The Pirate Treasure

The Pine Tree Middle School 6th Grade UIL team competed in the Sulphur Springs competition and placed 1st overall and 1st place sweepstakes.

Congratulation to the following Pirates!

Oral Reading-Poetry -3rd Place: Clara White, Oral Reading-Prose- 4th Place: Hannah Holder, Art-1st Place Team - 1st Place: Ava Evans, 2nd Place: Luna Patino, 3rd Place: Vanessa Alexander, 4th Place: Annabelle Perkins; Chess-1st Place Team, 2nd Place: Camden Hollingsworth, 3rd Place: Jeyland Dies, 4th Place: Ian Gilliam, 5th Place: Landon Ednie; Maps, Graphs and Charts-3rd Place Team;

Spelling-1st Place Team- 1st Place: Baylee Gray, 2nd Place: McKell Daly, 6th Place: Casyn Gonzalez; Music Memory-1st Place Team- 1st Place: Samuella Mbeh, 3rd Place: Skylar Lane, 6th Place: Olivia Perez; Calculator-1st Place Team- 1st Place: Natalie Echave, 3rd Place: Hayden Crout, 5th Place: Ryker Nowlin-Kramer; Modern Oratory-1st Place: Hannah Holder, 2nd Place: Tristan Basuldua, 3rd Place: Clara White

Number Sense-1st Place Team- 2nd Place: Ian Gilliam, 4th Place: Elliot Wickes, 5th Place: Ryker Nowlin-Kramer; Dictionary Skills-1st Place Team- 2nd Place: Avan Martinez, 3rd Place: Cooper Cowden, 4th Place: Jirah Baker; Mathematics-1st Place Team - 2nd Place: Ian Gilliam, 3rd Place: Elliot Wickes, 4th Place: Jeyland Dies; Science-2nd Place Team- 2nd Place: Elliot Wickes, 6th Place: Landon Ednie; Listening Skills-1st Place Team-3rd Place: Annette Arcia, 4th Place: Jocelyn Cerda; 5th Place: Errin Williams

Ready Writing-2nd Place: Madyson Simmons, 4th Place: McKell Daly;

Editorial Writing- 6th Place: Andrew Villarrreal.

Pine Tree Middle School will be hosting the Elementary UIL event on February 24th. We are looking forward to our 5th grade students showing off their academic skills.

On Saturday, February 3, eight Pine Tree Middle School sixth grade teams competed in the Robert F. Hunt Elementary VEX IQ Invitational Robotics competition in Diana. Team Them, driven by Rocky Herrera and Kayleb Rubio, won the skills challenge part of the competition scoring 86 points between driving and programming. PTMS teams Teddy Bears, driven by Jade Goodloe, Lily Rivas, and Eva Tapia; Zippy Chippy, driven by Grace Richardson and Hunter Watlington, and The Reapers, driven by Anthony Brown and Giovanni Locascio, tied for 2nd with 82 points.

Team Them and Team Reapers were teamed up in the teamwork finals and won the teamwork competition scoring 79 points. Zippy Chippy came in 2nd with 78 points and Big Timmy, driven by Sheldon Smith, On Palmer, and Kinsler Burrow came in 3rd with 75 points. Team Them qualified for the state competition by winning the skills challenge competition and the teamwork challenge. The Reapers also qualified for state by winning the teamwork challenge.

To say we are proud of all our 6th grade competition teams is an understatement. They represented Pine Tree exceptionally well.

February is here with spring break only one month away. It is a busy time at Pine Tree High School.

Competitions for band, choir, UIL Academics, Skills USA, Culinary, DECA, and Interact are all underway, adding to an already busy class schedule.

UIL Academics is motoring toward district and, thus far, has performed well in all of their meets. Pine Tree is poised to win the district championship this year and make some noise in regionals and state.

Choir, band and Skills USA are also bringing the heat when it comes to competitions. These groups have students who are favored to bring home state recognition over the next month.

Big news for Pine Tree is that, for the next two years, PTHS will be moving down to 4A in sports and UIL events. The Pine Tree district will include Palestine, Mabank, Lindale, Kilgore, Henderson and Chapel Hill. This will allow PTHS to hopefully face schools more their own size and to capitalize on this by having even more success on the athletic field as well as the academic arena.

Administrators and coaches are all excited for this move, and feel Pine Tree will be one of the top in all areas.

On the sports front, basketball is ending regular seasons over the next couple of weeks. Powerlifting has started the year with two successful outings and will compete February 8th in Paris.

Softball, baseball, girls soccer, boys soccer, track, tennis and golf are now either in scrimmages or in regular season events. All of the teams are fighting for playoff spots or are favored to make the playoffs.

Testing is scheduled for March and April, so teachers are busy preparing students for those exams. This has been an outstanding academic year at Pine Tree, and students are gaining the benefit of a faculty and staff that has put in hundreds of extra hours to make sure their students are getting the best education possible.

