January 2020

Our annual talent show is coming up in early March and the student council is ready to start seeing auditions. If your student has a talent that you think that they would like to perform in front of the school, please encourage them to try out. Every year we see kids with wonderful talents on our stage and the student body loves to cheer them on. Of course, musical talents are a big hit, but we like to see a variety of talent. We've had pogo-sticking, yo-yoing, magic shows, and many other talents.

We are happy to announce our January Students of the Month! These students were nominated by faculty and staff for being a Spartan in Body, Heart, and Mind and were honored at a breakfast with their parents on January 15th. Congratulations!

Back Row (left to right): Avery Allred (9th), Callie Geertsen (9th), Matthew Cox (8th), Zane Bergstrom (8th), Nate Thorne (7th)
Front Row (left to right): Ethan Muller (9th), Asher Valgardson (8th), Paisley Nelson(8th), Kate Richards (8th)
Not pictured: Sophie Flint (7th)

Some of you might be aware that this year our wonderful librarian, Mrs. Tomadakis, hosted our first ever Battle of the Books here at Salem Junior High. The competition is a knowledge bowl style competition with questions focused around 20 books from a reading list given to the students a few months prior to the competition. Each member or the four or five person teams was responsible for reading and knowing the books assigned to them. Then, during the competition, they were asked questions about the books and they had to come together as a team to answer those questions. 

Walk into Mrs. Roberts's class any given day and you will find her students engaged in a variety of ways of learning. This Monday, kids were learning about potential energy vs kinetic energy. They did this in a lab where they designed their own rollercoaster tracks to run marbles down. They had to set their tubes just right to allow for enough potential energy for the marble to successfully complete its course. Students then analyzed potential and kinetic energy at several points throughout the course of the track.