HFS 7th Grade News & Projects

1. First and foremost - Jesus is the reason for the season. Do something uncommonly kind to a person that doesn't deserve it and continue to love all of the others. Remember the greatest commandment - Love God and love your neighbor. Have a blessed Christmas.

2. The evening of Dec 18th is Holy Family School's Christmas Show. Prior to the show is an exciting time of preparation both in the Advent spirit and rehearsal spirit. 7th grade is practicing "Winter Wonderland", both a traditional version and a San Diego version. We hope you will enjoy it. The dress for the evening is "church service" traditional with the student's wearing dress coats and scarfs. We are in a winter wonderland for our performance.

3. During the final week of school, before Christmas break, we will be delivering student purchased gifts for a needy family. Your child will come home with a family member's name and gift ideas mentioned by the family. Ultimately, you select the gift. Wrap it and send the gift to school. I will store the gifts until all students have had an opportunity to give. We bundle everything up and deliver to the family (Mrs Benton will handle that pleasant task). Any questions, concerns or suggestions let me know.

4. On Dec 19th, the last day before break, after morning Mass, the entire school visits hospitals and convalescent homes to sing Christmas carols. 7th grade and Kindergarten will be caroling at Care With Dignity Convalescent Home, located down the street from Sharp Hospital. We will need drivers and singers to share the experience. Permission slips will be sent home by the end of this week or the first of next week. School lets out at 11:00AM.

5. Dec 13th is Progress Report day. Be on the lookout and make sure your child shares this important information with you.

As things come up, I'll keep you posted

1. All science fair projects will be submitted by Jan 18th 2008. Normally, projects would be due a week later, but we must follow a different procedure this year. Instead of having a judge visit our school and approve projects for Greater San Diego Science & Engineering Fair (GSDSEF), there is now an intermediate judging that takes place. Following our local science fair, which will be held from January 21-22, projects selected by both Mrs Alegre and myself will be advanced to an intermediate science fair. This screening science fair will be conducted at De Portola Middle School on February 6th. Projects will be either approved for GSDSEF or rejected by a team of judges. So we need to adjust our dates to accommodate this new schedule and procedure.

2. Students are encouraged to submit completed portions of their science fair project via email. Obviously, this only applies to students with both Internet and email access. They should attach a completed portion of their project, send it as an attachment and it will be evaluated, corrected and returned. This is the way of the future. As your children advance to high school and beyond they will do more and more of this electronic transfer of information. If your child or you are not comfortable with this arrangement, the traditional manner of submitting work remains a valid option.

3. By December 12th (Wednesday) the first portion of the report to be submitted is Research, consisting of 5-pages, double-space, 12-pt Times New Roman font, standard margins and saved in Rich Text Format (myresearch.rtf). This portion of the report consists of background information that helps the reader to understand the science behind the experiment. It can be completed prior to doing any of the actual experiment. I am available to answer any questions, either in class or via email (peterminton@yahoo.com), concerning any aspect of the student's science fair project.