UPCOMING DATES

Dec. 2 American Indian Study Night 5:30 pm

Dec. 2 Basketball practice begins

Dec. 9 PTA 6:30 pm

Dec. 10 Holiday Concerts at Johnson Fine Arts Center–

5:15 for 6th grade;

7:00 for 7th & 8th grade

Dec. 11 MathCounts at Roncalli

Dec. 21-Jan. 5 Winter Break

Jan. 6 Classes resume

SIMMONS MIDDLE SIMMONS MIDDLE

SCHOOLSCHOOL

Kelly Northrup, Principal Colleen Murley,

Assistant Principal Phone 725-7900 Fax 725-7999

HOLIDAY CONCERT 

Simmons Middle School will present their annual Holiday Concert Tuesday, December 10, at the Johnson Fine Arts

Center on the campus of NSU. Due to rising class sizes the concert will be split into two separate performances. The 6th grade music classes will per-form first with a starting time of 5:15 p.m. The 6th grade band, orchestra, and general music students will be involved in the first portion of the con-cert. Beginning at 7:00 p.m. all 7th and 8th grade music students will perform. 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 & 8th grade vocal classes are required to participate. The students’ preparation, etiquette, and performance in the rehearsals and concert 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. Panerio, Mrs. Hansen, or Mr. Kim-ball know in advance if this presents a real difficulty for your child). Students will need to arrive at JFAC that evening no later than 5:00 p.m. if they are a 6th grader, and 6:40 if they are a 7th or 8th grader. The performances are both free and open to the public.

DECEMBER 2013

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

Page 2 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

TRANSFER REQUESTS FOR 2014-2015 Families who have been granted a transfer re-quest for the current school year need not apply next year unless there has been an change of address. However, if a family who has been granted a transfer request has a new kindergar-ten 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 re-quest and the student will be attending middle school next year, you may want to check your middle school attendance area. Some families are surprised that their child will not be attend-ing 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 nec-essary for you to complete a middle school transfer request.

WINTER BREAK Students will be dismissed at

3:10 on Friday, Dec. 20 for winter break and will return to school on Monday, January 6. Enjoy your break!!

SCHOOL CLOSINGS & LATE STARTS

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

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 mu-sical gift ideas for you. For your young musician, a metronome or new set of strings, for your violin-ist or violist, a shoulder rest helps posture and makes playing eas-ier, for your bassist, new rosin or a bow of their own, for a cellist an anchor strap. If you’re look-ing for more ideas let me know. Our winter concert is split, 6th grade at 5:15 pm and 7th and 8th grade at 7 pm. Get there early; parking at the Johnson Fine Arts Center can be competitive.

Page 3 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

DENTAL VAN The Dental Van is scheduled to be in Aberdeen January 6—10, 2014. The Dental Van provides dental care to children 0-20 years old. If you do not have a dental home and have not seen a dentist in the Aberdeen area in 2 years or more the Dental Van may provide you with care. The van will be located at Avera St. Luke’s

Education Center on 6th Ave. To set up an appointment call 622-5722.

“FLEECE NAVIDAD” Youth Power is doing a project to benefit patients at Avera Cancer Cen-ter. 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 different colors. 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. 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! 

8TH GRADERS Mark Your Calendar:  On Monday, January 27 at 7:00 pm in the CHS theater, all parents and 8th grade students are invited to hear more about options for classes for the 2014/2015 school year. Teachers representing all departments 

at CHS will be available for questions. The Gold Book and registration for classes will be explained. Please join us! 

Page 4 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

MATH COUNTS Congratulations to the following 6th grade students for winning the first place

team award at the November 20th Mathcounts competition hosted by HMS: Abe Wieland, Bailee Schopp, Kara Vetch, and Katie Groth. An extra congratulations to Abe Wieland for placing 1st in the individual round! Great Job Mathletes!

Front row left to right: Kaitlyn Groth, Bailee Schopp,

Kara Vetch, Abe Wieland, 1st place team winners

Front row on left: Abe Wieland, 1st place individual winner

Congratulations to Brandi Palmer and Mason Thompson! In October they were honored with the Young Citizenship Award given by the Aberdeen Ex-change Club. This award honors middle school students who demonstrate good citizenship, are honest, hard-working, helpful and fair. The Exchange Club seeks to recognize and encourage students to continue to be good citizens both at school and at home through attitude, service to others, leadership and sportsmanship. Each month two Simmons Middle School stu-dents will be chosen by their teachers.

