2014-12 Mtn Ridge v.1.Compressed

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December 2014

Main Office 303-387-1800

Fax 303-387-801

Attendance 303-387-1802

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Bookkeeper 303-387-1808

Registrar 303-387-1820

Transportation 303-387-0415

Weather Hotline 303-387-7669

Twitter follow@mountainridgems

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Halfway through the school year? Already? Wow! This year has flown by for sure. It has been a good one so far, though. As I think about finishing up first semester, entering the holiday season, and jumping into second semester, I think about small things that make a huge impact. I think about the power of a smile!

Every morning as I stand at the door and greet students as they come to school, I cant help but start my day off on a positive note. Sure we have students who come in half asleep and oblivious to the greeting (those kids make me smile too because that is so age appropriate!) More than that, though, we have the students who seek me out to say good morning and do so with a smile! Just this little act certainly brightens my day!

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A note from the principal . . .

P A G E 2

Mountain Ridge Middle School

A note from the principal . . . continued

I try to smile and interact with every student that I pass each day. There are certainly days when I may not feel like smiling, but I know how impacted I am when people smile at me. I never want a student to feel like I am not happy to see them and the simple act of smiling can share this message. No matter how busy or preoccupied I might be, passing along a smile is well worth the time and might just brighten someones day.

Goodness knows that during the holiday season there are a lot of reasons not to smile! Traffic is worse, shopping malls are crowded, we are stretched in too many directions, our kids are asking for gifts we cant find or cant afford, the list goes on and on. Because of all of these, I have noticed that many people are not in the mood to smile at one another. My question would be, are any of these inconveniences really that bad? What if you smiled at the person who is checking your groceries out at the store and is obviously not happy about it? What if you smile at the person who is in such a hurry that they cant possibly wait patiently in line? What if you smile at the person who took the last coveted gift off the shelf right before you could grab it?

I think that we can learn a lot from our kids. Those students who come in every day with a smile change my day. Would our smile, even during stressful times, change someone elses day? Maybe!

I wish you all a happy holiday season with your families and a wonderful winter break! I know that second semester is going to be great; how could it not be with the amazing staff and students that we have?! Enjoy each other and take the extra second to smile!

Shannon Clarke, Principal


General Announcements

P A G E 3

Iron Chef Comes to Mountain Ridge!

The end of the semester in Consumer Family Studies (CFS) always brings the infamous Iron Chef competition. This is an opportunity for students to demonstrate and apply the skills and knowledge they have learned all semester long by completing in groups to win the title of Iron Chef.

Prior to the actual judging, students work in groups to create recipes using the secret ingredient. This semesters secret ingredient was rice. Working together, students research ways in which the secret ingredient can be used and recipes that use that ingredient. They then create original recipes, try them out at home, and figure out how they will present their entries to the panel of guest judges.

Just before the cooking day, professional chef Tim Williams was a guest in class. He showed students how to prepare various rice dishes (the fried rice was FANTASTIC!) as well as modeling various kitchen skills.

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Students Cole Bott, Preston Burns, and Mason Austin share their rice dished with guest judges Rocki Sugure, Deb Fox-Gliessman, Craig Harvey, and Amber Phillips.


General Announcements continued

P A G E 4

Staff members always enjoy the opportunity to be guest-judges during the Iron Chef competition!

A skillfully prepared Iron Chef entry!

This dish uses rice pancakes in a creative presentation.

Part of the competition is to help students realize the presentation of a dish is just as important as the taste!



P A G E 5

Headstrong Theatre Does it Again

On Thursday, December 4th, 78 Headstrong Theatre students traveled to downtown Denver to participate in the 50th Annual Thespian Convention. Also known to Denver Theatre people across the state as ThesCon. This was an exciting 1-day event where middle students from all over the state of Colorado joined together to participate in educational theatre. Each student competed in an individual event, as well as 2 theatrical workshops. They also had the opportunity to see a main stage production.

