March 20, 2015 - Spelling Bee & PFC Sponsorship

Eblast 03-20-15
Placer County Office of Education Spelling Bee Results – May 12th
Granite Oaks is very proud of each of our students that represented Rocklin Unified School District in the
Placer County Spelling Bee on May 12th. It was very exciting to have several of our students in this
competition. Keri Chen and Aravind Sharma were part of five in their age group that all lasted for about
45 minutes. It was a tight competition! Mridini Vijay who placed 2nd overall in the grand finals held
very strong against the student from Olympus who came in 1st. Mrindi will be going to state finals for
Junior High on May 2, 2015. Congratulations to all of our students!
7th Grade:
Granite Oaks
Granite Oaks
Granite Oaks
Ethan Chan – 3rd place
Marcus Matsubayashi – 14th place
Mridini Vijay – 1st place and 2nd overall Grand Finals
8th Grade:
Granite Oaks
Granite Oaks
Granite Oaks
Granite Oaks
Granite Oaks
Keri Chen – 2nd place
Tamsen Dean – 9th place
Max Miller – 5th place
Aravind Sharma – 3rd place
Shayana Venukanthan – 8th place
Counselor Corner
The third quarter ended on March 13th at Granite Oaks Middle School. Believe it or not --- your middle
school student has made it through three fourths of the 7th or 8th grade school year. Third quarter
grades impact both 7th and 8th grade students in terms of elective choices, meeting advanced course
pre-requisites and math placement. Unfortunately, with the weather beginning to warm and extra
curricular activities picking up, middle school students can lose their focus and experience a drop in their
grades and undermine their goals for the upcoming academic school year. We often see attendance
drop, homework completion becomes sporadic and grades suffer in both the 7th and 8th grades. Here are
strategies parents can implement at home to help your student stay focused --1. Be consistent with the homework schedule you have worked so hard to develop during the year;
2. Check grades on a weekly basis with your student --- ask questions if you notice an increase in
missing work --- not only do students start experiencing school fatigue they are also dealing with
a quicker pace on instruction and an increase in content difficulty during the second semester;
3. Monitor your student’s attendance --- it is a significant challenge for a young person to make up
work and stay on top of current work;
4. Support your student’s effort in Accelerated Reading (AR) --- meeting the AR goal is 10% of their
Language Arts grade and can make a significant difference in their GPA;
5. Test taking can be challenging --- any support you can provide with test preparation or studying
will build your student’s confidence; and,
6. Communication with teachers is critical for both you and your student --- it is a skill that will
reap rewards for your student in high school, college and the world of work.
The goal of middle school is preparation for high school --- the game changes for students as far as what
is expected and how they are evaluated --- assessment becomes even more important then scores on
homework, essential skills are critical to showing mastery of course content and the ability to balance
school, sports, performing arts, friends and outside activities become incredibly challenging. Remember
the teachers, administrators and counselors are here to support your students and their academic
success.
Linda Marcarian
Rosemary Elston
lmarcarian@rocklin.k12.ca.us
relston@rocklin.k12.ca.us
ALERT!!!
The Granite Oaks Green Scene garden club
Spring Plant Sale begins next week! Please click the
preceding link to view all the varieties/prices we have
to offer. Kids will be stationed in the parking lots at
GOMS before and after school Tuesday through
Thursday next week (3/24-3/26), for those of you
looking to plant over spring break. They will be selling
again throughout April if your garden plot still needs
some prep-work before you're ready to plant your
garden!!! Thanks for supporting our program!
REPRINT:
Granite Oaks Science Olympiad Team moves on to State Competition
Granite Oaks digs out some Science Olympiad medals at California State University, Sacramento and
earns a spot to compete in the Science Olympiad state competition at CSU, Stanislaus next month. On
Saturday March 7th, 15 middle school and 20 high school teams competed this year at the Regional
Science Olympiad in over 20 different events ranging from Anatomy to Crime Buster to Helicopters to
Wheeled Vehicles. The goals of the Science Olympiad are to bring science to life emphasizing problem
solving strategies, develop team work and cooperative learning amongst the participants and attract
students to professional and technical careers in science, engineering and technology. Granite Oaks’
medal winners include: Jean Lee and Erin Kuo for Bottle Rocket; Erin Kuo and Janel Vaughn for Judge a
Powder; Josh Golden and Alex Way for Crave the Wave; Michael Insongia and Shayana Venukanthan for
Dynamic Planet; Bella Clementi, Daniel McElhinney and Emily Cook for Elastic Launch Glider; Alex Way
and Aravind Sharma for Wheeled Vehicle; and Josh Golden and Jean Lee for Write it Do It. John Yanni,
coach of the Granite Oaks team and 7th grade science teacher at GOMS, is very proud of all the team
members and looking forward to competing at the state level next month. Go Falcons!