MSCAZ - March Newsletter

Dear Parents, The year continues to move swiftly by us as I watch your children mature both physically and emotionally. Middle School is such a unique time for our emerging adolescents. They are strug-gling with who they are and how they fit in. I often tell parents that the standards your family sets really will make the difference as they face very difficult choices.

Keep up your efforts! It’s worth it. There will be early dis-missal for parent teacher conferences on March 10. We will dismiss at approxi-mately 11:00. Please re-member that students may not ride another bus unless it is for child care. We will have a staff development day on Friday, March 18. There will be no school for stu-dents.

Interim reports will be available on-line Friday, March 18. If you have ques-tions about a particular com-ment or grade, please contact the appropriate teacher. Sincerely, Jean J. Regan, Ed.D. Principal

March/April

2011

CAZENOVIA MIDDLE SCHOOL

Congratulations to the entire MIddle School for their overwhelming success in the canned food drive. The Mid-dle School Canned Food drive "Bring It" took place from January 17-27. Students were asked to bring cans for Caz Cares. The 5th grade brought canned fruit, the 6th grade tuna fish and the 7th grade was responsible for peanut

butter. Overall, over 650 cans were collected. Mr. Tugaw's 7th grade homeroom, Mrs. Burry's 6th grade homeroom and Mrs. Slocum's 5th grade homeroom, led the way in each grade level. Mrs. Slocum's class was the overall school winner. A big THANK-YOU to all who par-ticipated.

Principal’s Message

Middle School Canned Food Drive

Middle School Messenger

Spring Testing Schedule

ELA 5—May 4,5,6

ELA 6—May 4,5,6

ELA 7—May 4,5,6

Math 5—May 11 & 12

Math 6—May 12 & 13

Math 7—May 12 & 13

The Interdisciplinary Committee (Art, Family and Consumer Science, Music and Physical Education) kicked off a Literacy Campaign for the month of February. Students and teachers were asked to focus on several words. Our goal was to encourage literacy by having the students think about these vocabu-lary words and their definitions, how these words relate to the different sub-jects areas and how they can use them in their everyday language. Students were given blue bracelets with "Define this...." on them, to help remind them of our focus. The words were chosen

The interdisciplinary committee would

like to thank Mrs. Jane Mistur and the

Middle School P.T.A. for purchasing the

bracelets.

P A G E 2

from the National Standards for the Arts and were as follows:

UNITY: agreement between people or groups.

RHYTHM: strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound

BALANCE: even distribution of weight; keeping steady

EMPHASIS: special importance given to something

CONTRAST: notable difference

MOVEMENT: act of changing location or position

becomes the king and must choose his

queen. This year, Lily Loveless found

the “feve” and became the queen. She

chose Patrick Nourse as her king. The

whole group was very excited to par-

ticipate in Three Kings Day.

The Middle School French Club

celebrated Three Kings Day in January.

Traditionally, this holiday is on January

6 and is to honor the three Wise Men

who came to see the baby Jesus after

Christmas.

The common French custom is to

serve a cake, “une galette”, into which

a small coin or a bean, “une feve”, is

baked. The cake is cut into the appro-

priate number of pieces for the exact

number of guests. There is much an-

ticipation and careful chewing to see

who receives the “feve”. If a girl re-

ceives it, she becomes the queen, “la

reine”, and must choose her king, “le

roi”. If a boy receives “la feve”, he

M I D D L E S C H O O L M E S S E N G E R

Three Kings Day

Interdisciplinary Committee Literacy Campaign

Mardi Gras Celebration French Club celebrated Mardi Gras in Feb-ruary. Traditionally, Mardi Gras is the Tues-day preceding Ash Wednesday, and stands for "Fat Tuesday." The name evolved from the fact that originally all of the fattening food in a household was consumed on this day in preparation for Lent when certain rich foods were given up. The students celebrated by eating crêpes, a traditional Mardi Gras food in France and New Orleans, and also made masks which are worn in Mardi Gras parades. They used purple feathers to signify justice, and the colors green and yellow for faith and power. The students enjoyed this holiday!

NYS Department of Health School Requirements NYS Education Department requires all current 11 year old students receive the Tdap vaccination.

This is a mandatory requirement for entrance into 6th grade .

Please have your physician or clinic, complete this form and return it to the Health Office ASAP.

_______________________________had the (Boostrix/Adacel) Tdap vaccine on ________________.

_______________________________had a Td, DT or DTaP on_______________________________.

_________________________has a medical exemption and the vaccine is contraindicated.

Physician name and signature:_______________________ ________________________________

Exceptions:

If a child received a Td, DT or DTaP vaccination within the last 2 years, the Tdap vaccine should be deferred until a period of 2 years has elapsed and then get the Tdap vaccine.

P A G E 3 M I D D L E S C H O O L M E S S E N G E R

Music Department Notes Student Musicians Participate in All County Concerts

Old Man Winter 2011 has been cold and blustery and managed to wreak havoc with many scheduled events in-cluding our student musicians and their scheduled All County music experience. The Madison County Music Educator's Association hosted their winter festival at Stockbridge High School on Satur-day, January 22. Generally the week-end entails both a Friday and Saturday rehearsal before public performances on Saturday afternoon. Despite a can-celed Friday night rehearsal due to weather conditions, musicians put to-gether polished performances for their

parents and community. Congratula-tions to the following middle school musicians who auditioned and received a spot in our January festival. Mr. Macreery's string students included seventh graders Bailey Forrett and Mimi Gabor. Mrs. Dougherty's sixth grade choral singers were Molly Car-ges, Caeli Carroll, Hope Earley, Faith Gara, Megan Henderson, Janie Kempf, Emily Mahoney, Elizabeth Riha and Will Shephard.

