Enrichment Opportunities! - Update
Happy New Year 2025 - Volume 3
Sports * Fun * Fans
SPRING SPORTS ARE COMING SOON!!
Spring Sport tryouts are scheduled for 2/18 - 2/20. Make sure you have a current physical on file and are ready to play hard!! Volleyball, Girls soccer and Baseball are on the way to our campus very soon!
Basketball will have a season-ending tournament from February 10th - 14th. Fans are welcome to come out and cheer on the Wildcats in all of their matches across the county hopefully all the way to the district tournament championship scheduled for JORDAN MATTHEWS high school on Vaentine's Day!
DENS!!
Once a month we all divide ourselves into new groups. Our goal is to cut across grade levels and social groups and to create new connections with different adults and different children around the school. All of our students need connections. All of our students need to have a connection to trusted adults. We play games, learn about each other and key elements of leadership, perseverance and other admirable qualities. The key to DENS is leadership and working together as a team! Next up in the DEN is our group service projects. Each Den is coming up with their own idea and planning ways to serve in our school or community. Ask your student about their DEN and their upcoming plans to serve.
CLUBS
Mr. Mauel is hosting our GAMES CLUB! Games Club meets Wednesdays after school until 4:30. This club is open to all students but you must have a ride home promptly at 4:30. If you are interested, pick up a permission slip from Mr. Mauel.
GMH MUSIC CLUB - Rock out with. your friends! Every Tuesday Starting November 12th 3:15 - 3:45
Bass and Guitar are starting in November. Drums will start in January. Rock band teaches very basic skills on instruments such as guitar, bass, and drums. Students can create bands with other students and work on songs they want to learn how to play or write their own songs. The ultimate goal is to provide students with opportunities to perform locally. This is supported by the GMH PTSA and the CHATHAM ARTS COUNCIL! For more information reach out to Mr. Carroll - 7th grade social studies. @ rcarroll@chatham.k12.nc.us
FLAG FOOTBALL - Flag football provides students an opportunity to learn basic football skills/language in a safer environment than traditional football. Students will practice team/individual skills and will be given the opportunity to scrimmage each other. The ultimate goal is to have other schools start clubs in order for school teams to scrimmage each other. Mr. Carroll is sponsoring flag football club! Reach out to him for more information about dates and times in the spring for this outdoor rush! rcarroll@chatham.k12.nc.us
FCA - Fellowship of Christian Students - Meets every Friday at 7AM in Ms. Dixon's room 101.
If you are interested or curious, you can join this group of like-minded children and support each other in living right and making the world around this middle school a better place! Reach out to Ms. DIxon if you have any questions sdixon@chatham.k12.nc.us
National Junior Honor Society is a service organization. Students interested in participating in a group dedicated to leadership, citizenship, scholarship, character and service can apply for membership. Our faculty council votes to honor students with induction into our honor society. We have 50 new applicants for our honor society. The news is coming out soon! If you applied SAVE THE DATE - our induction HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED DUE TO WEATHER MARCH 6th 2025 @ 5:00 p.m. at George Moses Horton in our multipurpose room.
Other clubs are being explored and if you would like to start a club there is a process for starting a new group. Please reach out to Mr. Robinson or Ms. Harris for information.
Stock Market Game - Real World Stock Simulation
January 13 - April 25 Students in 5th - 8th grades are opting in to group learning and a simulation of day trading. Students are placed on teams of 5 and given $100,000.... Our school has 44 teams this year and they are off to a great start learning new things about finance and the market economy. We are studying bonds, mutual funds and open stocks. We are watching for trends over time and trying to make a profit in a short amount of time.
NCASA Travel Quiz Bowl
January - March Horton is planning to participate in VIRTUAL QUIZ BOWL LEAGUE. This is a highly competitive knowledge bowl with pools of competitors who form teams of 4 at a time and face other schools online live. Ms. Hoop is sponsoring a team of 6th - 8th grade students who will compete after school live against other schools culminating in an in person regional March 8th .
Mrs. Miller is coaching our 5th grade quiz bowl team as well. 5th graders will compete Thursdays after school until 4:30 for the next several weeks. We will play teams from North Chatham and Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy. At the end of our virtual season we plan to attend our regional live, in-person, face to face, regional quiz bowl Saturday, March 1st, 2025 @ Gray Stone Day School in Misenheimer, NC.
