Sixth and Seventh Grade Pre-Enrollment Coming Soon
It is an exciting time at
CMS! Every time I turn
around, I see our students
doing great things. In ath-
letics, we are improving
our skills. In Fine Arts,
we are performing con-
certs and winning awards.
In instruction, we are
growing in our weekly as-
sessments. A group of stu-
dents have also started
attending a morning tutor-
ing program. Students
and teachers are working
hard every day to improve
and learn. I am so proud
of the students, parents,
and staff of CMS!
As spring approaches, we
know that tests are just
around the corner. State
testing begins the first
week of April. The grade
levels are tested as fol-
lows: 8th graders take the
test in Reading, Math, and
Science; 7th graders and
6th graders - Reading and
Math.
Parents, we appreciate all
you do, and want you to
know it is important that
your child is on time dur-
ing any state testing days.
We will send a more de-
tailed list of the dates for
the April testing as we get
closer to the testing dates.
In closing, February is
Black History Month. It is
an international celebra-
tion and tribute to the Af-
rican-American culture
and contributions in our
society. It is a month set
aside to learn, honor, and
celebrate the achievements
of black men and women
throughout history. Educa-
tion helps us progress and
grow, and having a better
understanding of history,
different cultures, and rac-
es will enhance our
knowledge of history.
Here are some important
dates that are coming up.
Thank you for all you do!
February 1 – District
Spelling Bee at CMS
February 9 – African Amer-
ican Teen Conference 1:30
February 14 – Spring Pic-
tures
February 17 – Honor Socie-
ty Induction
February 20 – President’s
Day (No School)
Blake Thomas
Principal
Coming up in February
CMS counselors will be
meeting with 6th and 7th
grade students to pre-
enroll for the 2017-2018
school year. Students will
be sent home enrollment
forms so that parents will
be able to help their child
choose the best classes for
them. Parents will need to
sign the form and ensure
their child returns it to
their grade level counse-
lor.
Eighth grade student pre-
enrolling for high school
will be at a later date.
Please contact a CMS coun-
selor for additional infor-
mation: 580.355.8544
6th Grade News 2
7th Grade News 2
8th Grade News 3
CMS Sports 3
Title I 4
CMS News In Brief 4
Inside this issue: CMS Students Are Doing Great Things!
Special Edition: January/February 2017
Central Middle School Online Parent & Student Newsletter
Cougar Tracks
Cougar Tracks
LPS Foundation
Coin Drive
February 6-10
LPS Foundation is hav-
ing a coin drive the
week of February 6-10.
All money raised is used
to help give grants to
LPS teachers.
There will be a reward
for the elementary, mid-
dle, and high school
that take in the greatest
percentage of money
according to their stu-
dent count.
Knights of Camelot
Ms. Pen-
nington’s
Magnifi-
cent Math-
ematicians
will be
working
with solv-
ing inequalities and equa-
tions. Once we master those
skills, we will move on to
mean, median, and mode for
sets of numbers.
Mrs. Morlett’s Masterful
Writers have composed some
beautiful Bio Poems about
themselves. Next, they will
begin researching and inves-
tigating issues pertaining to
human rights around the
world. To make a connection
to these issues, we will begin
reading I am Malala, the
autobiography of Malala
Yousafzai.
Ms. Ricci’s Remarkable Read-
ers will be polishing their
summarizing and paraphras-
ing skills as we prepare for
the third AlphaPlus Bench-
mark test that will happen at
the beginning of March.
Mr. Anderson’s Geography
Gurus are finishing a lesson
about Canada. We will then
go south to explore Mexico.
While there, we will look at
the culture, climate, and
physical features found
there.
Mrs. Ervin’s Super Scientists
have been engaging in meth-
ods of scientific inquiry and
building proficiency in higher
level reasoning. Next up, we
will be focusing on electrici-
ty…Shocking!
In Language Arts, we will be starting
argumentative essay writing, and
through class seminars, our new goal
will be to formulate and execute a plan
which will better the school community.
Africa is our destination in Geography.
We will be studying its physical charac-
teristics, history, culture, and climate
regions.
In Science, we will be studying the
world beneath our feet and above our
head with our Earth and Space unit
The Gryph-
ons are “on
the ball” and
“thinking
outside the
box” this
month! We
are working
with literary and sound devices and
finishing up the novel, The Outsiders,
in Reading. We are anxiously waiting
to watch “The Outsiders” movie to com-
pare and contrast it to the novel!
that will include the study of gravity,
planets, and stars.
