Mathletes
Congratulations PCS Mathletes! At the recent WRSD Mathlete competition, held on Monday, May 5th at Mountview Middle School, Paxton brought home some first place finishes. The first place for team competition went to Paxton's own Nathan, Erika and Joey. The first place for 7th grade individual competition went to Paxton's Erika. Well done Panthers!
Great East Music Festival
On Friday, May 2nd, the PCS band traveled to Palmer, MA to compete in the Great East Music Festival.
Each student played their best and earned a silver medal for their efforts. Congratulations!
Living Museum
On Friday, May 2nd, students in Ms Whorton's class participated in a "living museum". Students reserached a famous person in history, wrote speeches about that person and then performed as that person to family members and staff. Click here for pictures.
Sixth Grade Science Fair
Congratulations to all sixth grade students who hosted a fantastic science fair on Monday, March 17th. All students did an outstanding job posing a scientific question, generating a scientific hypothesis, designing an experiment to test that hypothesis, collecting and presenting data as well as drawing conclusions from that data. Honorable mention goes to the following students: Sam, Connor, Mitchell, Sarah, Andrew and Dan. Top awards went to Kevin, Katie, Kayla and Steven. Many thanks to the judges and to Ms. Buck, Mrs. Bik and Mrs. Gregory for all their effort. Click here for pictures.
Spell-a-thon
PTO thanks all who spelled and raised money for Paxton Center School's Spell-a-thon, held on March 7th. Students raised $6324 through their efforts.Top money raisers were: Matthew (Grades 1 & 2), Tanya (Grades 3-5) and Andre (Grades 6-7). These students were rewarded with $20 gift cards.
The top homerooms were Mrs. Lock (Grade 1 & 2), Miss Urbanovitch (Grades 3-5) and Ms. Buck (Grades 6-7). Top homerooms will be rewarded with a pizza party on Friday, April 4th. PTO thanked all students who participated in the 2008 Spell-a-thon with icecream treats on Friday, March 28th.
Thanks to all the parent volunteers who corrected the tests and counted the pledge money.
Teacher of the Month
PCS is proud to announce that Ms. Stacia Smith has been chosen as WSRS and WTAG's Teacher of the month for February 2008! Click here for more information.
PCS Mathletes
Congratulations to the PCS Mathletes who competed in the recent WRSD Middle School Math Meet on Monday, March 10th, at Chocksett School in Sterling. The team of Erika, Emma and Joey took 2nd place while three students brought home top places in the individual rounds. Nathan earned 2nd place for 8th grade, Erika earned 1st for 7th grade and Kevin earned 3rd for 6th grade. Well done Paxton!
Destination Imagination
Paxton Center School sent three teams to the Massachusetts Regional Tournament of Destination Imagination on Saturday, March 8th. Destination Imagination is a creative problem solving program for students in grades K through University. Teams of students work together to solve and present answers to complicated problems. The ideas are generated entirely by the kids. Congratulations to all three teams for rising to the challenges and competing. Our elementary team, made up of Caroline, Emily, Hayley, Mary, Natasha, Nikki and Toni earned first place and will continue on to the State Tournament set for April 12th at WPI. Kudos to all of them.
MathCounts Competition
Congratulations to the MathCounts mathletes (Erika, Nathan, Sam, Joey, Tyler, Mitchell, Kevin, Tori, Henry and Katie) who competed in the MathCounts Competition on Thursday, February 14th. All Mathletes performed very well. PCS came in 7th place out of 16 teams from Central Massachusetts. PCS was the top school of the competing Wachusett Regional School District teams at the competition. Thanks to Ms. Calise and Mrs. Bik for their continued coaching and support of the PCS Mathletes. Click here for photos of recent competitions.
Box Tops for Education Contest
On Tuesday, February 5th Mr. DeFrino was dressed in tee shirt and hat created/designed by the students in 3U, the winners of the Box Tops for Education Contest. During the 8 week contest PCS students collected and brought in 6912 box tops OR $691.20 THANK YOU!!! The four top homerooms were: 1st place = 3U (Urbanovitch) with 770 collected, 2nd place = 4A (Albani) with 729 collected, 3rd place = 7E (Ekberg) with 558 collected, and 4th place = 4M (Moran) with 472 collected. The total raised in during the 8 week contest ($691.20) was: greater than was raised in the entire 2005-2006 school year ($576);$100 less than was raised in the entire 2006-2007 school year($764.40). THANK YOU! Click here for pictures.
Mathletes
PCS Panthers competed in the second Intra-district Math Competition at Central Tree Middle School in Rutland on Monday, January 28th. Nine teams from PCS competed, with the team of Erika, Antonella and Kevin winning top score in the team round for PCS. Congratulations to them and to Erika for winning first place in individual competition for PCS.
Pep Rally
Students at PCS completed their School Spirit Week by attending a Pep Rally put on by boys and girls basketball teams and PCS cheerleaders. Click here to see how PCS shows its spirit.
Art News
Students in Mrs. Bennett's Art classes have been using fiber (yarn, fabric, felt) to create art projects ranging from woven mats and finger puppets, to collages, bowls and pillows. Click here to view the art gallery.
Eighth grade students have been involved in a cooperative lesson with art and science. Each student focused on an organism from the Illig's Pond ecosystem and created a collage using four different art media. Click here for pictures.
