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School Snippets – November 19, 2015

Published November 19, 2015

The information below is provided by each school. Schools are listed in alphabetical order according to grade level.

Elementary Schools

Allendale Elementary

The dads and daughters of Allendale Elementary showed off their dancing skills at the Allendale’s first Daddy, Daughter Dance. It was a fall theme with canopy lights hanging from the basketball goals. Dresses and corsages adorned the daughters while the dads looked sharp in jackets and ties. The daughters taught their dads how to do the whip/nae-nae dance while the dads showed off the electric slide. Cupcakes and lemonade were served and pictures were taken to commemorate the special event. A lasting memory was made by all who attended.

Bethesda Elementary

On November 16, Bethesda Elementary had a very entertaining guest. The Super Scientist visited Mrs. Karen Waddell’s kindergarten class. The Super Scientist put Kool-Aid in a cup and added dry ice and they made a foggy potion. The students were super surprised to see the foggy potion and very excited!

Chapman’s Retreat Elementary

Third graders at Chapman’s Retreat Elementary became aware of a way they could make a difference and bring a smile to children battling cancer. The third graders were told about a fourth grader, Ty, who is a patient battling leukemia at St. Jude Children’s Hospital. A CRES teacher, who is a friend of Ty’s mother Michelle, asked her if there was anything they could do. Michelle suggested that socks are always a comfort to the patients and are needed to help with warding off infections. With that information, the third grade teachers and students decided to start a “Sock It” to Cancer Campaign. The goal would be to collect 250 pairs of socks that would be delivered to St. Jude’s hospital over the Thanksgiving Break. The third grade students at CRES have collected a total of 358 pairs of socks to distribute to St. Jude patients. Dr. Carol Garrett is truly proud of her third grade Cheetahs caring for their community!

College Grove Elementary

College Grove recently hosted their Father and Daughter Dance. The theme this year was a western hoe down and all the dads and daughters got into the theme by dressing up in their gear. Besides dancing, there were opportunities to play games and take photos in the photo booth. A great time was had by all!

Crockett Elementary

Third graders at Crockett Elementary have been incubating eggs as part of their Science unit. They have cared for the eggs and watched the baby chicks hatch. Several classes were able to use time lapsed photography to film their eggs hatching. In other news, during library, students in Ms. Vahaly’s kindergarten class read the VSBA book, Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses. They made their very own magic sunglasses so they could see the day on the bright side too. Also, this was the last week of run club. Around 150 students participated in this great after school activity logging a total of 1,411 miles.

Grassland Elementary

Fifth graders at Grassland Elementary were celebrated at JA BizTown as we were the 100,000th visiting students. JA BizTown is a fully interactive simulated town where fifth grade students take charge by running businesses, earning paychecks and voting in elections. The students are learning the basics of business, trade and commerce. Fifth grade has also been learning coding in computer class.

Heritage Elementary

Heritage Elementary students are gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday. Kindergarten celebrated with an educational feast today. They dressed in costume and enjoyed a large feast. Parents were invited to attend. HES has also had a wonderful Book Fair this week. The fourth annual PTO Sponsored Breakfast with Santa is set for December 5 from 8:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. Students and parents are invited to enjoy free breakfast, performances, crafts and photos with Santa.

Hunters Bend Elementary

Hunters Bend Elementary School is having its annual book fair this week. Parents and students have enjoyed shopping for new books and gifts for the holiday season. Family Night was held November 17 and was a huge success.

Lipscomb Elementary

The Student Council at Lipscomb Elementary started the BE NICE student recognition program. Students nominated other students and every Wednesday, names are drawn from the BE NICE mailbox. Three students are spotlighted and receive a bear paw backpack charm. This week’s winners are Penelope Smith, Maddox Rodriguez and Joshua Muscott.

Longview Elementary

Longview Elementary celebrated an incredible Thanksgiving Dinner last Friday. Mr. Collins and his amazing kitchen crew made a delicious turkey dinner for staff, students and their families. Longview served over 1,200 people by filling the cafeteria, front hallways and library this year! Such a sweet gift to share with our community. Many blessings to all this season!

Oak View Elementary

The Daughters of the American Revolution presented Oak View with a portrait of George Washington. Oak View Elementary was the 50th school to receive this gift.