Birch Elementary students have been learning, growing, and thriving for 100 days! Our first and second grade students participated in a plethora of activities celebrating this achievement while also wearing attire that represented the first 100 days of school. At Birch, no one celebrates more than we do!

The Birch UIL coaches and teams are hard at work to prepare for their upcoming UIL meet. Students can be found practicing for their UIL events on a daily basis to achieve their goal in continuing their winning streak. UIL season is a time for all faculty members to encourage and motivate the student UIL team members. At Birch, no one wins more UIL championships that we do!

The Birch Elementary Sunshine Committee organized the “It’s Cold Outside” potluck extravaganza. The Birch faculty brought delectable treats for all to enjoy. Co-workers were found mingling excitedly in the lounge as they devoured a variety of nutritional items.

A huge thank you goes to our Sunshine Committee for providing a time for our BFF to relax. At Birch, no one eats more than we do!

Mrs. Thiele’s class and the rest of PreK celebrated learning all twenty-six letters by participating in a letter parade throughout the school. We also love practicing learned math skills during math centers. It’s hard to believe we’ve been in school for 100 days!

Mrs. Pruitt’s class is working on recognizing 3D shapes all around us. We were able to find real-life examples of 3D shapes in our classroom. We used a mystery box to place all the shapes in to play our 3D shape game.

We had lots of fun at our 100 Day of School celebration! We had lots of cute, old little people walking the halls.

Aaliyah Lopez - Pearce

Diamond Fields - Thiele

Meghan Coronado - Greenlee

Daylon Rhoades - Crockett

February 12

Animal Shelter Field Trip

8:30-11:30 p.m.

Kraus Coleman

11:30-2:00 p.m.

Greenlee, Brutchin, Crockett

February 16 & 19

School Holiday

February 21

Black History Program

Pine Tree Road Auditorium - 6:00 pm

February 21

Bus Driver Appreciation Day

Show your drivers some love!

Mrs. Cooper's classroom was under construction a few weeks ago, while exploring the perimeter and area of rectangles and squares. Students dressed the part in their tool belts and hard hats. To be able to use tape measures to find dimensions, they calculated the perimeter and area of shapes. Later in the week, they used problem solving skills and formulas to find the missing dimension when given the perimeter or area. What an amazing week!

Benjamin Franklin said it best: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

Last week at The Pack, we celebrated being 100 days smarter. We had some wonderful visitors be out subs for our 100th day of school. Our students celebrated by doing 100 exercises in PE to different other activities in their classrooms. We had the cutest 100 year old students to ever grace these walls here at Parkway. It was one of the most fun days we have had!

Our very own Assistant Principal Mrs. McElyea and Louie went to twenty-three classes last week to read to each of the classes' favorite book. They had such a great time seeing all those students with smiling faces as they read the book.

1st Grade: Hayden Russell- Ingram

2nd Grade: Alejandra Casa- Curl

4th Grade: Connor Smith- Toal

Not pictured: Eli Johnson- Fobell

Our very own Superintendent Mr. Clugston stopped by our Fellowship of Christian Anybodies meeting on Friday, February 2nd to share about the power of relationships and making an impact in the world. Our FCA meetings are every other Friday at 7:45am in our PTJH Lecture Hall. All students are invited to become a part of this organization!

As our PTJH Basketball season draws to a close, we want to send a pirate sized congratulations to our first year coach Melvin Stafford and his 7th grade girls team!

Coach Stafford’s 7th grade girls team brought home the district championship after their win in Hallsville on Thursday, February 1st.

His Lady Pirates came from behind to bring home their final win of the season! It’s been a great season for all of our PTJH basketball teams both boys and girls! Go Pirates!

The PTJH Student Council students are selling candy grams in the foyer each morning leading up to Valentine's Day! Our junior high students can send valentines to other students to spread love across the campus.

The candy grams will be delivered on Valentine's Day during P3 classes.

Pictured below are STUCO members Makenna and Cooper at their post ready to sell some candy grams!

Let's hear it for our January 2024 Pirates of the Month!

Congrats to Stephen and Gracey from 7th grade and Derek and Evolet from 8th grade!

Pirates of the Month are voted on by our staff and we couldn't be more proud of the hard work and respect these Pirates show each day on campus. These four are real leaders on our PTJH campus and represent the excellence we expect from our Pirates!

On Saturday, January 27th, our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade UIL team traveled to Sulphur Springs and brought home the first place trophy! The team competed against Sulphur Springs, Whitehouse, Hallsville, Marshall, and Mt. Pleasant and did an excellent job!

Huge congratulations to our 1st place PTJH UIL team! Great job to all of our coaches and participants!

R3 Sessions are designed for the PACE staff to facilitate discussions that focus on helping our students build GRIT. Mr. Manasco led a recent R3 Session that examined the outcomes of ‘good habits’ and ‘bad habits’. Being Resourceful, Resilient, and Relational is essential to a successful life.

Fifteen students and staff participated in this amazing program that supports some of the younger students in the district SPED programs at the Primary campus. The PACE team did an excellent job volunteering their time and energy to this wonderful event! #PTP