November Family Newsletter

4 - PTSO Meet and Greet with Mr. Robinson

5 - Teacher Workday

7 - Central Cabarrus STEM Open House

11 - No School - Veterans Day

12 - SIT Meeting @ 7:30 AM

15 - Progress Reports can be viewed

18 - Spelling Bee

22 - Substitute Appreciation Day

27-29 - Thanksgiving Break

December 13 - All Grades Dance

Dear Griffin Family!

With the change of the weather and cooling temperatures, the year is in full swing now and our scholars have successfully transitioned into their new grade levels. As we move into the month of November it’s a great time to remember we all have so many things to be thankful for. I am thankful for our truly amazing staff, scholars, parents, and the greater Griffin community. I am also thankful for my family and my friends. Our new theme this school year is around creating and Expectation of Excellence. We are also living our mission, which is C. C. Griffin Middle School staff will foster a positive environment that inspires and ignites scholars' full potential through STEM instruction, critical thinking and innovation.

This past month I would like to thank all of you who supported our fall sports, participated in our SIT meeting, attended our Hispanic heritage night and supported our movie night.

I’m also happy to report we are working to increase school spirit at Griffin, we will have our first PEP Rally in December, and our Staff vs. Students basketball game in December. This will give us an opportunity to cheer on our athletic teams. I want to encourage you to please come out and support our girls’ basketball and wrestling team. We look forward to your support as we begin our winter sports season.

In October our scholars were engaged in their benchmark assessments. Benchmark assessments were given in ELA, Math and 8th grade Science. This assessment data will be used to guide instruction and provide a clear picture on each scholar’s current academic ability. Our teachers will be engaged in Extended Planning Sessions (EPS) to craft instructional action plans to support their instruction within the class and to support our scholars.

As we continue into the second quarter of the school year, I want to encourage you to continue to build a positive relationship with your child’s teacher. In times like this I remember a saying from my late Grandma Viola, "You can get more bees with honey than vinegar", so please remember to interact with our staff with grace and mercy. We are all working so hard, and a little extra kindness goes a long way.

First quarter report cards were made available on October 23rd. We are also asking that all parents ensure that scholars are completing and submitting assessments in a timely manner. Please use PowerSchool to keep up with your child’s grades. You can use your child’s login information or get a parent login from the school office. Working together we can ensure that all our scholars have a successful second quarter.

Please make plans to join us for some upcoming events like our PTSO Meet and Greet with Mr. Robinson on November 4th, our SIT meeting on November 12th  and our Spelling Bee on November 18th.   Also, please remember progress reports will be ready for viewing on Nobember 15th. 

Thank you for your continual support of C. C. Griffin Middle School and please reach out to me if you have any concerns or questions. I can be reached by email at Orlando.robinson@cabarrus.k12.nc.us and by phone at 704-260-6410.

Take care,

Orlando Robinson

Families, please click the button below and complete the Family Survey. We welcome your feedback to make CC Griffin an amazing place to learn and succeed.

December 12th - Make-up Testing

The CCGMS Spelling Bee is Monday, November 18th @ 10:00 in the library. It is open to any parents/guardians who want to come support their students. This contest pits the winners from all ELA classes against each other to see who will represent CCG at the Cabarrus County Spelling Bee in January. These Bees are all a part of the National Scripps Spelling Bee contest. If you’d like to get into the spelling bee mood, check out the 2006 movie, Akeelah and the Bee starring Keke Palmer and Laurence Fishburne. Good luck to all CCG participants!

See the graphic below for the process of technology issues as well as technology fees.

This school year science fair is required for 6th and 7th grade students and optional for 8th grade students. Classroom teachers have shared the science fair information with their students.  The experiment and research components of the science fair are to be completed at home. 

​Please remember to pay your student’s fees(s)! All owed fees must be paid to be eligible to attend extracurricular activities (e.g., dances, movie nights).  Every Cabarrus County student must pay the Instructional Supply Fee of $20.  Art students pay $5 (6th grade), $10 (7th and 8th grade) or $20 (Advanced Art 8th graders).  All Band students have a $20 fee.  Chorus and Piano students pay $10 (6th grade) or $20 (7th and 8th grade).  You can pay all of these fees at www.k12paymentcenter.com, or by check or cash.   Thank you for helping us provide students with the supplies they need to be successful!

Cabarrus County Schools (CCS) values the importance of overall student wellness. Wellness is much more than just physical; we believe it encompasses a student’s emotional and mental needs as well. CCS collaborates with multi-disciplinary teams to meet the social emotional needs of all students in order to provide a safe and healthy learning environment where children can succeed.

Each CCS school site has a Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (SISP) team made up of School Counselors, School Social Workers, School Psychologist, Nurses, and School Resource Officers. SISP teams work together to support the whole child. With strong communication, collaboration, and engagement, CCS SISP teams strive to do what is best for students.

As part of our commitment to supporting our male students this year,  I am seeking to implement a mentorship program aimed at providing guidance, support, and positive role models for some of our males. We believe that mentorship can significantly impact our students’ lives, helping them navigate challenges and encouraging them to pursue their goals.

