January Family Newsletter

7 - Family Night @ 6pm

8 - Quarter 2 Awards

13 - Griffin Chats w/ Principal Robinson @ 9:30

23 - Community Partnership Meeting

16 - District Spelling Bee @ Roberta

18 - Vex IQ MS Competition

20 - No School 

29 - Defy Gravity (6th & 7th)

31 - Defy Gravity (8th)

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had a restful winter break!

Our theme this year is “Expectation of Excellence”. To help create an “Expectation of Excellence” we are committed to partnering with you.

We will begin the 3rd quarter & 2nd semester of the school year on Monday, January 6th. We are now entering the second part of the school year and headed toward our final stretch. Attendance continues to be very important in determining your child’s success. Please continue to encourage your child to attend school every day. It is also extremely important that you know how your child is performing academically. Your child’s report card only gives you part of the whole picture. We believe in giving scholars every opportunity to do their best work. This includes turning in late work, opportunities to retest and rework assignments. Additionally, teachers provide a high level of differentiated instruction to accommodate scholars’ varied learning levels. As the second semester begins, report cards come out this month (are available Tuesday, January 14th via PowerSchool), I encourage you to closely examine your child’s report card. If your child is performing below grade level, contact your child’s teacher and/or counselor for suggestions on ways to reinforce learning at home.

This is a great time to develop goals for the second half of the school year. Parents, we need your support more than ever to help us start off strong. Please make sure your child is completing and submitting assessments.  I encourage you to check your child’s grades in PowerSchool weekly and communicate with their teachers if you have any questions. Please help us reach our Expectation of Excellence by supporting us at home.

We have been preparing for our scholars' return to school and to support the success of Griffin we have made some schedule changes that may impact your scholar. Please work with us and give us the opportunity to show you that this is in the best interest of all our scholars. We are trying to move our master schedule to reflect the core of the middle philosophy, which is true teams and true homerooms. We are also balancing our teams to make them more advantageous. We will host an Open House on January 6th at 6:00 pm. Please come out and meet the Griffin staff!

Thank you for your continued support of C.C. Griffin Middle School and please contact me if you have any concerns or questions.

We hope everyone had a safe and restful Winter Break. We have been preparing for our scholars' return to school and to support the success of Griffin we will make some schedule changes that may impact your scholar. Please work with us and give us the opportunity to show you that this is in the best interest of all our scholars. We are trying to move our master schedule to reflect the core of the middle philosophy, which is true teams and true homerooms. We are also balancing our teams to make them more advantageous. We will host an Open House on January 7th at 6:00 pm. Mr. Robinson, our principal will speak to our parents at 6:00 pm in the cafeteria after that it will be a drop in for parents to meet our staff. Please come out and meet the Griffin staff!

In December, our 6th and 7th Grade students participated in this year’s CCGMS Science Fair.  We are proud of all the students who turned in science projects.  All of the students who participated showed hard work and the importance of inquiry and critical thinking..  

Congratulations to our 2024-2025 School-level Science Fair Winners.  These students will go on to share about their projects in the Cabarrus County Schools Science Fair Showcase and compete in the 2024-2025 Regional Science Fair.  

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!

Scholars will be attending Defy Gravity for the students that can participate for 2nd Quarter PBIS. 

Due to rain/cold weather our CTE Ag and 7th Grade Social Studies Mobile Dairy In-School Field Trip has been rescheduled for spring semester.

While it may be tempting to delay or ignore cafe debts, honoring your financial obligations is not just a matter of legal responsibility; it’s a testament to your character. Paying your debts is a reflection of your integrity. PLEASE make sure you clear your child’s balance.

Individual Student Reports from Benchmark #2 will be sent home with students this week. 

ACCESS Testing will begin on January 13, 2025 and continue through March 7, 2025.

Please help your scholars locate & return any CCGMS books. We want them to be able to get new books to read as soon as possible!

We had 9 wrestlers qualify for the end of the season tournament and 6 of them placed in their weight class. Tyrese Neal, Alex Chasteen, and Chase Burton qualified. Selah Judah, Ryleigh Blue, and Bella Flowers placed 2nd. Brody Meismer and Davion Sochko placed 3rd. Maddox McCleary placed 4th.

Please see the attached word documents stating our tardy policy.

ELA: Students will be studying complex text this month. We will be analyzing poetry and beginning our reading of Refugee by Alan Gratz. 

SS: Sixth grade scholars will be learning about Ancient China when they return from Winter Break. They will learn about the vocabulary and the terms that will be used throughout the unit. Scholars will focus on the geography, religion studied, achievements of the civilization, how their government was structured, the economy, and their social structure. At the conclusion of the unit, they will be comparing and contrasting the four river valley civilizations learned up to this point. 

Math- We will welcome students’ return with renewed expectations for the classroom. For most of January, students will be expected to understand solving equations including inequalities. They will also find value in understanding expressions and their importance in solving for x.

Science - In January, students will learn about single cell organisms like protists and amoebas. 

ELA - We will be finishing the poetry unit and will be starting historical fiction book clubs. ALPS will be researching, writing, and presenting a speech on soil and water conservation. 

SS - In Social Studies in January we will examine the Enlightenment and Industrialization of many global economies. We will discuss how this leads to many Revolutions against Colonialism, including our own American Revolution. We will investigate the types of other world governments and economies as well. We will try to distinguish absolute governments, theocracies, oligarchies, monarchies, and the growing trends toward different types of democracies.

ELA: we will begin our analysis of informational reading and texts and the development of new skills to help us in this process, like using the bullseye strategy. This will set us up for our historical debate in February.

Math: January we will wrap up the unit on functions and eventually roll into statistical reasoning.

SS: we will begin the reconstruction of America after the civil war. We will be talking about the Wilmington riots and why they happened. Then we will start looking into Industrial Revolution here in America and how there will be so many changes in America.

Science: For the month of January we are going to be exploring earths history and how to use rocks and fossils to identify the age of items and organisms are found in the Earth

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