School Snippets – September 25, 2015

Published September 25, 2015

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

Elementary Schools

Allendale Elementary

Allendale Elementary will be hosting a Family Fun Night on Thursday, September 24 from 3:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. Families can shop for their favorite books at the Scholastic Book Fair, play games and purchase food from a variety of food trucks. Everyone is welcome. In other news, fifth grade teacher Kathy Watson recently donned her super hero cape and transformed into “Wonder Writer” to get students excited about the writing process. Students are inspired and encouraged by “Wonder Writer” knowing they can write with creativity and confidence.

Bethesda Elementary

Mrs. Karen Waddell’s class is working very hard to master handwriting skills and learning their letters.

Chapman’s Retreat Elementary

Second graders at Chapman’s Retreat recently visited the Sam Davis Home and Plantation to learn about 19th century Middle Tennessee plantation life. The students enjoyed participating in various activities as well as listening to music from that time period.

Clovercroft Elementary

The second grade of Clovercroft Elementary will celebrate the circle of life with the musical play NUTS! on Thursday, October 1 at 6 p.m. in the gym. As woodland animals, all kinds of nuts, a rainbow and the sun, students will sing, rap, dance and share what they’ve learned in Science. It’s absolutely NUTS!

College Grove Elementary

Fifth grade is gearing up to attend BizTown. To prepare for their trip to BizTown, they went through the electoral process to elect a Mayor of BizTown. This process included speeches and campaigning from each candidate. We are proud to announce Reid Caricofe for Mayor.

Crockett Elementary

Volunteers from Nissan recently visited Crockett Elementary to celebrate Imagination Library Week by reading to Pre-K students. In academic news, students in Kim Reff’s fourth grade class are learning about land changes due to weathering, erosion and deposition.

Edmondson Elementary

Edmondson Elementary second grade students visited Traveller’s Rest for the Trades Festival. Students learned about how people made goods long ago. They learned about trades like woodworking, weaving and pottery, in addition to making corn husk dolls, candles and much more.

Fairview Elementary

This week finds FES in the middle of our food drive! All week long, students bring in pre-selected items and try to be the class who has the most. Every afternoon, the winning class is announced and the “Can Man” poster is delivered to their door to show off. Students are not only bringing in food though They are sorting, checking for expiration dates, crossing off barcodes, boxing and carrying food to the right places. Every class has a chance to work and help out. All the food donated is given to Graceworks who then can use it for families whoa re in need in the Fairview area.

Grassland Elementary

The first graders at Grassland Elementary are engaged in the Balance, Force and Motion unit. This has been a favorite unit of study because of all the interesting and hands-on activities. The first graders are enjoying discovering how a force can move and object and change the objects direction. They are also learning how different objects can be attracted to magnets while others are not. Additionally, parents are invited to join Math Coach Beverly Gonzalez and fourth grade teacher Amy Kate McMurry on September 29 at 11:30 a.m. to learn why and how the math experience is changing. Please email Ms. Gonzales if you are planning to attend. Be sure to bring a lunch, we look forward to seeing you there!

Heritage Elementary

It has been a full week at Heritage Elementary. HES students were honored at the first BE NICE Eagle Pride assembly on Thursday, September 24. The Heritage Elementary PTO will be hosting Donuts with Dads on Wednesday, September 30 and Thursday, October 1 at 8 a.m. Additionally, students in Mrs. Weaver’s class studied rocks in Science class.

Hunters Bend Elementary

Congratulations to the newly elected student council members! Fourth grade members are: Cole Clemmons, Emily Wahlfeld, Sabrina LaFon, Kylee Atamaniuk, Emory Goodson and Abigail Kabagame. Fifth grade members are Lyla Gardner, Emma Murphy, Chris Hunter, Haley Jaworski, Logan Brownfield, Ava Lowman, Luke Bowman and Lauren Cheung. In other news, this third grade students learned about the southeast and shared their landform projects that they have been creating at home to review the types of landforms.

