1st Nine Weeks Newsletter

Principals' Message

Dear Parents and Guardians,


It has been an exciting first nine weeks here at Buckingham County Middle School. I have seen many engaging and challenging activities taking place in your child’s classrooms. I am excited each and every day for your child to come into the building because I know they are exposed to rigorous instruction. As I go through classrooms, I encounter students who are engaged, focused and participating in the lesson. It is wonderful to see their excitement when answering questions or completing an activity. The faculty and staff are challenging their students to become critical thinkers and lifelong learners.


I am ecstatic about what the next nine weeks will bring as well as the rest of the school year. With the caliber of the faculty and staff at the middle school and the drive shown by the students, there is no limit as to what your child can accomplish. Please continue to encourage your child, and do not hesitate to call the school if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for all of your support.


Sincerely,

Zane Harshman, Principal

FFA Events

Forestry Field Day- Middle School Team Placed 6th Overall

Junior Foresters

Buckingham FFA  Attends Training Conference

Local FFA chapters, including Buckingham Middle’s and High’s, attended the Southeast Area Chapter Officer Leadership Training Conference hosted at Dinwiddie High School on September 26th. These members received training on their office duties, improved their team building skills, and socialized with other FFA members. The workshops were taught by the current Virginia FFA state officer team. The students enjoyed meeting new people, and are excited about what they were able to bring back to their chapters. Members who attended are back row (L to R): Mason Sowers; State Secretary, Trevor Agee, Anthony Banton, Shane Catlett, Jakob Toney, Daniel Wood, Dylan Price, Tess Seibel; State President, Chris Kuhler; State Sentinel. Middle row (L to R): Brandy Snoddy, Trenton Snoddy, April Sage, Eliza Ragland. Front row (L to R): Jordan Dorrier, Camden Allen, Tanner Wise & Emma Staton.

Buckingham Middle School FFA Attend the Annual Collegiate Virginia FFA Leadership Conference in Blacksburg, VA

Members from the Buckingham Middle School FFA chapter attended the annual Collegiate Virginia FFA Leadership Conference on October 12, 2017, in the Squires Student Center. The leadership conference was sponsored by the Department of Agriculture, Leadership and Community Education and the Collegiate FFA, both of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Buckingham Middle School FFA members who attended the conference are as follows; Tucker Motley, Gwyneth Mitchell, Nathan Shippee, Jordan Dorrier, Emma Staton and Camden Allen. This year’s leadership conference welcomed student members representing FFA middle and high school chapters from across the state of Virginia; and featured several agricultural leadership and motivational workshops. The annual conference targets first-year members of FFA, in grades 6, 7, and 8; and provides them with the tools and the know-how to succeed as leaders within their respective FFA chapters, communities, and careers.For years, the Leadership Conference has diligently worked to foster leadership within its members. The conference also continues the mission of the FFA, which is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

Mr. Gough- 7th Grade Life Science

In Life Science, we have studied cells, classification, cell division, mitosis, meiosis, and the levels of organization. We have written many helpful notes in our playbooks, worked on the Chromebooks on a website called quizlet.com to improve benchmark scores and also vocabulary skills, we studied hard for our vocabulary test so that we can succeed in science! All students recently made cell projects and conducted an osmosis demonstration. We have also done many experiments in class such as a diffusion experiment with balloons, osmosis experiment with eggs and water, an experiment on bread mold, and an experiment on flowers to see which flower would stay fresher. Our goal in this class is to finish this subject with high scores on all of our benchmarks.

Edited By: Chance Woodson & Justice Steger 

We are looking forward to dissecting worms soon!!!

Mrs. Huskey- 8th Grade Math and Algebra

It’s hard to believe that one fourth of the year is over already!  Just a reminder: students need glue sticks, colored pencils, paper and pencils.  Mrs. Huskey's pre-algebra and algebra classes have had their first benchmark and the results were quite good!  Mrs. Huskey allows students to make up low grades.  Some students are not taking advantage of this opportunity.  Mrs. Huskey wants to keep parents informed and will be sending home a grade sheet every four or five weeks.  It should be signed and returned to school.  If you are not seeing this grade sheet, please call school and leave a message.  If you would like to speak to Mrs. Huskey or any of the 8th grade teachers about your child’s progress, you may call the school for an appointment. Mrs. Huskey’s email address is pamela@bcpschools.org.  Just a reminder – Mrs. Huskey offers extra credit every week.

