Twas the week before Christmas Break, and all through the school, everyone was thinking, “some time off would be cool!” It was that time of year again at Mapleton Junior High when everyone was looking forward to the Christmas Break. With Christmas right around the corner, the students began dreaming of that wonderful time off with no homework and extra sleep. After all, there would be presents to open, movies to watch (Elf in particular), and Michael Buble’s enchanting Christmas CD to listen to.

Mapleton Junior High Choirs Performed at Maple Mountain High School Wednesday the 7th of December, Previous to this we took the liberty to interview Ms. Thomson the choir teacher at MJHS. In the interview we asked how the choirs have been preparing for their upcoming concert. She said that during her daily rehearsals (class time) they have been focusing on Coral Habits, Memorization and Expression.  She also believes that in order to have a good performance, everyone in the choir must feel a connection to the song they are singing. We also interviewed Summer Herlevi and Lexi Robinson.

Last Wednesday, December 7th, MJHS boys’ basketball team played Orem Jr. High School in an exciting and challenging game.  Mapleton Jr. High’s coach Zac Beddoes chose a great starting line-up.  The MJHS starting line-up was Jordan Jones, Parker Johnson, Abe Durrant, Mark Sumsion, and Brigham Brau.  Everyone was excited to see if we could beat Orem Jr.

Here at MJHS we have many great classes one of them is the Drama class of Ms. Linda Lewis. Some people say that drama means expressing your feelings in a fun way; others say it’s just entertainment. Students here at MJHS say that when they come into Ms. Lewis’ room they feel happy and energetic because they are in such a great class.

Mapleton Jr. High School is pleased to announce the November 2011 Students of the month.  Each academic area selects one outstanding student per grade level to represent their department for student of the month.  In order to be selected these students must show superior academic achievement along with exceptional citizenship.  On Tuesday November 29th the MJHS students of the month were invited to a pizza party to celebrate this fantastic accomplishment.   The students of the month for November are (listed by academic area):

Mapleton Jr. High School is proud to announce the local PTA Reflections winners.  These students have created and composed tremendously talented Reflections entries in various categories and won Awards of Merit and Awards of Excellence here at MJHS.  Students winning Awards of Excellence moved on and were judged at the council level.  At the council Reflections level, two of our students performed so well that they have now moved on to the Region level!  They are Benjamin Porter (Literature-Middle/Junior Level), and Sarina VanOrman (Literature - Senior Level). 

Basketball, both boys and girls, is now underway here at Mapleton Jr. High School.  We are excited to see this new season get underway and are very optimistic about the prospects of a great year.  The boys opened at home on November 22, 2011 and dropped a very close game to Lakeridge Jr. High.  There were some excellent individual performances, but in the end it was not enough and they lost a hard fought battle.  The girls opened on the road at Lakeridge Jr.

Students, staff and the Mapleton community were pleased to hear that Dr. RaShel Anderson was appointed as principal of Mapleton Junior High by the Nebo School Board of Education.  The appointment took place on Wednesday November 9, 2011 at the regularly scheduled school board meeting, but won’t take effect until January 3rd 2012. 

Many students of Mrs. Kehau Malzl a math teacher at Mapleton Jr. High School have been excited to hear how she is doing.  The reason for their interest is that she recently had a baby.   The new arrival, named -Noa Philipp Malzl, weighed in at 8 pounds, 14 ounces and stands 21 inches tall.  (Well, he really doesn’t stand much, he mostly just cries).   Noa was born on November 10, 2011 and mom said “We couldn't be happier.”  Both Mother and baby are doing well and are home from the hospital. 

November 7th through November 18th the Service Learning class at Mapleton Junior High School put on a food drive to help the hungry.  According to the USDA website, 14.5% of households in the United States were food insecure at one point through the year 2010.  That is almost 2 people in every ten who went hungry at some point during the year.  In order to fill this need, students were asked to bring food or hygiene donations to school.  The food was collected by each first period class and the whole school participated in a friendly competition to see which of the three