The following 5th and 6th grade band students have been chosen to participate in the Madison County Mu-

sic Educators' All-County Band during the weekend of March 18th and 19th at Chittenango High School. They were chosen from a very large group of students from all over Madison County as some of the best young musicians in our schools! Rehearsals will take place on Friday night and Saturday, with the performance on Saturday afternoon. Congratulations to Caze-novia's finest!

Molly Carges, Janie Kempf, Tori

Slocum, Caeli Carroll, Ryan Marshall,

Megan Henderson and Brad Jones!

Keep up the great work!!!

Most students returned healthy from Winter Break. The “real flu” with high fever, head and body aches, dry cough, hair follicles that actually hurt was in its second week of affecting middle school students just before vacation. Many people are still absent but only a couple seem to have a fever. Hopefully vacation was long enough to stop the spread of illness. There has been a much higher incidence of strep throat this year. The stomach bug comes and goes. There is also an increase in concussions and broken bones. I wonder if the lack of sunlight, Vitamin D and Calcium is affecting our children’s bone health.

I’ve been to many School Nurse educational offerings this winter. I received a lot of wonderful informa-tion on a broad range of topics: Ce-liac Disease, Diabetes, Epilepsy,

is mandatory for all 11 year old stu-dents before they can enter 6th grade. It is also recommended that adults have this vaccine when they need a Tetanus shot. Please see the form on Page 3 and have it com-pleted by your physician as soon as possible.

It was brought to my attention

that there has been a significant

increase in the amount of soda chil-

dren are bringing from home for

their lunch. The school offers milk,

juice and water—a much healthier

alternative. With the increase in

childhood obesity and Type 2 Diabe-

tes, perhaps you could consider

leaving the soda at home. Think

Health!

Please call me if you have ques-

tions or concerns about your child.

I can be reached at 655-1332.

Diane Belton, R.N.

P A G E 5

Gender Identity, HIV/AIDS, Hypno-sis as Medical Treatment, Tourette Syndrome and a 15 hour course on Drug Impairment Training for the Educational Professional -DITEP presented by the Syracuse Police Department. It is always great to learn new information, or just have a refresher, or reaffirmation of what I already know.

Food Allergies are a major con-cern for schools. The main ones being peanuts, shellfish, tree nuts, and eggs. These allergies generally do not get better with age, and re-actions can actually get much worse. An Epi Pen should be available to anyone with a true food allergy. The Physician who spoke on this felt an Epi Pen should be used immediately for any symptom such as hives, shortness of breath, cough, abdomi-nal pain etc.

Diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate. Type2 Diabetes, which used to be considered adult onset is now being seen in over-weight children.

Pertussis (Whooping Cough) is on the rise. Immunity wanes after 5-6 years, so middle school stu-dents are at risk of contracting this illness. Therefore, the Tdap vaccine

M I D D L E S C H O O L M E S S E N G E R

Health Office Hype

Citizens of the Quarter

The second quarter Citizens of the

Quarter have been named. This is an

honor awarded to a student who dis-

plays good manners, a positive atti-

tude, a consideration for others, co-

operative behavior and a responsibility

toward self and school in an exemplary

manner. The students are nominated by

their teachers who use specific exam-

ples to explain why they feel their

nominee has earned this honor. It em-

phasizes attributes that are not easily

measured by grade reports.

Each student will receive a certifi-

cate as a reminder of this honor. Con-

gratulations to: Steven LaFever, Sadie

Coleman, Jack Bookbinder, Shannon

Croft, Nate Romig, Christian Winkler,

Eric Ketcham, Faith Gara, Mackenzie

Gregg, Kacie Burdin, Janie Kempf,

Nicole Fish, McKinley Dennison, Ste-

vie West, Chris Becker, Siobhan Kier-

nan, Sarah Dickinson, Jillian Pouliot,

Jake Bosworth, Kaitlin Rossiter and

Anjali Harris.

Dental Clinic Drs. Revercomb and Boule, Manlius dentists, will be host-

ing their annual free dental cleaning day March 20 this year.

This is for students in need of dental care but unable to re-

ceive it on their own and do not have any insurance, their own

dentist or Medicaid. In other words, families who just don’t

have the finances to pay dental bills. Please contact Diane

Belton in the Health Office at 655-1332 by March 15, 2011,

if you would like your child to have the opportunity to take

part in this very generous offer. It is a wonderful way to pro-

vide the care your child may need without the cost that goes

along with it. You must provide transportation to and from

the office. Please don’t hesitate to call.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

Art Club

2 3 4 5

6 7 8

Art Club

9 10

1/2 Day Par-

ent/ Teacher

Conferences

11 12

13 14 15

Art Club

16 17 18

Staff Devel-

opment—No

School

19

20 21 22

Art Club

23 24

French Club

25 26

27 28 29

Art Club

30 31

March 2011

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14

15 16

17

Spring

Recess

18

Spring

Recess

19

Spring

Recess

20

Spring

Recess

21

Spring

Recess

22

Spring

Recess

23

Spring

Recess

24 25 26 27 28

French Club

29 30

April 2011