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RIO REPORTER

Charting a New Course of Excellence

Quarter 1 SEPTEMBER 2014

The Principal’s Corner

Dear River Hawk Family,

I want to thank the students, teachers, and parents for a very successful start to the 2014-15 school year. Our smooth start is a reflection of the collaborative efforts by all stakeholders and it’s what makes Rio Norte Junior High School truly the community’s school.

Rio Norte Junior High School’s Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) plays an instrumental role in helping create the school’s vision, as well as making sure that all students feel connected to the school. From volunteering during Summer Check-In to organizing Student-of-the-Month activities, PTSA’s fingerprint is found everywhere on our school’s culture, and for that I am very appreciative.  I highly encourage you to join our PTSA and if possible, attend their monthly meetings.

Mr. Sheridan’s ASB students have been extremely busy sponsoring successful student activities. The Welcome Back Dance was heavily attended by students, and the ASB students did a wonderful job of providing a wide variety of activities for all students to enjoy. On September 18th, the ASB students kicked-off what I hope to be a long lasting tradition -- a Rio Norte Family Spirit Night. The night included carnival games, video games, a movie in the MPR, and food trucks. Everyone who attended commented on how much they enjoyed the evening.

Rio Norte is comprised of a very caring and committed staff. Staff members are working hard to ensure that all students acquire the skills needed for a successful transition into high school and beyond, and for the 2014-15 school year, literacy skills and quantitative reasoning across all disciplines is a primary focus. Each quarter, students will be given performance tasks to better measure their reading and writing skills. Helping students develop in-depth literacy skills will take a lot of work on the part of the students, the teachers, and you, but together we can accomplish this goal.

Rio Norte has many noteworthy programs and teachers, but there are two I want to specifically highlight at this time.  Mrs. Petrovich’s engineering class:   Students in Mrs. Petrovich’s class are using computer software programs to create products with 3-D printers. These students are truly learning 21st Century skills as they work with industry quality equipment. Mrs. Ballard’s drama class:   On September 19th, Mrs. Ballard’s drama class entertained an audience of over 200 members with the musical Annie. The students worked extremely hard on their production, and all of their hard work definitely paid off. We have a very talented group of singers, actors, and dancers at Rio Norte.

We will continue to send out important information to you through our automated phone and email system. If for some reason you are not receiving our outreach communications, please let us know. Once again, thank you for all of your support. The students of Rio Norte Junior High School are an absolute joy to be around, and they bring a smile to my face every day. At Rio Norte we have a saying, “Work Hard and Be Kind...That’s It!” And I am happy to report that I see them doing both!

Vince Ferry

Principal

PTSA

If Junior High is an adrenalin rush, the first months of school are just the start of the wild ride.  We launched into September with scores of parent volunteers helping students with PE locks and lockers, and chaperoning the Back to School Dance.  Thank you to the parents who have already given so much of your time to Rio Norte.

 

October promises to be just as busy.  Students are encouraged to participate in the National PTA Reflections Arts Program.  This year’s theme is “The World Would Be a Better Place If …” Create a painting; take a photo; perform a dance; write an essay, story, or poem; play and record some music or shoot a video!   Rules and entry forms are available under the PTSA tab on the Rio Norte website, or from any of the English teachers, Arts teachers or from Mrs. Tucker at the ASB window.  Submissions are due in the office on October 17th.

 

You can join PTSA at any time and if you’d like to get involved, the volunteer coordinator at rionortePTSA@.  If you’d like to just get information and not hear about volunteering, indicate “Info Only” in your email. Thank you for supporting PTSA’s efforts! 

 

And thank you for the tremendous amount of energy you contribute to Rio Norte.

 

Kari Dahlquist

PTSA President

Rio TV

Rio TV has gotten off to a great start this year. We are currently in the process of raising $10,000 dollars to help us get to the Student Television Network Convention in the spring. It will be in San Diego this year. Last year it was in Florida, but we did not attend. The convention holds competitions, training sessions, and other activities for middle school and high school film and broadcast students from across the US and even other countries. Our first fund raiser is . Scroll down and click on the button at the bottom of the web site to purchase a unique gift for an adult in your life. Fill out the form and select our school in the drop down menu for us to get credit. Thank you for your support.

Counseling

The Rio Norte Counseling Department is looking for parent volunteers to share their career experiences with our students. 

Studies show that students who are exposed to a variety of careers in middle school make better career selections as adults.  If you would be willing to share information about your occupation, please complete the following information. Presentations will be held during advisory from 9:22-9:51. Parents who volunteer will be contacted by e-mail to select a date. Please click on the link below and complete the form.

