West Smithfield Celebrating Culmination of Biome Study West Smithfield Elementary School will host an event to culminate its schoolwide biome study on Wednesday, December 14 at 1:30 p.m. and Thursday, December 15 at 9:15 a.m. Student work displays will be available for viewing prior to and immediately following the program. For more information, please call Todd Holmes, Principal, at (919) 989-6418. Middle School Scholar Athlete Teams Recognized In keeping with Johnston County Schools' emphasis on academic achievement as a priority, Associate Superintendent Ed Croom is pleased to report the fall sports middle school teams with the highest grade point averages: Football, Meadow, 90.2 average GPA Fall Cheerleading, Smithfield Middle, 94.3 average GPA Volleyball, Smithfield Middle, 95.6 average GPA Boys' Soccer, Smithfield Middle, 92.5 average GPA. Congratulations! For more information, please call Ed Croom, Associate Superintendent, Administrative and Support Services, at (919) 934-6031, extension 226. South Smithfield Student Places in Poster Contest Chris Simonson, a fourth grade student in Mrs. Lori Hamilton's class, won third place in the North Carolina Department of Transportation's poster contest for the 9-11 age group. He will receive $25 and everyone in his class will receive a free NCDOT calendar with Chris' picture in it. For more information, please call Tamara Carpenter at (919) 934-8979, extension 640. Benson Middle Hosts Fundraiser for Diabetes Benson Middle School has raised more than $1500 in donations to the Walk for a Cure for Diabetes. Sixth grade Math classes used the activity to demonstrate how to create graphs for the amounts that teachers raised, merging it into the curriculum. The total surpassed the goal of $459. Fundraising activities included Caps for a Cure, where students could pay $1 to wear their favorite cap; tickets for $1 for a chance to be "Principal of the Day"; a $1 a guess Guessing Jar filled with M&Ms where the w inner gets candy and a $20 gift certificate from Wal-Mart; $1 to shoot free throws and the winner gets a BMS sweatshirt. Tickets were also sold for $1 each for a chance to have a favorite teacher kiss a goat. The teacher who received the most votes kissed a goat. For more information, please call Barry Honeycutt, Principal, at (919) 894-3889. McGee's Student Cast in Renowned "A Christmas Carol" McGee's Crossroads Middle School student Colleen Theriault will return for her third year as a cast member of Ira David Wood's A Christmas Carol for the Theatre in the Park series in Raleigh. The play will be performed Tuesday, January 6 through Wednesday, January 14 at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh. In addition to acting, Colleen loves to do flips and cheerleading. She also wants to travel. Rehearsals, which are generally held Monday through Friday, 7:30 - 9:30, are open. For more information or to schedule an interview with Colleen, please call Dolly Sickles, Marketing Director, at (919) 831-6936 or e-mail dolly@theatreinthepark.com. SJHS Students, Staff Giving Back to Community Students and staff at South Johnston High School are working to make the holidays brighter for area residents. Various groups are expressing their holiday spirit by raising funds to help others: The Air Force JROTC is involved with two separate initiatives. They are sponsoring a 50/50 raffle to raise funds for pediatric patients at Wake Medical Center. They are also sponsoring a "Coats for Kids" drive to obtain warm clothing for needy children. The Skills/VICA club is collecting toys for pediatric patients at area hospitals. The Trojan baseball team is raffling a shopping card to an area retail store. Profits from the raffle will be used to buy toys for the Marine Corps "Toys for Tots" program. The baseball team will go shopping with the funds on December 16 to purchase toys for donation. The Student Government Association sponsored a canned food drive for the Thanksgiving holiday. Over 1,200 cans of food were donated to local families. Students in the school's Key Club are taking turns ringing the bell for the Salvation Army in Benson. School principal Dr. Bryan Martin joined his students in the yearly activity to help the Salvation Army's charitable initiatives. The AIM Club at South Johnston High School has "adopted" a serviceman for Christmas, and the next few months. The serviceman is an Army paratrooper from Ft. Bragg stationed in Afghanistan. The AIM Club seeks to inspire and motivate students to succeed in high school. Since most of the members speak Spanish as their first language, the AIM Club decided to "adopt" a fellow Hispanic. The club members have sent him a Christmas package filled with toiletries, over-the-counter medicines, candy and home-baked goodies. Twenty members have sent him Christmas cards, letters and photos, and hope to correspond with him by regular mail or e-mail. We hope to make the life of a young man living far away from home a little brighter, and at the same time, share in and learn about what's happening in that troubled part of the world. For more information, contact Dr. Bryan Martin, Principal, or the club sponsors for each activity at (919) 894-3146. AIG Students Conducting Intriguing Projects Students at the Johnston County Schools AIG (Academically Intellectually Gifted) Center are engaged in projects that are exposing them to careers and other worlds. Projects for the first and second nine weeks include: Publishing the AIG Center newsletters Designing computer animations Participation in the Mars Student Imaging Project Discovering fossils on an archaeological dig Exploring the human anatomy Testing the pH of household products Quilling - an unusual, yet beautiful art medium For more information, please call Ruth High, Director, at (919) 934-9529. South Smithfield Hosting Movie at Howell's Howell's movie theatre will donate 15 percent of its profits on Tuesday, December 13 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to South Smithfield School. The feature movie is the popular Polar Express. Movies are only $2 each. For more information, please call Brian Vetrano, Principal, at (919) 934-8979. Cooper Students Preparing for Kindergarten Concert Students in Mrs. Kim Perez's kindergarten class are getting ready for the holidays! They all donned Santa hats and sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" for the Cooper office staff on Friday, December 9th. They are practicing for the Kindergarten concert to be held on Tuesday, December 20th at 7:00 pm in the Cooper Elementary School gym. All five Kindergarten classes will be performing during the concert. (See attached photo-- pictured from left to right: Joseph Alford, Rebecca Rose Seelig, Laura Sevilla, Simeon Franklin, Jonathan Beeker, Karen Flores, Kaci Wood, and Andrik Cole) Meadow's Students Perform, Give Back Kathryn B. Lee, Little Miss Meadow, has chosen the Meadow Share Program as her platform project this year. She will be collecting unwrapped toys and monetary donations for the share program. Kathryn invites citizens of the Meadow community to support the share program which provides families in need during the holiday season. Interested persons may take unwrapped toys and/or donations to Meadow School by December 15, 2005 and give them to the office personnel. Also at Meadow, the second grade students of Meadow School presented a Christmas musical at the December 5 PTA meeting. Anthony Parrish played the part of Frosty in a contemporary version of Frosty the Snowman. Sheriff Luke Moore Arrested Frosty after Mr. Crabby, Ethan Barefoot, complained about Frosty and his friends playing in his front yard. Frosty melted by the fireplace in the jail, but of course the cool breeze brought Frosty back to life. Frosty and the neighborhood girls, Makala McFadgen, Sarah Wilkins, and Sandra Cerda, danced and played together once again. The entertainment was provided by the students under the direction of music instructor, Tammy Haddock. (see photo attachments) For more information, please call Meadow School at (919) 894-4226. West Clayton Students Study Versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears During the week of November 28th, Ms. Eisel's first grade class at West Clayton Elementary School worked on a book study of various versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The different versions were compared using various graphing methods. At the same time they were putting their playwright skills to work. The children scripted their own version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and created the costumes to be worn by the student's themselves. They performed the play on December 2 in their classroom for the other first grade classes. For more information, please call Ms. Ellen Eisel, First Grade Teacher, at (919) 553-7113.
