February 2- Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament- 3:15 at Chase

February 4- Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament at HPHS

February 6- Boys basketball- 3:15- V/JV @ JMS, B team @ RMS

February 8- Parent-Teacher Conferences from 3:30-7:30 pm

February 9- Parent-Teacher Conferences from 7:30-7:30 pm

February 9 & 10- NO SCHOOL

February 11- Harvesters @ 9AM

February 13- Boys basketball- 3:15- V/JV @ FMS, B team @ JMS

February 14- PTO Meeting @ 7PM

February 16- Boys basketball- 3:15- V/JV @ CMS, B team @ JMS

February 17- Skating Party @ 5PM - Sk8Away

February 20- Boys basketball- 3:15- V/JV @ EMS, B team @ JMS

February 23- Boys basketball- 3:15- V/JV @ JMS, B team @ FMS

February 27- Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament

February 28- Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament

February 27-March 1- Spring Musical Auditions 3-5PM

March 1- Varsity Boys City Classic- TBD

High school counselors visited Jardine on January 17th to meet with the 8th grade students. The counselors’ presentation focused on opportunities available at their high school. They also answered any questions the students had regarding high school.

Mr. Falk has finished going into the classrooms preparing the students for high school pre-enrollment. This included completing course requests for their freshman year, entering courses that are required to graduate, and choosing electives to complete a 4-Year Plan. Please ask your student to show you their course plan in Naviance.

Student enrollment information will be shared with parents during the Parent/Teacher Conferences on February 8th and 9th by Mr. Falk and Ms. Waldy. If you have questions regarding your student’s high school enrollment prior to conferences, please feel free to contact Mr. Falk at 730-8115.

An 8th grade student visit to their assigned high school will be scheduled to take place in May. Dates and times have not been finalized.

12 Social Habits Every Middle Schooler Needs to Learn

Today I was thinking to myself “what would be a good topic for our February Newsletter?” Since it is the month of Valentines/Palentines Day, focusing on friendship seemed like a perfect topic.

Project School Wellness is an organization that provides information on how to be a successful student socially and emotionally. I found an article they posted with great information on making and keeping friends.

Enhancing social well-being all starts with learning how to be a good friend. Social well-being creates emotional safety for students as they learn to navigate middle and high school.

The "Be a Good Friend" List:

1. Smile and say hello. This simple act is like opening a door to the possibility of new relationships.

2. Be brave. Leave your comfort zone. You're never gonna make new friends if you play it safe. Sit at a new table a lunch. Join a club that none of your friends are in. Partner up with a stranger in PE.

3. Always choose kindness. Kindness begets kindness. It's really quite magical.

4. Be genuinely interested. People feel so honored when you pause to genuinely be interested in their life. It is such a simple way to show that you care.

5. Experience empathy and see the world from different perspectives. Everyone is walking a different path. Taking the time to understand someone else's journey powerfully impacts the way you see the world and enhances your ability to connect with others.

6. Laugh and have fun! Don't take life too seriously, just enjoy the ride.

7. Be loyal, trustworthy, and honest. You can never go wrong by being loyal. keeping people's secrets, and sharing honestly.

8. Show up. Show up when it's easy and fun. Show up when you say you're going to show up. Show up when it's hard and uncomfortable.

9. Be present (Yes, that means getting off your phone). Don't let your phone block your view of reality.

10. Listen intently. We all want to be heard. Take time to fully and wholeheartedly listen to people when they open up and share.

11. Be humble and apologize when you mess up. You're gonna mess up. It happens and it's okay. That's life. So when it happens, own it, apologize, and grow from the experience.

12. Be you. There's the only one you. Don't deprive the world of your unique self.

John Wooden once said, “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

I would like to remind all students that want to participate in athletics that KSHSAA has a rule you must pass five of your classes before you can participate. This rule applies to the quarter before each season. For the sixth graders who want to participate next year, your eligibility will be based on your fourth quarter grades. The district has an eligibility rule that you must pass all classes in order to play during your season. We run weekly grade checks and if you are failing a class you have until the day of the game to pass that class. This does not mean waiting until 1pm the day of the game to turn in late work. Please be a student first and the rest will take care of its self. KSHSAA also has a rule on physicals, if you want to participate for the 2023-2024 season. You must have a physical on file dates after May 2023.

