Mr. B’s Blogspot

Not only do we look forward to winter break about this time, we look forward to celebrating our wonderful students at FHMS! Teachers, teams, mentors, and we in the office all make special efforts at this time of year to recognize our students who are doing what they’re supposed to–earning good grades, staying out of trouble, being a leader, and staying involved in their school and their own education.

On Dec. 11, the seventh grade teachers took a group of about 100 seventh graders to Skateland in Mesa to celebrate a great second quarter. Students rode the big yellow bus from Fountain Hills to Mesa, and enjoyed a day of skating, pizza, and games at the indoor skating rink.

Mr. Brennan also had a chance to celebrate some FHMS winners this week. We learned that four of our students earned honors in the VFW Post 7507 Patriot’s Pen Essay Contest. Eighth grader, Patrick Moyse was the first place winner over all ($300). Way to go Patrick! Michelle Farella earned third place ($100), and two more students earned Honorable Mention ($50): Ilyea Patrick and Sean Loving.

Of course, the holiday celebrations at FHMS would not be complete without the annual “Food Fight” between the boys and the girls. This brainchild of Mrs. Gomez in its third year, is a school-wide service project to raise food for the less fortunate. All non-perishable food items donated by students are turned over to Helping Hands Food Bank for distribution. This year, FHMS collected over 600 food itmes. And, once again, the girls won the battle.

For their efforts, the girls received a variety of prizes throughout the week. On Monday, all girls received an automatic Falcon Feather prize. Tuesday featured free Gatorade. On Wednesday and Thursday, special lunches were held in the team room for the winners. We arranged to take orders from the girls for Pizza Hut or Subway. Mrs. Gomez and Mr. Brennan provided holiday music, cold soda, and fun in the team room.

We thank you for giving us the honor and privilege to work with your children every day at FHMS. We think we have a great school full of both fun AND learning–Have a wonderful holiday season, and a happy new year!

Dec. 15 – Yearbook club meeting – 2:30 pm

Dec. 17 – Basketball game away at Phoenix Country Day School, 3:30 pm and 4:30 pm

Dec. 18 – Early release – 11:45 am

Dec. 21 – Jan. 1 – Winter break school resumes Jan. 4.

Report cards for semester 1 will be mailed Jan. 7.

FHMS hosted the 4-8 Geography Bee today in the eighth grade team room. Students from Four Peaks and FHMS competed to earn a spot as the district representative at the next level. The final two contenstants standing at the end were Iggy Macaluso, grade 5, and Quinn Amick, grade 6. Iggy managed to answer the all-important final question to earn first place honors and to be crowned (well, medaled, actually) as the 2009 FHUSD Geography Bee champion. FHMS teachers, Mr. Peterson and Mr. Spaeth served as organizers and moderators for the event.

Students faced challenging questions on cities, rivers, states, countries, landforms, and people from around the globe. Way to go Iggy and Quinn. You withstood the challenge from your student peers as well as from students one or two years ahead of you, and you prevailed!