Lipscomb Elementary

Join us Friday, October 2 from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the annual LES Fall Fest. There will be dinner, face painting, bounce houses, a DJ, bake sale, Maggie Moo’s and a silent auction.

Longview Elementary

Third grade students in Mrs. Farner’s class dig into their study of rocks during science.

Nolensville Elementary

Students in Donovan Caballero’s science classes recently studied microorganisms. Students learned how to property use a microscope and prepare slides. Vinegar eels and volvox were observed under the lens. Fascinated by the quick movement of the vinegar eels, students had a great time observing microorganisms.

Oak View Elementary

Oak View students enjoyed Power Monday in clubs available to them. These clubs include a sports club, an iPad club and a math club.

Pearre Creek Elementary

The following students at Pearre Creek Elementary School placed first in their division for the 2015 Punt, Pass, & Kick Contest. These students will advance to the Sectional Contest that is held in late October: Lea Adams, Ava Allan, Ella Bobbitt, Carter McAdams, Taylor Tisdale, Lucas Heifner and Tucker Rector.

Scales Elementary

This week was Spirit Week at Scales Elementary. The Week was launched with a Pep Rally by the Brentwood cheerleaders leading cheers for the Spirit Stick. The fifth grade won the spirit stick.

Sunset Elementary

On Friday, September 18, Sunset Elementary celebrated 10 years along with the conclusion of spirit week with a fun-filled pep rally and a school-wide festival that evening. During the week, the students dressed up each day while raising money for the Nolensville Food Pantry. The students put change in the jars of seven chosen teachers and the teacher with the most change got to kiss a pig at the pep rally. The students raised over $600 for the food pantry. That evening at the festival, the students and their families enjoyed corn hole, a photo booth, food trucks and a DJ. The night ended with the movie, Frozen. Sunset also recognized 19 staff members who have been at the school since it opened. It was a week of celebrating the wonderful students and staff that make up Sunset Elementary.

Trinity Elementary

Mrs. Dawson’s class has been working hard in Writer’s Workshop! They have been studying narrative writing. 2-D read many mentor texts to prepare for writing and students worked with a peer editor to make sure their writing was ready for publishing. 2-D looks forward to starting Opinion Writing soon.

Walnut Grove Elementary

Walnut Grove’s first graders are reading folktales about Paul Bunyan and Davy Crockett. They will learn a folktale is a story that teaches a lesson, and are often passed down and retold from generation to generation. Meeting with a partner, students will practice retelling stories using names of characters, setting and plot, from facts they have written down. Learning how to retell stories builds students’ reading comprehension skills. In math, students are learning math strategies in addition and subtraction. Using hands on activities, technology and children’s literature, students are solving math problems to the sum of 20.

Westwood Elementary

The Westwood Elementary fall book fair will start on Tuesday, September 29 and run through Friday, October 2 at 1 p.m. We will have a family shopping event on Thursday, October 1 until 6 p.m. The online book fair is available starting September 24 at www.scholastic.com/bookfairs. In third grade, students have been working tirelessly on their multiplication and division strategies. They are also reading many genres such as expository nonfiction and fables to understand theme and message. In social studies, they are learning to use maps to find landforms and other features such as boundaries. They are also working on understanding and using different types of maps. In guidance this week, third graders helped Ms. Warden sort and count all the food that has been donated for the food drive.

Winstead Elementary

Third grade is studying the U.S. Regions this week in Social Studies. Students will learn abut the land, water, climate, culture, animals, products and natural resources for each region. They are excited to learn more about the United States. In reading, classes continue to learn about using different types of nouns correctly in their writing, and will begin the study of opinion writing and sharing their person point of view with others as they justify their opinion. In Math, students are learning about arithmetic patterns using the properties of operations and determining unknowns.

Middle Schools

Brentwood Middle

Ms. Allison Senyard’s music class held an American Music Exhibition in which students presented on different genres’ history and significant contributors. The exhibition was interactive and included technology, music and instruments. Additionally, students in Ms. Susan Houghton’s strings class were excited to receive items for class, including chairs and stands.

