Finn Hill Falcon Flyer

• Students have done a fantastic job working to exhibit our second Finn Hill PRIDE characteristic, respect! During Falcon Time on Monday, classes engaged in discussion around how respect can impact our school and selected a respect-related activity to focus on together. Check in with your student about what they worked on! FHMS staff is on the lookout for students exhibiting the characteristic of the week! When students earn a PRIDE ticket, they turn them in for a weekly prize drawing AND help their House to earn more points. If each House earns 500 tickets during our PRIDE focus, we will have a schoolwide celebration at the end of April. We are so proud of our students!

• A special shout-out to our daily announcement volunteers! These students help our school by reminding everyone of the PRIDE characteristic focus, reading a quote, and sharing how they will be exhibiting the characteristic that day. They have been incredible!
• Congratulations to orchestra students for their recent participation in the district orchestra festival!
• Congratulations to band students for their recent participation in the district band festival and their concert last Tuesday!

Last week 22 students from Finn Hill and EAS joined 1100 students from around the state to compete at the 39th annual Technology Student Association State Conference in SeaTac. Over three days students showcased all the hard work they had done throughout the school year by competing in a variety of STEM-related events. Our team had 42 entries in 25 events. Students had fantastic results with 11 top three placements and 7 additional finalist placements (either 4th or 5th). Everyone came away with some great stories and we gained a better understanding of what it meant to compete at this level. This year we had equal participation from both Finn Hill and EAS. They voted to change our team name to something that represented both of our communities. Go Team Finneas!

Children’s Stories

3nd place – Lisa Kolosova, Ida Smith, Hannah Sears

Digital Photography

1st place – Dhaani Kalathia

2nd place – Avni Chhabra

Finalist – Avika Gupta

Essays on Technology

Finalist – Gabriel Austin

Flight

Finalist – Gabriella Hess

Forensic Technology

3rd place – Jack Segesser, Grant Segesser

Inventions and Innovations

1st place - Lisa Kolosova, Ida Smith

Leadership Strategies

2nd place – Varshini Chandrasekhar, Dhaani Kalathia, Akchara Mukunthu

Finalist – Ryan Brackett, Ethan Leong, Jack Segesser

Off The Grid

Finalist – Lisa Kolosova, Gabriella Hess, Gabriel Austin

Prepared Speech

2nd place – Akchara Mukunthu

Finalist – Lila Black

Promotional Marketing

1st place – Ida Smith

2nd place – Avni Chabra

Finalist – Avika Gupta

Robotic Challenge

Finalist – Gabriella Hess, Gavin Hess, Lucien Leeman, Taylor Mineart, Guy Segal

STEM Animation

2nd Place – Gabriel Austin

Technical Design

1st place - Yenna Yun

Tuesday, March 29

• FHMS PTSA General Membership Meeting, 7:00 PM-9:00 PM, Teams
• Orchestra Concert, 7:00 PM, Juanita High School

• PTSA Book Club, 7:00 PM, Teams

• Last day of third quarter

• Ramadan

• Spring Break

Monday, April 11

• First Day of Practice-Season 4 Sports

• 6:30p-8p AVID Info Night (TEAMS)

• Secondary grades due

Monday, April 18-Friday, April 22

• FHMS Career Week

• Finn Hill Virtual Career Day

Tuesday, April 26

• Culinary Competition Entries for Mr. Briehl's Students Due

• Administrative Professionals Day

Extended Absence: If your student is going to be absent for more than 3 days from school, you and your student need to complete the Pre-Arranged Absence Form and submit the form to the attendance desk in the office PRIOR to your absence. Student must take the paper form to all teachers to complete.

Form can be found here: LWSD Secondary Pre-Arranged Absence Form (finalsite.net)

Early Dismissal: Please notify the attendance office at least one hour prior to departure.

Tardy Students: All students arriving to school after 8.35 am need to be signed in by a parent or guardian at the school office.

Reporting an Absence: If your student is absent, please notify the attendance office within 48 hours with your students' name, date of absence and reason for absence.

Attendance Voicemail: 425-936-2341. Email: FinnHillMSAttend@lwsd.org

• We had five positive cases reported last week.

Lake Washington School District has finalized plans to make up for the one day missed due to the January 3, 2022 snow day. May 31 was built-in as a snow make up day, meaning that if we had snow days this school year, we would make them up by changing this day from a non-student day to a regular school day.

The 2021-22 calendar has been modified to reflect this change:

• Tuesday, May 31: change from a non-school day to a full day for students

View printable school calendar.

Needs

• JOIN PTSA BOARD: The simple truth is, without people volunteering to take a position on the PTSA board, our PTSA will cease to exist. If you see the importance of PTSA programs and support at FHMS, please volunteer your time and talents to the FHMS PTSA Board. Email kdorwin@gmail.com for details.
• AVID VOLUNTEERS: The AVID program at Finn Hill is in urgent need of consistent weekly volunteers on Tu/Th mornings for one-two hours. Please sign up here.
• SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE: FHMS PTSA offers scholarships every year to LWSD seniors who are alumni of FHMS. We need a few volunteers to run the scholarship committee. The time commitment is small. Email president@fhmsptsa.org if you can help.

Upcoming Events

• PTSA COMMUNITY MEETING: Tuesday, March 29th at 7pm via Microsoft Teams (link will be sent via email)
• BOOK DISCUSSION: We are reading Fostering Resilient Learners. This session will be devoted to the subject of self-awareness. This is a relaxed discussion, open to all. You do not have to have read the book, nor do you have to attend all the meetings. Join us March 31st at 7pm via Microsoft Teams. Sign up here.
• FALCON 5K: Who's ready to RUN (or walk, ride, roll, skate, hop, skip, or dance) you way to 5K? Please support your PTSA and show your falcon pride by signing up here.

