Dear Pershing Families,

As the holiday season approaches, our school reaches out to those in our community who need assistance. Each team is assembling a holiday basket for a family or collecting items for an organization. Students have been made aware of staples their homerooms are collecting. Many classes will have families with children and those lists may include toys and/or clothing. Any help you can give is appreciated.

On December 8, Pershing students had the opportunity to receive the H1N1 vaccine.  Approximately 250 students took advantage of this opportunity.  Our attendance for the month of November was back up to our normal trends at 95.21%.  Currently we are over 95% for the month of December.  So, hopefully, we have seen the worst of the illness for this school year.

Our eighth grade students are currently in the process of enrolling for their high school coursework.  We will begin 2010-2011 scheduling for our current sixth and seventh grade students in January.   We have an outstanding teaching staff at Pershing.  All teachers are focused on meeting the needs of their students and teaching the curriculum as directed by the SPS Board of Education.  With this in mind, please understand we will not entertain requests for teachers or specific teams. 

Students will be on winter break starting December 23 until January 3.  Classes will resume on January 4.  December 22 school will be in session ALL day.  Enjoy your break!

Respectfully,

Dr. Natalie Cauldwell

Our students were really competitive during our holiday basket drive!  We were excited to see how much they wanted to help our adopted family this holiday season, and it was funny to watch the winning team switch back and forth.  Usually, we start to see a pretty wide gap in points near the end of the competition, but this year it stayed close throughout the drive!

The girls finally ended up pulling ahead, winning by less than a hundred points.  We collected an abundance of food, gifts for the children, cookware for the family, and over $300 that was converted into a Walmart gift certificate for the family to use for perishable foods, diapers, and other household needs.

Happy Holidays from the Voyagers!

Thanks to all of our families who donated to our "Shop with a Hero" campaign.  We ended up collecting close to $300 as a team to donate to this wonderful cause.  It's great to know that our team will have enabled some children to have a Christmas that they otherwise may have missed. 

We hope that each of you enjoys a relaxing break!  Be careful as you travel, and we look forward to hearing your holiday stories when we return in 2010!

Helping Children Learn Responsibility

At Love and Logic, we believe that the most powerful way of learning to make good decisions is by being allowed to make some small mistakes, experiencing the related consequences, and seeing that the adults around you love you even when you mess up.

Far too many parents rob their kids of such opportunities by making sure that their kids never make mistakes, bailing their children out of the consequences of their mistakes, or creating resentment by showing anger or rejection. Listed below is a process for avoiding these common mistakes:

• Give your children plenty of opportunities to make decisions over small issues. Examples include giving your child a small allowance, allowing them to "choose" whether they remember to bring their lunch to school, or letting them decide whether they want to wear their coat or carry it.
• Hope they make a poor decision. Children learn to make good choices by making poor ones and experiencing the consequences.
• Let empathy and logical consequences do the teaching. Empathy is the key! By being sad for our kids rather than being angry at them, they are allowed to focus on their poor choice rather than our anger.
• Give them the same decision-making tasks again. This communicates a strong message: "We believe that you've got what it takes to learn from your poor decisions."

Mr. Baker's Screaming Eagles are studying the Constitution throughout the month of December.  They will cover every aspect of the document and will learn about the United States' democratic form of government.  Along with this unit, Eagles will be completing the Alphabet Book Project.

Science students are continuing their studies of the "Periodic Table of the Elements" chapter and have been learning techniques for creating models of atoms of the elements.  Mr. Davis's classes will be busy with project presentations over the next two weeks and be taking a test over this chapter on Thursday/Friday, Dec. 17/18.  Mrs. Coller will be in science classes on Friday/Monday, Dec. 11/14 to help students begin the scheduling process for high school.  She will meet with the students for the entire class period.

Math classes will finish up a unit entitled "Exponents and Square Roots," which includes scientific notation, with a test on Friday/Monday, Dec. 18/21. Algebra students will finish Chapter 5 on writing linear equations with a test on Monday, December 21. All students are working on math portfolios which are due Thursday/Friday, January 7/8.

Mrs. Brown's Communication Arts classes are currently giving their presentations on Anne Frank and the Holocaust.  All presentations and Holocaust book responses should be completed by December 21. Check with your child for his/her specific due date during the week of December 14-21.  The test over the story of Anne Frank will be on December 22 for all students.  There will be a study guide sent home on December 10 and 11. 

Screaming Eagles are collecting canned goods and other items for a holiday food basket under the theme of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." All items should be brought to Mrs. Dorris' room. The Screaming Eagles teachers appreciate your generosity as we seek to brighten the holidays for a single elderly woman.  Have a safe and happy holiday!

BAND NEWS

Season's Greetings, Parents!  By the time you read this, our concert will be over, and hopefully it will have been a huge success.  The next thing the 7^th and 8^th grade students have is their concert reviews due on December 22 or before. 

The 6^th grade band concert is Tuesday, January 26 at 7:00.  They will need to be dressed up-no jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, etc.  I used to tell them they needed to wear "church clothes" but that doesn't seem to work anymore.  Report time will be 6:30.  Please make plans to attend and hear your student play-they are doing such a great job. 

Parents, please get in the habit of checking the band website-I will put any important information on there, as well as link assignments, practice cards, notes home, etc to my page.  My website address is http://springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org/pershing/middle/electives/esauer/. Bookmark this and check it often.  Please email if you have any questions, or check the website! 

The Pershing 8th graders (along with the Hickory 8th grade) will be joining the Glendale Orchestra for a concert at Glendale on Tuesday January 12th at 6:00 PM.  This concert is to showcase the Glendale orchestra to the incoming freshmen and their parents, and director Mr. Johnston will discuss enrollment.  The Glendale Orchestra Booster Club will also have a drawing for prizes that night!

The following 8th grade students have been selected to participate in the Springfield MSU String Fling Honors Orchestra:

Violin:  Melanie Ewy, Josh Bogle, Jacob Trammell, Hayley Womack Viola:  Josh Trammell, Jessie Rogers, Audre May, Chris Wong, Rylee Ackerman

Cello:  Tyler Frieda, Courtney Reese, Luci Pak

They will participate in an all day clinic on Saturday, January 9th followed by a concert at 4:00.

Congratulations!

Solo and Ensemble Festival is just around the corner!  The event is planned for Saturday February 27th!