Headstrong Theatre qualified 29 students to move on to the National Individual Event competition in Nashville, Tennessee in March, as well as securing a main stage performance at ThesCon. Both of these are records for MRMS. Congratulations to the following students who qualified for Nationals in Nashville: Evan Gibley (Solo Musical); Mariya Reza (Solo Musical); Sarah Cadol, Matthew Cadol, Emma Munger (Group Musical); Nicholas Rogers, Ian Spillman (Duet Musical); Nicholas Rogers (Solo Musical); Ashlyn Goding (Solo Musical); Delaney Sweeney (Solo Musical); Emily Doddemeade, Kaylie Stenberg, Kristen Tejera (Group Acting); Hannah Corbeto-Thiele, Caitlin Story (Duet Acting); Harrison Kolar, Jake Laughlin (Duet Acting); Kendall Gay, Breanna Workman (Duet Acting); Ose Eichie, Haley Rolf (Duet Acting); Davis Helmerich, Mario Jacobellis, Weston Schroeder, Vikki Wong, Nate Cushing, Drew Stahl, Connor Kuybus, Morgan MacLean, Preston Dumler (Tech Challenge). Congratulations on this huge accomplishment, and break a leg in Nashville!



P A G E 6

MRMS Student Council News!

The MRMS Student Council members have been spreading some cheer this holiday sea-son. During the week of December 8 12, they held a fundraiser. During lunch, Stu-dent Council members sold Candy Grams which were delivered to student during their RAM classes on Tuesday, December 15.

Student Council members are busy planning a spring social eventstay tuned for more details!

Student Council is always accepting new members! The Council meets at 7 a.m. on Friday mornings in the library. If you would like to join the fun, just show up at 7 a.m.!

Candy Grams like this one were sold and delivered to students as part of the December fundraiser.

Student Council members Kaia Dale, Grant Shells, and

Seamas Porter volunteer their time during lunch to sell

Candy Grams for the fundraiser.



P A G E 7

On any given day, if you visit Mountain Ridge Middle School, you might ask yourself, What is going on in the hallway outside conference room 177?

Students have taken it upon themselves to put their thinking to

the test. Each day they are greeted by a riddle posted on the window outside the room. They have as many chances as they would like to answer the riddle correctly. If they are successful, they are invited to sign the window underneath the riddle. None of this is taken lightly. They team up, they argue, they come back again and again until they answer correctly. (Some students have even taken on the task of making up the riddle on their own.) And why, might you ask, would 7th and 8th graders voluntarily put themselves through all this? (Some of the adults in the building are also hooked, I might add.) The stakes are high- the reward is huge! If you strain your brain and eventually answer correctly, you get a Smart Sauce Pill-cleverly disguised as a Skittle.

Saywhat?




P A G E 8

Choir, Orchestra And Band Have A Banner Month!

Nothing captures the festive holiday season like music and singing! Our choir, band, and orchestra classes have been hard at work polishing their performances for two concerts and an assembly.

On December 10, the Holiday Choir Concert was held at MRMS. Always a popular event, this concert had the audience overflowing and enjoying beautiful songs. Choir students worked particularly hard to be ready, and they gave an amazing show. It was a wonderful way to showcase the talent our singers have and to show how much each individual has grown as a musician and a performer!

Mr. Reeves gets right in the swing of things during Choir rehearsal.

Jumping back to the piano, Mr. Reeves

accompanies the singers.

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P A G E 9

MRMS Students Qualify For All State Choir! Three MRMS students auditioned for the Colorado All State Middle School Choir and were chosen to participate! Julia Driggs, Vikki Wong, and Julian Draper will all represent MRMS in the All State Choir. The students will be performing during a concert coming up in February. Congratulations!

Choir students work to perfect their Showmanship in preparation for the holiday concert.

