Kelly Northrup, Principal Tina Board, Assistant Principal MARCH 2016

UPCOMING DATES

March 1 Spring Pictures March 8 Women in Science at NSU March 9 End of third quarter March 10 Conferences 4-9 pm March 11 Conferences 8 am - 1 pm March 14 PTA 3:15 pm March 14 Spring Sports Kick-off meeting at CHS 7:00 March 17 NO SCHOOL— Spring Break March 18 NO SCHOOL—Spring Break March 22 NESD Middle School Orchestra Festival in Brookings March 22 Shoot for the Stars 7 pm March 24 NO SCHOOL - Staff Develop ment March 25 NO SCHOOL - Good Friday March 28 NO SCHOOL - Easter Monday March 31 NSU Science Fair

SPRING PICTURES

Spring pictures will be taken

Tuesday, March 1st. Stu-dents will be given a form

beforehand to select a pose. No money

is required on picture day. The student

will only give the photographer the filled

out form. The picture packets will arrive

back 2-3 weeks later and will be sent

home with students for parents to look at.

You may send payment in for those pic-

tures you choose to keep and return

those pictures you do not want. You are

not required to make a purchase.

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

PTA NEWS

Thank you to the PTA members who volunteered to help serve pizza and pop at the social

on February 5. Simmons Middle School PTA now has a Facebook Page. It is a closed group

so you will need to ask to join. Just a reminder that PTA is still collecting Campbell’s La-

bels for Education, Box Tops for Education and Ken’s and Kessler’s receipts.

Page 2 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

Orchestra

All middle school orchestra students will be attending the annual NESD

Orchestra Festival in Brookings on Tuesday, March 22. Students have been given a

letter with all of the details. Other upcoming dates include the Solo Contest on Thursday, April

21 at Simmons Middle School and the Spring Concert on May 12.

SPRING SPORTS

KICK-OFF MEETING

There will be a meeting on Monday, March 14th at 7 pm in the Thomas F. Kelly Theatre of CHS for all high school and middle school athletes who will be in-volved in the following sports and their parents:

Track and Field (grades 7-12)

Boys’ Tennis (grades 6-12)

Girls’ Golf (grades 6-12)

All parents and athletes are expected to attend.

CONFERENCES

Student-led conferences will be held Thursday, March 10 from 4-9 pm and Friday, March 11

from 8 am-1 pm. Parents, if you did not receive a scheduled time for conferences in the mail,

please contact the office at 725-7900.

The following teachers will only be here for a portion of the conference times:

Mrs. Hansen: Thursday 5:30-9:00, Friday 8-1

Mrs. Rostad: Thursday 4-5:30, Friday 8-1

Mrs. Neitzert: Friday 8-1 only

Mr. Zimmerman will be gone Thursday and Friday

6th graders will have their conferences in the cafetorium, 7th graders will be in the main gym

and 8th graders will be in the library. Elective teachers will meet in their classrooms.

MARCH 2016 Page 3

SOUTH DAKOTA SMARTER BALANCED ASSESSMENT

APRIL 4-22, 2016

All students in grades 6th, 7th, and 8th will take the Smarter Balanced Assessment in English Language Arts and Mathematics with the exception of qualifying students with disabilities, who will take the DSTEP-A. The 8th graders will also be taking a Science test.

Please help your child by making sure he/she is in school, well-rested and well-

fed during the testing days.

Please try to avoid scheduling appointments, vacations, etc. during the testing

days if at all possible.

If you have any questions, please call Heather Aldentaler, SMS Counselor, at 725-

7914 or e-mail at Heather.Aldentaler@k12.sd.us

Congratulations to Bella Gill. Austin Sichmeller and Ashlyn Dinger! In January they were honored with the Young Citizenship Award given by the Aberdeen Exchange Club. Ashlyn Dinger won in December but was unable to attend that luncheon. 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 stu-dents to continue to be good citizens both at school and at home through attitude, ser-vice to others, leadership and sportsmanship. Each month two Simmons Middle School students will be chosen by their teachers.

Page 4 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

BAND NOTES

Middle School All State Band

The 17th annual South Dakota Middle School All State Band will be held in Pierre, SD on March 4th and 5th. Abe Wieland (French horn), Kylee Ackerman (clarinet) and Kara Sinar (clarinet) were selected to be members of the group. Congratulations to them!

Combined Jazz Band/Show Choir/Honors Orchestra Concert

The jazz bands, show choirs and Honors Orchestra from SMS and HMS will be putting on a concert in the CHS theatre on Tuesday, March 15

th at 7:00.

Band Contest

Saturday, April 16 is the Region IV Band Contest, which will be held this year in Aber-deen at Holgate Middle School. The combined 7th and 8th grade band will participate as a large ensemble and students have been given the opportunity to perform solos and small ensembles as well. Parents are encouraged to come listen to the perfor-mances during the day. A schedule and information will be sent home as we get clos-er to the date.

