Sandwich Middle School

I hope this letter finds you recovering from your Thanksgiving feasts and gearing up for the holiday season. Our staff spent the Thanksgiving weekend nursing their aching bones from the annual Dodgeball staff versus students tournament. We raised over $1000 to purchase food gift cards for local veterans.

Our students are busy with full basketball, volleyball and wrestling seasons underway. Our band and choir students are preparing for their annual concerts on December 13th for choir and December 14th for band. Both events are at the high school and I highly recommend coming out to see our students perform and catch a little holiday spirit!

The month of December will be busy as our Explore rotations prepare to end and our core classes wrap up units before break. Dismissal for Winter Break will be at 1:10 on Thursday, December 21st.

From our family here at SMS and my own family, I wish you and yours a joyous and happy holiday season.

It’s hard to believe that the end of 2023 is almost here! We have been having a wonderful school year and are so proud of all the hard work the students have been putting forth every day in all of their classes. It’s been a lot of new routines and expectations to get used to.

Language Arts classes will be finishing up the novel, Bud, Not Buddy and then doing some review of what we’ve learned so far about fiction. Instructional Language Arts is working on writing sentences with correct grammar and punctuation, and capitalization, as well as identifying possessive and plural possessive nouns. Students are working hard on our Lexia PowerUp program, which targets reading comprehension, word study, and grammar.

Social Studies classes will be studying the ancient Greeks. We will be focusing on the geography of Greece and discuss the Sparta and Athens city-states. We will discuss the beginnings of the democratic government and the Persian Wars.

Science classes will be finishing rock and minerals. They’ve explored what processes cause mountains to change over time. We will be digging into fossils, Earth’s history, and microbiomes to wrap up the second quarter.

It’s been algebra fun in all the math classes! In regular math class we will work with ratios and proportions as well as acting as crime scene investigators as we approach the winter break. Advanced math will try their hand at percents before break.Please ask your student how they set on pencils as many have used up what they have.

A special round of applause to our two 6th grade students of month:

Abigail Bell and Anthony Pineda!

They are exceptional students who always put forth a great effort. We enjoy having them in our classrooms and appreciate their hard work!

In 7th grade, we are heading into the holiday season with smiles on our faces, spirit in our hearts, and snow on our shoes. We are not super excited about that last part. We are, however, excited about these next four weeks and what they have to offer. ELA will be tackling some informational text about building a home in space followed by some Ray Bradbury fiction. This unit will culminate in a five-paragraph essay on how Bradbury uses figurative language to enhance his plot development. Science classes will be finishing up their chemistry unit and then heading into space with their astronomy unit. Students will be learning about the formation of galaxies, stars, and the solar system. Math will be dealing with percentages and how they fit into our everyday lives. Last but not least, social studies classes are heading into the Constitution unit where students will learn about the three branches of government along with the related criteria and duties.

We know this is OLD NEWS, but it’s so important: Please ensure that Chromebooks are charged nightly and brought to school with the charger. Please check Google Classroom and TeacherEase for work and grades. The TeacherEase program has complications with Google Classroom in terms of comments. If you are seeing an assignment marked as “missing” but it has a grade, please go to Google Classroom and hit “turn in” or “mark as done.” This will take care of the “missing” label.

The 7th-grade team is implementing the BUGS (Bringing Up Grades Successfully) program which began on September 11th. Students have the opportunity to stay after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 3:45. During this time, students are able to get extra help that may be needed in their classes. BUGS will take place in room 306 or 307. Students should look for the BUGS sign that will be located outside of the classroom where BUGS is taking place each day.

The Students of the Month for November are Lukas Ferguson and Addie French. Both students encompass what it means to be a responsible and positive role model. They take pride in their work and always strive to do their best. Keep being awesome!

Amazingly, we are already into the holiday season. This year seems to be flying by! We continue to be very proud of our students. They have figured out Google Classroom, and they seem to be doing really well. Please continue to ask your child to show you how Google Classroom works, and also, please continue to check TeacherEase to see if your child has any missing assignments. Please check with your child to make sure they still have enough supplies. Students seem to be running short on pencils and folders. They need to have 5 pocket folders; one for each class and one for their explore class. Thank you!