Julian Draper and Vikki Wong will represent MRMS in the Colorado All State Middle School Choir! Julia Driggs, not pictured, is also a Representative from MRMS. Congratulations!




P A G E 10

Holiday Choir Concert

Band, Orchestra and Jazz Band students worked just as hard to be ready for their concert on December 16. Students practiced, prepared, and worked with Mr. Estell as well as a high school student volunteer to create a memorable experience for their audiences.

Mr. Estell helps a student tune up an instrument as class gets underway.




P A G E 11

Orchestra students practice in sections, groups, and as a whole

during class.

Students work through sections as they prepare for their December performances.



P A G E 12

All Choirs, Band, Orchestra, and Jazz Band students performed for our December 12 Festival of the Arts. The Festival is a tradition at Mountain Ridgeeach year prior to Winter Break, we gather for an assembly featuring our music performance groups.

Everyone enjoys the beautiful music during this concert, and it gives us a chance to showcase the amazing talent our students have. The unique set up of our concert, with groups in various places around the Commons and audience members rotating as each group performs, gives us the feeling of being surrounded by music.

We always appreciate the time, effort, and energy Mr. Reeves, Mr. Estell and all our talented students put into making these concerts and the Festival so amazing!

StudentsAre You Interested in Joining a Choir Club?

New clubs are starting in January! Anyone and everyone welcome! Please register or re-register to join us and start getting ready for our NEXT concert!

The Counseling Corner

P A G E 13


Parent Corner

December, 2014

Family Game Night or How to Develop Resiliency Through Play!

As we approach the holidays, its worth giving thought to the time we will spend together with our families during the upcoming school break.

The first days of vacation are always excitingthere are holiday preparations, baking, shopping, and the excitement of anticipation. Eventually, however, the excitement wears off and we are left with some time to fill. What an excellent opportunity foryou guessed itbuilding resiliency in our kids.

The holiday season gives us great excuses to build up our stash of games to play as a family. Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, Uno and other board and card games are always great gifts. Playing games together is also a good way to model and teach important lessons.

Some of the most important lessons I learned were things my parents snuck in under the guise of play:

Lesson #1: Wait your turn. Playing games together as a family requires us to learn patience and how to take turns. Its also a great way to learn how to strategize and anticipate others moves and how to create Plan B. Help them learn to focus on the game in the moment, putting aside other distractions like cell phones and electronics. No pouting when someone takes my letter space, captures my knight at chess, or sends me back to Start at Parcheesi. Use board games to help kids learn to be patient, plan ahead, and think through several moves. Then watch them apply that patience and graciousness in other settings.


The Counseling Corner continued

P A G E 14


Lesson #2: Be a gracious loser. You cant always win. You wont always win. Sometimes in life we have to concede victory to a better player. When that happens, we learn to take it graciously. No throwing the game pieces across the room, storming off to pout, or refusing to engage in a rematch. Smile, thank the victor for the chance to have played, and then think about what you learned. What strategy will you use next time? What new facet of the game did you discover? How will you play better next time?

Lesson #2 for PARENTS: Dont give the game away. Often, we want to let kids win so they can experience the thrill of victory. Fight the impulse. Play your honest, true game. If kids are always allowed to win, they can never get Lesson #1. If they know they are playing for real, the victory they experience after struggling and losing will be genuine and long-lasting. The caveat here, of course, is that the games we are playing should coincide with the developmental level of our kids, which means you might be stuck playing Candyland marathons with younger players for a while

Lesson #3: The best things in life arent always things. It might sound clich, but the quality of the time spent together is key. Our kids are learning lessons by watching what we say, what we do, and how we react when things get tough. Lets model resiliency for them. And a side benefit is the chance to keep the lines of communication open with our kids. That will pay off in spades as they get older!

Lesson #4: Clean up and put things away where and how they belong when youre done. In our family, loser puts away the game, but puts it away properly, so next time Family Game Night comes around, we have all the pieces and parts to enjoy another match. Again, regularly applying this to games can translate into other areasshoes, coats, backpacks, and dirty dishes!