Fairview Middle

Students from Fairview Middle School performed September 24 at the Middle Tennessee Vocal Association’s Middle School Mass Choir event in Nashville.

Grassland Middle

Coding Club comes to Grassland Middle School. Around 70 GMS students recently gathered for the first Coding Club and had a great time exploring this new extracurricular option. WCS volunteers hosted this informative meeting and outlined the many benefits of computer coding. GMS students will learn basic computer science fundamentals and programming language while building new friendships. In other news, the Grassland Athletic Booster Club invites you to join them for a Fan Fest celebrating our wonderful Generals athletes on Thursday, October 1 from 5 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. This year’s Fan Fest is honoring our Grassland Middle School’s 30 year anniversary. The celebration will take place at the football field on the same night that our Grassland Varsity football team will be taking on our rival, Brentwood Middle School.

Heritage Middle

Heritage Middle School faculty and staff recently wore Sanfilippo Warrior shirts in support of Alex Koch. Alex is the poster child for Sanfilippo. HMS loves Alex!

Hillsboro School

The best way to remember a fantastic year at Hillsboro is by purchasing your 2015-16 Hillsboro Yearbook. The Early Bird price window is officially open, but will close on October 14. The price is $40, so reserve your copy today! Foil names are also available for $5 (first line). To purchase your yearbook, visit ybpay.lifetouch.com and enter Hillsboro’s Yearbook ID Code – 11459816. If necessary, you can purchase your yearbook through the school, but personalization can only be done online Please make checks payable to HEMS. Additionally, the player information meeting for boys soccer is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29 at lunchtime in the cafeteria. Anyone interested is invited to attend.

Page Middle

This week Page Middle was filled with honors, hands on activities and scavenger hunts. Students from seventh and eighth grade were inducted into the National Junior Honor Society on Monday evening. Over 65 new students were selected and we are looking to them to provide leadership, service, good character and scholarship to our Page community and beyond. The seventh grade also showed their creative side in science class. Their project was to design an animal or plant cell using any form of media. Students used styrofoam, while others used cake mix and after icing it, topped it with delicious treats for the parts of the cell. They made their cells and ate them too! In reading news, Ms. Clarissa Haymon’s reading classes went on a phonetical scavenger hunt to find words that contain hard “C” and soft “C” sounds. They used the autobiographical posters designed by the eighth grade Language Arts students. And in eighth grade, art students had a visit from “Big Phil” Cicero. Mr. Cicero works for the TBI as a composite artist. He showed the students the process and technologies used to make composites of possible suspects or missing persons. Look for more exciting news and pictures next week as we celebrate Spirit Week!

Spring Station Middle

Seventh grade World History hit the ground running with the study of the Fall of the Roman Empire. Rather than spending their time with class discussions and note-taking, the students engaged in a simulation activity which included every seventh grade social studies class. While enjoying the beautiful weather, students enjoyed the hands-on activity which included: barbarian invasions, economic decision-making and communication difficulties. By taking part in this simulation, the students were able to gain first-hand experience on some of the reasons the Roman Empire fell. After learning about Rome, the class turned their attention to the Arabian Peninsula where discussions about advancements and topography were plentiful. Learning where algebra originated and the importance of the Mediterranean Sea for trade were just a couple topics discussed. Next up for these hard workers will be the study of early African empires. In this unit, the students will be researching in teams to become an expert about one of the three early African kingdoms. Then, the students will have opportunity to share their findings with their peers in an extended group activity.

Sunset Middle

Students in eighth grade science were tasked with creating a 3-D model of an atom for an element. Components of the project include calculating protons, neutrons and electrons as well as dividing the electrons appropriately into orbits. Other components of the project are classifying the element as a metal, nonmetal or metalloid and color-coding the subatomic particles.

