2012-2013 registration dates - pc\|macimages.pcmac.org/sisfiles/schools/il/ridgeland... ·...
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Winter can be a time of less activity and more eating of the ―comfort foods.‖ It can be a time of weight gain for our
students. Because our students are growing and changing, dieting is not recommended. However, there are several
easy ways to keep weight gain in check.
One of the main culprits is sugary drinks in large quantities. Studies show that limiting drinks such as soda, juice,
and energy drinks help students maintain a healthy weight.
Curb high calorie snacks. Try raw vegetables with low fat dip or low fat cheese with plain crackers.
Limit trips to fast food restaurants when possible. If you do take your children, check out lower calorie options.
Most fast food restaurants have alternative choices such as salads and grilled chicken. Opt for the smaller versions
of your favorite choices.
There are web sites that can be very helpful in providing information on healthy choices for teens. Start with www. kidshealth.org. You will find information on how to read a food label. Check out not only calories, but
the appropriate serving size and fat content. Also look at www.mypyramid.gov . Try to involve your children in reading labels and making better choices.
Spring will be here before you know it! Exercise is essential for maintaining weight. Students should be physi-cally active for one hour per day. Limit TV to less than two hours per day. All students at Simmons can partici-
pate in our spring Track program. This would be a great way to get an hour per day.
Let your students know that I have information about diet and exercise if they wish to stop in the nurse’s office.
Thanks and think spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t forget to turn in your dental forms and remember Smile Dentists will be at our school May 16th.
Discipline/Traffic
Nurse’s Corner
With spring quickly approaching, we just wanted to remind students
that proper attire is required while at school. Please remember that
all shoes must be secured to the foot at the heel, and no flip flops or
slippers will be allowed. Also, students must be covered from
shoulder to mid-thigh. Students may wear shorts or skirts as long
as they are appropriate length.
Please remember to go straight home once you are dismissed at
2:30. If you are picking up a brother or sister from one of the ele-
mentary buildings, please remember that you are still on school
district property. We expect that you are following the PBIS expec-
tations of respecting yourself, respecting others, and respecting
property while on district property.
March Students of the Month
Blue Team— Husam Naser
Green Team— Stephanie McFann
Red Team— Kailey Greene
Yellow Team— Dan Teandon
Orange Team— Salsabyl Ibrahim
Purple Team– Zoie Winston
Congratulations!
2012-2013 Registration Dates
August 7th: 7:30AM—11:00AM & 12:00PM—2:30PM
August 8th: 12:30PM—3:00PM & 4:00PM—7:30PM
August 9th: 7:30AM—11:00AM & 12:00PM—2:30PM
Page 2 SI MMON S M IDDLE SCHO OL
Student Council will hold it annual Head Shaving
Event for Cancer on April 20th this year. Our stu-
dents are busy planning for this event and many oth-
ers!
Meeting Dates: April 10 and 24 till 3:00
Student Council Mathletes
The Mathletes competition teams are set! The SWIC meet on April 4th will be here in no time and our teams are looking very
good! We’re making some last minute preparations and looking forward to a solid performance at the meet. Listen to the an-
nouncements and/or see Mr. Kuzanek in room 250 for more infor-
mation regarding Mathletes.
NJHS inductions are right around the corner. Students please make sure that you have com-
pleted your service hours before Friday, April 11th. Seven grade students must have 15 ser-
vice hours before inductions and eight grade students must have 40 service hours before
inductions. Please make sure that you submit your service hours to your NJHS Secretary
Officer.
In addition, before inductions, NJHS member are busy finding
sponsors for our annual Cystic Fibrosis stair climb which will take place on Saturday, April 21st at Swallow Cliff. If you are inter-
ested in making a donation please see one of our NJHS members.
PTA
NJHS PE
PTA Upcoming Events—
The PTA held a vendor fair on Friday, March 30th. Thank you to everyone who came out and supported this event!
8th Grade Dance—Friday, March 30, 2012
8th Grade Breakfast—Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The PTA is still in need of volunteers. If you are able to help out please contact
Sue at 708-878-8266.
The PE Department will soon start the Presidential Fitness Testing again. The seven different test scores will be compared to the stu-
dents’ scores from the beginning of the year. Any student that passes all the tests in the 85th percentile or higher will receive an
award. As the weather con-tinues to get warmer, all
classes will be going outside for a variety of different
activities. All students need to remember their uniforms
and proper gym shoes daily.
