UPCOMING

DATES

Dec. 4 American Indian Study Night 5:30 pm

Dec. 6 MathCounts at Roncalli

Dec. 15 Middle School dance at CHS 7-9 pm

Dec. 18 Holiday Concerts at SMS - 5:15 for 6th grade;

7:00 for 7th & 8th grade

Dec. 21 Yearbook group pictures

Dec. 22 End of 2nd quarter

Dec. 23-Jan. 3 Winter Break

Jan. 4 Classes resume

Dr. Colleen Murley, Principal Tina Board, Assistant Principal DECEMBER 2017

SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL 1300 S. 3RD ST. ABERDEEN, SD 57401 PHONE 605-725-7900 FAX 605-725-7999

www.aberdeen.k12.sd.us SimmonsMiddleSchool.Wikispaces.com

SCHOOL CLOSINGS &

LATE STARTS

Information regarding late starts or cancella-tions will be sent out via School Messenger. It is our goal to send the message out at ap-proximately 6:30 am. Please keep the office updated on current phone numbers. Thank you!

STUDENT DROP OFF & PICK UP

Students are not allowed in the building until 7:25 am. Also, students need to be picked up promptly after school. We dismiss each day at 3:10. Students should be off the premises by 3:20. Supervision is not provided after that time.

Student Senate has SMS shirts for sale for $10 and Golden Eagle water bottles for $5. Please contact Mrs. Wollman at megan.wollman@k12.sd.us to order.

Page 2 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

ORCHESTRA NOTES

Happy December to you. The first half of the school year has flown by. Thank you for great kids! As you start or finish

your holiday shopping, a few musical gift ideas for you. For your young musician, a metronome or new set of strings, for your violinist or

violist, a shoulder rest helps posture and makes playing easier, for your bass-ist, new rosin or a bow of their own, for a cellist an anchor strap. If you’re

looking for more ideas let me know.

Our winter concert is Monday, December 18. 6th grade at 5:15 pm and 7th and 8th grade at 7 pm at Simmons Middle School . All 6th, 7th, and 8th grade or-

chestra students should wear ALL black for the concert.

HOLIDAY CONCERT

Simmons Middle School students will present their annual Holiday Concert Mon-

day, December 18, at the Simmons Middle School gymnasium. The 6th

grade

music classes will perform first with a starting time of 5:15 p.m. This portion of

the concert will involve the 6th

grade band, orchestra, and general music stu-

dents. Beginning at 7:00 p.m. all 7th

and 8th

grade music students will per-

form. This involves 7th

and 8th

band, orchestra, and choir. All students in

6th

grade general music, 6th, 7th and 8th grade orchestra, 6th, 7th and 8th

grade band, and 7th and 8th grade vocal classes are required to partici-

pate.

The students’ preparation, etiquette, and performance in the rehearsals and con-

cert will be a significant part of their quarter grades for those classes. Students

will be expected to dress nicely for the concert – we especially insist on staying

away from blue jeans, casual tee shirts, sweatpants, and sweatshirts (let Mr. Pan-

erio, Mrs. Hansen, or Mrs. Neitzert know in advance if this presents a real difficul-

ty for your child). All 6th, 7th, and 8th grade orchestra students should wear

ALL black for the concert.

Students will need to arrive at SMS that evening no later than 5:00 pm if they are

a 6th

grader, and 6:40 pm if they are a 7th

or 8th

grader. The performances are

both free and open to the public.

Out of respect for all the performers, we would like students and audience mem-

bers to remain for the entire concert and listen to the other groups. All of them

have worked hard and don’t deserve a mass exodus before they perform. The

concerts have been split into two to keep them short for that reason.

Page 3 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

“FLEECE NAVIDAD” Youth Power is doing a project to benefit patients at

Avera Cancer Center. Youth Power members may earn points by making fleece tie blankets or pur-

chasing fleece for a blanket. Youth Power members who choose to purchase fleece need to buy two yards of fleece. The

fleece may be one solid yard and one printed yard, or two yards of solid colors. The fleece should be of good quality and not thin like flannel.