Making Family Game Night a regular event after the holidays are over can help us all unplug our electronics, disconnect from our frantic pace, and focus on each other.

Best wishes for a great Winter Break and some quality time with your family!

P A G E 15


Athletics And Activities

December was a busy month for our MRMS sports. Eighth grade girls basketball finished up December 6th and our girls took 3rd place at the District Tournament! The girls united and showed terrific determination and sportsmanship as they rallied to their 3rd place finish!

The Rams had a successful wrestling season winning 3 of their 6 duels. The girls and boys showed incredible grit and worked extremely hard during the season. The season ended with a tournament that showcased fantastic wrestling and heartwarming selflessness. All teams in the district took part in celebrating our veterans and raising money for a family in need. The district wrestling family gave money to help the family of Eric Vaughn after his death in October, 2014. Eric was a Lance Corporal in the Marine Corp, served 2 tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan, and was honorably discharged.

Seventh grade girls basketball started December 8th and they will have their ending tournament January 24, 2015. Eighth grade boys basketball will start January 26, 2015.

P A G E 16


Never a dull moment on Team 71-especially not before Winter Break!

Math In math, students are actually excited to take the district interim test. They are in the process of fine tuning skills used to solve equations, in order to prove to themselves just how far they have actually come this year. Group work, homework, and in depth Q&A sessions have all been a part of this rigorous process.

Students will be celebrating all of their learning as a segue to Winter Break.

iLab Students in Mr. Loucks class are present work it has taken students four weeks to complete. Using a design process students utilized by many entrepreneurial companies, students began by asking a question about how something could be made better. Students did research and designed, built and tested a prototype. This week they are presenting their results to their classmates. As they present, their classmates are giving feedback through provocative questioning.

Overall, students said that some of the most valuable learning from this class came from learning how to monitor and structure their time.

Social Studies

In social studies, students are completing a foundational unit on Mesopotamia. Students learned that this was truly a civilization of firsts. King Hammurabi was the first to write a book on law, their ziggurats were a landmark in the field of architecture and they were also the first to use river water constructively.

Team 7-1


P A G E 17


Students are able to connect their knowledge Mesopotamia and its downfall to the society they have created.

Health/P.E.

What a great way to prepare for the holidays! In health students have learned about healthy eating and why it is so important at this stage of their lives.

From proper nutrition to childhood obesity was a natural segue for students. Throughout the quarter, students became familiar with some alarming facts:

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.

The percentage of children aged 611 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 1219 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.

In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.

Language Arts

In language arts, students are testing their ability to think critically by delving into Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Students are grappling with the text and creating in depth understanding through rigorous discussions. And needless to say, the all important theme is beginning to surface

Team 7-1 continued


P A G E 18


Science

In science, students have been working hard in the library to research both sides of the debate on genetic cloning. After break, they will continue their research, view the video, The Age of Cloning, and for the coup detat students will participate in a Socratic Seminar where students opinions are shared, proven, refuted and refined through dialogue with other students.

The week before break, students will be demonstrating their mastery of a multitude of skills, linked to a variety of content areas, by buildinggingerbread houses!

Preparation for the upcoming build.

Team 7-1 continued

Happy Holidays from everyone on Team 71.

P A G E 19


Team 7-2 Are You Aware?

Can you believe that we are almost to 2015? Before you know it, your 7th grader will be an 8th grader. So much has been happening in POD 72 lately, and they will be gearing up for new and exciting things in January. This month focus was on the passion projects in STEM. Has your child talked to you about their passion or career interests? If not, feel free to ask him or her about the interview that they have done about the topic. When we return after winter break, the focus will turn to Global Issues.

As for math, Algebra has been designing stained glass windows using properties of parallel and perpendicular lines. Social studies, on the other hand, dove into Victorian England in order to truly understand and think critically while reading A Christmas Carol.

