Spartan News

Monday, November 4

8th Grade Girls Basketball vs SSC @ SSC-3:30

Boys Wrestling Meet @ West High-3:30

Tuesday, November 5

No School~Professional Development

Wednesday, November 6

Boys Wrestling Meet @ East High-3:30

Thursday, November 7

8th Grade Girls Basketball vs SSC @ EMS-3:30

Tuesday, November 12

Boys Wrestling Meet @ West High-3:30

Wednesday, November 13

*Picture Re-take Day

Thursday, November 14

Girls and Boys Wrestling Meet @ North High-3:30

Tuesday, November 19

Girls Wrestling Meet @ North Middle-3:30

Thursday, November 21

6th-8th Grade OPUS Choir to Ames, IA

Wednesday, November 27

2 Hour Early Out

Thursday, November 28

No School~Thanksgiving break

Friday, November 29

No School~Thanksgiving break

**Dates/Times are subject to change. Please check with your student for any updated information.

• Please Keep Contact Information Updated:The District and our school are continuously updating families on important school information, closings and cancellations, and other announcements. Information is shared through email, phone calls, and text. Make sure we can connect with you by keeping your contact information updated in our records. If you need to change your contact information, please contact the school office.

• The main doors do not unlock before 7:10 am. Breakfast is 7:10-7:40 am. Please do not expect students to get into the building before this time. Students should not be in the halls or classrooms before 7:45am and after 2:45 pm unless they have a pass from a teacher or are involved in the current season’s activity. At the end of the day we expect students who are not involved in school activities to leave the school grounds by 3:00 pm.
  
• Any students wanting a locker, please see Mrs. Modlin in the Student Center.
• There will be Professional Development for teachers on November 5th. Therefore, there will be NO SCHOOL for students.
• Thanksgiving break: We will have a 2 hour early out on Wednesday, November 27 and NO SCHOOL on Thursday, November 28 and Friday, November 29.
• Lost bus cards: Students will need to bring $5.00 in before a new card will be ordered from Transportation. See Mrs. Davis in the front office if a new one is needed.

As a family, create a routine for practicing. Success happens best when students have:

• A designated practice location
• A routine day and time designated for practicing (15-20 minutes/3-5 days a week)
• A goal of what they want to accomplish
• An adult to ask questions about their practicing and to listen to their progress

Accountability makes a BIG difference. Please take the time to encourage your student on their music education journey!

11/9 NWIBA Honor Band Concert-Selected Students @ Dordt University (Sioux Center)-6:00 pm

12/5 7th and 8th Grade Winter Band Concert @ East High-7:30 pm

12/12 6th Grade Winter Band Concert @ East Middle-4:30 pm

1/20 Strong Foundations Honor Band (be invite) Concert-6:00 pm

2/8 Solo and Ensemble Day (All Band)-Scheduled Time Slots TBD

2/19 NWIBA Jazz Festival (Jazz 1) @ Eppley Auditorium-Time TBD

3/17 SCCSD Middle School Jazz Day (During the day)

3/21 Morningside Middle School Jazz Festival (Jazz 1) @ Eppley Auditorium- Time TBD

3/24 Jazz Night @ East High-6:00 pm

4/8 Spring Pops Concert and Dinner (All Band) @ East High-5:30 pm Dinner/6:30 pm Concert

4/24 Morningside Concert Band Festival @ Eppley Auditorium-Info TBD

5/15 Morningside Days Parade (All Band) Meet Time-5:30 pm

5/20 All Band Grill Out/Celebration-3:00-4:30 pm

East Middle 7th and 8th grade Orchestra students participated in the NWIA Orchestra Festival at East High School on October 16.

EMS Families-

East Middle School is thankful for our students and parents and all that you do each day to make learning happen at home and school. Your child’s education and well-being are our main priorities. Our staff continues to find ways to provide learning growth opportunities for each child. A couple of things we are focusing on with teaching and learning in the classroom this year is on student engagement and building strong character. We know how important it is to have students mentally and physically engaged in the classroom while also treating others in a kind way. We are mentally engaging students by asking many questions where students have opportunities to respond in a variety of ways, (using whiteboards, turning to a partner, answering questions around the room, and randomly calling on students). We are looking for ways that students can process and appropriately dialog (agreeing and disagreeing) information to help them make sense and retain it. We are also working on building positive character traits with our students in advisory! With our communication device policies, we have seen more student engagement and positive social interactions in the classroom. Thank you again for reinforcing to your child that education is important.

Although the weather has begun to turn a bit colder, we will continue to use our courtyard before school and during lunch when we can. We need space at lunch for students to be active and many of our students enjoy being outside. If your child is bringing a coat to school, and they would like to put it somewhere during the day, please have them talk with their advisory teacher or counselor and we will help them find a spot.

Before long, the holidays will be upon us. We have so much to be thankful for at EMS and I want to say thank you for allowing us to work with your child/ren each day. Parenting is the toughest job in the world and parenting middle school children in today’s world can be challenging to say the least. We have appreciated your partnership and are pleased with our 90% participation from Fall conferences. Special shout out to all of those who donated food items for our teachers and staff – they were great and we appreciate it so much!

