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Dear Holmes Families:
We hope to see you this evening at our Curriculum Night for rising 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (current 5th, 6th, and 7th graders) at 6:30 PM! You will learn a lot of valuable information to help you and your student plan for next year as they select courses.
It is unbelievable the we are almost halfway through the year. There are only 2 weeks remaining in 2nd quarter, so please continue to encourage your students to fulfill all of their academic obligations and stay for Lunch Bunch and/or afterschool help with their teachers if needed.
At the end of each quarter, we celebrate our students who have "leveled up" on their 50 Books Challenge log on Google Classroom. Our next celebration will be this Thursday, January 26th, during ER-8. Please encourage your students to log their books in and, most of all, KEEP READING!
Sincerely,
Margaret Barnes
mfbarnes@fcps.edu
All students are welcome and encouraged to participate in our After School Program each week. In addition to these weekly updates, the after school schedule for the upcoming week is always posted to the school's website by Friday of the previous week.
We are working hard, in response to your feedback, to provide new opportunities for programming after school. We are very excited to announce three new after school programs that will begin very soon!
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In partnership with James Lee Community Center, 12 of Holmes students will have the opportunity to participate in the 25th Anniversary Future City Competition. It is a project-based learning program where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades imagine, research, design and build cities of the future. The program will begin on Thursday, January 26th, and will be held every Thursday until the program's completion. Transportation will be provided by the Community Center to and from Holmes each week. All Holmes students are eligible to apply. If students are interested, they should send an email to Mr. Cabezas at gdcabezas@fcps.edu with their name and grade, and one paragraph (no longer, please) explaining why they are interested in participating in the program by the end of the day (3 PM) on Monday, January 23rd. Thank you, Mr. Cabezas, for arranging this partnership!
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We are very excited to announce that we received confirmation today that we are one of four FCPS schools who will participate in the Capital One Coders Program this Spring semester and next fall semester as well. In cooperation with FCPS' Office of Community and Business Partnerships, Mr. Diggs (our School Based Technology Specialist) and Mr. Malkowski (Business & Information Technology Teacher) submitted a proposal to Capital One in order to make this possible.
Capital One Coders is a special 8-10-week coding curriculum for middle school students. The Capital One Coders Middle School Initiative supports students as they learn how to develop apps for mobile devices using App Inventor blocks-based programming language. Led by Capital One volunteers, hundreds of young students across the country gain exposure to software engineering principles and practices.
20 Holmes students will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience learning software development, problem-solving, and even develop their own app. If students are interested and committed to meet every Wednesday from 2:30-4:00 PM for the entire program (from mid-February through mid-May...dates TBD), they should sign into their fcpsschools.net email accounts and fill out the application linked below. The deadline for submissions is 3 PM on Friday, February 3rd.
Capital One Coders Program Application
 I apologize for the delay in the announcement, but we are also very excited to announce that we won a $500 grant from Clean Fairfax Council to begin a gardening club here at Holmes! Thank you to Ms. Lynch, Mr. Smith, Mr. Hawkins, and Ms. Astrow for initiating the idea and applying for the grant, and to all of the families who "Liked" our plan on Facebook to allow us to earn the grant. Our teacher sponsors are busy purchasing the needed materials now, and the club will begin in mid- to late March. More to come!
- Thursday, 1/19: Curriculum Night (for current 5th, 6th, & 7th graders), 6:30 PM
- Monday, 1/23: Makeup date for Glow Party (event connected to the school-wide fundraiser conducted in the fall); afterschool in gym
- Tuesday, 1/24: 8th grade (Rising 9th grade) information night at Edison High School (see flyer below)
- Friday, 2/3: End of 2nd quarter / 2-hour early release / Odd Block Day
- Monday, 2/6: Teacher Workday / NO SCHOOL
- Monday, January 23rd: 7-period day
- Tuesday, January 24th: Even Block Day (with ER 5 & 6)
- Wednesday, January 25th: Odd Block Day
- Thursday, January 26th: Even Block Day (with ER 7 & 8)
- Friday, January 27th: Odd Block Day
A note about inclement weather and short weeks:
For the most part (with very few exceptions), our bell schedule remains the same regardless of short weeks, early release days, or snow days:
- Mondays are 7-period days
- Tuesdays & Thursdays are even block days with ER periods
- Wednesday & Fridays are odd block days
For example, if we have classes on Tuesday (an even block day), and snow day on Wednesday (an odd block day), we would not make up the odd block day if we came back on Thursday; Thursday would remain an even block day with ER. If we have multiple snow days over time and notice an imbalance in odd vs. even days, then we will make adjustments to balance out instruction and announce them with as much notice as we can.
This upcoming week, we will have an exception with Tuesday as a 7-period day to balance out the week. When we can anticipate an imbalance in the schedule, we do make adjustments, and we will let students and parents know in advance.
Please stay in touch with us throughout the year by:
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