Promoting Positive Behaviors
Good Character, Good Decisions
PBIS is going strong here at Simmons Middle School. The stu-
dents are working daily on the 3 R’s (RESPECT SELF, RESPECT
OTHERS, and RESPECT PROPERTY). Donations for PBIS
rewards are being accepted all school year. Students can bring
their donations to their first period teacher. Every little bit helps.
PBIS Just Say No
SIM MON S M IDDLE SCHOO L Page 3
Declamation
The Declamation Team is coming along quite nicely this year, as our roster contains an extremely talented bunch. Many of these students are doing double and triple duty because some of them are also involved in the drama production, track, and other various clubs and activi-
ties. The team has been practicing hard. Members should listen carefully to the daily announcements for practice reminders. Attending
practice is crucial to becoming strong competitors in their individual categories.
On days when students do not practice, they are expected to continue memorizing their lines, working on actions and stage directions, gath-
ering props, and learning to handle their scripts in the categories where they are allowed to use them. In addition, students should continu-
ally practice on their own, in front of friends, family members, and even alone in front of the mirror in order to enhance their public speak-ing skills and acting abilities. I am also asking all Declamation Team parents to continually encourage their sons and daughters to spend as
much time as possible practicing on the weekends and days off (especially the upcoming four day weekend on April 6-9) leading up to the competition. We are only 12 school days away from our first evening performance and just 14 school days away from the SWIC competi-
tion.
The Declamation Team usually competes only once, at the SWIC Conference Meet. However, for the last five years, I have instituted an
additional school based performance. ―An Evening with the Simmons Speech Team‖ will be held on Monday, April 16 from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm, right here at Simmons. During this performance, ALL team members will compete. They will be competing for our school-wide
top honors, as well as the privilege of competing at the SWIC meet. This event also allows them to gain experience while performing in front of our peers, parents, families, teachers, school board members, and district administrators. This FREE event is open to the public, so
please consider attending.
On Wednesday, April 18, the Declamation Team will compete at the SWIC Conference Meet at 6:00 p.m. held at Orland Junior High
School. The school is located at 14845 West Avenue in Orland Park. Parents and family members are invited and encouraged to attend this performance as well. All team members must arrange their own transportation both ways, and should plan to arrive at Orland NO
LATER than 5:15 p.m. that night. Simmons is only allowed one performance per category, so some students may not actually get to per-form that night. However, those students are still vital to the team as they will be considered ―on-call,‖ as assistant coaches or serving as
alternates in case another student or students cannot compete for some reason that night.
Just a reminder: In order to continue to be a member of the Declamation Team, all members must pay the $50.00 activity participation fee,
which goes towards paying our SWIC membership dues and other expenses. The money is due NO LATER than April 10. Checks can be made payable to Simmons Middle School. You may turn in your payment to Ms. Price or drop it off in the main office. If you have any
questions, please contact Ms. Price, Declamation Coach, at (708) 599-8540
Drama SST
Simmons Science and Technology has been having a lot of science fun! Dyson, Hoover and Oreck have nothing on SST! We had an awesome experi-
ence creating vacuums using some everyday items. Students discovered the power of candles, water, clay and a glass jars. Did you know that when you
put a candle in clay and place it in a shallow tray you can create a vacuum, not a machine. Does this sound exciting to you? Come to
our next meeting and see what amazing science experiment we will conduct. If you have any questions, please see Mrs.
Velasco or Mr. Blabas.
The students are working hard in Drama Club to prepare for
our next production: ANNIE! Our cast is already off script and
crews have been diligently working on our set which looks great! We can't wait to start working on
songs after Spring Break. We can't believe that we will have an audience very soon. Please mark your calendars
for MAY 3RD AND 4TH. We anticipate this show being one of Simmon's best! Thanks to everyone involved!!! -
Mrs. Sauter and Ms. Cosich
This month our school will have a guest speaker to talk to students about positive choices and decision making.
We are very grateful to have Michael Cobb, a retired Chicago Bears player, come talk to us. The Just Say
No Club will be donating money to his organization. The students feel honored to be a part of contributing
to a great cause.
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 10th!
Athletics
Page 4 SI MMON S M IDDLE SCHO OL
8th Grade
Greetings 8th grade parents and students! Here are some of the in-
teresting topics we will be learning about during the month of April.
After celebrating Pi Day, sliding, and turning, and calculating area
and volume, the 8th grade Math students are back to finishing ine-
qualities. Following inequalities, we will be learning about probabil-
ity and data analysis. For example, using the counting principle to
find the number of permutations of the letters in the word APRIL
(120). This may come in handy at six flags when figuring out how
many different ways four friends can sit together on the rides! The
students will then end the month working on number sense to help
provide the students with more of an intuitive understanding of
mathematical concepts and how to solve them.
