Hot SpringsMiddle School

Geography Bees, hosted for HSSD 4th-8th grade students this week at the Park Magnet/Intermediate School and Hot Springs Junior Academy campuses, are the first round in the annual National Geographic GeoBee. This national geography competition is designed to inspire and reward students' curiosity about the world. Questions cover not only geography, but also cultures, physical features, history and earth science. Winners from each HSSD Geography Bee (Milo Moore, Andrew Steven-Assheuer, and AJ Orellana) will take an online qualifying test. The top 100 scorers in the state of Arkansas will advance to the Arkansas GeoBee. The winner of the Arkansas Geo Bee will receive an all-expense-paid trip to the National Geographic Bee, which will be held in Washington D.C. next May.

Last week, the HSSD hosted three spelling bees across the district for 1st - 8th grade students. HSSD Gifted and Talented Coordinator Mrs. Laura West coordinated the spelling bees, which are exciting competitions for students to improve their general spelling, vocabulary and language skills in a fun competition with their peers. All nine of our finalists (the top three from each bee) will advance to the Garland County Spelling Bee on January 24, 2019 at the Gospel Light Baptist Church Auditorium (600 Garland Avenue, Hot springs) at 9:00 a.m. HSSD Spelling Bees are held in coordination with official rules and scripts from the Scripps National Spelling Bee so that they are uniform with those hosted across the U.S.

The HSSD is a diverse community of student groups, talents, and organizations. We look forward to each holiday performance and event throughout December. Don’t miss a thing, with an all-inclusive HSSD Holiday lineup, below. All events hosted at HSSD schools, as well as the Holiday Extravaganza on 12/6, are free to the public and open to all.

For Giving Tuesday, the Little Rock-based professional tap dance company Untapped sends dance instructors to schools across Arkansas at no charge to work with students in dance classes. Savannah Boyce and Michael Roberson, professional dancers and dance instructors with Untapped, worked with HSSD dance students across the district today. They brought hands-on tap sessions and brief discussion of tap history to our classrooms.