BREAKFAST All students from households that qualify for free or reduced price ($.40) lunches also qualify for free or reduced price ($.30) breakfasts. All students are en-couraged to eat breakfast! School break-fast is served starting at 7:30 am in all eight schools! For questions regarding school meals call Susan Nash, Director, at 725-7131.

We would like to remind parents that on days when we have a late start due to weather, breakfast will not be served. As well, neither breakfast nor lunch is served on early dismissal days.

STUDENT DROP OFF

& PICK UP Students are not allowed in the build-

ing 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.

Page 5 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

7TH GRADE TEAM WISH LIST This year the seventh grade team has decided to create skills-based activity totes to be used during our Core Enrichment time. These totes will contain various activities and games to help build students’ skills specifically in the areas of Math and Language Arts, but also integrate Science and Social Studies knowledge and skill sets. The team will also align the activities in these totes to the Common Core State Standards, which have been implemented this year. The following is a list of some of the activities and games the team would like to include in the totes, which can be purchased in Aberdeen. The number in parentheses is the quantity we would like in order to fill each of the seven totes with a variety of activities. If you would be willing to donate one of these items, please bring it to the Simmons Middle School office and be sure that it is clearly labeled for the seventh grade. Thank you in advance for your support of this project!

Shopko: Sumoku (3) - $12.99/ea Words with Friends To Go (3) - $19.99/ea Brain Quest Smart Game (2) - $7.99/ea Tri-Ominoes (2) - $12.99/ea

Target: Campbell’s Alphabet Dice Game (4) - $9.99/ea Magnetic Travel Tangoes (3) $7.99/ea Think Fun Math Dice (4) - $5.99/set Rory’s Story Cubes – 3 different versions (2 of each version) - $7.99/set

Page 6 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

Page 7 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

SUN

M

ON

T

UE

W

ED

T

HU

F

RI

SAT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

1

Dak

ota

Mu

-se

um

0n

ly 2

5 m

embe

rs 3

:30-

4:30

Bu

s th

ere,

ow

n r

ide

hom

e

12

1

3

CA

ND

Y

$$

D

UE

14

15

1

6

Mov

ie

nig

ht.

..6:3

0pm

to

8:00

at

SM

S

17

A

ngl

e T

ree

Don

atio

ns

to

Rm

207

D

UE

!!

18

1

9

Hol

iday

Car

d M

ak-

ing.

..3:1

5-4p

m...

20 k

ids

20

2

1

22

2

3

24

2

5

26

2

7

28

29

3

0

31

Dec

embe

r 201

3 H

man

e S

ocie

ty

Don

atio

ns

can

be

pu

t in

the

box

ou

tsid

e ro

om 2

07

**re

mem

ber

to

pu

t you

r n

ame

and

gra

de

on it

! Y

P m

emb

ers

can

d

o th

e d

onat

ion

1X

per

sch

ool

year

for

a p

oin

t.

Ear

n a

YP

poi

nt

by b

rin

ing

in 2

ya

rds

of F

LE

EC

E...

give

to

Ms.

Gap

p

Fin

d an

An

gel t

ree

gift

car

d in

tow

n, m

ake

the

pur-

chas

e an

d br

ing

the

un

wra

pped

gif

t an

d ca

rd t

o R

oom

20

7. E

arn

a p

oin

t an

d h

elp

our

com

mu

nit

y!

STUDENTS OF THE MONTH OCTOBER 2013

SUBJECT

6TH GRADE

7TH GRADE

8th GRADE Core Classes:

(Science, Math, Social Studies, Language Arts,

Reading, Algebra)

Miranda Wangler Adam Emery Nick Krokel

Avery Bad Moccasin Hailey Sharp

Tatum Waldrop

Sloane Johnson Peni Mounga Tony Wang

Morgan Grau Malea Gobert

Jared Maier Tyler Hintz

Parker Geffre Dessa Spellman

Haley Gonsor

Physical Education

Maria Martens

McKenzie Cordie

Mason Thompson

Tate Mikkelson

Makayla Pulfrey

Health

Bradi Heinz

Isaac Hoerner

Zach Rohrbach

Computers

Katelyn Thares

Madeline Orr

Emilie Casanova

Art

Jade Mounga

Morgan Grau

Shalisha Swain

Indust. Tech.

William Campbell

Brandi Palmer

Andrew Thomas

FACS

Brooklyn Briscoe

Reagan Schnabel

Symmone Gauer

Music

Abe Wieland

Sophia Schnell

Alli Larson

Spanish

MaKayla Heckler

Mythology

Collin Stoebner

Leisure Activities

Collin Stoebner

= Star Student of the Month