In Science, students are exploring the world of heredity, DNA, and
traits. We have been looking at specific traits and the passing of these traits from parents to offspring. We are also studying the for-
mation of DNA and what can happen when there are mutations in the DNA code. We will soon be recreating a three-dimensional version
of the double helix (DNA chain).
Literature students will use strategies like predicting, connecting, and
inferring to analyze conflicts, characters, and themes in Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (Green) and Night by Elie
Wiesel (Blue). Throughout the novel, students will discuss and sup-
port all opinions with their peers, and work to view topics and con-
flicts from multiple perspectives.
In advanced literature, students will work together to comprehend
and analyze character development and motivation, themes, and the
author’s purpose of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Green)
and Night by Elie Wiesel (Blue). They will use a variety of reading
strategies to create and present theme based projects. Students will
also continue to document their thoughts and opinions about the
novels on our class blog. Check it out at www.kidblog.org/
alcrossover.
Following our poetry study, students will learn the art of persuasion
in language arts. Throughout this unit, students will work in col-
laborative groups to support or oppose a local issue. Using various
techniques, students will draft a formal essay, and participate in a
class debate.
In Social Studies, we recently completed WWI, and are heading into the era of the Great Depression. Students will study the causes
and effects of The Great Depression. In order to show the struggles of this time period, students will create game board projects that
depict accurate information and scenarios from the era. Following
the Great Depression, the students will then begin to study WWII.
In Spanish, we are reviewing major grammar concepts such as verb endings, in preparation for learning how to talk in the preterite
(past) tense. During the month of April, we will also use vocabu-lary from the market to discuss foods, prices, and shopping.
Friday, April 20th
Simmons Middle School
Doors open immediately after dismissal
Use gymnasium entrance #4
Tickets $1.00 pre-paid/$1.50 at the door
Tickets available through your PTA/PTO
Teams will be made up of faculty/staff from each school.
Proceeds for this event fund Ridgeland District 122 scholarships.
Students 5th grade & under must be accompanied by an adult.
Spring is here and track and field is underway! The Knights are looking to make some noise in the
SWIC Conference this year. If you are not on the team yet, get a permission slip and join the team.
The Knights have been working hard and improving
each day. Good Luck Knights!
A packet of information went home with eight grade students on Friday, March 30th. Included in the packet was a cal-endar of graduation events, permission slip for Great America, a form to request one extra ticket for the graduation
ceremony, and an order form to purchase a ceremony DVD. Extra ticket requests will be granted on a first come first
serve basis.
As a reminder—In order to receive your child’s cap and gown, all school fees must be paid. Please contact the main office at 708-599-8540 with any questions.
Graduation is scheduled for Wednesday, May 23rd at 7:00pm at Oak Lawn Community High School
Each family will receive five (5) tickets to the graduation ceremony
Practices will be May 22nd during school and May 23rd at 8am at OLCHS
Students must be present at both graduation practices to participate in the ceremony
Students will receive their cap and gown May 22nd and tickets May 23rd at practice
All school fees must be paid before a student will receive their cap and gown
6th Grade Our 6th graders are diving into negative numbers! April will be filled
with integers as we add, subtract, multiply, and divide them. We will
also begin solving and writing algebraic expressions and equations.
The students will have variables and negatives dancing in their
dreams!
In Computers, the students just finished up working in Microsoft
Word, learning proper formatting skills. They also completed a pro-
ject in MovieMaker learning how to add transitions, photos, and
music to a slideshow. The next unit will cover Microsoft Power-
Point, Internet Safety, and Microsoft Excel. They will also use Au-
dacity, a sound recording program, in which they will record their
voices telling a story, and then will add sound effects to bring the
story to life. FUN!
In Social Studies the students finished up learning about ancient
China and Emperor Qin! They built terracotta warriors to replicate
one of the emperors’ major accomplishments. After ISATs we will
continue learning about the ancient Greeks of Athens and Sparta. We
will learn about many mythical Greek gods and goddesses, the
Olympics, and the geography of Greece. After Greece, we will move
into the powerful Roman Empire.
During April, Art students will be starting their painting unit. Be-
ginning with the exploration of color, how colors are made, and
color theory, through a Louis Comfort Tiffany Stained Glass in-
spired color wheel painting.
