As the first 6 weeks of

the year at BFMS are

winding down, it’s a

good time to take a

look at some of the

ways we are working

to support our Middle

School students in their

learning and growth.

Power Hour: Back

for year two, Power

Hour is designed to

support

students

in com-

pletion

of

school

work

and pre-

paring

for assessments.

Teachers will assign

students when they are

missing assignments

and are behind in their

classes. The District

has been supportive of

this program by

providing snacks and

transportation for stu-

dents to return home

after doing their work.

This program reduced

failing grades dramati-

cally last year, and stu-

dents are gaining direct

support from teachers

during this time to bet-

ter enhance their learn-

ing.

Intervention Period: New this year is our

intervention period

which aims to support

students who need

reading and math help

on a fluid basis

throughout the year. As

teachers use real-time

classroom data to iden-

tify any student who is

struggling with a con-

cept, the student is as-

signed to

that class-

room for

direct sup-

port during

the inter-

vention pe-

riod during

the school

day. Once the student

has mastered that con-

cept, they are able to

return to their regular

intervention period

teacher. When there,

all students are increas-

ing their proficiency in

keyboarding skills,

working on math skills

with IXL, or having

time for Sustained Si-

lent Reading (SSR).

Professional Learning

Communities: Our

teaching staff is spend-

ing time working on a

variety of classroom

methods to improve

student assessment and

data collection to track

and measure student

learning. From creat-

ing rubrics that can be

used across grade lev-

els to assess writing to

studying strategies to

improve learning reten-

tion as a school year

progresses, our teach-

ers are working hard to

improve their abilities

and student outcomes

in the classroom.

With October under

way, it will be exciting

to see the benefits the

hard work by students

and staff will bear as

we approach the end of

quarter one and the

start of quarter two. I

have been greatly im-

pressed by the students

and staff of our Middle

School and I am excit-

ed to see the growth of

each individual as this

school year unfolds.

♦ Mr. Kramer, Middle

School Principal

Opportunities for Increased Support and Growth

OCTOBER

HAPPENINGS:

October 3 & 6—

Parent Teacher

Conferences 4-8pm

2:00 dismissal

October 4—End

Hex 1

October 7—No

School

October 23—

Celebrate Life

Event

October 27—End

1st Qtr

October 31—

Halloween

V OLUME 3 , ISSUE 1

OCTOBER 2016 The Bluejay Bulletin

BONDURANT FARRAR MIDDLE SCHOOL

STEM 2

Voki Speeches 2

Student of the Month 2

7th Gr Authors 3

Monarch Project 4

Important Items 4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

V OLUME 3 , ISSUE 1 P AGE 2

then enjoyed listening to their

avatars give the speech-

es. Emma Bruce

stated, “It was really fun

trying out new things like

making an avatar look like

me and then hearing my

voice give the speech.”

Using multimedia in

presentations and writing a

speech while establishing a

writing style are two lan-

guage standards students

are working on in the 6th

grade.

♦ Mrs. Wilson, 6th Grade

Language Arts

The 6th grade class re-

cently presented their

Voki autobiography

speeches in Language

Arts class. This project

was a great way to ease

students into giving a

speech in front of the

class. After creating an

avatar to look like him-

self or herself, each stu-

dent wrote an autobiog-

raphy speech and recorded

their own voice, linking it to

their avatar. The students

On October 13th the middle

school will be sending 25 8th

grade girls to the Taking the

Road Less Traveled confer-

ence at Iowa State University.

The conference is sponsored

by the Program for Women in

Science and Engineering and

the purpose of this day- long

conference is to give girls an

opportunity to learn about ca-

reers in science, technology,

engineering and math through

hands-on activities and inter-

acting with STEM students

and professionals.

Intended outcomes for the

girls that participate in this

conference are:

increase interest in

STEM through experiential

activities

increase confidence in

pursuing STEM fields

through interaction and com-

munication with profession-

als and female role models

increase awareness of

STEM career opportunities

reinforce the importance

and relevance of science and

math courses in middle school

and high school

increase capacity for un-

derstanding the connection

between curriculum and real

world experience

♦ Ms. Turner,

School Counselor

Voki Speeches in 6th Grade

Taking the Road Less Traveled

7th grade-Faith

Carlson and

Grace Johnson

8th grade-Emma

Adams and Kae-

lan Bohn

Congratulations to the follow-

ing students for being selected

as our September students of

the month at the middle

school!

6th grade-Emma Bruce and

Lily O'Brien

Middle Schooler of the Month

THE B LUEJ AY BULLETIN P AGE 3

Children’s book author Sarah

Prineas talked author’s craft with

seventh grade writers during a

Skype session September 21st.