Woodland Middle

The WMAA Golf Tournament came to an end this week. The Williamson County Middle School team defeated the Private Middle schools 16.6 to 10.5. Congratulations, golfers!

High Schools

Brentwood High

The boys and girls golf teams both qualified for the State Championship by winning regionals Monday, September 21. Leading the teams to victory were Trevor Johnson and Annie Paris. Both golfers won low medalist honors by finishing first in the Regional Championships.

Centennial High

Centennial celebrated Latino Family Night at the Football game Friday night. The crowd was treated to music, dance and a flag parade representing all the countries that are a part of the student population. There were flags from Mexico, El Salvador, Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Chile, Columbia, Bolivia and Spain. In other news, congratulations to junior Brian Piggott and sophomore Charlye Williams on being selected Centennial’s BE NICE Ambassadors for the county. They will also serve on Dr. Looney’s Student Advisory Council along with CHS senior Jonathan Helton. Be sure to check the CHS website for all Homecoming activities next week!

Fairview High

The Fairview Lady Jacket soccer tam continued their dominance over the weekend at the Jackson Tournament, taking second out of six teams. The Fairview FFA advanced to regionals following a stellar land judging performance at competition. And the Fairview Transition 1 and 2 classes have started selling snacks and drinks in the hallway between classes to gain social skills and to raise money for their classroom.

Franklin High

There are a few things happening around Franklin High in the upcoming weeks. Herff Jones will be available during lunch on Tuesday, September 29 for anyone who would like to order a class ring. Parent-teacher conferences will be held on Thursday, October 1 from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. You may sign up for conferences using your Skyward account. Neff Sports will be at FHS during lunch on October 8 to take orders for athletic letter jackets. Order forms for jackets can be picked up between now and October 7 in the Athletic Director’s office, bookstore or from Coach Johnson in Room 919. All orders must be placed an paid for on October 8. See Coach Johnson if you have any questions.

Independence High

To see highlights of what is happening at Independence High, check out IndyNow.org to read current news and features as well as see quality photos of student life. The staff of IndyNow uploads pictures and stories weekly covering news, sports, arts and entertainment, features and opinions. A link to the Indy news show is available each week as well. This is a student-created and student-run publication from the journalism class at Independence under the advisement of journalism teacher Diane Fender. The site is also available as a tab on the Independence website.

Page High

On Wednesday, September 30, junior class ring orders will be taken during lunch and after school until 6:30 p.m. Fall sports pictures will also be taken after school on September 30. If your student missed school picture day, re-takes will be Thursday, October 1 from 7 a.m. until 9 a.m. in the Ringstaff lobby but students must see Ms. Comer in room 403 ahead of time to schedule and have a note to report there. Homecoming week is September 28 through October 2 with Friday being the 40 year celebration of Page High with an Open House. The Homecoming Dance will be held on Saturday, October 3 in the Ringstaff gymnasium from 8 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. Also mark your calendars for Monday, October 5 for Financial Aid Night at the Page High Auditorium beginning at 6 p.m. Annie Trout of the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation will present a program that deals with all aspects of applying for financial aid including TN State Lottery Scholarships, TN Promise, filling out FAFSA, qualifying for need based and non-need based grants and loans, work study opportunities and family responsibilities as it applies to contributions for college education.

Ravenwood High

This week the girls’ and boys’ golf teams competed in the Regional Tournament and both finished second. Four individual golfers qualified for the state tournament and will be competing September 28-30. Congratulations to Ann Catherine Blackburn, Hayley Schroeder, Brayden Garrison and Chase Kephart for their success. The golf team is under the direction of Coach Daniel Hollandsworth.

Summit High

Follow Summit’s counseling center on Twitter (@wcsSHSmk) to get the latest information on college visits, scholarships, special opportunities, reminders about ACT and more. Several scholarship sites and applications have been added to Summit’s website. Go to the Senior Information page for scholarship information and upcoming events. Also, don’t forget that your TN Promise application is due November 2.