Jonathan Alder Junior High

JAJHS Families,

Next week, on Tuesday, November 26th, our students will be participating in our annual Service Learning Day. Through this day, we hope to build a stronger sense of community in our students and empower them to be valuable members of our community. We are excited for the chance to spend the day learning about various forms of service and stewardship.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to also take a moment to tell you how appreciative our staff is to work with such great kids. We are thankful for the chance to impact them and continue to grow them throughout these impressionable years of their lives.

There will be no school on Wednesday, November 27th through Friday, November 29th. During this time, we hope you and your family enjoy time together, good food, and a slower pace for a few days!

Sincerely,

Mr. Malany

11/27-11/29 Thanksgiving Break

12/03 Vision and Hearing Screening

12/06 7PM Junior High Dance

12/12 7PM Junior High Choir Concert

12/13 & 12/14 7PM Junior High Play

12/17 7PM Junior High Winter Band Concert

12/23-1/03 Winter Break

Email: ungerdo@japioneers.org
Website: http://www.alder.k12.oh.us/
Location: Jonathan Alder Junior High School, Killbury-Huber Road, Plain City, OH, USA
Phone: 614-873-4635
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathanalderjrhigh/?ref=bookmarks

Service Learning Day will be held on Tuesday, November 26th at JAJHS. This day will be spent learning about and celebrating the importance of giving back, being part of a community, and honoring the emotions of ourselves and others!

Our morning's keynote speaker will be Mr. Bruce Daniels, founder of IMPACT60 and local business owner. He will be speaking with our students on the importance of service in his companies and the value of giving back to the community.

Activities include:

• Preparing Soup and Cracker bags for D.N.A.
• JAJHS Curb Appeal: Hallway Tape Decorations
• Visiting with Grief Counseling dogs
• Living in Poverty Simulation
• Creating "Busy Boxes" of toys for younger kids in waiting rooms and offices around our community
• Creating paper Holiday Wreaths for a local nursing home
• Creating Placemats for community meals at D.N.A.
• Participating in an online "real-life" simulation for financial planning

* Mrs. Heinig's Language Arts classes have just started their Nonfiction research projects. Thank you, parents, for taking your kids to the public libraries to find books to support their chosen topics. The students are so excited to learn about each other's topics during our final presentations! We have a full range of topics, from donuts to computer hardware engineering, and bulldogs to organic chemistry. Since the kids got to choose their topics, they are really having fun with their research!

* The 7th grade Math classes will be conducting a proportions lab on Monday, November 25th. This lab will allow students to experiment with various lemonade recipes to compare and scale their ingredients, as we have been learning in our unit on ratio and proportions. If you would like to donate lemonade or cookies for the lab, please click this link: http://signup.com/go/VGSsmVN

* Mrs. Seed's Language Arts classes finished up their Dystopian Unit last week. Students did an excellent job presenting their Dystopian Society projects! Next the students will be learning about argumentation as we transition into our Argument Unit.

*Traveling with Miss Dollinger: The June 2020 trip abroad is to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. It includes entrances to all national parks, boat rides, snorkeling, visiting the Equator and hiking in a cloud forest! We still have two open spots if you'd like to join us! Please email Miss Dollinger at dollinli@japioneers.org for more information. There will be a Black Friday sale and this trip is open to all Alder students, current 8th graders and up!

8th Grade Families:

It's not too early to start thinking about scheduling for High School classes for 9th grade!

Check out the link HERE to get more information about some high school courses that we are updating for the 2020-2021 school year.

Band:

Our next concert is just around the corner. On Tuesday, December 17th at 7:00pm the 7th and 8th grade Bands will be performing their Holiday concert. Doors open at 6:00pm and students are asked to be there no later than 6:30. We look forward to seeing you there!

Choir:

Our Winter Choir Concert for both 7th and 8th grade will be on Thursday, December 12th at 7:00pm in the High School Auditeria. Details to follow!

Music Boosters:

Our next Music Booster meeting will be held on Monday, November 25th at 7:00pm in the High School Choir Room. We hope you join us for a rousing review of the accomplishments the Music Programs have made this calendar year and help us look forward to the new year!

JA Junior High Student Council is organizing a Soup and Cracker Drive to support our local DNA organization in Plain City. From Tuesday, November 19th through Tuesday, November 26th we will be collecting canned soup and crackers to donate to families in need. The top contributing 7th and 8th grade homeroom will win a donut party!

Our goal is 365 cans so that our school can provide one meal a day for a year to those in need in our community! If possible, pop-tab cans and Raman noodle style soups are preferred in case families do not have can openers, but all non-perishable donations are welcome!

This year the Junior High is excited to present 'The Best Worst Day of my Life'. Written by Dick Grunert, this show is about two unlikely protagonist uniting together to conquer what they would categorically claim was the worst days of their young adult lives. This show will have you bust at the seams with laughter!

