DAR Essay Contest Winner

Congratulations to Julie Griswold who was recently named the 6th grade Pennsylvania state winner of the DAR American History Essay Contest! Julie and her parents have been invited to attend the annual Pennsylvania Luncheon in Washington, DC in June! We are very proud of Julie!

Creative Writing Podcasts

The Family History and Culture "video podcasts" gave the 8th grade Creative Writing students an opportunity to write informational texts with a sense of context. We tend to think of informational texts as traditional "how-to" essays or encyclopedia texts. But we took information about our families or cultures and wrote, revised, and dug deeper. In the end, I am most proud of several components: how specific the writing became, the fact that students self-selected their topics, and how engaged they were with their families while doing the work.

I can't tell you how many of our kids stopped me after classes to share little snippets of their time with mom, dad, grandmom, and grandpop--which never made it into these videos. The process of seeing these videos develop was truly special for me. Recently, I became involved with the American Immigration Council--as a contributing educator and writer--and continue to learn how influential sharing our family histories and stories can be. Much research has demonstrated that sharing our family histories and culture provides young people a sense resilience and stability.

Finally, students learned that narrative, as Thomas Newkirk writes, "is the deep structure of all good sustained writing." When we struggle with textbooks it is typically because writers dispose of the narrative form. Yet, through this practical experience, we learned how narrative and anecdote can serve as "a frame for comprehension" for informative texts.

Check out these podcasts on the Creative Writing playlist on YouTube.

Heritage Day 2015

The Patton Counseling Department is proud to announce our third annual Heritage Day on March, 20 2015.  This program is presented to the 6th grade class by the 7th and 8th grade students who are willing to volunteer their time. The students are being asked to create a display to showcase their heritage to the 6th graders. We are looking for 7th and 8th grade students to share their heritage with our 6th grade students.  If you are interested in participating in Heritage Day by creating a display to showcase your cultural background, and or joining our fashion show please come to the guidance office to sign-up.  Check out all of the Heritage Day details right here!

Art & Writing Award

Congratulations to 7th grader Michael Walter-Dillon, who earned a Silver Key in the Philadelphia Regional Competition of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Michael's poem, "Just Like You," was one of 29 poems selected by a panel of writers, literary professionals and teachers to receive a Silver Key. Two-hundred twenty-five poems were submitted by students in grades 7-12 from schools in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. "Blind judging" was used, so the judges selected award winners without knowing the age, grade, or school of the writer.Art &

Student Drop-Off/Pick-Up

Parents please find this brief blurb a reminder of the procedures for dropping off and/or picking up your child from the middle school at the opening and close of the school day. In the morning, please enter either by way of the access road to drop off by the cafeteria, or by way of the high school main entrance going down by the high school and up the road to the middle school, or by entering at the middle school main entrance off route 82, going down and back up the single lane road immediately in front of the school. In the afternoon, please pick up at the cafeteria by way of the northern most route 82 entrance and exit via the access road. The route 82 entrances are closed off a the middle school approximately 2:00pm due to buses lining up for dismissal.

Please do not drop off in the morning at the front of the high school, do not use the connecting road between the schools, or drop off on the route 82 side of the middle school. This area is for buses only in the morning. 

Thank you for your continued cooperation during these two hectic times of the day!

Annie, Jr. Sunday at 2 PM

With the cancellation of Thursday's performance of "Annie, Jr.", a show has been added on Sunday, March 8 at 2 PM. Show tickets are only $5 and can be purchased in advance online at www.showtix4u.com (search Patton) or click on the link on the Annie Tickets link on the Patton homepage. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door. If you have tickets for the March 5 show, you may attend the Sunday show and present your tickets.

Meet Jamie Wyeth!

The Patton Middle School Art Department has had a special relationship with the Brandywine River Museum of Art for over 20 years. Every student at Patton visits the museum and learns about the Wyeth family and their work in 8th grade art classes. As a result of this special relationship Mr. Jamie Wyeth and the River Museum have invited our students to meet the artist personally and tour the museum to view the Jamie Wyeth Retrospective Art Show! Patton Middle School Students who are interested in meeting Mr. Wyeth should visit the contest website and download the Jamie Wyeth Trip Document for details. This contest is open to 6th, 7th and 8th grade students.

Day at the Opera

Fifteen extra tickets have become available from the 8th grade Creative Writing trip to the Philadelphia Opera Company's performance of Verdi's Don Carlo. Since we have the seats and the buses, we are opening this opportunity up to any students currently enrolled at Patton Middle School. Tickets will be accounted for in the order the permission slips were received. Please download the form and return it to Mr. Kelley (Rm. 213) by Monday, February 23rd.

Advertise With Annie!

Want a GREAT way to advertise your business & help Patton’s Theatre too? Place an Advertisement in this year’s Playbill!! Show dates are March 5th, 6th & 7th with a sell-out attendance expected at all 4 performances! It's $100 for a Full Page (4.5” w x 7.5” h), $50 for a Half Page (4.5” w x 3.75” h) and $25 for a Quarter Page (2.25” w x 3.75” h) The maximum file size is 10MB. Submit JPG, GIF, PNG or PDF files. All ads are black & white. Price & sizes as indicated above. E-mail your ad copy to Ads4Annie@gmail.com. Mail checks to: JoAnna Stump, Patton Middle School, 760 Unionville Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348. Make check payable to “Patton Middle School” & include “Drama Activities Account” as subject. For questions, contact Julie Tuinstra at the e-mail above. Deadline is Monday, Feb. 15th. Thanks for your support of Patton’s Theatre!

Moonlight Madness Basketball

There will be 3 vs 3 basketball games, music and  lots of fun at the Second Annual Moonlight Madness 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament on Saturday, February 21st from 5 pm-10:30 pm at the UHS Gym. The event is open to Grades 6 through 12 plus and there will be an adult league, too. The fee is just $10 per player. Registration deadline is February 13th.  In addition to basketball games, there will be a Free Throw shooting contest and a Three Point shooting contest. Download a registration form and waiver as well as complete details and tournament rules and enter today!

PIcture Day 2

Patton’s second semester Picture Day is next Friday, February 27. Students have received forms to complete and need to bring with them on the 27th if they are having their picture taken. Only those students with a completed form will have pictures taken. PLEASE NOTE: The picture form has the date as April 21 - THIS IS NOT THE CORRECT DATE. Pictures are February 27, 2015. The 8th grade class picture will also be taken on Friday. A copy of this picture will be provided to all members of the class compliments of our PTO. No forms/money are necessary. Thank you PTO!

MATHCOUNTS Competition

Please congratulate the following students who participated in the Chester County MATHCOUNTS competition on Saturday. Victor Li, Daniel Hu, Divyan Jain, Dylan Metro-Gault, Alex Rizaldi, Jane Bai, Anna Iacocca, Hunter Courtney, Lina Zhu and Nick Hall.  We took a team place of 4th and overall, Victor Li came in 8th place with 3 other students finishing up in the top 27 scores.