Happy Third Quarter!!! We are at the mid-point of the school year and picking up speed!! We hope to see you at Parent Teacher Con-ferences on Monday, Feb-ruary 1 from 8 AM - 2:30 PM (Lunch break 11:30-12:30). If you are unable to attend and wish to speak with your child's teachers, please call the main office. Simmons Literacy Night was a huge success. We had more than 100 stu-dents, parents and staff attend, most of which also joined us for dinner. What a sight to see parents and students quizzing each other before the event. Watching the students com-pete to beat their parents was exciting. We were proud of all the students who participated. To all the parents who took the time to read the books,

thank you!!! This event was only possible with your support!!! A special thank you to PTA for host-ing the family dinner and NJHS for desserts after-wards. Thank you to the PTA for the book donations to our Simmons library. The books are already in the students hands. All students have finished taking the winter MAP assessment. This assesses student's reading ability. These results, combined with the fall testing, will be available to all parents at Parent Teacher Confer-ences. The ISAT test is coming!!! Mark you calendars. Sim-mons students will take one test per day from March 2 through March 11.

Reminder to all parents, Simmons students are re-quired to obtain 21 credits per year in order to be pro-moted to the next grade level. If you or your child have questions or concerns about meeting this require-ment, call the main office. We will be happy to help you. Once again, Simmons char-ity and support has over-whelmed us. At the Ed Dar-ling basketball game had about 500 students, staff, parents, and community members attended. We wish Ed a speedy recovery. Sim-mons cannot wait to see Ed back!!

Sincerely,

Ms. Raine, Ms. Raz,

& Mr. Gill

News from Simmons

PTA

Important Dates:

• Feb 1 Parent /Teacher Conferences—No School

• Feb 2 No School - Teacher Institute

• Feb 5 Snowflake /7th & 8th Grade Social

• Feb 15 No School -Presidents Day

• Feb 18 Board of Education meeting @ Lieb

• Feb 26 Progress Reports

• March 2-11 ISAT Testing

• June 8 Tentative Graduation Date 7PM

Sim

mons M

iddle S

chool

6450 W

. 95th Street O

ak Law

n, IL

60453

708/599/8540 F

ax 8015

February

2010 / N

ewsletter

Visit us on the Web @

Simmons.ridgeland122.com

Thank you to all the families who attended and took part in our Simmons Family Literacy Night. It was a great success! Thank you for your support and purchases at our 2nd book fair. Please look for more information pertaining to the 7th /8th grade social event on Feb 5th after school. We are in need of volunteers for the teachers Super Bowl luncheon on

Monday, Feb 1. Please call 708-552-1389 if your interested.

PBIS Lunch Time Website Updates

Only administration approved fundraisers and the selling of items are allowed at school. Consequences may be given for students selling unapproved items. Recently, we have had an increase of energy drinks/products brought by students to Sim-mons. These items are not recommended for

students and may be confiscated

February is Dental Month. The American Dental Association recommends brushing twice a day and floss-ing daily. The impor-tance of dental health cannot be stressed enough. Studies show that people who main-tain healthy teeth and gums have greater overall health and actually add years to

their lives.

Seventh and eighth graders, at this age, should be expected to take care of their

own dental hygiene. As we all know, this can be overlooked. Bad breath can be a sign of inadequate brushing and floss-ing. Parents can do their part by setting the example. Make sure your child has a toothbrush, floss, and fluoride toothpaste

available. Toothbrushes should be changed at least every three months. Healthy habits can last a lifetime if stu-

dents start early.

Page 2

Discipline Attention Students

Nurse’s Corner

Drama Mathletes NJHS

SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

Drama Club has begun working on the

Spring Musical. The musical is written by

our very own Mr.

Schutt. The play is

several plays within

a play, and talks

about what it is like

to be part of the

Drama Club. It

features songs from several other plays Mr.

Schutt has written, along with several new

songs. Performances will be March 18th &

19th at 7PM in the Simmons auditorium.

NJHS was busy helping out at Lit-eracy Night. Next, we will be looking forward to holding a book drive in February. Any new or gently used books can be donated

to the Simmons Mid-dle School library. We will be collecting for the book drive the entire month of Febru-

ary.