 

Gina Burns, counselor for Nile, Thunder, SC2, ELL 8th ~ gburns@

Nadia Cotti, counselor for Columbia, Spirit, SC1-7th, RS, H2H, SC5 ~ ncotti@

Kathi Giddens, counselor for Rio Verde, Zambezi, RS, SC1, SC8, ELL 7th ~ kgiddens@

SCHOOL NEWS

( 1st Quarter Progress Report “Posted to Portal” September 23rd.

( Vision Screening October 3rd

( Fall Break is October 6th and 7th

( 1st Quarter Report Card “Posted to Portal” October 21st

( October 23rd is a Minimum Day (A1, 2) dismissal at 11:35am

( October 24th is a Four Block Day (3, 4, 5, 6) dismissal at 2:00pm

( October 31st is a C Day (all classes) dismissal at 2:00 pm

( The Halloween Dance is on October 31st from 2:00-4:00 pm

(You will be receiving information on costume guidelines)

Students with a “groove pack” do not need to purchase a ticket. PTSA Members DEDUCT

$1.00. The cost is $5-$10 depending on when the ticket is purchased.

Water and goody donations appreciated.

( “E” Early release days are all Wednesdays. Dismissal at 1:00 pm

( Veterans Day observance will be November 11th.

ELECTIVES:

ELD--

Our diverse group of students has already formed close friendships, despite having over seven different home languages represented in our program this year: Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, and Cantonese. We have started the year working hard on chunk paragraphs including evidence from the text and commentary sentences. In addition, we are piloting English 3D to promote vocabulary development, academic discussion, and justification paragraphs in response to high-interest, Jr. High related, controversial topics from the articles in the textbook. Finally, the students are collaborating on Google Docs to complete their Utopia projects as we move into reading The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Team Nile

Team Nile is off to a great start this year with a fabulous group of students.  We have so many students who tell us thank you on a daily basis.  

Please take a moment to see that your student is keeping his or her assignments organized.  Team Nile recommends organizing work for all classes in one large 3 ring binder with dividers.  If your child struggles with organization, please monitor his or her backpack and binder.  

This quarter in eighth grade English, the students have immersed themselves into the life of The Outsiders. Focusing on the literary elements of the novel, the students have been able to gain a deeper understanding of what life was like on the battlefield between the greasers and the socs. The students will analyze the relationship between fiction and truth and gain a modern-day perspective on a timeless classic.  Please check your child's book, if they are in Mrs. Davis's class.  You should see notes in the book if your child has chosen the highlighting/post-it method.  If not, please ask to see a sheet of paper, which should also have all the notes.

In science, students have been practicing their lab skills and learning the basics of chemistry.  We have imploded cans and made quarters dance in dry ice.  Students will soon be periodic table experts.  We are looking forward to the flame test lab at the end of quarter 1.

Team Rio Verde

Science classes are working on the first project of the year. We are making models of matter in different physical states to create a particle museum.

We will be moving on to the Periodic Table of Elements soon.

History Classes are studying the 13 Colonies; they did a cool CSI-style investigation of Roanoke recently.

Mrs. Kaplan is back in English with Mr. Lindgren. They wanted to express their appreciation to the students for helping to make the transitions so smooth. Our students are awesome!  They will be reading their first novel of the year soon.

Math is having Interventions every Tuesday and Thursday during Advisory. Any students may go to get extra math help from their teacher.

Science Olympiad

Our 2014-2015 Science Olympiad Team is forming. We are meeting every Wednesday at lunch. After school workshops will be starting in mid-October.  Contact Mrs. Robb at srobb@ for more information.

Team Thunder

Be sure to check in with teacher blogs for the latest and greatest class information.  Check Infinite Campus to stay on top of current grades and assignments.

World History is conquering the world...one empire at a time.  We just wrapped up our Rome murder mystery (The Barbarians finished them off) and are now moving through the Middle East and Africa.  

Accelerated Math 7 got off to its usual fast paced start.  Students are figuring out how to combine like terms, work with variables, and use equations to solve problems.  Class time was spent bidding on the show case show down, debating the distance between Harry & Hagrid, and combining "Orangemallows".

English has been exploring the various writers’ tools author's use and trying them out ourselves in different point of view writings.

[pic]

Math 7 is working on decision making and hiring firefighters using Percents, Ratios, and Unit Rates, and in science we just finished up discussing and learning about what is life science, and will start investigating cells next.

Infinite Campus:

Mrs. Shaw        Accelerated Math:

                        History:

Miss Smith      

Mr. Rayfield     

Mr. Sheridan    

Ms. Norton     

Team Zambezi:

Welcome to Team Zambezi! 

