SFMS Messenger

SFMS teachers nominated ten students per grade to have lunch with the principal as a thank you for being kind and respectful students who really make their day enjoyable!

The student’s from Mrs. Charbonneau’s enrichment class with the help of the Eco Nature Club are make creating a Greenhouse. The Eco Nature Club, a student initiated club advised by Mrs. Fiorini, began this project about 3 years ago. The Eco Nature Club researched eco-friendly greenhouse designs, collected bottles and drew up the plans for what the greenhouse would look like. Students in the enrichment class are assembling the bottles, checking the math, and assembling the greenhouse. They are hoping to have the project completed before the end of school.

        

Over 100 seventh grade students put on their entrepreneurial caps to develop new businesses & products for the annual Seventh Grade Business Expo that was held on Friday, April 29. Booths representing 53 businesses were created, which included unique products like cake pops, animal pelt bookmarks, & “Presidential sweets.”  Students have been studying entrepreneurship through Junior Achievement classes in Social Studies.  After analyzing video commercials & print ads in language arts, students developed their own advertisements, including their storefront posters that are meant to attract customers to their booths during the Business Expo.  The students decide on a product to make & determine how many to produce for sale to fifth & sixth grade customers. Students learned work and career readiness skills such as choosing & developing a product & understanding their market in order to promote goods & services. Some businesses earned awards for Best Storefront Poster, most Unique Products, or Best Overall Display, which included packaging & extras like coordinated clothing.

Miss Katie Redeker was a celebrity reader for the 7th and 8th graders. She shared the book I’m Gonna Like Me which discussed the importance of having a high self esteem, and she even stayed to read one-on-one with the students during their independent reading rotation.  The students really enjoyed this experience!

          

Students looking at different protist in Ms. Huenink’s science class.

MS Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Tuesday, March 15, from 4pm-7pm. These will be scheduled online. You can go to the school website to schedule. There’s a link to this page on the Family Resources page of the web site.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2016 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHAMPION ~ NOAH W! Noah has completed the online qualification test for a chance to attend the State level bee. CONGRATULATIONS also to all of the finalists on your achievements. The school level finalists included  Alex B., Andrew K., Wayne H., Noah W., Dustin K., and Noah H.

Can You Feel the Love Tonight!  It is time for The Lion King Kids at SFMS! The dates are March 10 at 7:00 pm; March 11 at 7:00 pm and March 12 at 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm.  Tickets are $3.00 for students and seniors and $5.00 for adults.  Children under 5 are free.  There will be alternate casts, so please check with cast members to see what shows they are in.  Tickets can be purchased at the middle school office. For questions phone 467-7880.  Don’t miss this exciting event!

Even though Veterans Day seems far in the past, there are 2 people that we would like to thank for their service and commitment to SFMS.  Greg and Lynnette Rakun have provided the sound system for our program to honor local veteranss the past couple of years.  This is a big undertaking as it means bringing in speakers, control panel, microphones and other equipment the day before the program.  Greg works with the students on sound checks and continues to monitor every aspect of sound the day of the event.  Thank you Greg and Lynnette, for being such caring friends!

Fifth graders are busy experiencing Free Enterprise during one of Junior Achievement’s Biz Town lessons. We have been fortunate to once again have volunteer Cynthia Roeck from Cleveland State Bank teach us financial literacy. All students need to be able to write their first and last names in cursive in order to sign their checks and credit card receipts at Biz Town. Please be on the lookout for a paper announcing an opportunity to help out the fifth graders Biz Town experience as a ‘Mystery Worker’.  Our trip to Biz Town in Milwaukee is scheduled for Tuesday, April 12th. We are appreciative of the support of the fifth grade parents. This is the first year we actually have more volunteers than we are able to take along.

Students in our classroom have been challenged this year to read poems, memorize them, and present them to their classmates.  This has been a great activity that encourages strong fluency and presentation skills.  Some of the students’ favorites have come from Shel Silverstein whose books include: Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It and Jack Prelutsky’s poems from My Dog May Be a Genius and Something Big Has Been Here.  When a student has chosen to accept this challenge, they are acknowledged by a seasonal cut-out that displays their name and the poem they have memorized.  This is then displayed on our classroom “Poet-Tree.”

Ms. Huenink’s student participates in the natural gas safety program presented by WPS.

Grade 5 students had the opportunity to learn more about the wind instruments of the band at our 3rd annual “Band Demo Day for Wind Instruments”.  Local musicians shared interesting facts about their instrument as well as performed short songs for the students. The program opened and closed with a band arrangement of music from “Star Wars”. After the presentation students were able to try both woodwind and brass instruments and reflect on the experience.

MS Band and Choir students have been busy preparing for the annual Wisconsin School Music Association District Solo & Ensemble Festival. Performances are scheduled for Saturday, March 5, 2016 between 8:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at Kiel High School.

After watching the movie Selma, Lord, Selma, fifth grade students in Mrs. Powers and Ms. Marx’s homerooms worked together to create pictures on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day depicting how we people of different races all fit together. The project was completed by adding a ‘frame’ of MLK, Jr. quotes.

Fifth graders in the house of Mrs. Athrop, Mrs. Meyer & Mrs. Scharrer practiced math concepts on creations in Makerspace.

The eighth grade class is planning a service-centered learning activity in coordination with the food drive sponsored by SFMS Student Council. From January 27- February 24 we will be asking for donations from students in grades 5-8 and staff with a focus on canned goods.

On March 23, the 8th grade class will then be participating in a team building “canstruction” activity. Please see canstruction.org to read more about this project and see possible ideas of what the students will be building. After each Falcon Time class has built their structure, administration will judge their “canstructions.” The “canstructions” will be left up over the lunch hour so all students will be able to see what their donations helped create. Students will take down their creations, package up all the can goods, and walk them to the food pantry.

One of the most important responsibilities our district has is to keep our students safe. In this day and age Internet safety is a major concern for schools and parents, so

we wanted to share the curriculum we have in place to teach students how to be safe and appropriate in the online environment.

Provided below is the SFSD K-12 online safety curriculum as well as resources for families to learn more about age appropriate Internet usage and best practices.