School Snippets – January 15, 2016
Published January 15, 2016
The information below is provided by each school. Schools are listed in alphabetical order according to grade level.
Elementary Schools
Bethesda Elementary
Alex Kee a third grade student at Bethesda Elementary School picked Mrs. Janet Little to be his Successory winner. Alex had written a note to Mrs. Janet Little thanking her for helping him find creative and more challenging things to do. Alex is excited to learn hard new things and Mrs. Little teaches exactly that. That is the cute words written by Alex Kee to Mrs. Janet Little. Additionally, Kaleigh Cash a fourth grade student at Bethesda Elementary School won an award for being one of the Top Tennessee Student Writers. Kaleigh Cash earned a perfect score on the 2015 TCAP Writing Assessment. She is one of only a few from across the state to earn a perfect score. Kaleigh Cash will receive a certificate signed by the Governor of Tennessee, Bill Haslam and the Tennessee Commissioner of Education, Candice McQueen. This is a great honor and accomplishment for Kaleigh Cash and our school. Bethesda Elementary School will honor Kaleigh at our next assembly so all our students can congratulate Kaleigh for her hard work and accomplishments.
Clovercroft Elementary
Clovercroft will be hosting a Night in Wonderland for this year’s father-daughter dance. Gather your pocket watch, you don’t want to be late for this important date. It will be Friday, January 22 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
College Grove Elementary
The Successory Winner for College Grove Elementary is Mrs. Head, our wonderful guidance counselor. Cole Eggleton says thank you for giving me the confidence at our school and helping me when I ask for help rather than keeping it inside and making it worse.
Crockett Elementary
During P.E. this week at Crockett Elementary, students have been having a blast with Wii Dance. In academic news, fourth graders are testing and comparing speed of different cars and the effects of various types of friction on speed. In math, they are multiplying whole numbers by fractions and mixed numbers. Don’t forget to get you tickets for Crockett Rocks on January 19 at the City Winery. The evening with start with hors d’oeuvres and a dessert bar. Runaway June will start the show followed by Lee Brice. For more information, visit crockettrocks.com.
Edmondson Elementary
Ashley Hammerstrom’s second grade class has been learning about different poets all week. Students were given poet’s sunglasses to see through a poet’s eyes. “When we put them on, we can envision plain things in a whole new way. We saw our ceiling as a night sky with stars. We used these glasses to create original poetry in class that will be made into books.”
Fairview Elementary
We are so excited to be back at school at FES. We are gearing up for our 100 school day celebration. It will be January 26 from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., but the excitement will be lasting all day! As we get closer, we are collecting 100 acts of kindness to display at the event. There will be math and reading challenges, food provided by our PTO and lots of fun games involving the number 100! We are hoping that at the conclusion of the evening, Brent Oakley, our principal, will be kissing a pig! If 75 percent of our first grade students read 100 books or more by then, he will have to pucker up for a porker. They are getting close, so make sure to attend so you don’t miss it!
Grassland Elementary
Third grade has been learning about the Three Grand Divisions of Tennessee, as well as our natural borders, bordering states, major cities, rivers and natural resources and history. GES welcomed visiting author Jessica Young, author of My Blue is Happy, which is a 2016-2017 Volunteer State Book Award nominee. She’s also the author of such books as Spy Guy the Not-So-Secret Agent and her upcoming early chapter book series, Haggis and Tank Unleashed. Young is a former teacher who resides in Nashville.
Heritage Elementary
Heritage Elementary is in full swing for the second semester. Third through fifth grade have been assisting K-2 with Google Classrooms. Additionally, the HES PTO will hosts its third annual Muffins with Moms with Mom on January 19 and 20 starting at 8 a.m.
Hunters Bend Elementary
Fourth grader Brady Siebert was recognized for a perfect score on the writing assessment portion of the TCAP. Way to go!
Kenrose Elementary
Fourth graders, Natalie Allen, Evan Bruegel and Marlee Curran scored a perfect score on the writing portion on their 2015 TCAP test. Congratulations to them and their teachers!
Lipscomb Elementary
Grace Walter from Lipscomb Elementary School was honored for a perfect score on the writing portion of TCAP. She was one of few in the state of Tennessee. She received a letter from the Commissioner of Education and a signed certificate from Governor Bill Haslam.
Longview Elementary
Longview Elementary Math Coach Lori Beardsley and Reading Specialist Anne Nussle have gathered a group of “Young Explorers” Monday and Tuesday early mornings! These fourth graders are digging into different aspects of math and reading skills. They are problem solving with a creative twist while thinking outside the box.
Scales Elementary
John Sparks, a fourth grader at Scales Elementary, was the winner of the school Spelling Bee; Jessie Cai, fifth grade was the first runner up and Dhuhaa Fazili, fifth grade was the second runner up. They will advance to the Local Spelling Bee in March. In other news, congratulations to Scales Elementary Employees of the Year: Shelly Wyllie, Teacher of the Year and Leigh Ann Touloeisani, Employee of Year.