We are finishing up inequalities, the
relationship between expressions that
are not equal, in Math and beginning
percentages. We will learn to calculate
sales tax, tips, and discounts.
7th Grade Team Gryphons are On the Ball and Thinking Outside the Box
of January we will begin our second
novel study of the school year. Students
will begin reading Lois Lowry’s utopian/
dystopian novel, The Giver.
ELA - wrote essays stating and semi-
committing to a Philanthropic New
Year’s Resolution: “What Can I Do to
Help Someone, and What Will I Get
from It?”
that provide peer teaching. The geno-
cides in Rwanda and Darfur will be
evaluated. Students will represent
their assigned countries and work to
resolve the Rwandan genocide in an
appropriate and effective manner. Stu-
dents will explore the disease that con-
tinue to affect the population of Africa.
Reading - currently working on defin-
ing, identifying, and analyzing figura-
tive language within texts. At the end
SPARTANS
Geography –
students will be
exploring Africa
this month. Stu-
dents who repre-
sent African
countries will
participate in
classroom
presentation
7th Grade Exploring Africa and More . . .
6th Grade Team News
Page 2 Cougar Tracks
Team Odin
Team Odin has
been hard at
work reviewing
procedures and
expectations,
and getting
back into the
swing of things
at school.
In Ms. Miller’s reading class,
we are analyzing text and
making inferences. This is a
difficult skill for many of the
students and requires a great
deal of practice. We also
completed our Star Test.
Makeups will be scheduled
for students who were absent
last week and results will be
sent home as soon as all stu-
dents have completed the
test.
Mrs. Pool’s class just finished
reading the book “I am Mala-
la”, the autobiography of
Malala Yousafzai. Through-
out the reading we were able
to analyze Malala’s culture
and compare it to our own.
Next week, we will be intro-
ducing Canada. After com-
pleting a unit on Canada, we
will begin a study on Mexico.
Ms. Long’s math students
will use properties to solve
expressions and use order of
operations to evaluate ex-
pressions. Next week the
class will conduct STAR Test-
ing on January 17th and
18th. On Friday, we will in-
troduce using number sense
and properties of operations
and equality to solve real-
world and mathematical
problems involving equa-
tions.
Team Bigfoot
Math is moving into
inequalities and slope.
In science we are fin-
ishing up the unit on
Chemistry. In the next
week we begin looking
at and studying Phys-
ics and Newton’s Laws
of Motion.
In US History we have begun our reme-
diation process with a Pretest for Unit 3
“Creating a Nation”. With 3 out of 5
classes’ scores in….we are passing the
pretest at about 75 percent.
Team Titan
Science is applying the
skills needed to under-
stand the working of
chemistry. They have
been balancing equa-
tions and finding out
about The Law of Conservation of Mat-
ter. We did an experiment to under-
stand the effects of oxidation on a cop-
per penny. Then how the chemical sub-
stances of vinegar and salt has on oxi-
dized copper.
In US History we will be covering the
United States following the War of
1812. Manifest destiny will take us all
the way to California as we finish dis-
cussing westward expansion. While the
country is growing we will also learn
how it evolved. This month we will fo-
cus on the introduction of the industrial
revolution and its transformation of the
North. Lastly we will discuss the
growth of agriculture and slavery in the
South.
In English class during the months of
January and February we will continue
building our writing skills. Currently
students are working on an argumenta-
tive essay and reviewing the necessary
components. Recently we began work
on a new writing program call Criterion
Writing that students can access at
home and at school. They can also
practice both reading and writing skills
on USA Test Prep or IXL. Encourage
your child spend some time on them at
home. They are great practice and very
beneficial to those who utilize them.
In Reading, we have just finished a
benchmark to measure our progress
from the beginning of the school year.
We will begin literary devices this
week.
In Math, we ended the 1st semester on
a good note and are excited to see what
this semester has in store for us. We
are finishing up multi-step equations,
and then moving right into multi-step
inequalities. We will be taking the
STAR Math test on January 17. This
test monitors the strides your child is
making in math. It will give us great
data to determine what we need to
work on more in depth for the state
test.
Attendance plays a keep role in those
strides so please make sure your child
is here on time. After the STAR test,
we will go back and look at slope. Ask
your child if they can identify a positive
slope from a negative slope. See what
they can tell you about the changes in
the steepness.