Pearre Creek Elementary

Art students at Pearre Creek Elementary are taking a journey back to the start of art. They are learning about the Prehistoric Cave Arts (15,000-10,000 BC), Egyptian Art (3,000-500 BC) and Greek Art (776-1 AD). Students used a line of symmetry to draw and cut their ed and black Greek vase. They learned about Greek culture, Greek mythology, gods and goddesses, the first Olympics and even the start of democracy. Their vases show Greek life during that time period. They will continue the journey and learn about other cultures and periods in art history. The Ancient Greek Vase Artists of the Week are Alyssa Sheldon (fifth grade), Bobby Dammert (fourth grade), Connor Britt (third grade), Bailey Rogers (second grade) and Cade Speligene (first grade).

Scales Elementary

Kindergarten students at Scales Elementary enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast dressed as pilgrims and indians. In other news, the book fair was a huge success and included cocoa and cookies with dad.

Sunset Elementary

on November 13, Sunset Elementary welcomed Vietnam Veteran Stan Tyson as he spoke to the school about his time in the war and what we celebrate when we observe Memorial Day and also about the museum we have here in Williamson County.

Trinity Elementary

Trinity Elementary hosted its second annual Career Day, where students were able to listen, see and experience different careers we have in Franklin. Students were able to meet firefighters, builders, financial accountants, a nurse anesthetist and even a rock band manager. In first grade, students performed the musical Be Grateful for their parents on November 12. The songs were about being blessed, being a turkey, loving cranberries and eating too much food! The students did a wonderful job singing the songs and had terrific confidence saying their speaking parts.

Walnut Grove Elementary

Walnut Grove Elemenary held a local NFL Punt, Pass and Kick competition this year on September 18. Approximately 120 students participated! The following students placed First and went on to compete in the Sectionals Competition at St. Thomas Sports Park on November 7:

  • Edwin Spillman, Fourth Grade
  • Fallon Keith, Fifth Grade
  • Jackson Herrington, Fourth Grade
  • Emerson Schuer, Fourth Grade
  • Bennett Spillman, Second Grade
  • Ava Brown, Second Grade

Fallon Keith and Ava Brown placed First at the Sectionals, Emerson Schuer placed Second at the Sectionals and Edwin Spillman placed Third at the Sectionals.

Westwood Elementary

Third graders are having fun with food while working on understanding fractional parts. In reading we have also been working on opinion writing and reading text to find the main idea and key details then summarize. In science we are still taking care of and leaning more about the life cycles of our crayfish.

Winstead Elementary

Fourth graders saluted all Veterans this past week in their program called Celebrate America! Students sang songs about our nation’s history and impressed the audience by singing Fifty Nifty United States, listing all the states in alphabetical order, and every president of the United States starting with George Washington. Students danced and sang Rocky Top to highlight Tennessee and its proud history. It was a fun way to celebrate out country and honoring those who have fought for our freedom. In other news, the Winstead Book Fair was a great success. Thank you to everyone who supported our library. Ms. Wright and Ms. Pat would like to personally thank all our library volunteers. We greatly appreciated your help and couldn’t have done it without you!

Middle Schools

Brentwood Middle

Brentwood Middle Studio 8 art classes recently visited the Frist Center to view Michelangelo’s Sacred and Profane collection.

Grassland Middle

Grassland Middle welcomed Rick Wimberly at the recent Empowered Parent Workshop. Rick has served as the ninth district WCS School Board member for four years, he is state chairman of Destination Imagination and founding chairman of Education Foundation for Williamson County. Mr. Wimberly met with GMS parents to discuss hot topics such as the strategic plan for Williamson County education, current testing standards and the proposed start tim changes. We appreciate his time and willingness to share information about current issues. Additionally, 2015-16 yearbooks are now available to purchase here. The GMS school code is 684. Buy before November 20 to get the lowest price.

Heritage Middle

Heritage Middle seventh graders created a wall of honor as a tribute to veterans with whom they have a personal connection.