Boys basketball season has started, I would like to remind everyone about the expectations for spectators. All students attending as spectators must pass all classes and pay a $2.00 admission to attend. Students with any failing grades will not be allowed into after school events. Students attending away games must be accompanied by a parent and the parent must stay with the student. Students not picked up 15 minutes after the end of the game may not attend other events for the quarter.

• Students have been busy creating a new favorites list for the new semester. This gives the students an opportunity to search for books in our library they are interested in and would enjoy reading.

• At the end of January and February, we will be working on a Canva project where the students will be creating author bookmarks. I hope to have a school wide contest with this project.

• Students will be receiving new chromebooks NEXT year, in August. There was a slight miscommunication about them receiving them this semester, but that wasn’t able to happen.

• If your student is having chromebook issues, please tell them to visit the library to talk to Ms. Gilliland.

• Each student at Jardine is allowed to check out up to 3 library books at a time. The students are allowed to checkout anytime they have permission from their teachers.

• I am hearing that many students do NOT have a proper chromebook charger. You can purchase one from A office for $25 or follow these links at Walmart.com or Amazon. Please do not continue to charge your chromebook with a phone charger as this will destroy the chromebook battery due to the different watts.

Some of our Jardine musicians are participating in Topeka Youth Jazz Workshop for a 6-week clinic. The session will wrap up with a free concert on February 11 in Washburn University’s White Concert Hall at 3:00 pm.

March 1—7th and 8th Grade Band will perform for the Boys Basketball Classic at HPHS. Time: TBA.

Reading AND Technology DO go together!

The Topeka Public Library has some fantastic apps that allow students to both read and listen to novels! In fact, there are THREE different novel based downloads that are available to students using their Chromebooks! If you have a Topeka Public Library card, you can enjoy any or all of the following!

• Hoopla Digital

• Free audiobooks, eBooks, and comics! You can download them right to your device so that WIFI isn’t necessary in order to enjoy a great story.

• Overdrive

• Thousands of great eBooks and audiobooks! New titles are added every week!

• Flipster

• Check out hundreds of magazines online! This includes children’s magazines!

Go onto the Topeka Public Library website and check out the downloads!

www.tscpl.org/downloads

Here's What's Happening in Language Arts

6th Grade: Ms. Appelhanz/Ms. duBois/Ms. Wooten: Unit 3; focus on: Main Idea, Fact & Opinion, Cause & Effect, Homophones, Vocabulary, Affixes, & Poetry. Novels: “The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963” & “Freak the Mighty” & “Garvey’s Choice

7th Grade: Ms. Bisconer/Ms. Morlock/Ms. Wooten: Unit 3 – we will be diving into point of view, word parts, and adding to our repertoire of figurative language with personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia. Novels: “A Girl Named Disaster” & “Al Capone Does My Shirts”

8th Grade: Ms.Bisconer/Ms. Pumford/Ms.Watson: The 8th grade is working on a historical fiction novel study of Mississippi Trial:1955. We're focusing on issues of racial equality and the Civil Rights Movement. Once we have finished that, we will be starting Collection 4 where we will examine what it means to be an adult.

*All grade levels will be taking party in the District Writing Assessment at some point between January 30th – February 24th.

Newcomer English Program: Ms. Shelton: In the month of February we look forward to meeting with parents for conferences on Wednesday, February 8th, and Thursday, February 9th. Both Newcomer classes will also be taking the Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessments (KELPA) February 13 - 22nd. This is a series of four language tests: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. This test will help us schedule students in the appropriate English language class for next year. Also in February our Newcomer 1 class will be learning about the parts of the body, and feelings. Our Newcomer 2 class will be learning about families, rooms of the house, and furniture.

ESOL: Ms. Scott: Students in the ESOL program begin the month of February with the Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessment (KELPA). This exam takes place in 4 sections. English Learners must demonstrate their proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. These scores are used to make scheduling decisions for the following school year and to ensure that students are receiving the proper support in the classroom.

After KELPA, students will dive into their Quarter 3 PBL projects, which center around the driving question: How do people bond over sports? Students explore how sports can help bring communities together and have the power to change peoples' lives. Students will able to argue why sports are so important to communities, justify why sports should be encouraged and supported, or state a claim about a sporting event and defend their position with evidence.