Keep up your great work parents and we will continue to do our part as well. All of our students deserve both of our best efforts, so they can succeed.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Somsky

Principal

Somskye@live.siouxcityschools.com

In November we are continuing weekly lessons for Character Strong! Character Strong is a partnership between schools and families to help students develop skills and learn to be their best selves. It's based on the idea that students can be successful in their lives if they have a sense of belonging, are well, and are engaged. Character Strong's three main goals for students are to be kind, be strong, and be well.

November Lesson Focus 6th:

S6: From Bystander to Advocate

S7: Middle School Mythbusting (Taking on Tests)

S8: Meeting New People

S9:Get to Know Your School

S10:Values Exploration

November Lesson Focus 7th:

S6: Values in Action

S7: Developing Character Habits

S8: Values as Guides

S9: Understanding Emotions

S10: Expanding Emotion Vocabulary

November Lesson Focus 8th:

S6: Values & Your Future

S7: Connecting Values & Your Future

(Values & Dreams)

S8: Connecting Values to Your Future in High School

(The Story of Values)

S9: Connecting Your Future & This Year

(Planning Ahead)

S10: Developing Values as Guides Online

Every day we are looking for students who exhibit strong character and learning habits in the classroom. Each month we will select a boy and a girl from each team from each grade who demonstrate these traits. We are looking for students who are reliable, hardworking, kind and respectful to staff and students. In the month October we acknowledged the following students:

6th grade white selected - Aria Barrios, Jackson Eickholt and Cason Fischer

6th grade black selected- Kennedy Ireland and Kemper Jansen

6th grade orange selected- Finley Davis and Treyton Becker

7th grade white selected - Kalo Hovland and Ashton Jacobson

7th grade black selected- Ava Schager and Michael Honan

7th grade orange selected- Addisyn Elsen and Godwin Kalala

8th grade white selected - Jaiden Schenzel and Max Kilzer

8th grade black selected- Ingrid Mutela and Leland David

8th grade orange selected- Lilly Devall and Cesar Salazar-Soltero

These students are leaders in the classroom and exemplify what East Middle School stands for! Congratulations .

Mrs. Albrecht is an exceptional educator who goes above and beyond for her students every day. With her passion for teaching and unwavering dedication, she creates a welcoming and inclusive learning environment where every student feels valued and supported. Mrs. Albrecht's innovative teaching methods engage her students and inspire them to reach their full potential. Her kindness, patience, and encouragement motivate students to excel academically and personally. With her commitment to fostering a love of learning in her students, Mrs. Albrecht truly embodies the qualities of an outstanding Staff Member of the Month.

East Middle is now a participating school with TAGG (Hy-Vee now uses this). Please collect receipts from the participating businesses (click on pictures below to see the businesses) and upload them to the TAGG website and select East Middle School. East Middle receives a percentage of the sale. We will use these funds for our PBIS school incentive program. If you would rather send the receipts with your student to school, we will upload them for you! Thanks so much for supporting our PBIS program.

Dear Parent or Guardian,

All students entering 7th grade must show proof of having the Tdap and Meningococcal vaccines prior to the first day of school.

Currently the state of Iowa does not offer any grace/extension period for the implementation of this requirement. Local physician offices along with the Siouxland District Health Department are accepting appointments for these vaccines.

Please talk with your physician during 24-25 school year about receiving these vaccines. It may be difficult to get an appointment during the summer, as the health department and offices have full schedules.

If your 6th grade students have already received the 7th grade vaccines, please disregard this notice.

Feel free to contact me with questions.

Thank you for your help,

Bonnie Ryan RN-BSN

Sioux City Community School District

School Nurse- East Middle Schools

Ph: (712) 274-4030

ryanb@live.siouxcityschools.com

Apply for free and reduced meals here

https://www.myschoolapps.com/

If you have SNAP, food assistance, you will click on the FIP button and then if you do not know your snap case number fill in with zeros.

Click the link above or scan the QR code to get started.

Would you like to have a voice in our school district? The English Learner and Dual Language Department is inviting parents of English Learners to join us. We will get together on Tuesday, December 3, at the Education Service Center (627 4th Street) at 12:00 noon for a light lunch together and a conversation about the education journey of your son or daughter. If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine – just come and listen. Please let us know if you can attend by calling 712.279.6840 before November 22. Se habla español.

There will be no school on Tuesday, November 5 for staff professional development.

School will be dismissed two hours early on Wednesday, November 27 for Thanksgiving break. There will be no school on Thursday, November 28 and Friday, November 29. School will resume on Monday, December 2.

The weather in Iowa can be unpredictable. If the weather requires us to delay the start of our school day, cancel school for the day, or dismiss school early, information will be sent to families through email, text, and voicemail. In addition, this information is posted to our social media sites and the District website.

Please remember that parents and guardians have the right to make the decision to keep their child home on any day they feel it is unsafe for their student to be in school because of weather conditions. If you believe the weather provides a sincere reason why you may have to keep your student at home, or take your student home when classes are scheduled to continue, you as a parent or guardian will simply need to contact our school office to let us know.

Please click on the picture below to apply!