:  Here are a few ways you can help your kidskeep their reading skills sharp:  1. Letyour kids choose the books THEY want to read. 2.  Give kids access to a widevariety of age-appropriate books.  (Wehave a great Bolivar-Harpers Ferry Public Library nearby.)  3. Invite them to go online and join the Scholastic Summer challenge at www.scholastic.com/summer  Please contact Mrs. Knott if you’d like asuggested reading book list.

HFMS will attempt to contact youeach time your child is absent from school. If your child is sick or going to be out of school for any other reason,please contact us in the morning and we will not call you at the end of theday.

You are alwayswelcome at Harpers Ferry Middle School – call us304-535-6357 with concerns!!