The Hive

December 1st

Happy Friday!

HMS Families,

We hope this newsletter finds you all well as we kick off the month of December. This month is always busy and full of fun family events to participate in. We hope you are finding moments to relax as well. We hope you will consider joining us tomorrow for the PWT event, Donuts with Santa. We also hope to see you on Friday, December 8th at our annual Hockinson Tree Lighting event.

We do hope you are looking at Facebook to see our daily posts of what we are up to around here. It is so fun to capture learning and student excitement! We love being on campus with these amazing kids! We know we continually say this, but we are so lucky to be part of this wonderful community.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

With kindness,

BC & SS

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Giving Tree

Dear HMS Families,

We are excited to announce that this year we will be continuing our tradition of hosting The Giving Tree. We know the holiday season is fast approaching and that sometimes a helping hand can go a long way in making a difference in someone’s life.

If you are interested in helping families in need and would like to participate in our Giving Tree tradition, you are invited to come stop by Hockinson Middle School’s Office to grab a wish tag and learn more.

Here are the steps to participating in The Giving Tree:

Choose a tag from The Giving Tree in the Office
Write your name and email on the sign out sheet by the tree
Buy a new and unused gift
Return the wrapped gift to the office with the tag attached
All gifts must be turned into the Office before Thursday, December 14th. You are also welcome to drop off your gifts earlier as well.

If you have any questions about our Giving Tree or are interested in learning more, please do not hesitate to contact our Office.

Sincerely,

Nicole Starkey

Hockinson Christmas Tree Lighting

Please join us on Friday, December 8th for the annual community tree lighting. The event starts at 6:00pm at Hockinson Community Church.

HMS Band Information

Tree Lighting- Friday, 12/8/23. Meet in the band room at 5:40pm in warm clothes, coat and hat. Holiday accessories are OKAY. You will need to bring your instrument, packet and headlamp and take a music stand from the band room with you to the church. There will NOT be rehearsal after school like last year so you will need to have your own transportation to/from the event. If you take a stand, you are responsible for taking it back to the band room. There is one rehearsal on Friday,

12/1, at 7:45am. If you plan on playing at the tree lighting, your attendance is strongly recommended at the rehearsal.

Friday, 12/1, 7:45am Rehearsal

Friday, 12/8, 5:40pm Meet in the band room/walk to the church/set up

6-6:30pm, Play

6:35’ish-walk back to the band room and put stand/instrument away. If it’s wet, please dry off your instrument before putting it away. (Drums included).

Winter Concert-Thursday, 12/14/23, 7:00pm, HS MPR, black/white/holiday accessories. Please meet in the high school band room at 6:30pm in appropriate black and white concert attire. It is OKAY to wear holiday accessories (no blinking lights). There is a 5th grade band concert in the MPR from 6-6:30pm. Please do not enter the MPR until the concert is over. The Winter Concert includes 6-8 bands and Jazz Band. Student attendance is expected the entire concert as well as helping to stack/wrack chairs and stands on stage AND in the band room. I am looking for volunteers to be in charge of the band room set up after the concert is over.

Family Movie Fundraiser, Saturday, 12/16/23, 9:30am- The Polar Express, Battle Ground Cinema. This is a band fundraiser! Invite all your friends and families! Doors open at 8:45am. Anyone under 16 years old needs to be accompanied by an adult. All proceeds support the Hockinson Middle School Band. See you there!

Chromebook Information

This is a friendly reminder that it is important for students to keep the protective cases on their school issued Chromebooks to protect them from accidental damage. If you opted into the Hockinson Assurance Program at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, and your student's Chromebook is damaged while any part of the case is off, the cost of repair will not be covered by your assurance as is stated in the exclusions section of the assurance form.

Here is the Hockinson Assurance Program form if you would like to take a closer look at what it offers, including coverage and exclusions. If you opted out of the assurance program at the beginning of the year and would like to have assurance coverage, you can opt-in at any time after your student's Chromebook has been inspected for damage. A paper form can be sent home with your student, or you can make an online payment through InTouch, the HSD payment portal.

Food Drive Updates

We would like to thank our amazing community for the contributions that have been made to our food drive! We are a little over half way to our goal of 6,000 items with 3,184 items collected so far! Thank you for helping us meet our building goal!

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Monday, December 4th

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Tuesday, December 5th

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Friday, December 8th

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Monday, December 11th

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Tuesday, December 12th

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Thursday, December 14th

Athletic Director's Corner

We want to send a huge thank you to all of our coaches, athletes, and families this season for their commitment and HMS spirit this season. As the winter sports season comes to an end, we want to remind you that we will be celebrating our girls basketball players and boys and girls wrestlers at our Winter Sports Award Ceremony on Tuesday 12/12 starting at 4 pm in the Commons. We hope you can join us as we celebrate the accomplishments of our individual athletes, coaches, and programs this season.

Boys Basketball tryouts for 7th & 8th grade students will begin Monday January 22nd - Wednesday January 24th starting at 3:30 in the HMS Main Gym. There will be 3 teams for the upcoming season (7th grade, 8th grade, & Blended). All athletes interested in trying out must be completely cleared (current physical, parent forms signed, student forms signed) through FinalForms before the first day of tryouts in order to participate. Due to the high number of anticipated athletes at tryouts we want to encourage students to be cleared as soon as possible.

- Sid Slom

sid.slom@hocksd.org

Schedules:

Girls Basketball 7th

Girls Basketball 8th

Girls Basketball Blended

Girls Wrestling

Boys Wrestling

Please reach out if you have any questions. Thank you so much!