We are looking forward to a fabulous year.  We had our first team activity on August 26 and it was good fun!  In history we've traveled half way around the world already!  We began in the Roman Empire, and we are currently in our study of Islam. In October we will discover China as well as the Maya, Inca and Aztec civilizations.   In science, now that we have learned lab safety, we are well on our way to becoming experts in the world of cells.  In English, we have spent some time investigating the meaning of names and just finished our first in-class writing assignment, "My Name." Soon we will be investigating our first poetry assignments and reading "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," by Rod Serling.  We'll use characters and themes to analyze elements of literature and continue to develop our writing skills.  In math, students are learning the order of operations, integers, and conversions among fractions decimals and percents.  They are applying these concepts to real world situations.  We are also excitedly preparing for our Math Market which happens on October 21st.  Please come between 8:30 and 1:30 to shop.

We've had a very successful start to the year and we enjoyed meeting the parents who attended Back to School Night.  

VISION SCREENING [pic]

Mandatory Vision Screening will be held Friday, October 3rd, 2014 at Rio Norte.  Screening will take place the first two periods of the day.  Seventh graders and eighth graders who are summoned will be tested in the MPR.  Students will line up outside the MPR at their designated time, using the Alphabetical schedule posted (using their last name).  Students are asked to line up quietly, so that the process will flow quickly.  Students with glasses are reminded to bring them to the screening.  Any questions can be directed to the Health office, extension 1124.

Project Linus [pic]

The Project Linus club is up and running once again here at Rio Norte. This wonderful club makes blankets for children in need ages newborn to 17. Blankets can be knitted, crocheted, sewn or quilted, or the fleece tied blankets. Project Linus does have certain requirements for the blankets and all of the information can be found on our website at: .

Anyone can make blankets for Project Linus - so if you are interested in doing so, just send finished blankets into Mrs. Moore, room C3 at Rio Norte. We bring all of our finished blankets to the SCV Project Linus Chapter, and they in turn, deliver them to hospitals, shelters and other places with children in need. Thanks for supporting Project Linus. "Providing Security Through Blankets".

Physical Education

We just finished our pre-testing for the State Physical Fitness Testing which takes place in March. The pre-testing consisted of push-ups, sit-ups, trunk extension, sit and reach and height. For these tests students’ grades are not based on the number completed but rather their participation and effort on these tests. The mile run will be used to pre-test the students’ aerobic capacity and will be included on the students’ PE grade.

Fitness logs have started so log on to to download a copy, instructions and due dates.

Currently the 7th graders are learning to juggle scarves, beanbags, and rings and playing with the diablos. 8th graders are playing Over the Line and Hockey.

Intramurals

Dodgeball Intramurals are finishing up and the next intramural, 3 on 3 Basketball, is scheduled to start after Fall Break.

The 8th grade Turkey Bowl try-outs will take place in November with the game taking place on Wednesday, November 26

More information will be announced during P.E. classes.

Final Mile Challenge

Rio Norte Physical Education is so excited to be able to join the Final Mile Challenge partnered with the Santa Clarita Marathon.  Each student received a Final Mile Challenge Tally Book, which we are asking them to chart the miles they run at school and at home.  Once the student reaches 25 miles, we will meet as a school to run the Final Mile during the Marathon on November 2.  Below, you will find some answers to those common questions! 

Frequently Asked Questions….

How fast do I need to run the final mile? 15 minutes. The 25 miles of training leading up to the day of the race will train you to make that time.

When and where do we meet for the marathon? November 2nd, 12:30pm, we stretch as a group and the final mile starts at 1:00. Meet at the Pavilions/ South Fork Trail.

What does it cost? Nothing!

With all my other sports, I don't think I have time to run 25 miles. Swimming, running, soccer, walking, and other activities count towards your 25 miles. Plus, you can walk to school to add up your miles. Every 30 minutes of activity equals 1 mile.

Do miles walked/ran at school count? Absolutely! Two laps around the Rio 25 course equals one mile. Each time your class does a Timed Run it equals 1 mile.

Where do I log my miles? Everyone who returns an entry form will receive an official log book.

Any other ways we can accumulate miles? Make a family outing to Central Park and walk the track by the dog run. Use an app on your phone to track your miles and make it a fun outing together.

I'm still confused. Where can I get more information? Contact Kullen Welch at kwelch@ or check out the Rio Norte Physical Education website for forms and information

September, 2014

Rio Norte Junior High School

28771 Rio Norte Drive, Santa Clarita, CA 91354 (661)295-3700

rionorte

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