Both teams need volunteers and snack donations - Please reach out to Mrs. Miller or Ms. Hoop if you are interested in helping with either of our quiz bowl teams!
Vocabulary.com - Word Work is Wonderful!!
The vocabulary.com challenge is for everyone - in every grade - in every class - in and out of school! This special gamified program helps students build comprehension, stamina, context and domain specific vocabulary. Many teachers across the school are using this tool including multiple disciplines - english language arts, social studies, science, AIG and more. Whether you jump into vocabulary.com for a specific teacher or just for your own growth and exploration - it is all good for all of us! Parents please ask your student to show you there progress in our schoolwide word work program!
Thinking Caps Quiz Bowl!
In Spring, we will offer students in every grade an opportunity to tryout for the grade level thinking caps quiz bowl team. This offers more students a chance to participate in a national online version of the quiz bowl. We will pick teams of around 25 per grade to work together to face a challenge together. 100 unknown questions in a timed high pressure competition. We meet at school, during school at intervention time to team build for several weeks and then we will compete online in April in the America Answers Quiz Bowl. Mrs. Miller will be coordinating these teams spring semester.
7th grade has already hosted the class level rounds. 6th grade and 8th grade are scheduled soon. Our teams will be named for all 4 grades in February. If you missed your class day see Mrs. Miller for a chance to join the team! NO one KNOWS everything! EVERYONE knows things and working together we can master ay challenge!! Teamwork and cooperation is our goal!
PTSA FASHION SHOW... looking for performers!
NJHS is organizing a fashion show as intermission entertainment at the upcoming PTSA BINGO NIGHT that was rescheduled for FEBRUARY 27th - Doors open @ 5:30 BINGO starts @ 6. NJHS will host 2 intermission shows during the event. You can be one of our performers and help us fundraise for our school and entertain our crowds. Please fill out this form if you are interested in helping with this project as a performer, writer, speaker, shopper, organizer or backstage assistant.
Drama Club - Speech & Debate - IMPROV - Performance Interest Survey
There has been much interest in drama, improv, speeches and debates and other performance clubs.
Last year we had several 5th graders participate in a speech and debate competition with NCASA. Our 5th graders were ranked first in the state and the day was fantastic sparking interest in the possibility of a middle school and elementary team this year. If you are interested in this type of performance opportunity please fill out the FORM LINKED HERE.
WINTER .... SPRING .... FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
HOUR OF CODE - In December, several teachers participated in our school's hour of code event. Though the "HOUR" is over - the opportunity is always there 24/7 all year long. The open platform introduces all learners of all ages to computer coding. HOUR OF CODE offers exploration of multiple computer languages and systems in a fun gamified manner. For more information visit: https://hourofcode.com/usHour of Code is for EVERYONE who is interested in coding and is open to all FREE of charge.
ANYONE can explore the activities and online courses for FREE from any device, any time at home or with any afterschool group! Go and check out the world of COMPUTER CODING!!
REINDEER RUN - THANKS Y'ALL
Thank you to Drew Yell, Lauren Plante, Jacob Kennedy & Leo + Alice Drust and their Families for organizing and gathering a group to represent GMHorton in the annual reindeer Run!! We are so proud of all of you for participating in this event supporting the Chatham Partnership for Children. With this Great new energy we hope to have a team next year and for years to come!
Spelling Bee Season comes to a close...
- Fifth Grade Champs *
- Champion: Alexander Sasha Lanphier
- Runner Up: Dylan Barbee
- 3rd Place: Antionette Peluso
- 4th place tie: Grayson Geraci & Maggie Dillenschnider
- Sixth Grade Champs
- Champion: Sawyer Bellavance
- Runner Up: Luke Morere
- 3rd Place: Helen Moose
- 4th place: Chan Chan
- 5th place: Jalia Brown
- Seventh Grade Champs
- Champion: Lars Eller
- Runner Up: Eric Steffeney
- 3rd place: Aavya Banerjee
- 4th place: Benjamin Ferrin
- 5th place: Carter Crowell
- Wildcard: Anderson Arvay
- Eighth Grade Champs
- Champion: Drew Yell
- Runner Up: Brady Tew
- 3rd Place: Jacob Martinique
- 4th place: Leo Drust
- 5th place: Ezra Starnes
- Wildcard: Carter Reed
January 9th was a nail biter of a bee! Thank you to Ms. Hoop for calling the bee! So many unexpected stings! We had 3 spellers on stage who have represented us at the district level in years past and one district champion in the mix! This years bee list put all the spellers through the ringer but the winner and runner up were undeniable!