Nurse QuinnNurse QuinnNurse QuinnNurse Quinn

Mathletes is back in full swing after the winter break. We will continue to meet every Wednesday until 3:15 from now

until our competition at the end of March. The students are looking forward to the SWIC competition. It allows students to compete against other local schools. It is also not too late to join the team. If you are inter-

ested, please see or email Ms. Durrant.

Sixth graders are required to have a dental exam on file. Letters to parents of stu-dents without a current dental exam have been sent through the mail this week. Please get an appointment as soon as pos-sible. May 15th is the last day for dental

exam to be in your student’s medical file.

Look for information about Smile Dentists coming in March. Smile Dentists will be

at Simmons in May 2010.

Call with questions or

suggestions.

Mary Quinn, RN. ILCSN

We expect that Simmons students show respect at all times; this in-

cludes when interacting with classmates. Bullying, harassment and intimidation are not acceptable. Remember to always seek an adults help in upsetting/stressful situations before resorting to physical violence. Parents, teachers and staff are

there for student support!

Since it is cold outside, make sure that you dress appropriately for the weather! Please remem-ber that coats, jackets,

and sweatshirts with fur lined hoods/interiors should remain in student lockers. Also, hoods with zippers should

not be worn to school. SnowSnowSnowSnow

RespectRespectRespectRespect

ets are sold in increments of $20.00 or $40.00. To purchase a ticket, the stu-dent must bring cash or check in an envelope marked with their name, grade, team and the amount enclosed to the lunchroom. Students are responsi-

ble for their tickets.

Nutrition facts and allergy information is now available for all meals served by

Preferred. Stop by the main office or call for more infor-

mation.

Check the at-tached calendar to see what’s being served

daily.

So that Pre-ferred knows how many lunches to prepare, dur-ing 1st hour, a count will be taken of students that are planning on purchasing lunch that day. Students must get a lunch ticket 1st period

in order to buy lunch.

Breakfast is at 7:30 AM daily. The cost is $1.00. Hot lunch is $2.00 a day. Students may bring money daily or purchase a prepaid ticket for multiple lunches. Tick-

January meetings focused on the Japanese Cul-ture. Mrs. Demma shared her experiences living in Japan with our club. Japanese writing and ori-gami were some of the interesting activities that

we tried at our meetings.

Next month, we are celebrating Chinese New Year on February 16, 2010. It is the year of the Tiger. Be sure to order your Chinese lunch and participate in some Chinese culture with the Inter-

national Club. Order forms will be available soon!

Simmons has a ton of spirit! Monday students

wore their Simmons wear. Tuesday we saluted

the troops by wearing red, white and blue and

collecting jokes to send to our troops. Wednes-

day was tournament day were students wore

their favorite team clothes and played in soccer,

basketball, and dodge ball tournaments after-

school. On

Thursday, Simmons Went Bananas! Students

that brought a banana to activity time at lunch

received an ice cream treat. On Friday, there

were many students that found their inner nerd

as they celebrated Student Appreciation Day!

International Club Just Say No

We are anticipating the Snowflake activities on

Friday, February 5. This is the day students

from OLCHS present team building activities

and promote an anti-drug message to the stu-

dents here at Simmons. The day ends

with a presentation by Mr. Bob Barwa, a

public speaker, who will talk to the chil-

dren about the importance of getting

along with each other.

Student Council PBIS

Page 3

Breakfast / Lunch Program Student of the Month

SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

Congratulations to the following recipients:

Blue Team—Daniel Kalinin

Green Team—Kelly Jerger

Red Team—Kaleigh Hayes

Yellow Team—Hector Andrade

Orange Team—Marissa Tanzer

Purple Team—Jena Rayas

DecemberDecemberDecemberDecember

PBIS continues to develop at Simmons Middle School. Students report that “receiving a Gotcha (caught being good) helps me feel I am helping our community here at Simmons”. While most of our students respond to this positive attention there are some who need addi-

tional help.

The PBIS team is working on introducing Tier II: interventions that help small group. These students need more attention in order to succeed academically and socially. As par-ents and teachers, we know growth and development in our children takes patience, understanding and modeling of the behav-

iors we want to see in our young people.