8th Grade News
derson, Devarius Hardy, Alex Pe-
rez, Malaki Avendano, Shawn Bar-
ber, KJ Love, Daniel Neighbors,
Tyler Gassoway, Alex Hubbard,
Tyron Amaker, Frank Rowe.
- Coach Stallworth -
Boys and Girls Track: There will
be sign ups on January 31 and Feb-
ruary 1 during Lunch time in the
Plaza for anyone planning on par-
ticipating in Track and Field this
year. Practice will start on Febru-
ary 6 from 3:15 until 4:45, with ath-
letes needing picked up by 5:00
each day. We will meet in the main
Gym where we will either run in
there or walk to Lawton High’s
track, depending on the weather
each day. We are working on the
schedule of meets at this time. Each
Student Athlete must have a
PHYSICAL before they can begin to
Basketball:
Congratulations to Central Middle
School’s 6th Grade Basketball
Team. The young cougars finished
the season with a record of 8-2. The
team was led in scoring by D’Antho-
ny Short, Frank Rowe, KJ Love,
Devarius Hardy, and Tyron Amak-
er. The team would like to give a
big shout-out to SSG Hubbard and
Alex Lechner for their diligence and
hard work. Lastly, the team would
not have had such a great year, if it
hadn't been for the tremendous par-
ent support throughout the year.
Thank you parents for making the
sacrifice to ensure that your chil-
dren was present for practice each
and every morning at 6 a.m. Your
assistance was greatly appreciated.
Team Members: D’Anthony Short,
Markel Davis, Fred Davis T’Andric
Bennett, Michael Baker, Alan An-
practice. Forms may be obtained
from any of the Track coaches or
from the Front Office. Track Coach-
es are Ashleigh Leighow, Jerry
Slawson, Dwight McKillip, and
Kenneth Stallworth. We will be
participating in our annual Run-A-
Thon, so be planning on that. New
Warm Up Suits for both Boys and
Girls have been purchased and the
2017 Cougar Track T-Shirts are in
and may be purchased for $15.00
from coaches or come by front office.
CMS Sports
Page 3 Cougar Tracks
2016 A-F School
Report Card Parents are encour-
aged to access the
Lawton Public
Schools Website and
view our 2016 School
A-F Report
Cards. The Law-
ton School Report
Cards are available
at the following web-
site address: http://
afreportcards.ok.gov/
If you do not have
internet access at
your home, you may
request a copy of the
school report card at
the principal’s office.
1201 N. W. Fort Sill Blvd. Lawton, OK 73507
Central Middle School
raised will provide new books for our
avid Anime book readers.
Please re-
member to
continue to
collect Box
Tops and
send them
into the Li-
brary. We
thank you in
advance for
this simple
but profitable program.
CMS also thanks the Lawton Public
Schools Foundation for their support in
providing $1500 for the purchase of
many new non-fiction books. These new
books provide insight into real life by
relating to current issues. They will
also be useful for research projects.
African-American Teen Conference Feb
9th-space is limited.
Spring Picture Day February 14th
(only students with pre-paid envelopes
will be permitted to take photos).
7th and 8th grade strings have their
District Solo Contest Saturday Febru-
ary 18th at Macarthur High School.
Running Club – preparing for events in
the OKC Memorial Marathon in April.
Military Child Club – planning for the
end of the year formal dance.
Phone: 580.355.8544 Fax: 580.585.6452 E-mail: [email protected]
The Anime
Book Club
is now sell-
ing a varie-
ty of fla-
vored meat
sticks for
only $1.
The flavors
are intense
and our
parents,
teachers,
and stu-
dents
thought
they tasted great last year when we
participated in this fundraiser. Hicko-
ry, BBQ, Cajun, and spicy flavors are
just a few of the choices and range all
the way up to Ghost Pepper! Money
CMS News In Brief
Teachers Teach ... Students Learn ... It's Our Future
We ’r e on F ac eb o ok
Facebook .com/
lawtoncentralms
CMS Students Can Build Academic Skills Online
If your student has no homework but would
like to increase their academic skills leading
to better grades and higher test scores, CMS
subscribes to several web-based learning
tools.
These programs can be accessed at school
and at home by logging onto the website us-
ing the following information on all programs
listed below.
User Name: firstlastnamegrade (e.g., joestu-
dent7)
Password: idnumber (same as lunch num-
ber)
USATestprep, Inc. is recognized as a leader
in online review for high school, middle
school, and elementary school standardized
testing.
Central Middle School is a Successful Title I School