Congratulations to our runner up Alexander Sasha Lanphier & The George Moses Horton Middle School 2025 Spelling Bee Champion Ezra Starnes, both of whom qualified for the Chatham County Schools District level Bee. It is time to study and prepare! Study lists have been shared! You can also prepare using Vocabulary.com and other web based resources and everyone is welcome to use the word club app from scripps. The public is invited to come out and root for our Horton Champs at the
Chatham County Spelling Bee scheduled for January 30th @ 6:00 p.m. @ Seaforth High School.
If you have any questions about the spelling bee process, reach out to Mrs. Miller: stracymiller@chatham.k12.nc.us
We are so proud of Alexander Sasha Lanphier and Ezra Starnes. Both represented George Moses Horton exceptionally well and lasted for several rounds. Ezra Starnes lasted well into the district bee and left with a group tied for 8th place. Thank you to all who participated in this wonderful event!
NCASA Art Showcase
Mr. Mauel sponsored our ART SHOWCASE this year. Here are the regional results of the competition. A drawing by our very own 5th grader Mason Laverty is featured on the website. Art is a wonderful way to manage stress, explore, be creative and grow. Please continue expressing yourself through the arts and consider showcasing your work in and out of school. Reach out to Mr. Mauel if you would like to work on a special project for special events in the future.
TWELVE * 12 * Twelve!
North Carolina Association of Scholastic Activities offers an original, once-a-year competition called Twelve. This is a knowledge bowl - a highly competitive - challenging - on stage - live event. Wow GMH came to battle!! We are so proud of this team! They finished the tournament with a powerful team performance! The 2024 team ranked 3rd place in the state - The highest ranking GMH has ever had at the seasons end! Great work - Liam Patterson - - Beckett Bolin - - Brady Tew - - Leo Drust - - Molly Eubanks - - Colton Longpre - - Carter Crowell - - Raylen Gibson - - Eric Steffeney - - Aavya Banerjee - - Sawyer Bellavance - - Logan Patterson - - reserves: Cam Morere - - Luke Morere.
We are hoping to host an invitational and invite several other Chatham schools to compete with us at our school later this year. GMH was the only Chatham School involved in 12 this year and we hope to grow our neighboring competitors and have a fun event in the spring!
THE QUILL - WAY TO GO TEAMS!!
North Carolina Association of Scholastic Activities offers an elite writing competition each year!
Our writer's did an amazing job writing locked in during our regional competition!
Congratulations Elementary Writers 2nd place overall in the state!!
- Alice Drust
- Caydence Best
- Leon Tre Frazier
- Alexander Sasha Lanphier
- Weston Longpre
- Mia Martin - First Place in the State Argument
- Lauren Plante - Second Place in the State Expository
- Brynlee Ravanes - First Place in the State Narrative
Congratulations to our Varsity Middle School Writers!! Wonderful Work!
This team placed 2nd in their regional! We are the only team from Chatham invited to state competition December 7th!! Great Work!!
- Varsity Sadie Strehle - Problem Solution
- Varsity Evienne Swihart - Narrative
- Varsity Ava Ens - Expository
- Varsity Kinsley Morrison - Argument
- Congratulations to our Junior Varsity Middle School Writers!! Wonderful Work! This team did a fantastic job in the regional! The team placed 1st among all JV teams in the state! YAY!! Congratulations JV QUILL Champions!!
- Junior Varsity -Aavya Banerjee - Narrative - 1st place individual!
- Junior Varsity - Ashlyn Reed - Argument - 1st place individual!
- Junior Varsity - JD Jayden Johnson - Problem Solution - 1st place individual !
- Junior Varsity - Helen Moose - Expository - 1st place individual!