Red, White & Blue

Abed, Jenna

Aldeek, Qussi

Ali, Sehan

Al-Othman, Gofran

Alramli, Shadi

Alvarado, Carlos

Banialis, Jessica

Banich, Brett

Bednarz, Daniel

Birkenfeld, Nicholas

Bulow, Cody

Castrogiovanni, Marisa

Cornfield, Kaitlyn

Darmohammad, Laian

Dauksza, Shannon

Davis, Joshua

Domino, Ronald

Drish, Katherine

Felton, Michael

Fulgencio, Jesse

Garcia, Silvestre

Gushulak, Hannah

Hamad, Nader

Hamdan, Ismael

Hoskins, Brandon

Howard, Stefun

Kaminski, Daniel

Kean, James

Kommenich, Alyssia

Komperda, Claudia

Kozlowski, Emily

Kwak, Kamil

LaMonto, Megan

Landingham, Hayden

Leora, Bailey

Lis, Kylie

Lizak, Olivia

Locke, Nicholas

Mackowiak, Rebecca

Magana, Daisy

Magana, Felix

Magana, Jennifer

Marek, Sarah

Matari, Hussein

McGuire, Christopher

Declamation

Moustis, Cassandra

Muransky, Bernard

Nowobilski, Magdalena

Olsen Quirk, Joshua

Radosevich, Max

Rayas, Jena

Reynoso-Pacheco, Anthony

Ritter, Heather

Rivera, Leonel

Sanchez, Angel

Seibel, Carl

Silver, Nicholas

Snee, Lauren

Sopczak, Rebecca

Sotelo, Maria

Sowa, Nicola

Teodoro, Casandra Marie

Tischer, Matthew

Tocila, Ruben

Vazquez, Carolina

Walker, Raymond

Wysocki Jr, Matthew

Yafai, Awad

Zamora, Janette

Zasadni, Michal

Zavala-Avalos, Andrea

Hello, my name is Ms. Price and I am the Declamation Coach for this school year. This is my third year serving in this position. By now, you may be asking yourself, “What is Declamation?” The Declamation Team is the Simmons competitive speech team. The students interested in the Declamation Team attended an informational meeting and picked up a tryout packet. Tryouts for this year’s team were held on Wednesday, January 20. The team should be chosen and notified as this newsletter goes to press. Once the team is selected, a practice schedule will be gener-

ated.

There are two requirements for those stu-

dents chosen as members of the Declamation Team. First, they must pay a $50.00 partici-pation fee. Secondly, Declamation Team Members must meet our eligibility require-ments, by maintaining passing grades in all classes during the entire Declamation season. Students who are also involved in Drama can be members of both activities. The Declama-tion Team competes at one SWIC conference meet on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at Liberty Junior High School in Bur-bank. The six categories in which we com-pete include: Dramatic Interpretation, Hu-morous Interpretation, Oratorical Declama-tion, Prose Reading, Verse Reading, and

Humorous Duet.

Although there is only one conference meet, the students will need a lot of practice. In order to provide this practice opportunity, Simmons will be hosting the third annual, “An Evening with the Simmons Speech Team” sometime in April prior to the compe-tition. If you have any further questions re-garding this activity, please feel free to call me at (708) 599-8540. If you leave a mes-sage, I will get back to you as soon as possi-ble. Stay tuned to our March newsletter for the official announcement of the 2010 Sim-mons Middle School Declamation Team and any further details about upcoming Declama-

tion events.

February Birthdays

Join us in wishing

Our students a

Happy Birthday

During winter break, about 18 Simmons students and parents met Mrs. Olson at 4:30 am to travel southwest to Daybreak Shelter in Joliet. With the frigid weather on Janu-ary 3rd, students were told that the shelter was filled to capacity with people sleeping on the floor. The volunteer group entered the shelter quietly and made their way to a huge kitchen to prepare breakfast. By 6:00 am, clients at the shelter enjoyed a breakfast buffet including scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, and fruit. Students reported that this event was a positive experience and really made them think. “It was such an

Simmons’ Kids Care!