Sunset Elementary
Kindergarten classes at Sunset Elementary received a lesson with experiments about the weather from Dan Thomas from News Channel 4 on Wednesday, January 13.
Trinity Elementary
Mrs. Pack’s fifth grade class took a virtual trip as they traveled to Machu Picchu in reading! Their interests peaked as they learned about “quipu”, architecture and the history of the people. TES librarian, Ms. Peach, has personally hiked the trail of Machu Picchu and she was gracious enough to share all of her findings, actual photos and items she brought back with her from the trip. The class read books, watched videos, researched topics online and held these treasures. It really left them wanting more and some say they’d like to visit there someday.
Walnut Grove Elementary
Walnut Grove wishes new and returning students a Happy New Year! This school year we have worked hard to teach and prepare students to take on leadership roles around the school. Leadership skills have been embedded into instruction, morning activities and extra-curricular work with students, across all grade levels. The “Make A Difference Club Student Advisory Council” is one example of our student leadership clubs that helps students in second through fifth grade engage in community work, and give back to their school. The Advisory Council plans meetings and future projects. The students learn to organize, share ideas and help run meetings. Student leadership clubs build character, courage, confidence, a sense of community and school spirit.
Westwood Elementary
Fifth graders are Westwood Elementary are learning about World War II in Social Studies. The students are then using their information to write an essay explaining how different monuments inspire different emotions.
Winstead Elementary
Welcome back and Happy New Year. Winstead Elementary third grade students are learning about supply and demand and how it effects our economy. Students are using laptops and Google Classroom to read text and share the main idea and supporting details while providing text evidence. Students completed graphic organizers to help them see what they know already and what they want to know and learn. Important dates to remember: Monday January 18, No School-MLK Day; January 25-29, PAAW Program Registration; January 26, Talent Show Tryouts.
Middle Schools
Brentwood Middle
The National Junior Honor Society group from BMS helped out at Second Harvest Food Bank over the weekend. They helped sort, package and route over 15,200 pounds of food for distribute throughout the state of Tennessee. The students who participate in NJHS are chosen based upon academic history throughout middle school, service within the community and personal conduct. The sponsors for this group are Ms. Emily Telford and Mr. Jordan Kook.
Grassland Middle
The GMS Community recently organized a holiday care package for Lieutenant Commander Ben Glaser and company in the Pacific Fleet where he is stationed in Ayase-shi Kanazawa, Japan. The generals generously collected over 110 pounds of goodies and snacks plus included hand written cards. In other news, the final deadline to order a GMS 2015-2016 yearbook is in one week, January 18th. There will be a limited number of copies available for purchase at the end of the year, so please order now to make sure your child gets a copy! Yearbooks can be purchased at https://www.yearbookordercenter.com or by calling 866-287-3096. The GMS school code is 684.
Page Middle
The students hit the ground running this semester with some exciting projects and a Geography Bee. Mr. Ellington’s sixth grade Social Studies classes made three dimensional maps of China showing the different elevation levels. They cut out different parts of a map and pasted them on top of one another to demonstrate differences in height. The students had to write out examples of how the geography isolated China from its neighbors. Seventh grade students are studying motion in Science classes. Air Trolleys are a great way to determine the distance they travel using the formula, d=xf-xi. Students discover that the more winds they make the trolley will go farther. This real life data is then graphed and analyzed. Additionally, the Geography Bee was held in the library on January 11 and after some very tough questions, one student became victorious! That student is seventh grader, Jacob Williams. Congratulations, Jacob!
Spring Station Middle
Mrs. Leake’s eighth grade English class had a very interesting visitor come to speak to her class this week about the importance of reading and writing and how it can help you as you move forward into high school and beyond, regardless of what career you want to pursue. Brandon Jackson, brother to a member of Mrs. Leake’s class, graduated from the Williamson County School system and then went on to graduate from Yale University and then Cambridge University. He currently works overseas for a British company called Kano that is a startup company. It is becoming quite well-known for their innovative designs geared towards kids and teens. One of their first products, Kickstarter, is a kit that allows kids to not only build their own computer, but write code for it as well. Brandon is a key member of their team that is working and designing projects such as this. He wanted the eighth graders to understand that working hard at developing his writing skills along with the willingness to read all sorts of books allowed him to pursue his career in computer science.
Sunset Middle
The Sabers took first place at the Forensics tournament last Saturday, January 9. Hosted by Pope John Paul II High School, there were 14 teams and over 250 competitors which made for some pretty stiff competition. We’re so proud of all 25 members who participated. It was the collective scores of each team member that secured the first place trophy. Special thanks to our supportive parents and RHS judges who were Parker Pennington, Ethan Hall, Meron Kassa, and Julianna Lee. The top 6 performers in each Forensic category received medals and trophies. Among our victors were: First Place, Total Team Sweeepstakes and Rithika Tummala (Impromptu Speaking); Second Place, Min Kalasikam (Impromptu Speaking), Rishi Pillai (Storytelling), Rishi Pillai (Audition), Tuneer Ghosh (Poetry) and Kristen Lee (Dramatic Interp); Third Place, Beeta Baghaevagi (Original Oratory); Fourth Place, Hailey Kim (Dramatic Interp), and Parker Phegley and Evan Pryor (Duo Improv); Fifth Place, Kaleigh Barrett and Niamh Mackie (Duo Improv), Sowjanya Dalai (Dramatic Interp) and Rithika Tummala (Prose). During the tournaments intermission the host school sponsored “Trivia” and “Dance Off” contests. You guessed it, Sunset Middle won the trivia event and the dance off as well thanks to the amazing moves of Camden “Nah Nah” Fain.