Mrs. Ragland- 6th Grade Math

Mrs. Ragland’s math 6 students are off to a great start!  Students kicked-off the new school year by setting personal math goals and then exploring SOL: 6.8 Order of Operations where they learned why it’s important to follow the “PLEASE EXCUSE MY DEAR AUNT SALLY” rule for evaluating expressions.  Students also spent time learning about SOL: 6.1 Ratios, and SOL: 6.2 Fractions, Decimals and Percents.   To model percents, students had the opportunity to create their own design on a 10 x 10 percent grid. They also learned how to convert decimals to percents and percents to decimals using the “Dr.Pepper” method.  Of course, drinking some actual Dr.Pepper made the concept easier to understand!  The last several weeks of the quarter were spent adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions and mixed-numbers.   

Students and parents, as we begin the second nine weeks, please remember that homework is assigned Monday through Thursday of each week.  Students should spend time reviewing new material, as well as topics that were covered during the first nine weeks in preparation for the SOL Test at the end of the year.  Students can also logon to Study Island (www.studyisland.com) at home and practice topics that have already been taught in class. I am very proud of all of my students!  Keep up the hard work my geniuses!

Mrs. Gilliam - 6th Grade History

This first nine weeks have passed quickly and I am very proud of what our students are accomplishing. They have adjusted well to middle school life. They have shown that they are hard workers who enjoy learning. Students have been working hard creating an interactive notebook in history class that includes all of their notes and creative works. We have studied geography, Native Americans, European Exploration and Life in Colonial America. Student enthusiastically completed a home exploration project, created museum artifacts and Native American culture projects. We ended the first nine weeks with a Colonial Life experience where students got to dress up, make colonial toys, sing songs and sample authentic foods. We are looking forward to the next nine weeks.

Mrs. Thompson- 6th Grade English

Ms. Thompson’s classes are off to a great start this year! In Ms. Thompson’s English class, the students have been focusing on the comprehension of various fiction texts and narrative writing. The students have also been able to review SOLs with the Chromebooks by using Quizlet and Quizizz. The students also do a great job reading and using their eBook to: identify narrative elements, make inferences and conclusions, summarize, etc. As we enter into the second nine weeks, the classes will have a larger focus on nonfiction and narrative nonfiction through the exploration of speeches, informational texts, articles, magazines, fliers, and more! I can’t wait to see what more this group can accomplish!

BCMS Art Showcase and Art Club Displays

Relief for Texas

The Buckingham County Middle School collected 915 items on Tuesday to send to Texas. The students were very excited to be a part of this cause and brought in items with open arms. Thank you to CVCS for taking the items to send out.

Left to right: Hannah Savage, Kymeir Lockett, Jaylen Anderson, Sabrina Read, Gabrielle Gunter, and Ethan Martin.

BCMS Makerspace

The middle school is building a makerspace in their library which currently houses Legos, Edison robots, Qubits, magnetic poetry, Chess, Jenga, puzzles, origami, coloring pages and more! Students have access to these resources to express their creativity and encourage outside-of-the-box thinking. If you have any suggestions for resources to add or would like to contribute in some way, please let Melissa Hanes know. You can reach her by email at mhanes@bcpschools.org.

BreakoutEDU in the Library

Here are a few pictures of students participating in the library orientation. They had to read letters that were placed around the library describing the rules and layout. Each letter had a clue as to how to open one lock. They had to work together to figure out how to open the locks. They did so wonderful and seemed to have a great time!

Teachers Participate in BreakoutEDU!

Colonial Day (6th grade)

Sixth grade students participated in Colonial Day by dressing up, playing traditional games, singing, and sampling authentic foods.