Im sure you have heard about the frog dissection in science, many of the students really enjoyed the smell during the lab. Enjoyable or not, I bet they dont forget it!

Last, but not least, PE has spent time working on fitness grams, which entailed modifying or adding new fitness goals based on the individual needs of each person.

Look forward to hearing more about International Towne, which will be coming up February 4 and 5. Each of the classrooms will work to prepare the students for such an amazingly realistic program.

P A G E 20


Team 7-4

One of the top 6 teams at Mountain Ridge Middle School!

We have had such a fun filled quarter with a visit to the Cave of the Winds, International Towne, Road Rally and finishing up with International Food Day. The students have been exploring, creating and reflecting on their learning daily, and have grown so much. We love having all of them in our pod as each one offers a different perspective and different personality that adds to our amazing team. We thank you for sharing your children with us and hope you have a wonderful winter break with your families.

Congratulations to Mark Nicolosi

Change Agent of the Month for December

Mark is one of the most caring, responsible, and hard working students

we have on Team 74. He embodies what it means to be a change agent. Hes constantly finding ways to help others and is extremely respectful and polite to everyone he encounters. He is a natural leader and self starter who strives to make a difference with everything he does. We are so happy to have Mark on our team and we look forward to his continued success.

We would also like to recognize Lori Hemesath this month.

Lori is the educational assistant on our team. She not only helps with whatever we need but she knows every single student on our team and makes an attempt to connect with them every day. She looks for opportunities to help wherever she can and always puts kids first. She is here everyday and makes each day better.


P A G E 21


Team 7-4 continued

She is always looking for new ways to help the team, gives great insight with kids, helps with lesson planning, works in the classroom one on one with kids, and is always looking for new ways we can reach out and connect with the community. We dont know what we would do without her! We thank her for her efforts in helping us to be better teachers and our students to become better learners.

We reached out to our team this holiday season as we adopted 5 local families from a local food bank, and the response we received was overwhelming. Your generosity and love of giving was inspiring. Because of you, every single family member on our list received not only things they needed but things they wanted as well. You have helped to make the holidays a little bit easier for these families. Thank you so much for all you do.

We wish you and your family a very Happy New Year!

Love, Team 74

Larry Davis, Ellisa Foust, Michelle Grissom, Lori

Hemesath, Ryan Lopez, Myka Nielsen & Jamie Sullivan

P A G E 22


Team 8-1

From the Mouth of Babes..

Science

We are learning about waves. Different types and how they travel. We do an activity every class and it keeps us interested.

LA

We are doing grammar presentations. We are learning about the 8 parts of speech and doing presentations on them. We have to have a project to explain our understanding and this keeps us engaged.

SS

We are doing the monument project, and we love this project. It is all our choice and we get to make it as unique as we want. We also get to be as creative as we want to be.

Math

We are reviewing for the midterm test. The students are doing another Challenge Math Video Response. We like doing the Challenge Math Video Responses because they are challenging and fun. Basically, a challenge math problem is posted. Students collaborate and create a response video to it and then other students can respond to it.

PE/Health

We are doing the pickle ball unit and running the mile. Pickle ball is a different game that we arent really familiar with so we like it.

STEM

In programming we are building a 3D model. I like it because it is something I am good at. Robotics is cool to see how we can get them to do so many different things. I like the energy unit because it applies to the real world right now. We like the freedom to work at our own pace.

Shark Tank

We did a big interdisciplinary unit and it worked well. We needed to find an alternative energy source. We worked on this all together. We did financial statements and the impacts on health and did a lot of research. It was a fun ID unit. It was a real world project and you had to have a lot of detail just like you would in real life. We had to find an alternative energy source and then present it as a viable option.

P A G E 23


Team 8-4 News

All The News Thats Swagworthy!