PLATE TECTONICS, VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES O
MY! This month we will be finishing our book "Inside the Restless
Earth." We take a deeper look at plate tectonics, plate boundaries,
causes and effects of earthquakes and volcanoes. These natural phe-
nomena are some of the most interesting topics we cover in this
book! Watch out for our sky scrapers! Students will be working in
teams to construct earthquake resistant buildings constructed from a
variety of materials. We look forward to this challenging project
that is sure to touch on our creativity and knowledge.
In Language Arts the students have worked very diligently on their
Biography Projects. We are currently presenting them and they
have done an excellent job.
In Literature our 6th graders really put forth 110% to ―SALM
DUNK THE ISAT.‖ We are very proud of the effort and skill the
students used on their state tests. GREAT JOB 6th GRADE!
In language arts, our students had a blast researching unsolved mysteries for their power point presentations. Currently we are presenting our power point creations in class. In literature, we are right in the middle of an intense, engaging novel called The Shadow Club. Students
are on the edge of their seats as we read this page turner. As a culminating activity, our students will be creating a board game that shows their understanding of the elements of this novel. The best part is that we will get to play our newly created board games in class! In Spanish
our students are describing their families and will be making family trees or scrapbooks in the next few weeks. The Social Studies classes have finished the State and Federal Constitution tests! We are now heading west to cover the Oregon Trail and the California Gold Rush. In
Science the students are building Roller Coasters to demonstrate different types of energy.
7th Grade
8th Grade Graduation Info….
Sabrina Maiberger
Kristina Marchbank
Mustafa Mohamad Khalil
Amal Mousa
Mariam Murrar
Emilio Nunez
Mohammed Odeh
Emma Palhegyi
Emily Pecenka
Christopher Pena
Martin Perez
Mario Perez-Noriega
Mitchell Plewa
Nickolos Powers
Baraa Qaisi
David Rafacz
Julian Reynoso
Rosa Romero
Adem Sabriu
Wafika Samrah
Nicole Seremet
Megan Showan
Musa Siam
Gabriela Smith
Connor Sroka
Travis Strama
Sammy Tabally
Nadia Taiym
A’nya Trimble
Melina Vazquez
Kaylie Welsh
Jacob Williams
John Wysocki
Alfredo Zambrano
Rene Guerrero
Ahmed Hamad
Allison Hebel
Athmar Ibrahim
Sarah Jaber
Adam Jacobus
Tabatha Joechle
Evan Katzel
Conor Kelly
Jacob Kelly
Takia Kelly-Gordon
Isabella LaBarbera
Aseal Liqa
Liam Long Fitzgerald
Anthony Lopez
Marissa Macias
Ayman Mahmoud
Mohammad Abukhaled
Yazan AbuNajim
Mohammed Al Husseini
John Amador
Cameron Arreola
Daniel Bruck
Amanda Bulow
Taylor Bulow
Kayla Cartolano
Diana Casillas
Rachel Craig
Alex Cruz
Nicolas DeMatteo
Suad El Hami
Bukurie Ferzulovski
Arturo Fonseca
Joseph Gamboa
Join us in wishing our students a Happy Birthday!
Ap
ril
6th GRADE
PURPLE TEAM
Mrs. Bentley
Ms. Cosich
Mrs. Kirk
Mr. Kuzanek
ORANGE TEAM
Ms. Korkosz
Ms. McGraw
Mrs. Skendzel
Ms. Stanek
Mr. Wichert
7th GRADE
RED TEAM
Mrs. Brooks
Mrs. Dasbach
Mrs. Poetz
Ms. Sauter
Mrs. Small
YELLOW TEAM
Mr. Blabas
Mrs. Chavosky
Mrs. Demma
Mrs. Valerio
8th GRADE
BLUE TEAM
Ms. Borchers
Mr. Gath
Ms. Hornik
Mrs. Valderrama
Ms. Wells
GREEN TEAM
Ms. Barry
Mrs. Chavosky
Mrs. Garcia
Ms. Price
Mrs. Vieni
PE/HEALTH
Mr. Burton
Mrs. Cherco
Mrs. Francis
Mr. Hunt
Mr. John
Ms. Rusch
Administrators
Mrs. Flood
Mr. McDermott
Mr. Simpson
Social Workers
Mrs. Daglas
Mrs. Wilson
Nurse
Mrs. Quinn
Speech
Ms. McNally
ELL
Ms. AbuRabah
Mr. Yasin
SI MMON S M IDDLE SCHO OL Page 9