In PE this month we have been working on basketball and volleyball skills. We are building up our skill base and then incorporating that into game play and tournaments. We will be starting our badminton and pickleball unit next week, always a student favorite! As always, we sprinkle in fitness days to help increase fitness levels in preparation for our fitness tests.

We are especially focusing on teamwork, and sportsmanship during our classes. We have been seeing some amazing students taking it upon themselves to help out and coach a teammate to help them be successfull.

Our November student of the month is Chase Frieble 8th grade. He is always prepared for class, gets along well with classmates, and tries his best. Great job Chase!

On October 28, 2023, the Sandwich Middle School Speech Team competed in the Area 3 Illinois State competition in Channahon, Illinois. Of the 31 possible rankings, the team walked away with 30 firsts and one second which was judged to be a first-rate performance, but was docked due to not meeting the minimum time requirement.

The team performed three solos, two duets, two large group scenes, and two improv groups. Of the five judges the team faced, two selected them to receive special recognition as the judge's favorite of the day. Congratulations to Alexandria LaPorte for her solo performance and to Ashlyn Behringer, Ella Calvert, Delaney Gauer, Alexandria LaPorte, & Colton Scalf for their large scene group as being stand-out performances to the judges!

Congratulations to the entire team: Ashlyn Behringer, Aleena Budd, Ella Cavert, Peyton Campbell, Josh Crawley, Eliza Deloach, Delaney Gauer, Sophie Halmaghi, Jackson Lage, Alexandria Laporte, Arlenn Lesko, Colton Scalf, & Sydney Townsend for their excellent efforts and performances.

This showing marks the third year of the Sandwich Middle School Speech Team.

In the United States, about 30 million adults and 200,000 people under the age of 20 have diabetes. Here are some website resources for Diabetes:

diabetes.org

jdrf.org

idf.org

Dental Reminder:

Completed Proof of School Dental Exam forms are required for current sixth grade students by May 15th. If you are unable to obtain the required dental exam, please complete the Dental Exam Waiver Form.

Flu season is here!

Shannon Joiner, MSN, RN

Sandwich Middle School

Sandwich CUSD #430

815-786-2138 ext. 23015

sjoiner@sandwich430.org

Our new Visitor Check-In System has been a welcome addition to our school. As you know, our number one priority is the safety of your students, and this impressive system is a great upgrade for our school. Using a visitor's ID (state ID or Driver's license), this system will complete a quick background check by searching the US sex offender databases & criminal databases. Now that we have a new visitor check-in system, we will no longer ask parents to fill out a volunteer packet.

The Sandwich School District needs your help! Please consider joining us as a substitute teacher. Did you know you can make $120 a day as a substitute teacher? You can create a work schedule that fits your availability through the use of our Frontline app. Earn $120 a day and work when you want to. Please click below for more information.

https://dekalbcounty.org/departments/regional-office-of-education/roe-services/educator-licensure/substitute-teachers/

Please feel free to follow our Sandwich Middle School Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/people/Sandwich-Middle-School/100044267353557/ This is a place where we share celebrations, community information and school reminders for various events. Please note that all important information and announcements will go home to you in our newsletter, classroom newsletters or in your student's backpack. The page is not intended to be your primary source for communication, but instead an extra one. Please avoid sending messages or posting school related questions as the page is only monitored intermittently. Instead, always contact our school office for school related questions or to communicate about your student. We appreciate it!

Sandwich Middle School paired up this month with the Sandwich VFW to raise money for homeless Veterans and VetsRoll to sponsor a Veteran’s trip to DC. To raise money the school had a student/staff dodgeball game as well as Slime a Staff member. The building raised $1500! Super proud of SMS!!

The carry over period for students who were receiving free/reduced lunch for the 2022-2023 school year ended on September 27, 2023. If a new 2023-2024 application was not received your child was automatically put on paid breakfast and lunch effective September 28, 2023.

Please click on the link below to apply for free/reduced breakfast and lunch:

https://www.freereducedlunch.com/sandwich430

In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, and Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 or (202) 720-6382 (TTY). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.