6th Grade: Sixth grade science is working through Newton's Laws of Motion. We will then make an abrupt acceleration and change gears to investigate some non-contact forces. These will include magnetic forces and electric forces. Ferromagnetism, electromagnetism, and other concepts will be explored and taught.

7th Grade: Our fabulous seventh graders are currently and have worked on learning all about States of Matter and Changes of State. We have moved on to the Periodic Table of Elements, chemical formulas, chemical equations/reactions and balancing chemical equations. Our learning will be through classwork, computer simulations, investigations and labs to help them understand how substances act when mixed together.

8th Grade: We get to build off of what was learned in the student’s 6th and 7th grade years in chemistry. We focus more on identifying if a chemical reaction or physical change has occurred, and if it is chemical, is it endothermic or exothermic. This means several “fun” labs (I think ALL labs are fun), but also doing more math by balancing chemical equations. This is also a time where we focus on following proper procedures and practicing safety during labs.

6th Grade Ancient History Greetings from 6th grade history! We are working through the rise of the Ancient Greeks. We will be looking at different types of governments, geography, and relate it back to the living legacy of today. We will also be diving into a compare and contrast of two very differing city-states: Athens and Sparta. Persian Wars, the battle of Thermopylae, and so so much more. Please help your student keep up on assignments and assigned reading. Remember, the history text book is accessible through the Clever portal on your students; ChromeBook.

7th Grade Social Studies classes are studying Kansas History. Students will understand the early explorers' views of the land that is now Kansas and how that shaped the future of Native American Nations living in the East and Southeast. We will be examining the events that led up to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and the consequences of that legislation on Native American Nations as they were forcibly removed from their land and marched to what is now Oklahoma and Kansas.

Students will examine primary sources, analyze, and draw their own conclusions about this event in history. They will be able to determine the causes, motives, and effects of Andrew Jackson's desire to remove Native Americans.

8th Grade US History This year has been flying by fast. We have been working hard in our 8th Grade Social Studies Classes to prepare the students for high school. The students have been analyzing documents, having open discussions, and using their critical thinking skills to write a response to a question. We are currently on our American Civil War Unit and then move on to Reconstruction. The students will be assigned projects soon so please ask them about them. As always, ask your children about school and what they are learning,

6th grade is working on Module 4. It's all about expressions and equations. Students will be developing a deeper understanding of the mathematical properties with applications. They will revisit order of operations with the addition of exponents and parentheses. 6th graders will be introduced to the concept of letters that replace numbers and writing expressions using mathematical language. Finally, students will understand and practice the distributive property. This is a wonderful unit that introduces students to more mature abstract thinking and the development of foundational concepts for future mathematics!

7th Grade we are finishing up our unit over “Expressions and Equations”. After taking the unit test, we will be transitioning to our 4th Module, “Percent and Proportional Relationships”. Module 4 parallels Module 1’s coverage of ratios and proportions, but this time with a concentration on percent.

Problems in this module include:
-simple interest
-tax and fees
-markups and markdowns
-gratuities and commissions
-percent increase and decrease
-percent error

Additionally, this module includes percent problems about populations, which prepare students for probability models about populations covered in Module 5. If your child needs additional support in math, please consider after school tutoring.

8th Grade math students are currently investigating slope and graphing linear equations. As 7th graders last year, they had the opportunity to learn about proportional relationships and their equation, y=kx. “k” functioned as the constant of proportionality, and the graph went through the origin, (0,0) and had a constant rate of change- the “k”. In 8th grade, we are still working with linear relationships, such a proportional relationship, but this year the line may or may not go through the origin, (0,0). The updated equation for this year is y=mx+b, with m representing the constant rate of change that all linear relationships must have and the b represents where the graph of the line will cross the y-axis, thus b=y-intercept. Students will be asked to write, interpret, and graph information in two variables from various situations.

You can expect to see homework that asks your child to do the following:

▪ Write and solve problems with proportional relationships involving speed, distance, time, and other constant rates.

▪ Write a linear equation in two variables.

▪ Given the value of one variable, solve a two-variable linear equation to determine the value of the other variable.