Education/Enrichment

• MELISSA BENAROYA: If you have had the chance to take a class with Melissa Benaroya, you know they are positive, insightful, practical, and so beneficial! Melissa will be hosting a talk March 30th at 7pm for the LWSD community on Fostering a Growth Mindset. Sign up here.
• SCHOLARSHIPS: Lake Washington PTSA council offers student AND staff scholarships every spring. Applications are due March 25th. For details go to: https://www.lwptsa.net/scholarships/
• VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH: Juanita Elementary is looking for student volunteers for their upcoming play. Their sign up genius is here. For questions, contact Elaine Walsh (programs@juanitaelpta.com).

Career week will be April 18th-22nd. Students will be exploring future career options and pathways through Xello, the district platform for career development. We will have our Virtual Career Day on April 21st. We were fortunate to have many community members contribute to this event last year and we are hoping to add some additional presenters to our collection for this year’s fair. If you have an interesting career, career path, or know someone who does, please consider being a part of the fair or inviting them to join us. We’d love to have a wide variety of careers to highlight. Contributors can either submit a video they film, or we can arrange a virtual interview, please see the attached instructions for more information . Take a look at the list of our students’ most requested careers. Do you or someone you know work in one of these fields? Our students would love to hear from you! Contact Gail Lee at gvecchiet@lwsd.org or Kirstin Doughty at kdoughty@lwsd.org if you have questions. We will be collecting presentations until March 31st.

Top 30 requested careers from FH students:

Athlete, Attorney/Lawyer, Chef/Culinary Arts/Baker, Animator/Cartoonist, Video Game industry, Actor, Artist Traditional/digital, Military, Business/Entrepreneur, Scientist, Engineer, Software Engineer/programmer/coder, Photographer/Videographer, Teacher – especially HS, Animal careers, Counselor/Therapist, Doctor, Model, Streamer/Social Media industry, Biologist/Zoologist, Dancer, FBI, Marine Biologist/Oceanographer, Nurse, Architect, Astronaut, Director, Pilot and Veterinarian.

• Honors Mexican American farm worker, labor leader and activist Cesar Chavez (1927– 1993) who was a nationally respected voice for social justice.

• April Full Month-ARAB AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH: Celebrates the Arab American heritage and culture and pays tribute to the contributions of Arab Americans and Arabic-speaking Americans.
• April Full Month-GENOCIDE AWARENESS MONTH: A month that marks important anniversaries for past and contemporary genocides. Throughout the month, individuals, communities and organizations join together to remember and honor victims and survivors of mass atrocities.
• April Full Month-NATIONAL POETRY MONTH: Introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.
• April DAY OF SILENCE Students take a day-long vow of silence to protest the actual silencing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) students and their straight allies due to bias and harassment.
• April 3–May 2 RAMADAN: Islamic Observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad.
• April 10-PALM SUNDAY: Christian Observed the Sunday before Easter/Pascha to commemorate the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
• April 10-RAMA NAVAMI: Hindu Celebrates the birthday of Rama, king of ancient India, hero of the epic Ramayana, and seventh incarnation of Vishnu.
• April 14-VAISAKHI (also spelled Baisakhi): Sikh festival which celebrates the founding of the Sikh community as the Khalsa (community of the initiated). On this day, Sikhs gather and celebrate Vaisakhi at their local Gurdwaras (Sikh house of worship) by remembering this day as the birth of the Khalsa.
• April 14-HOLY THURSDAY: Christian Also known as Maundy Thursday, it is celebrated on the Thursday before Easter commemorating the Last Supper, at which Jesus and the Apostles were together for the last time before the Crucifixion.
• April 15-GOOD FRIDAY: Christian Known as Holy Friday in Eastern Christianity, it commemorates the Crucifixion of Jesus on the Friday before Easter/Pascha.
• April 16-THERAVADA NEW YEAR: Buddhist In Theravada countries the New Year is celebrated on the first full moon day in April.
• April 16–23 PASSOVER/PESACH: Jewish The eight-day “Feast of Unleavened Bread” celebrates Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage.
• April 17-EASTER: Christian Known as Pascha in Eastern Christianity, it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus.
• April 20–May 1 FESTIVAL OF RIDVÁN: Bahá’í Annual festival commemorating the 12 days when Bahá’u’lláh, the prophet-founder of the Bahá’í Faith, resided in a garden called Ridván (Paradise) and publicly proclaimed his mission as God’s messenger for this age. The first (April 20), ninth (April 28), and twelfth (May 1) days are celebrated as holy days when Baha’is suspend work.
• April 24-ARMENIAN MARTYRS’ DAY: Memorializes the genocide of approximately 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 in Turkey.
• April 27-LAILAT AL-QADR: Islamic Commemorates the night that the Qur'an was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is known as the “Night of Power.” Often set on the 27th day of Ramadan, Sunnis may observe it on the 21st, 23rd, 25th or 29th and Shīʿite (Shiite) observe it on the 19th, 21st or 23rd day of Ramadan.
• April 28-YOM HASHOAH: Jewish “Holocaust Remembrance Day” memorializes the heroic martyrdom of six million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust.

Mission

Each student will graduate prepared to lead a rewarding, responsible life as a contributing member of our community and greater society.

Vision

Every student future ready: Prepared for college, Prepared for the global workplace, Prepared for personal success

Website: https://fhms.lwsd.org/
Location: 8040 NE 132nd St, Kirkland, WA, USA
Phone: (425) 936-2340
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FinnHillMiddleSchool
Twitter: @FinnHillMS