Performances of this play will be held on December 13th and 14th at 7:00pm in the Junior High Auditorium. Tickets are free, however we will gladly take a donation toward the future growth of the program. We hope to see you in December!

Our first dance of the year is Friday, December 6th from 7-9:00PM! The cost of the dance is $3.00 at the door. Drinks and snacks will be provided. If students would like Dance Pictures (to be developed for $1.00) they may bring extra money.

Our theme is, "Black and White: Winter Wonderland." Please remember that students need to follow dress code.

If your are able to chaperone or donate drinks and snacks, please follow this link. Thank You!

Girls Basketball:

Basketball season has just begun! The first home game for 7th and 8th grade girls basketball is JA vs London on Monday December 2nd at 5:30pm. Click here for full schedule.

Boys Basketball:

The first home game for the 7th and 8th grade boys basketball is JA vs Northridge on Monday, December 9th at 5:30pm. Click here for full schedule.

Wrestling:

The JA Junior High wrestling team will open their season on Thursday, December 5th with a Tri-Meet with Pleasant and Westfall. The meet will be held at Jonathan Alder High School and will begin at 5:00pm.

Our school nurse, Ms. Spencer, will be at the Junior High on Tuesday, December 3rd for Vision and Hearing Screening. The students to be screened include all 7th graders and new 8th graders.

We remind students who normally wear eyeglasses to be sure to bring your glasses to school that day!

In an effort to maximize both student safety and efficiency on our morning car drop-off procedures, please assist us with these items:

• When dropping off, only use the left side of the parking lot to form a single line of cars. Avoid using the right lane which causes students to cross in front of cars in the left lane and ultimatly slows down everyone in line.
• On rare occasions, there are enough cars in line that causes waiting cars to back up onto Kilbury-Huber Rd. To avoid this, please feel free to use the entrance closer to the football field to create an "overflow pull-in lane" when needed.
• If you are the family of a teenage driver who drops off a sibling, please share the above procedures with them to ensure everyone's safety.

Please refer to photograph below. We appreciate your attention to this matter

The JAHS Freshman class will be hosting a Breakfast with Santa on Saturday, December 7th from 9:00-11:30am in the High School cafeteria! For more information see attached flyer.

The JAHS Sophomore class is organizing a 5K Run to benefit various class activities! The run is scheduled for Saturday, December 7th at 9:00am. For more information see attached flyer.

The L.I.F.T. Learning Center provides after school homework help for 5th-8th graders at DNA Community Center, located in the old elementary school in Plain City. Adult and high school volunteers assist students with school assignments, organization, reading, writing, and test preparation. Students also have access to chromebooks for research and teacher suggested educational links. The program runs weekly, Monday through Thursday 2:45-5:00pm.

Paperwork for the program is in the junior high office and also online on the DNA website: dnaplaincity.org

Did you know that every 50 Box Tops buys a new book for the Junior High Library?

Turning in Box Tops just got easier with Mobile technology! No more clipping--scan your receipt! The new and improved Box Tops mobile app scans your store receipt, finds participating products and instantly adds Box Tops to your school's earnings online. No clipping required! Download on the App Store or get it on Google Play.

Help support our JH Library with Box Tops! If you have question, please contact Mrs. Conley at conleysh@japioneers.org.

The Jonathan Alder PACE program helps to provide information, resources and networking opportunities to support gifted students and their families. JA PACE is a community based group open to all families in the Jonathan Alder School District. For more information on the PACE Program please click here.

We would like to thank all of the businesses and parents who helped us make our fundraising a success! We earned a total of $3,800.00 this season! All of our funds to date have been raised by working our concessions and selling items generously donated and discounted from our local businesses during football season. We are able to fund teacher dinners during conferences, supply popcorn to our students for movie and dance celebrations, buy miscellaneous supplies on teachers' "wish list", celebrate teacher appreciation week, end-of-year picnic and pool party for the students, help to send students on the 8th grade Washington D.C. trip, and more!

Thank You to Jonathan Alder High School Boosters, Donatos, Der Dutchman, and

Jan & Tony's Pizza! Also, a big Thank You to all the parents for helping us in the concession stand and to all the parents who purchased from us as well.

Sincerely,

Your PTO

** PTO meetings are held in the Junior High library, usually on the first Thursday of the month at 2:30. Our next meeting, will be on Thursday, December 5th.

Bus Passes

Many times students want to ride a different bus home with a friend. To do so, the students must have a Bus Pass from the office to give to the bus driver.Both students must bring in a note from parent/guardian to give to the office. Mrs. Unger will write a bus pass for the students to pick up after lunch.

Medications at School

Sometimes parents ask that school personnel administer medication to their child during the school day. When this is necessary, we require written permission and instructions from the parent and in some instances from the doctor. The required form “Distribution/Student Use of Medicines/Medications” must be completed. You can pick up this form in the Junior High Office.