▪ Compute information for a constant rate problem, or a linear equation, and graph the data in the coordinate plane.

▪ Given data in a coordinate plane, determine whether the data represent a given linear equation. ▪ Find solutions to an equation, and plot the solutions as points on a coordinate plane.

▪ Graph linear equations on the coordinate plane.

You can help at home in many ways. Here are some tips to help you get started.

▪ Point out activities involving rate in everyday life (i.e., things you do that can be measured in terms of the time it takes to do them, such as number of words typed per minute or number of hot dogs sold per hour). Have a conversation about whether those rates are actually constant or whether we simply speak of the average rate as if it were constant. For example, do you actually drive through town at a constant rate of 30 mph, or is that your average rate? We will use constant rate often in this topic to mean average rate.

▪ Give your child a rate, and have her determine an equivalent rate. For example, if you walk at an average rate of 3 miles per hour, how many hours will it take you to walk 9 miles?

▪ Write a two-variable equation for the situations described above, making sure to define the variables. For the example above, if m represents the number of miles walked and t represents the number of hours you walk, the two-variable equation is m = 3/1 t, or just m = 3t.

Believe it or not, we are closing in on our second semester parent teacher conferences! The 3rd quarter is just now kicking off! We now have boys basketball playing games and are off and running. We also are now in the thick of activities and grading in PE class.

As we usually do we also want to take this opportunity to remind you all of our PE rules:

Prompt Prepared Participate Pleasant

ITEMS NEEDED FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION CLASS:

• Tennis shoes - No Crocs, boots, slides, sandals, etc.

• Clothing you can comfortably participate in. No hoodies, coats, tight pants, shirts that dip down in the front, midriffs, tank tops etc.

• No jewelry. Watches included.

• Deodorant should be kept in bookbags.

• If a student utilizes an inhaler, the necessary paperwork must be on file with the school nurse. Please mark inhalers with names.

*We will meet in the gym and place belongings against the walls. Each grade will have a designated spot to put their belongings every day.

TIMELINESS

• A student is tardy to class if they are not in the gym when the bell rings.

• Points will be deducted if you are not in your assigned squad spot when daily roll is being taken.

NON-PARTICIPATION

• If a student is to be excused from participation for an extended period of time because of health or physical problems, a note from a medical doctor to the teacher will be necessary.

GRADING

All grading will be done daily and meeting our district P.E. Standards.

Ways to earn daily points:

1. Prompt - be on time to class…………………………... ..(1 point)

2. Prepared - correct clothing/shoes worn for class ……….(1 point)

3. Participate - participate in class activities ……………….(1 point)

4. Pleasant - have a good positive attitude ………………...(1 point)

Each weekly assignment will be worth 20 points (4 points per day)

SAFETY RULES AND MISCELLANEOUS REMINDERS:

• Students are to enter the far east door of the gym at the beginning of class. Girls will exit through the south gym doors. Boys will exit into the hallway from the boys’ locker room.

• All students will go to the locker room at the end of class to use the restroom, put on deodorant, get drinks etc. You will be verbally dismissed from the locker rooms.

• Do not handle any piece of equipment unless under direct supervision of the teacher.

• HORSEPLAY will NOT be tolerated.

• NO food including gum and candy. Water ONLY!

• Last hour and bus riders.

• Noise level in the locker room is 0-1.

• CELLPHONES are to be kept in your bags at all times.

• Teachers need to know immediately if there are ISSUES in class.

• DRILLS: Secure campus, lockdown, fire drill and tornado drill procedures.

• Talk through a day in PE. Roll, warm-ups, universal signal, explanation of activity, 10-minute bell, locker rooms, dismiss form locker rooms and exit out the designated doors.

• Practice universal P.E. signal.

• Daily class leaders.

Have a great end of the year!

Jardine artists have much to celebrate this month. Please congratulate seventh graders, Sophia Brown, for winning first place in the 7th grade art category for the MLK Living the Dream competition. Receiving second place in the 7th grade category was Trinity Pettit and Leianna Gonzalez. This is a great honor as our Jardine students competed amongst other students both in and out of our district. Design one students are taking off this semester learning about Design Principles and Elements of Art. These are the foundations for all art and a prerequisite for all 501 high school art classes. In addition students are earning a high school credit for high school.