Hillsboro School

Congratulations to all of Hillsboro’s Model UN participants for their great showing at Monday’s Model UN Conference in Murfreesboro. There were more than 120 groups from multiple schools participating, and of the 20 groups which made it to the General Assembly, 13 were from Hillsboro! Two groups received awards for Outstanding Resolution: Malayasia (Taylor Qualls, Emma Lane and Annie Cornay) and Bangladesh (Chase Robertson, Christian Darr and Ethan Ungerbuehler). The following students received awards for Outstanding Delegate: Tom Stachurski, Lily Fox, Sara Solan, Trevor Johnson, Vivienne Ayers, Jared Beazley, Christian Darr, Sofia Fisher-Cassiol, Olivia Jacobs, Taylor Qualls, Jessica Rizzardi, Chase Robertson, Lauren Stuart, Etain Williams, Hannah Williams and Valentina Hooghkirk.

Spring Station Middle

In Mr. Keel’s sixth grade social studies classes, the students looked at whether or not the famous traveler Marco Polo contributed to Ancient China’s dwindling isolationism from the rest of the world. Did Marco Polo really go to China, or did he steal stories from other travelers and pass them off as his own? Once we read about the story, the students engaged in a mock trial, with the prosecution arguing that Polo lied about his journey, and the defense arguing that Polo told the truth. Then the members of the jury went to the main conference room to deliberate and finally to vote on innocence or guilt. Because all four classes had different lawyers, the jury had different things to argue, so not all classes came to the same vote. This exercise not only tested students on their knowledge of Chinese culture, geography and history, but also gave sixth graders a lesson on U.S. civics.

Sunset Middle

Sunset Middle U.S. History students are exploring the wonderful world of infographics. Eighth grade history students are required to complete a project based assessment on Federalism in American government. Teacher Susan Hooper and Tech Coach Robin Couts helped the students use Piktocharts to create digital infographics on Federalism.

Woodland Middle

Woodland Middle had 42 students participate in the Middle Tennessee Model United Nationals Conference this week. Femi Adegoke and Grace Woodside’s resolution made it to the afternoon General Assembly. Sarah Phillipi and Owen Sandford were both recognized as Outstanding Delegates.

High Schools

Brentwood High

For the month of November, STARS is pairing up with the YAC club at BHS to bring food to families in need. We are collecting food for the “Full Tummies, Warm Hearts” charity drive. Things we need include: cans of peas, beans, yams, corn, carrots, cranberry sauce, soups, tuna and chicken. Other items needed include stuffing mix, gravy, mashed potatoes, rice, brownie/cake mixes and cash donations for families to purchase a turkey. Remember anything counts!

Page High

Congratulations to the PHS Model UN delegates on a successful conference which was held at the Embassy Suites Conference Center in Murfreesboro, November 12-14. There were over 870 students at the conference. There were 38 representatives from Page High which included a large freshman group of first-time delegates. The students showed off the writing, public speaking and research skills learned through school, working hard each day and night at the conference. Extra congratulations to sophomore Steven Kevorkian who took home an award for Most Outstanding Delegate. Steven Kevorkian and Elaine Wright also successfully defended their resolution in multiple rounds and saw it through committee and finally won approval in the General Assembly. The YMCA hosted a dance and a free time period for the kids on Saturday night. Mr. Kevin Dockery is the mentor of the Page High School Model UN Club.

Ravenwood High

On November 14, Ravenwood High hosted the seventh annual Dodge for a Cause to benefit Make-A-Wish Middle Tennessee. Twenty-six teams participated in the tournament and RHS raised approximately $3,000. All proceeds will go toward granting a wish for a child and family with a life-threatening illness which will take place at RHS in the spring.

Summit High

Congratulations to the Summit High School Computational Linguistics Team! At the Fall Olympiad held on November 14, our students won top honors:

  • 7th place overall individual/2nd place 10th grade: Andi Mitchell
  • 2nd place overall pairs: Cole Hansen and Noah Daniels
  • 1st place overall pairs: Joshua Morabito and Olivia McClendon

Computational Linguistics is a language decoding skill similar to hacking a computer. Students worked puzzles in more than 10 languages, such as Lepcha, Lamjung Yolmo, Cree, Finnish, Japanese, Greek, Cumbria Turkish, Tatar and English. The Computational Linguistics Advisors are Pam Groom, Joan MacDonald and Jackie Zigelsky.