Woodland Middle
Eight Woodland students performed with the WCS Honors Choir on Tuesday, January 12.
High Schools
Brentwood High
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards announced their selection for outstanding works, and Brentwood High School had several students whose work was selected. Out of more than 1390 entries, BHS had 3 Gold Key Winners, 4 Silver Key winners, and 11 Honorable mentions. Here are the Students Whose work was selected: Gold Key :Juliet LaVie (Mixed Media), Christian Glenn (Sculpture) and Thomas Costner (Painting). Silver Key Winners: Mia Esworthy (3 silver keys) and Kate Davis (Drawing). Honorable Mentions: Alex Anderson, Lucy Bailey, Grace Catlett, Gavin Bain, Hannah Levy, Gabby Laubach and Jade Sells.
Centennial High
Congratulations to CHS Junior, David Price on making a perfect score on the PSAT as well as the ACT. CHS will have a meeting for Rising Seniors and their parents on Thursday, January 21. The meeting will be held in the PAC beginning at 7 p.m. CHS will also hold a preseason Boys Soccer camp for all guys interested in trying out for this years’ team. The camp will run February 1-5 at the soccer field from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. A current physical must be on file with CHS for participation in camp and tryouts. Team tryouts will be February 16-19.
Franklin High
Prom will be Saturday, April 9. The theatre production of Peter Pan will be April 28 – May 2, 2016. A Chili Cook-Off will be held on Friday, February 5 during basketball game. Cost to get in the cook-off and help choose the winner will be $5.00 and you get to sample all the chili. If you would like to enter the competition the cost is $25.00 to compete. Come out and support the Track team and get some great chili. The Visual and Digital Arts are proud to inform you that 14 Franklin High School students received recognition from the Scholastic Art Awards. They had a total of 43 winning works! The Scholastic exhibition (Gold Key winners) will be on view at Cheekwood in the Museum of Art from February 6-March 5. Please remember ALL notes (early dismissals, doctor notes, and absence notes) mustbe turned in to Student Services BY 9:00 am. If a parent needs to email a note, it must include their signature and be received in Student Services by 11:00. After 11:00 the parent will need to come in and sign their student out in person. On January 11, FHS hosted its first speech and debate practice tournament with Centennial and Independence. A specific thank you to Mrs. Kee (parent), Mr. Segard (parent), Mr. Womack, Mrs. Bonomo, Mrs. Finnegan, and Mrs. Mauldin for being fantastic judges! Please congratulate our students for representing Franklin so well. FHS is offering ACT classes to juniors to propel students to accentuate their strengths and bolster their weaknesses as they prepare to take the ACT. Classes will begin after school in January. A $20.00 registration/materials fee is required for the classes – students will be provided with an ACT prep book; the fee may be waived if there is a need. Students will need to see Mrs. Dickerson to discuss having the fee waived. We ask that students who register for classes fully commit to improve. Please take a moment to review the class options as a family and register as soon as possible. To register, go to: https://old.wcs.edu/fhs/academics/act-at-fhs/
Page High
Students in Mr. Jimmy Bakers Foundations Technology classes are using the engineering design process to design, draw and build a CO2 powered balsa wood dragster. The cars must meet a weight limit and several aerodynamic design tolerances. The students must first build a styrofoam prototype which helps them mathematically calculate the final weight of their balsa wood dragster. Many re-designs happen at this point as the weight limit is critical. The building process takes in the safe use of several different tools and machines. Wind flow, inertia, and wheel alignment tests are utilized after the building process before the cars meet on the racetrack. MPH and G-force are then calculated from the race data. The best-car-design and the fastest dragster are recognized for their problem solving and building techniques.
Ravenwood High
January 15 is the Basketball Think Pink Games vs. Summit and everyone is encouraged to wear pink! RHS Girls Basketball Team has sold pink shirts all week and the proceeds raised will go to support The ABC Program of the Brentwood YMCA for breast cancer patients. Additionally, next week is Coming Home Week for RHS! The students will celebrate the week with dress up days including Pajama Day, Senior Citizen Day and Crayon Day. The week will conclude with a celebration pep rally on Friday and the Crowning of the 2016 Queen and King during half time of the Boys’ Basketball Game against Centennial High School.
Summit High
Congratulations to the Summit High School Students of the Month for November. Freshmen: Chris McElvain and Callie Battenfield, Sophomores: Davis Jackson and Emma Alford, Juniors: Tanner Koza and Ashley Archer, Seniors: Connor Barnett and Carlye Grandy.