5/6 Weekly News

Dear 5/6 Families,

We are so thankful for the opportunity to teach, learn, and grow with your children. Thanksgiving is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on all the things we are grateful for. I am thankful for the closeness of my own family and I look forward to time with them on Thursday. It is also a tremendous blessing to be a part of our 5/6 team and Lakeview community.

I am wishing you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We look forward to seeing all of our students back on December 2nd!

Mrs. Hodges

ehodges@lakeviewspartans.org

269-565-3980

Our band program will have their Winter Concert on December 4th, beginning at 7pm with the 6th grade band. After the 6th grade ensemble, the Advanced Band will perform, followed by the High School Wind Ensemble. We look forward to seeing you there!

In 6th grade, we are implementing a new science curriculum. Part of the curriculum is designed to give the students more live demonstrations and more hands-on experiences. One of the supplies we need are 2-liter bottles. To have enough for all the classes, we will need approximately 100 2-liter bottles. We are asking for donations of the bottles. We know that Thanksgiving break is coming up and you may be using 2-liter bottles. Please rinse out your 2-liter bottles and consider donating them to the 6th grade science team. We will gladly accept all empty 2-liter bottles.

Students in Ms. Willard's class use manipulatives to support their understanding of fractions.

This week our staff learned about teaching strategies and supports for our multilingual learners. We are proud to have a very diverse student body and staff that are committed to meeting the needs of all students. Thank you to Ms. Sramek and Ms. Vallier for sharing their expertise.

The 8th grade AVID class wants to send a huge thank you to all students and teachers for helping make the food drive a success! A total of 1,548 items were collected! Mrs. Schaefer's homeroom class brought in 232 items and earned an ice cream party.

Ms. Schaefer's homeroom class with their donations! Total collected for Ms. Schaefer's class was 232 items!

8th Grade AVID class with the food donations

As the weather turns colder, we want to remind families that our building closes at 3:00 p.m. every day. Unless students are working directly with a teacher or club advisor, they will be required to leave the building regardless of the weather. If they are athletes and have practice directly after school, they should go to the locker rooms and get ready for practice. If they have a practice later in the evening, they will need to leave the building until practice starts. If students are interested in coming to an athletic event, they must leave the building and return when the event starts. There are no exceptions.

We value your partnership and are conducting a survey to gather valuable input from students, parents, teachers, and staff. Your feedback will help us improve student success, strengthen our learning environment, and ensure our goals align with the diverse perspectives of our community.

Our staff reviewed discipline data and identified Physical Aggression (fighting, hitting, pushing, kicking) as a behavior to address as a team. In order to reduce incidents of physical aggression, our team has implemented the following strategies:

• Creating separation between 5/6 and 7/8 students

• Our Resilience team and teachers will be co-teaching the expectations for physical safety (hands and feet to self) in every 5th & 6th grade classroom beginning Monday, November 18th.

• Staff have increased presence in the hallway and key areas and have been teaching expectations “in the moment” when we see the start of horseplay or playfighting (which can lead to aggression and injury).

• Student focus groups were conducted and feedback gathered on ideas students have for preventing aggression. These ideas will be incorporated in our efforts.

• We have been holding parent meetings for any student suspended for physical aggression (before returning to school) to strengthen our partnership for maintaining a safe school.

Maintaining a physically and emotionally safe school is a top priority for our team. Please help us by reviewing with your student the importance of refraining from horseplay and aggression.

Did you know that if your student is tardy one time per school day for 5 minutes they lose 900 minutes of instruction in a year? In an effort to make sure our students are not missing valuable instruction and also developing the life skill of being “on time,” we are implementing a new response to tardiness.

Students have a 5-minute passing time between classes to arrive at their next class. Students who use this time to transition between classes and use the restroom generally have no trouble reaching their next class on time. We know that sometimes things happen, and a student may be tardy. If students are habitually tardy, they may be using passing time inappropriately. Students who are tardy more than 3 times per week will be serving lunch detention the following week and will have a coaching session with a staff member to help eliminate barriers to arriving to class on time.

Tardies will be checked each Friday for the following week. An email will be sent to any families of students who were tardy more than 3 times to make them aware.

Monday-Friday, November 25-29 - No School, Thanksgiving Break

December 4 - Winter Band Concert - 7 p.m.

Friday, December 13 - No School, Staff PD

Tuesday, December 17 - 6th Grade Spelling Bee - 12:00 p.m.

Wednesday, December 18 - 5th Grade Spelling Bee - 1:15 p.m.

Mon-Fri, December 23-January 3 - No School, Winter Break

This is the daily schedule for middle school students.

Mondays: 7:40 am - 2:10 pm

Tuesdays - Fridays: 7:40 am - 2:40 pm

Half Days: 7:40 - 11 am

Doors open for students to enter the building at 7:30 am. Morning supervision will not be available until this time. We do not offer after school care/supervision.

Lakeview Middle School

5/6 Academy

300 S. 28th St.

Battle Creek, MI 49015

269-565-3900 (Phone)

269-565-3908 (Fax)

Office Hours (August 5 - 21): Monday - Friday, 7 am - 3 pm

Office Hours (During the School Year): Mondays, 7 am - 3 pm

Tuesday-Fridays, 7 am - 3:30 pm

LMS 5/6 Academy Mission Statement

LMS 5/6 Academy is committed to meeting the individual needs of our students by providing equitable educational experiences in a safe learning environment that develops knowledgeable, healthy, responsible citizens who contribute and flourish in the global community.