Jazz Competition

The jazz band will be traveling to Brookings on Thursday, April 7th to participate in the SDSU/Brookings Optimist Jazz Festival. Information and an itinerary will be sent home with students when we are closer to the date.

SHOOT FOR THE STARS GAME

March 22, 2016 7pm at the Golden Eagles Arena

Come early to get a chance at some great raffle prizes. Doors open at 6pm.

Some new players and officials are in the mix that you may know!! Come cheer on the Aberdeen Golden Eagle Special Olympics team against the Ab-erdeen All-Stars.

Page 5 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

8TH GRADE SCIENCE FAIR WINNERS

Engineering/Math/Computer Science Behavioral/Social Science

1st - Hannah Kelley 1st - Mackenzie Cordie

2nd - Trenton Kehrwald 2nd - Jade Mounga

3rd - Jason Elmore 3rd - Bailey Schopp

Environmental Physics/Earth Science

1st - Brody DeHoet 1st - Abe Wieland

2nd - KiTu LeBeau 2nd - Nathaniel Fritz

3rd - Tori Neville 3rd - Mason Mehlhoff

Microbiology Botany/Zoology

1st - Kylee Ackerman 1st - Brooklyn Briscoe

2nd - Ty Horner 2nd - Miranda Wangler

3rd - Austin Huff 3rd - Brody Quiram

Medicine & Health/Biochemistry Chemistry

1st - Chris Erickson 1st - Abby Walberg

2nd - Katelyln Thares 2nd - Abby Smith

3rd - Blanca Soto-Garcia 3rd - Matt Jewett

Honorable Mention

Kaelyn Keefe Donovan Guhin Foster Stevahn

Hailey Sharp Hannah McLeod Paige Burt

Page 6 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

Don’t forget to set your

clocks ahead one hour on Sunday,

March 13, for Daylight Savings

time.

STUDY NIGHT

American Indian study night at the Presbyterian Church will have high school math teacher, Mr. Dix, available for tutoring during two Monday night tutoring session in preparation for Smarter Balanced testing in April. Please plan on attending! The dates are Monday, March 14 and 21st at 5:30 pm in the church basement. The ad-dress is 318 S Kline and a pizza supper will be served.

FREE HEALTH SCREENING DURING SPRING PARENT / TEACHER

CONFERENCES!

The School Wellness Committee would like to announce that there will be free blood pres-sure screening available at spring confer-ences on Thursday, March 10th from 4-8 PM. A nurse will be on hand to do a blood pressure reading for anyone in attendance, so make sure you take advantage of this free event!

SPORTS PHYSICALS

SPORTS PHYSICALS will be held ONE NIGHT ONLY at Central High School on Monday,

May 9th, 2016, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

6th

Grade Students- a letter will be sent out providing more information the latter part of April to the parents.

7th

Grade Students- Sports physicals are required every three years. Forms will be available in the Principals Office at your school if your child is not currently involved in sports and would like to participate.

8th

Grade Students- Sports physicals are required every three years. Letters will be sent out the latter part of April to the parents of students who have an exam which will expire with the close of this school year. If your child is already participating in a school sponsored sport they will not need another exam unless they receive a letter stating such. Forms will be available in the Principals Office at school if your child is not currently involved in sports and would like to participate.

For further questions call the Athletic office @ 725-8187 or CHS Nurse @ 725-8124.

Page 7 SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

SIMMONS SINGERS

On Tuesday, March 15, all students in show choir and jazz band will be presenting a spring concert. Students will be performing with the students from HMS, and the con-cert will begin at the CHS Theater at 7:00 p.m. Students in Simmons Singers show choir will also be competing at the Mitchell Corn Palace Invitational that follow-ing Saturday, March 19th. Their performance time is at 10:05 a.m. and the awards ceremony will begin at 5:15 p.m. All students involved in the competition have been given an information letter and schedule to take home to parents. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact Mrs. Hansen at 605-765-7964 or by e-mail.

MUSIC FUNDRAISER

All SMS 6th grade general music students, and 7th & 8th grade music students will be participating in a fundraiser the week of March 7-12. Students in 6th grade gen-eral music will be given a packet and letter to take home and use for sales the fol-lowing week. Students in the 7th & 8th grade music classes will also be given the opportunity to use the packet for sales the same week, or we are offering an option for the students to participate for a one hour long "telethon" sales event the evening of Monday, March 7th, fro 3:20 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Students will be given a "call list" to take home and write down contact information for at least 30 friends or family mem-bers. Beginning at 3:30 the students will then begin to call the names on their sales list. There will be food incentives along with prizes the students will earn as they sell that hour if they happen to meet a goal. Students will be allowed to bring and use their cell phones at the time of the telethon to make calls, and we would like all calling lists to be returned to the appropriate music director within the next week!

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