Giving Tree Success!

The week before winter break, students from Patton Middle School participated in a day of "Giving". They began the process by packing the huge collection of donations from the school's "Giving Tree" into a district box truck. Students and their teachers then took a school bus to the township building in New Garden, where they unloaded the gifts and sorted them into categories  Additionally the kids helped to unload hundreds of pounds of flour and fresh carrots in preparation for the Christmas Basket Event hosted by the Kennett Community Services. You can check out the photos from the big delivery day right here and you can also read the very nice thank-you letter we received from the Kennett Area Community Service. Thank you to all the Patton Middle School Families and Staff members who supported the "Giving Tree". Your generosity helped to make the 2014 holiday season happier for over 600 local families. Follow this link to read the article about the Basket Event in the Kennett Paper.

Giving Tree Delivery

Patton students and staff did an outstanding job again this year supporting our annual Giving Tree Project. On December 17, students delivered the huge number of donated gifts to the New Garden Township Maintenance Building. This weekend, over 625 local families have been invited to participate in the Kennett Area Community Service’s annual “Christmas Basket” charity event. In addition to the tremendous gift contribution from the Giving Tree, we also donated cans collected by the Patton Student Council in November and refurbished bikes from “Make a Difference Day” to the Christmas Basket project. Thank you to Mrs. Ferron and Mrs. Schultz for organizing this project! Check out the photos from the day right here.

Letters to Veterans

The Patton 8th grade H and J teams wrote thank you notes to veterans to recognize their service to our country. The thank you notes were sent and distributed to local veterans at the VA Hospital in Coatesville​. Also, letters from Ms. Ballard's and Ms. Hisler's Advisory groups were featured in a special ceremony at Riddle Village, the retirement home where Ms. Ballard's mother lives. During the event vets shared war stories and were deeply touched when presented with the letters. They felt that the letters were so touching and important that a special folder has been created and will have a place of honor in their library, so all of the residents can go to read them. It really meant a lot to the group.

Winter Concert 2014

Congratulations to all of our music students on an outstanding performance in the Winter Choral & Orchestra Concert on December 10 at the Unionville High School auditorium. A big thanks to Mrs. Leahy, Mrs. Stratton and Miss Bond for their hard work and leadership in organizing another wonderful music event! And don't forget the Winter Band Concert on January 14 at 7:30 PM in the UHS auditorium! Check out the photos from the Choral and Orchestra Concert as well as the video of "We Are The World" performed by the combined chorus and orchestra!

MLK Day of Service

For the Martin Luther King Day of Service, Patton Middle School is providing an opportunity for our students to make part of their day off, a day on Monday 19 January 2015. This year our students will be working outside in assisting clean up at Anson B. Nixon Park in Kennett Square. The general information for the day is to meet at the Patton Middle School at 8:30am with work gloves in hand, district transportation to ABN Park, on site for clean-up efforts, and arrive back at Patton at 12 pm. If your son / daughter desires to serve, please have them complete this brief electronic registration by Thursday 15 January 2015. Thank you very much for your consideration of this service opportunity in support of others. If you have any questions, please contact Jim Fulginiti, Patton Middle School Assistant Principal, at 610-347-2000 x3810.

Academic Quiz Tournament

Three teams from Patton Middle School competed in the National Academic Quiz Tournament this past Saturday at Great Valley High School. They spent the day answering rounds of very difficult questions and competed against 21 teams, many who have played at the national level. All the teams did very well, but special recognition is given to our 7th grade team of Catherine Odom, Hunter Courtney, Andrew Ge, Hayley Grossbauer, and Evan Wang who advanced to the semi-finals and came away with 5th place honors. Congratulations also go out to Catherine Odom who placed in the top 5 of students with individual top scorers. Congratulations to all of our teams!

Theatre Production at Patton

Chamber Theatre Productions visited Patton Middle School on December 8 and treated our 7th and 8th graders to a five-part performance of classics! The visiting troupe performed ENCORE!! featuring works from Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, W.W. Jacobs, Guy de Maupassant and Mark Twain. A BIG thank you Mrs. Brunschwyler, Mrs. Spancake and all the Patton teachers and staff as well as our generous sponsors -- The Patton Student Council ($500) the UCFEF ($1000) and the Patton PTO ($4,900) -- for making this all possible! Visit the Chamber Theatre Productions website for more information on this outstanding performance.

Hour of Code!

Did you know that this week is Computer Science Education Week? Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. In celebration of this week, we encourage all Patton Students to take the Hour of Code challenge, to try an hour of code this week! You can do the Hour of Code anytime during this week. (And if you can't do it during this week, do it the week before or after). Visit code.org/learn or www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/ to find out more or stop by the computer labs and see Mr. Walsh or Mr. Marshall.

Patton at the Mendenhall Inn

On December 5, Patton's Vocal Ensemble, Men's Ensemble, 7th/8th Orchestra and Select Band traveled to the Mendenhall Inn for their annual KASC holiday performance! These students from our outstanding music department, under the direction of Ms. Bond, Ms. Leahy, Mr. O'Rourke and Mrs. Stratton, performed beautifully for an appreciative audience! Check out the photos and videos from the morning right here.

Reading Olympics Meeting

There will be an introductory meeting for all students interested in competing in Reading Olympics on Thursday,  December 11 after school in room 111.  The meeting will take less than half an hour. We will be choosing books to read over the winter break. If you cannot attend the meeting but are interested in joining the Reading Olympics team, please see Mrs. Steinen in room 111.  This school year’s Reading Olympics competition will be held on Thursday, March 26 in the evening at West Chester East High School.

Patton Food Drive

A huge thank you to all students, families and staff for your tremendous support of the annual food drive. Our grand total of 2,132 donated food items will greatly add to our local Kennett Food Bank's reserves and help many community members in need of a little extra support this winter. Congratulations to our Top Grade Level Advisories with the most donations: 8th Grade - Ballard, 7th Grade  - Zielinski and 6th Grade - Baumgardner. The Boy Scouts will pick up the donations in the Patton lobby this Friday afternoon at 2:30 pm. Thank you!!

The Giving Tree!

Patton's 13th Annual Holiday Giving Tree 2014 runs from December 1st through December 17th. “Tis better to Give than to receive” is our school theme for the season -- always help those less fortunate we need no other reason! Please support Patton’s annual December Community Service Project by donating new, unused, unwrapped gifts for people of all ages. All contributions from Patton Middle School are donated to The Kennett Area Community Service, that provides temporary assistance for families in the Kennett, Unionville-Chadds Ford, and Avon Grove school districts who need food, clothing, lodging, heat or rent. Click here for an informational flyer.