We loved the poop to power field trip to the zoo. This field trip was really fun. We learned there are a lot of ways to recycle and conserve and the zoo is taking advantage of those opportunities. We also liked seeing a lot of cute animals. We had different groups and made new friendships! It was just very interesting to learn the awesome ways to conserve. We loved the hands on experience! LA and Science: We did a big unit about consumer products testing. Everyone was having fun with the testing part, especially. It was also fun figuring out and finding the hypothesis. This unit meant a lot to us because it was stuff we used; it was applicable to us. The teachers did an amazing job making this learning relevant and therefore very engaging. Finance Park: We all thought this was really cool because we learned about different businesses ideas and how to manage money. I think this was my favorite field trip ever! It was interesting to look at it from an adults point of view. It was really fun. In math we researched a mathematician. We had a big debate on the existence of math. We had to debate whether math was discovered or invented. I really liked the project and it was a lot of fun. Ms. Van helps us a lot and makes math enjoyable.

Mr. K is always getting us moving and working and interacting. We are working on packets and we get to shoot the basketball when we complete each part of the packet. Right now we are learning about how government works and how it is made up. If we are working hard and thinking deeply, we are rewarded with a little fun with a little basketball. It is awesome! I think PE /health is entertaining and challenging. We like the connections we are making in PE. There is more going on than just running or sports. We are working on collaboration and communication and how that helps us get points and win. In health we are talking a lot about bullying. We are discussing how not to be a bystander when witnessing bullying. STEM is a lot of fun. We are on level 2 of robotics, programming, and energy. It is challenging and fun. I like this level because there is more freedom. We learned the basics in level one and had a lot more direction from the teacher. Now, we get to explore more, make more mistakes and learn from them.


P A G E 24


Electives - ART

Students in Shelly Losness art classes may be wrapping up the semester, but they havent stopped learning as the month winds down into Winter Break.

First, we were still celebrating the Chihuly inspired artworks on the MRMS campus at Winter Break. Not only did we enjoy these beautiful outdoor sculptures for some time, but they were also noticed and recognized by our local news outlets: both the Your Hub section of the Denver Post and the news section of public TV have run stories about the installation.

Some Chihuly inspired sculptures also graced the Highlands Ranch Libraryseveral sculptures were installed outside the front entrance as part of the DCSD Student Art Show in early December. Students de-installed, filled the holes, and returned the land to its original state just before Winter Break.

Not ones to rest on their laurels, Ms. Losness art students then moved on to working with clay! The last project for first semester was to create pagodas from clay. The final projects were fired, glazed, and fired again, and then became lights. Stay tuned for more amazing and creative art projects second semester.

Sculptures are lined up outside the art room.

Photograph by Liam McChesney

Building pagoda parts out of slabs of clay.

Students created the sides and bottom of their pagodas from slabs of clay and then used joining techniques to build the structure.

Cut outs in the clay

Photograph by Izzy Tuccio

P A G E 25


Electives - ART

P A G E 26


Electives - DRAMA

The Possibilities are Endless

In drama this quarter, students are being exposed to a multitude of ways to demonstrate their dramatic expertise. They were exposed to 5 forms of dramatic interpretation before selecting one that they felt they could use to show cased their talents. The choices included: duet acting, humorous interpretation, dramatic interpretation, storytelling, and original oratory.

P A G E 27


Electives - CREATIVE WRITING

Bad Hair Day Meets Perspective? Where Else but Ms. Morgans Creative Writing Class.

Latest scoop on ePublishing/Creative writing? Because one of our enduring understandings about thinking and writing is, "How could you look at things differently?" We decided to take a break after our month long digital children's story writing and lighten things up like this: Print out a dude with a bad hair day... paste on some google eyes...and create a character point of view called,

"The Way I See It." Goofy? Yes. Funny? Totally. In line with creative fun and displaying for others to enjoy is our gig in this class. How did they do?

P A G E 28


Winter Break, please-bring it on!!!

2014-12 Mtn Ridge v.1.Compressed

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