We will have scheduled times to make the blankets. The time will be 3:15-4:00 for all of the dates. If students wish, they may purchase the fleece and make their blanket at home and then bring the blanket to school. All blankets or fleece go to Room 118 with your name and grade on it. There is a limit of 2 Youth Power points for this activity.

The blankets will be distributed to the patients before Christmas. We would like to have 100 blankets to give to the Avera Cancer Center. Please keep in mind that the blankets will be for adult men and women when choosing fleece. We are happy to accept any donations of fleece material. We would like solid and printed fleece. Thank you for your thoughtfulness!

TRANSFER REQUESTS FOR 2018-19

Families who have been granted a transfer request for the current school year need not ap-ply next year unless there has been a change of address or the school boundary for your area has changed. However, if a family who has been granted a transfer request has a new kindergarten child entering school next year, they MUST turn in a transfer request for the kindergarten student. Just because a family was granted a request this year DOES NOT mean that their kindergarten student will automatically go to the requested school as the rest of the family does. The District will do everything possible, however, to grant those requests.

If you have an approved elementary transfer request and the student will be attending mid-dle school next year, you may want to check your middle school attendance area. Some families are surprised that their child will not be attending the same middle school as their classmates because of a previously approved elementary transfer request. Consequently, unless you live within a middle school boundary, it will be necessary for you to com-

plete a middle school transfer request.

Page 4 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

The Exchange Club of Aberdeen presented Youth Citizenship Awards to Simmons Middle School students recently. In October, 7th graders Austin Dabney and Anjali Kathikar (pictured on the left) received the award. In November, 6th graders Taylor Lyke and Ethan O’Connell (pictured on the right) were the recipients.

The Exchange Club's Young Citizenship Award honors pre-high school students who daily demonstrate good citizenship both at school and at home. These students have been cho-sen by their teachers and counselors for demonstrating exemplary citizenship, great atti-tude, offering service to others, good leadership and sportsmanship.

ICU

ICU is every Monday and Wednes-

day from 3:10-4:15 for all students

who have missing or late home-

work. Your child will contact you dur-

ing school hours on Monday every

week to notify you that he/she will be

staying after school. If you have any

questions or concerns, please call the

school or email Mrs. Board at 605-

725-7900 tina.board@k12.sd.us

CROSSWALK

Just a reminder that students should be using the crosswalk to cross 5th Street each morning and after school. Cars are aware of the crosswalk but not always alert to students crossing outside of the cross-walk. Thanks for being safe!

Page 5 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

PTA NEWS

►A great big thank you goes out to all of the families who supported our fall fundraiser with Schwans Cares.

►Just a reminder that our students collect Ken’s & Kessler’s receipts and

General Mills boxtops throughout the school year and turn them in to their

homeroom teachers. The PTA sends in these boxtops and receipts and the

companies in turn give money back to our school. Each month the winning-

homeroom wins a treat from PTA. Please save the following and send them

to school with your student:

General Mills boxtops

Ken’s Super Fair Food receipts

Kessler’s Grocery receipts

►For those of you who like to shop online, I'd like to encourage you to shop at https://smile.amazon.com/. AmazonSmile is a website operated by Ama-zon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to Sim-mons Middle School PTA. Every item available for purchase on www.amazon.com is also available on AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) at the same price. When your first visit AmazonSmile, you will be prompted to select a charitable organization. Our organization is titled Simmons Junior High PTA, because that was the original organization name associated with the tax ID number. Remember, only purchases at smile.amazon.com, (not www.amazon.com or the mobile app,) support charity. Many thanks for supporting your PTA this year.

►The next PTA meeting will be Monday, January 8, at 6:30 pm in the library. All parents and teachers are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Page 6 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

Page 7 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

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Page 8 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL