Last Friday officially marked the midway point of the 1st marking period AND our inaugural House Competition/Community Day!!

House Competition/Community Day

Each quarter, on a half day, students will engage in a community building day which will include a variety of wellness activities, community building, sometime SSL (Student Service Learning) activities, and House Competitions. This day is designed to build school community, foster stronger bonds amongst all community members and build school pride! It was great to see so many smiling faces not to mention, a sea of bright colors as students represented their Houses. During this day, students participated in the following activities:

• learning the House chant(s)/song,
• team building activities,
• community circles,
• voting for the House crest,
• and eating lunch with Housemates.

Check out some of the pictures below. Come to our PTSA meeting on October 8th to learn more about the Houses!

1st Quarter Interims

We are officially midway through the 1st marking period. Interims will be posted to ParentVue on October 4th and US mailed home. If you have questions about your child's progress, please reach out to your child's counselor or grade level administrator.

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

Sincerely,

Erin L. Martin

Tuesday, Oct 8th - First PTSA Meeting of the year!

Mark your calendars for the first PTSA Meeting of the year on Tuesday, Oct 8th from 7-8:30 in person in the cafeteria. Meet your administrators, PTSA members, learn more about how you can support your middle school students and understand the High School choice process. Pizza will be served. Your student is encouraged to participate and will receive SSL hours for attending.

• See the agenda here

𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗢𝗢𝗡! Get ready for our biggest (and hopefully only) fundraiser of the year!

Our Apex Color Games fundraiser is coming to our school from Oct. 7 - 18, 2024.

We're so excited to tell you about our (hopefully) only major fundraiser this year, Apex Color Games! Apex is a local company and will be on campus for TWO weeks bringing excitement and energy to our school. During the Apex Fundraiser, students will be challenged to get donations to raise money for our school. Funds raised this year will be used for student enrichment, field trips and teacher/classroom grants! Be looking for more info about the program and ways to support our school as we get closer to the event.

• See the flyer for some details
• We need 15-20 volunteers to help with the Color Games event on Thursday, October 17th between 1-3pm. Sign up through SignUp Genius here

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month!

Every culture has a way of expressing themselves through dance in music, so what better way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month than by learning a few dance moves. On Monday, September 16, we had a Salsa Dance performer from the After School Dance Fund lead the kids in a few Salsa and Buchacha dance moves. It was fantastic to see these kids participate with absolute joy! They really can dance!

Note: If you have a 6th grader, unfortunately, we had technical difficulties and the music wouldn’t play - oh no! So a lesser experience for them, but they were good sports and danced along the best they could!

Let’s take a moment this week to recognize just a few folks who have stepped up to help the TPMS community this year! Their contributions make TPMS a vibrant caregiver-student-teacher community! With much appreciation to (and in no particular order)…

• Steve Horowitz - Corresponding Secretary (aka Communications Director)
• Vishal Sinha - Web and Listserv admin, and treasurer assistance
• Jenee Parker Wiarda and Ben Bellows - Mini-grant Co-Chairs
• Alisa Obrien and Amy Sawyer - Teacher & Staff Appreciation Co-Chairs
• Liz Ryan - MCPS PTA Rep
• Amit Mistry, Summer Smith and Steve Ollis - PTA 2023-24 Financial Review Committee
• Carolina Garcia - Multicultural Night Event Committee Lead
• Kate Ivcevich - Lunch Time Parental Support (PALS)

You can help too! Join as a member and/or become a volunteer!

8th grade families! Our fun and educational 8th grade field trip to Annapolis is coming up on October 24. Students received permission slips on September 25 and need to return them by October 9. The cost is $62 and payment can be made online or by cash or check. We would really love for ALL 8th graders to attend the trip, so if you need financial aid to help cover the cost, please reach out to your child's counselor or to Ms. Soriano. Again, permission slips for our first 8th grade field trip are due by October 9. Email our team leaders Ms. Maru or Ms. Medland with questions.

All grade level counselors have completed their introductory counseling lessons to share with students the role of the school counselor and how students are able to access the counseling department. One of the goals this year is for the counselors to meet with each student on their caseload to check in and to ensure that the counseling department is a safe space. On October 9, through STRIVE classes, the students will participate in a school-wide SEL lesson about how to be an Upstander. After the lesson, students will be able to earn SSL hours to show what it means to be an Upstander.

We are thrilled to continue having CRCMC (Conflict Mediation Center of Montgomery County) at TPMS on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Their goal is to help with conflict mediation between students who may experience conflicts with another. All staff members can make a referral to CRCMC and the mediators will meet with students individually and then do a mediation with the students to help them overcome their conflicts. Soon, CRCMC would love to share their program to parents during a PTSA meeting, so be on the lookout for their visit.

One of MCPS requirement is for counselors to talk with students about SOS (Signs of Suicide). The focus of this lesson is to teach children how to recognize the signs of suicide so that if someone is concerned about a friend, the person knows where to turn to (and to figure out who their trusted adult is). Counselors share the 20-minute SOS lesson through health classes. If you would like to learn more about the presentation, please feel free to reach out to your child’s counselor.

Mental Health Awareness week (MHA) will be happening during the week of October 21 to October 26. Each day at lunch, counselors will have something fun for students to do for MHA.