To make this initiative successful, we are looking for mentors who can share their experiences, offer advice, and inspire our young men. We envision a program that not only focuses on academic success but also emphasizes life skills, career exploration, and personal development.

We would greatly appreciate your assistance in connecting with us to help provide some of our students with potential mentors from various networks, communities, or organizations. Your support could make a meaningful difference in the lives of our students and help them thrive in a supportive environment.

Thank you for considering our request. I would be happy to discuss this initiative further and explore how we can collaborate. Please feel free to contact me at 704-260-6410 or sandy.johnson@cabarrus.k12.nc.us

ELA: Students will begin Unit 3- Writing a Personal Narrative. During this two week Unit, students will write about an event they have experienced. We will guide them through the writing process including editing and revision. The final draft will be due on Nov 12, 2024. We will then move on to analyzing informational and opinion texts with a focus on author's purpose, bias, and perspective.

Students were given their Quarter Two Reading Challenge. They are to completely read an entire book. On the reading log, they will record the pages read, and summarize their reading each day. There is nothing for parents to sign. This is an extra credit assignment and their ticket to the Reader’s Celebration for Quarter 2. 

Math: we are slated to complete Unit 4 (Division of Fraction Conceptions) and Unit 5 (Making Sense of Decimal Computation). Please encourage your child to show you the methods they learn in class and ask them to explain what they have learned. If they have the chance to teach and explain to others, it will only serve to bolster their understanding. To ensure your child's success moving forward, please follow their weekly progress in Delta Math.

Social Studies: Students will start off the month learning about religion in Ancient Egypt. They will be starting Part 1 of a PBL where they will be starting the process of mummifying an apple. Later sixth graders will be learning about specific chambers in pyramids. They will have a follow up activity where they will be creating a pyramid on a 3-D program on the computer.

There are MANY students that have missing work. If students are missing work, they are required to do a working

ELA: Every week students complete a ReadWorks article, assigned on Wednesdays, due the following Tuesday. All classes are completing a Narrative Personal Fiction Story. They have been going through the planning, drafting, editing/revising process before submitting their final draft.

Our next unit for reg ed classes is informational writing and research. Students will choose a historical figure to write about and then collaborate on a digital presentation. ALPS will begin a cross-curricular unit about the Industrial Revolution, using A Christmas Carol as a mentor text, along with primary sources regarding negative effects and eventual reform of child labor and safe work environments as a result of the Industrial Revolution. This unit will end in a persuasive argument letter.

Math: Students are over half-way through their Integers unit (Unit 2). Students have been working on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers. This includes working with decimals, fractions, and absolute value. Expect a test the second week of November. AMPS classes are almost through Unit 3 (Probabilistic Reasoning) and can expect a test later next week or early the following week. Students are expected to know 

Science: We are currently studying Human Body Systems. We are looking at each system individually so at the end of the unit we can discuss how each system interacts with one another. Towards the end of this month we will be resuming talking about and working on the students' Science Fair projects to make sure they are ready to be submitted in December.

Social Studies: 7th-grade historians will analyze the effects and impact of the Protestant Reformation. Students will also learn about the Enlightenment during November. They will be able to explain how the Enlightenment changed political thought, and distinguish how secular and religious thoughts caused change in government. Students will also study the American Revolution.

ELA: ELA in the months of Nov and Dec will use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection in order to develop experiences in a Memoir. Personal Memoirs will be shared with parents and the community in an open forum Dec. 13th in our Annual Cookies and Cocoa during each ELA block. Keep a lookout for your ELA teacher's sign up and/or donation of supplies in the weeks leading up to this event.

Math: We have begun Functions! This is a crucial and comprehensive unit for our 8th-grade math students, lasting well into the new year. We want to emphasize that much of the content on the End Of Grade test will revolve around functions.

Functions are all around us! They help us understand relationships between different variables. For example:

In these examples, the input (like quantity or time) influences the output (like total cost or distance traveled).

Science: This month in science, we are studying the relationship between human activity and the environment of Earth. We will be focusing on renewable and non-renewable sources of energy.

Social Studies: We are just finishing up Manifest Destiny and the Wild West. Students have been playing the Oregon Trail game to understand how hard it was to go out west. They are completing one pagers on Wild West people and even

LINQ Connect is a secure, online portal that allows families to:

• Make an online payment to their student’s meal account

• Remotely monitor their student’s accounts

• Set up automatic recurring payments

• Set up low balance email message alerts

• Submit an online application for free and/or reduced meals

• View online breakfast and lunch menus

1. Register: Create an account at https://linqconnect.com and selecting Register.

2. Verify your Account: Verify your account by clicking on the email verification link sent to your email address.

3. Sign In: Now you can sign in at https://linqconnect.com using your email and password.

You will need to add your student to your LINQ Connect account. Click on + then Type and complete the information to link your student. You will need to complete this process for each student you wish to add.

Please see the attached FAQs for both desktop and app versions of LINQ Connect. Contact Maria Antunez in the Cabarrus County School Nutrition Department at (704)260-5554 for further information..

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Angeline Fields - 6th Grade

Rebecca Phillips - 7th Grade

Erin Britt - 8th Grade

Dustin Huffman - School Social Worker

Abryanna Vidot - School Psychologist