Lots of Student Groups Available at Carlisle Middle School!

If your child is looking to get involved in a group at Carlisle Middle School, I hope they have explained to you the many options they now have. Feeling connected to your school by getting involved can really enhance the school experience. Not to mention that are history shows that students who get connected in an extra curricular activity tend to have much better attendance and better grades in school! So....students should try to get involved in at least one activity. If you are not sure what activities, we offer, here you go....

Sports for grades 7 and 8: Currently football, volleyball, cross country and cheerleading are going on. Soon basketball for boys and girls will start up along with wrestling. Then, we finish the year with baseball, softball, and track. Wow! And if that isn't enough, CYA offers similar sports as well as soccer in the fall and spring.

Chess Club: This group starts up this week with their first meeting after school on Wednesday. Wednesday will likely be their regular meeting day.

Art Club: This group has already started and they are meeting on Tuesdays. This is a great group for any student that has interest in Art.

Conservation Club: This group meets on Thursdays after school and they do lots of landscaping, research on nature, and beautification projects. They also are active with plantings in the spring.

Jazz Band: These groups are now up and running with different groups of Jazz band students meeting almost every morning each week.

Yearbook: This group has formed, but has not yet had their first meeting. They will start meeting here in a few weeks and will meet off and on throughout the year on Thursday mornings. When it is all said and done, they will have produced our school yearbook!

Student Council: Students applied for this and have already had several meetings and even a bake sale. Next, they will help put on our school social. They stay pretty active and meet on Tuesdays either before school or after school, whichever students can make. However, they do not meet every Tuesday though.

STAND (Students Taking Action, Not Drugs): This group will meet on Tuesday afternoons on days when the Student Council meets. Students can be in both groups or just one. This group is the new version of our our JEL/SADD group and this group will be attempting to educate our students on the dangers and evils of drugs and alcohol.

Whew....that is a lot of groups! I might have even missed one or two and it wouldn't surprise me if more groups form during the year. Bottom line is that students should get involved and their are lots of ways they can get involved. No excuse not to!!

Kids Bowl Free This Summer!

Do your kids like bowling? Do you like FREE stuff? If you answered yes to both, or at least yes to the 2nd question, then listen up! Kids can bowl for free again this summer as a popular summer nationwide program is continuing this year. **(One catch is that most bowling alleys still require you to pay for shoe rental, so maybe not completely free....but close!)** My family did this last year, but got so busy with several things, never actually used it. But oh well, it was free. This year, we hope to use it several times as 2 of our 3 kids went bowling a couple times recently and loved it. We just wish it was cheaper....maybe even free! Now it is and we hope many of your families can take part in this program this year.

How can something like this be worth your time? Why is a counselor like me interested in a program like this? Here are some reasons I see that this can be a great thing....

*Activity and Exercise: Your children get some exercise and get to move around by playing a fun and climate controlled sport. Even if for only an hour or two, it is still a few hours away from the TV.

*If parents or grandparents can go, it is a great family activity. Getting a chance to do family activities outside the home can be costly at times, but this one is FREE!

*Can be a good time to have some important talks and talk about life. Maybe some one-on-one time with each kid by taking just one kid each time. Quality time one-on-one is very rare in our fast and busy lives.

*Interact with other people and watch other people. Kids learn by doing and by observing. If a lot of people sign up for free bowling, then a lot of kids and families are going to be bowling this summer and your family can meet new families or simply go bowling with your current friends and current family friends.

So....how do you get signed up and how do you learn more? Well, I'm going to link you to a great blogger, Richard Byrne, and his blog Free Technology for Teachers. He has a great blog entry with some videos you can watch to learn more. Go to his blog by clicking here.

If you don't need more information and you just want to sign up, click here to get to the Free Bowling for Kids page.

Happy Bowling!! (By the way....bonus points if anyone can beat Mr. Barry's record game. I bowled a 199 when I was in college! So close to 200, but I blew it in the last frame!)