PSSA Review PowerPoint

Ms. Minor, our Americorps worker at Central Cambria Middle School, has created a great review PowerPoint for the Math PSSA.  While it is focused on 7th grade, it contains material that is applicable to much of the 6th grade eligible content as well.  You and your child may view it at any time by following this link:

http://websites.pdesas.org/fmazzarella/2013/1/16/480432/file.aspx

Report Cards

Report cards went home with all Middle School students today.  Please review these with your child when they get home from school, and contact Mr. Santini or your child's teachers if you have any questions or concerns.

2:30 Dismissal Today for Middle School Students

Middle School and High School students will be dismissed at 2:30 today to allow our buses to complete their runs and get all students home safely in this cold weather.  If you pick your child up at school, you may arrive at the Middle School starting at 2:20 to do so.  Any student that needs to wait on a ride will be asked to do so in the lobby, and not out in the cold.  

Update Your Contact Information

The weather patterns up to this point in January can be described as a winter wonderland.  When you are out shoveling in the morning you may have other adjectives that you choose to use.  The winter weather has reinforced the importance of having updated contact information in our system so that 1) you are receiving our Global Connect calls to inform you of delays and cancellations and 2) so we can contact you in case of an emergency with your child at school.  If your phone numbers, email address, home address, or other information has changed, please come to the Middle School to fill out a new emergency card or call our secretary, Mrs. Farabaugh, and ask her to update your information.  

Central Cambria Middle School Book Fair

Central Cambria Book Fair
Tuesday, February 19 through Friday, February 21
To learn more about the book fair, to preview items, or to make purchases check out:

http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/centralcambriams

School Store Update

The Devil's Den school store, researched, created, and run by Mrs. Niebauer's 6th grade enrichment class, is off to a great start.  The store has been open for just two months, and has already earned enough business to cover all initial start-up costs and is running a profit.  The store is introducing new products on a regular basis to maintain student interest and continue to develop sales.  All proceeds from the store will go into our student activities fund to pay for activities and materials for students that fall outside the scope of our normal budget.

End of 2nd Marking Period

This Thursday, January 17th, marks the end of the 2nd marking period and the halfway point of the school year.  Report cards will be coming out next week, and we will have more information as to the exact day posted on the blog when that is determined. 

Parent Resources

I am writing to you with a heavy heart and deepest sympathy for the people of Newtown, CT and the victims of yesterday's tragic incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  While we pray for the victims and seek to understand this event, I realize that you as a parent may be struggling with how to handle talking about this event with your own children.  To this end, I welcome you to set up an appointment to talk to our guidance counselor if you need advice or assistance talking with your children about these events.  If your children are struggling with this and would like to talk to a professional, please encourage them to come to the guidance office.  We will do our best to accommodate any request for assistance that you may have.  

CCMS Students Participate in First Lego League Competition

CCMS Students Participate in FLL Competition

The best way to summarize FIRST LEGO League is to say that it is a robotics program for 9 to 16 year olds, which is designed to get children excited about science and technology -- and teach them valuable employment and life skills. FLL can be used in a classroom setting but is not solely designed for this purpose.

Each Challenge has three parts: the Robot Game, the Project, and the FLL Core Values. Teams of up to ten children, with one adult coach, participate in the Challenge by programming an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field (Robot Game), developing a solution to a problem they have identified (Project), all guided by the FLL Core Values. Teams may then choose to attend an official tournament, hosted by one of our Operational Partners.

(Taken from:  http://firstlegoleague.org)

Central Cambria Middle School students from the 7^th and 8^th grade Enrichment class competed this past Sunday in the Southwest/Central PA Championship held at Saint Francis University.  Each of our teams won an award. One team (The Devil Dominators) won the “Sticking To It” award and the other team (The Robotic Devils) won “Best Team Spirit.” In the robot programming portion of the competition we placed seventh and eighth out of twelve teams. 

The theme this year was Senior Solutions.  For the project portion of the competition, we partnered with some senior citizens from the Ebensburg Senior Center.  Each team had to come up with an idea for a product that would make seniors’ lives easier. To meet this goal we conducted interviews with the Seniors to determine what problems they faced.  We then chose a problem on which to focus and developed a solution.  The Robotic Devils decided to focus on problems associated with canes. They came up with the “Infinity Cane,” which is a cane that is made to fit the seniors’ needs. The Devil Dominators focused on technology and socialization and came up with the “eZ-TAB”, which is a tablet that is easier, bigger, and clearer for seniors to use.

The opportunity to participate in the FLL Challenge was made possible by donations from The H. F. Lenz Company, Attorney Heath Long, The Central Cambria Education Foundation, and Saint Francis University.  Participation has allowed us to build and refine skills in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and we are grateful for the opportunity.  

December Begins

It is Monday morning as we write this post.  The weather outside is full of rain and clouds, but the mood around the Middle School is bright as the Steelers defeated the Ravens last night and we are now officially into the holiday season with only three school weeks to go until winter break. 

The Devil's Den school store has had a tremendous grand opening over the past two weeks.  The first week the store was open, it was slammed with so many customers that it could have been mistaken for a discount retailer on Black Friday.  Business has been so steady that we have already had to place a second order for items that have sold out.  The store is open every Friday during our Middle School lunch period.

Our Box Tops for Education collection has also seen a tremendous response up to this point in the school year.  In Round 1, our teachers and students collected 7,264 box tops.  As a rough estimate, the school should be receiving around $720 as a result.  The top three classes from Round 1 have enjoyed being dismissed to the lunch line first for the past month as a reward.  So far in Round 2, our classes atop the leaderboard are:  1) Ms. Getz  2) Mr. Stephan  3) Mrs. Ball  4) Mrs. Urbassik  and 5) Mrs. Petre.  Round 2 will end on the last school day in December, and winners will go to lunch first during the month of January.  Thank you for participating by cutting out and collecting box tops from products that you use on a regular basis.  We appreciate the time you give to this.

Mid-term progress reports for marking period 2 will be sent home with your child on Monday, December 10, 2012.  Please look for this when students come home that day.