Since the second week of school,

students have been listening to

The Magic Thief, one of Prin-

eas’s several published novels.

While listening to The Magic

Thief, students discussed how a

professional author uses the

tools of her craft to create the

main characters like Conn who

wants to become a wizard after

growing up a beggar thief in the

turn-of-the-century city of

Wellmet where magic is a life

force.

Prineas answered stu-

dents’ questions about the book

and a wide range of writing

skills they had been studying

including how to hook the reader

with the first few words, create

well-rounded characters, show

action through detailed descrip-

tion, use dialogue to advance the

story, and build tension in plot

events. She encouraged them to

keep reading and writing.

Students have been

working on their own short sto-

ries. After two weeks of plan-

ning and typing, students are

now into the last few days of

creating their own stories to

show what they have learned.

Some examples of excerpts from

students’ short stories include

the following lines.

1 Mistake by Jacob Seitzer

“Don’t move Daniel,

just stay still.” Crack… Crack…

Crack… I looked down and saw

that the glass was slowly break-

ing apart. Realizing what was

happening, I took one final leap

for safety. I fell short. Slowly

falling to my death, the only

thing I could think about was

everything I could have done. I

could see my parents crying at

the bridge as I

was falling.

Falling, falling,

falling.

Scoring High

by Samuel

Fuller

Emanuel Jack-

son attends

Franklin Roo-

sevelt Middle

School. He’s

pretty short for

his age, but already the best run-

ning back for the FRMS Cardi-

nals football team and one of the

best in the entire state of Indi-

ana. There’s only two things that

can keep him away from being

the best, and those are Max

Crawford and his grades in

school.

Life by Annika Dearden

One day my dad was

sitting right next to me with my

cat Fluffy, doing the regular

good night kiss. Then the next

day, I looked all around the

house for him, but he was no-

Seventh Grade Authors

where to be found. He would

never abandon me, and I don’t

have a mom anymore because

she died in a car crash a few

years ago. That is why I’m going

to find him some day.

Unchaining the Kingdom by Em-

ma Lause

“A secret’s worth de-

pends on who you're trying to

keep it from.” Well, that's what

my sister Majesta says.

Imposter by Hallie Shipley

Her brother worked just

down the road at a fast food

place. It served burgers and ta-

cos. She thought that was very

strange, but after a while it made

sense because you could use the

same meat from the tacos and

make a burger.

Missing Brother by Carter En-

gelbrecht

Why did I let him go?

Like a balloon caught in the

wind, it seems like he’s slowly

getting farther and farther away.

♦ Mrs. Goes, 7th Grade

Language Arts

300 Garfield Street SW

Bondurant, Iowa 50035

www.bfschools.org

Bondurant Farrar

Middle School

over 60

Mon-

archs

still do-

ing

well.

When

the

Mon-

archs

hatch

from the chrysalis,

they are released for

the long migration to

Mexico where they

will stay over winter.

Through

this pro-

ject, stu-

dents

have

learned

about

the life

cycle of

Mon-

archs as

well as the resources

Due to human activi-

ties, the amazing

Monarch butterfly is

now a threatened

species. Students at

Bondurant Middle

School are doing

their part to increase

the population by

raising them in the

classroom, away

from predators and

threatening weather.

They collected the

Monarchs from

around the school

cam-

pus as

eggs

and

cater-

pillars.

They

are

having

a rec-

ord

successful year with

needed to sustain

them. The common

milkweed plant is the

only food needed by

Monarch caterpillars,

and is the site for

adults to lay eggs.

Students have plant-

ed over 1000 milk-

weed seeds around

the school campus to

help with the Mon-

arch effort!

♦ Mrs. Fulton, 7th

Grade Science

7th Grade Monarch Project

Phone: 515-967-3711

Fax: 515-957-9924

E-mail:

holly.roby@bondurant.k12.ia.us

Other Important

Numbers:

Morris Elementary

967-6361

Anderson Elementary

967-7494

High School

957-8181

District Office

967-7819

Bus Barn

967-2891 (press 1)

MaryJo Hetrick

967-7819

(for all bus requests)

October

Middle

School

Menus Click

HERE

Please check out our new

website bfschools.org

Have you checked out the Community

link on the school website lately? You

will find a lot of information regarding

school and community events. Some of

the items listed on the site:

Middle School Yearbook Order

3-6 BlueJay Basketball Club

Bondurant Fundraising Friends

The Community link is updated fre-

quently, so please keep checking back

for new activities and events.

“Laugh It Up” Bondurant Farrar Middle School

2016-2017 Yearbooks

Purchase before April 1, 2017 for $15. After April 1, prices rise to $20.

Online ordering is EASY at www.jostens.com

OR

Order through the office with the form on our Community link