Eblast 03-20-15 Placer County Office of Education Spelling Bee Results – May 12th Granite Oaks is very proud of each of our students that represented Rocklin Unified School District in the Placer County Spelling Bee on May 12th. It was very exciting to have several of our students in this competition. Keri Chen and Aravind Sharma were part of five in their age group that all lasted for about 45 minutes. It was a tight competition! Mridini Vijay who placed 2nd overall in the grand finals held very strong against the student from Olympus who came in 1st. Mrindi will be going to state finals for Junior High on May 2, 2015. Congratulations to all of our students! 7th Grade: Granite Oaks Granite Oaks Granite Oaks Ethan Chan – 3rd place Marcus Matsubayashi – 14th place Mridini Vijay – 1st place and 2nd overall Grand Finals 8th Grade: Granite Oaks Granite Oaks Granite Oaks Granite Oaks Granite Oaks Keri Chen – 2nd place Tamsen Dean – 9th place Max Miller – 5th place Aravind Sharma – 3rd place Shayana Venukanthan – 8th place Counselor Corner The third quarter ended on March 13th at Granite Oaks Middle School. Believe it or not --- your middle school student has made it through three fourths of the 7th or 8th grade school year. Third quarter grades impact both 7th and 8th grade students in terms of elective choices, meeting advanced course pre-requisites and math placement. Unfortunately, with the weather beginning to warm and extra curricular activities picking up, middle school students can lose their focus and experience a drop in their grades and undermine their goals for the upcoming academic school year. We often see attendance drop, homework completion becomes sporadic and grades suffer in both the 7th and 8th grades. Here are strategies parents can implement at home to help your student stay focused --1. Be consistent with the homework schedule you have worked so hard to develop during the year; 2. Check grades on a weekly basis with your student --- ask questions if you notice an increase in missing work --- not only do students start experiencing school fatigue they are also dealing with a quicker pace on instruction and an increase in content difficulty during the second semester; 3. Monitor your student’s attendance --- it is a significant challenge for a young person to make up work and stay on top of current work; 4. Support your student’s effort in Accelerated Reading (AR) --- meeting the AR goal is 10% of their Language Arts grade and can make a significant difference in their GPA; 5. Test taking can be challenging --- any support you can provide with test preparation or studying will build your student’s confidence; and, 6. Communication with teachers is critical for both you and your student --- it is a skill that will reap rewards for your student in high school, college and the world of work. The goal of middle school is preparation for high school --- the game changes for students as far as what is expected and how they are evaluated --- assessment becomes even more important then scores on homework, essential skills are critical to showing mastery of course content and the ability to balance school, sports, performing arts, friends and outside activities become incredibly challenging. Remember the teachers, administrators and counselors are here to support your students and their academic success. Linda Marcarian Rosemary Elston [email protected] [email protected] ALERT!!! The Granite Oaks Green Scene garden club Spring Plant Sale begins next week! Please click the preceding link to view all the varieties/prices we have to offer. Kids will be stationed in the parking lots at GOMS before and after school Tuesday through Thursday next week (3/24-3/26), for those of you looking to plant over spring break. They will be selling again throughout April if your garden plot still needs some prep-work before you're ready to plant your garden!!! Thanks for supporting our program! REPRINT: Granite Oaks Science Olympiad Team moves on to State Competition Granite Oaks digs out some Science Olympiad medals at California State University, Sacramento and earns a spot to compete in the Science Olympiad state competition at CSU, Stanislaus next month. On Saturday March 7th, 15 middle school and 20 high school teams competed this year at the Regional Science Olympiad in over 20 different events ranging from Anatomy to Crime Buster to Helicopters to Wheeled Vehicles. The goals of the Science Olympiad are to bring science to life emphasizing problem solving strategies, develop team work and cooperative learning amongst the participants and attract students to professional and technical careers in science, engineering and technology. Granite Oaks’ medal winners include: Jean Lee and Erin Kuo for Bottle Rocket; Erin Kuo and Janel Vaughn for Judge a Powder; Josh Golden and Alex Way for Crave the Wave; Michael Insongia and Shayana Venukanthan for Dynamic Planet; Bella Clementi, Daniel McElhinney and Emily Cook for Elastic Launch Glider; Alex Way and Aravind Sharma for Wheeled Vehicle; and Josh Golden and Jean Lee for Write it Do It. John Yanni, coach of the Granite Oaks team and 7th grade science teacher at GOMS, is very proud of all the team members and looking forward to competing at the state level next month. Go Falcons!
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