National Geographic Geography Bee
The Final Geography Bee was held on Tuesday, January 8th. Congratulations to School Champion, Luke and second place finisher, Lauren. Kudos to 7th graders (Jill, Marcus, Nicole, Brendan, Luke and Lauren) and 6th graders (Philip, Cristian, Rachel and Kevin) who pariticipated in the final round. Luke will now take a written examination to qualify for the State Geography Bee. Good Luck! Click here for pictures
Electrical Safety Program
Mr. Gouley, from the Paxton Light Department, visited PCS to present a program on Electrical Safety to students in grades K through 5 on Monday, and Tuesday, December 17th and 18th. Students learned about the positive and negative side of electricity and what to do to stay safe. Mr. Gouley taught the youngsters the importance of conserving energy and gave them tips to reduce energy usage at home. Residents of Paxton are eligible for a free light bulb when they go Green. Click here to find out how.
Holiday Concert
On Thursday, December 20th, members of the PCS 6th-8th Grade Band and 3rd Graders performed a Holiday Concert for the students at Paxton Center School. Click here for pictures.
History meets Hollywood
Produced in partnership with George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens, "History Meets Hollywood" was a distance learning broadcast that discussed the positive and negative results of portraying historical figures and events through popular film. The program featured a panel of guests with backgrounds in historical study and the entertainment industry. The panelists discussed what students learn about history through popular film, how those films are used by teachers, and the merits of “dramatization” as a way to depict history. The panel was moderated by television news anchor and host of MSNBC’s Hardball, Chris Matthews. Panelists include Dr. Libby O’Connell, Chief Historian for the History Channel; actor Sebastian Roché, who portrayed George Washington in We Fight to Be Free; Ms. Stacia Smith, Paxton Center School Social Studies teacher and representatives from the new Disney Pictures film, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets.
Ms. Smith and Mr. Carlson had been working with students from PCS. The students submitted relevant and thought-provoking questions focusing on the merits or disadvantages of portraying history in popular film and video. Charter Communications assisted Paxton Center School by allowing our school to receive the program via satellite. Please visit the Mount Vernon Webpage for more regarding this special broadcast.
Turkey Trot
The 2007 Turkey Trot money is finally all received and counted. I am very proud to inform all of you that the Paxton Center School raised $1035 for the Wachusett Food Pantry. Thank you to all those who ran, walked, donated and supported. It is much appreciated. I know that many families will receive food this holiday/winter season.
Veterans Day Program
On Friday, November 9th, 8th grade students read their original narrative poetry as part of Paxton Center School's Veterans Day Ceremony honoring those who have served. Students, honored guests and parents gathered in the cafetorium for the program. Paxton American Legion posted the Colors, Representative Robert Spellane and Mr. Timothy Hackett. Click here for pictures
Mock Trial
Paxton Center School eighth graders took part in a mock trial with Assistant District Attorneys from Worcester County D.A. Early's office as part of the Community and School Outreach Program on Friday, November 2nd. Student prosecutors and defense attorneys presented evidence and questioned student witnesses with respect to charges filed stemming from a fictionalized arrest following a school dance. Student jurors did find several counts against the defendants valid, and these guilty verdicts resulted in a discussion with the trial judge about the sentences the students likely would have received if the incident were real. Click here for pictures.
Declaration of Independence
Stuart Whitehurst of Skinner's Auction House recently visited Paxton Center School on Thursday, October 25th, bringing one the original broadsides of the Declaration of Independence.
Students were able to learn about broadsides, view one of the 5 remaining copies of the DOI and ask questions of Mr. Whitehurst. Click here for pictures.
Magazine Drive
Thank you to all the students who sold magazines for the Fall Magazine Fund Drive! All your hardwork sold a total of $14,700, WOW! Congratulations to the following top selling homerooms 4th Grade: Mrs. Moran 5th & 6th Grade: Mrs. Bik 7th & 8th Grade: Ms. Smith. These homerooms were rewarded with the Monkey Mascot and 5 pound chocolate bars.The top individual sellers were: 4th Grade: Tanya 5th & 6th Grade: Meghan 7th & 8th Grade: Lyndsey. These sellers were rewarded with prizes. Well done PCS! PTO thanks you.
Artwork
Grade 1- 6 students in Mrs. Bennett's art classes have been creating pictures using only primary colored crayons. Techniques such as color blending and crayon resistance have been used to cause unique effects in each drawing. Fifth grade students worked cooperatively to create one large project from their individual drawings. Click here for pictures.
Mathletes
The first WRSD Intra-District Competition was held at Paxton Center School on Monday, October 15th. Over 110 students from all five middle schools within the Wachusett Regional School district competed. Forty teams of 2 to 3 middle school students were given challenging sets of mathematics problems to solve. Paxton Center School submitted 12 teams for competition. Click here for photos.
District-wide team placements were as follows:
1st place: a Thomas Prince team
2nd place: a Paxton Center School team (Erika, Nathan and Keith)
3rd place: 4 teams tied
District-wide awards were given to top individuals from each school. Congratulations to Paxton Center School's seventh grade student, Erika, for earning the top individual score.
Thanks to PTO members and PCS Mathlete parents for providing snacks.
Constitution Day
Monday, September 17th, was officially "Constitution Day" commemorating the 220th anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution on September 17, 1787. All PCS students honored this day by signing a very large version of the Constitution alongside the delegates of the Constitutional Convention. Click here for pictures. |