Sixth Grade Celebrated the Revolution with a Tea Party

Honor Roll- 1st Nine Weeks

Grade 6 Austyn Allen ** Nicholas Allen Samya Ayres Morgan Ballowe ** Amy Banton Leia Barron ** John Barton Kaylee Baucom Ka'Mari Bland Alex Boyles Hunter Branch Charles Bright Caroline Browning ** Sofia Bruschi Jacob Carter Jazlin Companion Olivia Cummings ** Lindsey Davidson Tyler Davis Michael Dowse Elinora Dunn Joanna Estrada-Hernandez Demorris Eubanks James Falvella Annette Gage ** Quinn Gardner ** Summer Garrison Samantha Gonzalez Madison Gormus Gabrielle Gunter Isabelle Halliday Brennan Herndon D'Andrea Hurt ** Kimora Johnson ** Liberty Johnson ** Secret Johnson Bryanna Jones ** Melanie King Alana Leighty Emily Long Joseph Love Abigail Martin Ethan Martin Zaivyon Maxey Laura Miller Morghan Moody Sadie Mullins ** Hayden Napier Jenna Oliver Sydney Oliver ** Lee Payne Graycee Peins ** Amiah Porter ** Logan Ragland ** Oscar Ramirez Sabrina Read China Richards Kimora Richardson David Ripley ** Dakota Robertson ** Anniyah Rojas ** Erin Rush ** Hannah Savage ** Tyler Selzer Nathan Simmers Niessa Sims Elizabeth Smith Caitlyn Terry ** Amayia Thomas Trequan Turner Colby White Tiana White KorDonte Williams ** Emmalee Woods **

Grade 7 Courtney Agee ** Camden Allen Tavion Bartee Alexia Barton Kyle Bond Austin Britt ** Connor Brungerwood Eli Bryant Elaina Busch William Carter Sidra Daniel Jordan Dorrier Abigail Dowdy ** John Duncan Daniel Farrish Skyler Flood Karma Gaydon Latajha Gregory ShaDiamond Gregory Griffin Haines Bayla Harris Mikale Harris Haylie Hucks Brandon Johnson ** Kyra Johnson ** Kymeir Lockett Malaysia Maxey ** Gwyneth Mitchell ** Devin Monroe James Motley Cameron Newton Christopher Perkins William Powers ** Andrew Read Rondal Richardson Jaquari Ross Ryan Rosson Magdeline Rumsey ** Nathan Shippee Alexander Somers Emma Staton ** Amber Steger Justice Steger ** Jennings Stephens Zoee Stinson ** Lauren Stone Hayden Talbott ** Olivia Trainum ** Arial Turner Javon Tutwyler ** Holden Tyson Kaley Vallejo ** Alexander Vaughan Desmond Vaughan Citlali Vea-Linares ShDiamond Watkins Marissa Wilson ** Chance Woodson ** Jorden Woodson Albert Yeung **

Grade 8 Natalie Aldridge Deion Anderson Jaylen Anderson ** Cole Auten Jeremiah Ayers-Shorts Alana Ballowe ** Faith Biggers DaDreanna Bland Nevaeh Booker Shawn Browning ** Abigail Burgess Cadence Campbell ** Nikia Chambers ** Montana Cook Hannah Davis Elizabeth Dunkum Kiara Eldridge Cooper Fraser ** Liana Friedel ** Jonathan Gowans Vanessa Hackett Ashanti Hall Brandon Harmon Gillyan Harrison Kaitlyn Hucks ** Zackary Jamerson JaKaia Jones Wayne Jones Brianna LeSueur ** Bradlee Lilly David Love Wesley Lunt Heather McKinney ** Olivia Mendez Casey Parker Haley Peins ** Maxwell Ragland Lauren Randolph Braedyn Schaeffer Emily Seay Madison Shumaker TaiVone Skeens Amber Smith Ressa Smith Drew Toney Samuel Trimble Cassidy Tyson Uzziel Vea-Linares ** Tanner Wise Dalante Woodson ** Jayden Woodson Abigail Yancey **

** = All As