Let’s Celebrate! Let’s Celebrate! Let’s Celebrate! Let’s Celebrate!

eye-opener to see babies in strollers, gram-mar school age kids, young and older adults all in need of shelter and a hot meal” said a red team student. It also had an impact on what we perceive a “homeless” person to look like; in reality, people at the shelter were of a variety of races, ethnicities, and religious backgrounds. Overall, it was a great volunteer experience and all agreed we would do it again! We all enjoyed that

warm feeling despite the cold weather!

Simmons VolunteersSimmons VolunteersSimmons VolunteersSimmons Volunteers

The Knights have started off the sea-

son with a great work ethic. Although

they are 0-3, they have had two very

close games. All the players worked

hard over Winter Break and have

showed much improvement. They

also played great defense thus far. Mr.

Wichert would like to thank both the

7th and 8th grade teams for their help

with ticket and candy sales for the

Darling Benefit. Good luck the rest of

the year.

The 8th grade boys basketball

team has been dedicated and hard

working since the beginning of De-

cember. Although the Knights are 0-5,

they continue to have a great work

ethic in practice and during games. So

far this year, the Knights have had a

couple of close games losing to Palos

by 1 point and Orland by 8 points. If

their hard work continues at that level,

a win will surely follow! Keep up the

great work knights and good luck the

rest of the season!

The seventh grade girls have been

practicing together now for almost two

months. They are learning the essen-

tial skills needed to be an effective

volleyball player and also how to work

together as a team. We have begun

our season with a win, and the girls are

very excited to play and support one

another to success. Our season runs

through the beginning of March. We

are hoping for a winning sea-

son. Good Luck Knights!

The 8th grade girls volleyball team has

been working really hard this season

and improving their skills. They cur-

rently have a record of 2 wins and 2

losses and are doing a great job com-

peting in the SWIC conference. Come

cheer on the team at their remaining

home games this season on February

4th, 24th, or March 2nd.

DECEMBER 2010 Page 5

Athletics

Girls Volleyball

Come join winter intramurals. We are currently playing volleyball and nukem (just like volleyball but you catch the ball). We are in

need of more players to have full games. The cost is $25.00 and will run till March 4th. Intramurals is

a great way to be social and build your skills. We play from 7:00am-7:50am. Come join the fun!

Boys Basketball

Fall/Winter Intramurals

Gir

ls V

olle

yball B

oys B

asketball

Volleyball

The PE depart-ment looks for-ward to the start of the 3rd quarter and getting to know the new students in the classes. Ms.

Rusch is very excited to start using all the wonderful new fitness equipment. The fit-ness class will start by learning about car-diovascular endurance before moving on to muscular strength. The 8th grade students will even be making their own fitness vid-eos at the end of the quarter. Mr. John and Mr. Atkins are excited to see some familiar faces returning to their classes along with some new students. Mr. John’s classes will start by learning the fundamentals of

hockey and then start playing some fast paced, action filled games. Mr. Atkins’s classes will look to improve their eye/hand coordina-tion by playing bad-

minton.

Fun Fitness Fact: There are three dif-ferent types of mus-cles: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. Skeletal muscles move the various parts of the body. Smooth muscles are found in the stomach, intestinal walls, vein, artery walls, and in various internal organs. Cardiac muscles make up

the walls of your heart.

Fun Sports Fact: Badminton is believed to have been invented in India in the 1800’s. British soldiers brought the game back to Britain in 1873 and then the Badminton Club of New York City was founded in

1878.

Physical Education

our national debt, designing a "fair" tax system - while promot-ing the growth of business while attempting to meet the needs of

all of the citizens in devel-oping our "national" infra-structure and finally, try-ing to create unity in rein-forcing the merit in the ideologies of our two political parties. Spanish classes have been learning about "places to go" vo-cabulary. They are researching a Spanish-speaking country and

creating a brochure in Microsoft Pub-lisher outlining a trip to the city. They have also been practicing reading skills and will be part of solving a mystery us-ing their vocabularies! In literature class we have been reading a story about the Titanic. We also worked on descriptive

writing by imagining Utopia and explaining what our perfect day would look like. After reading Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer in advanced literature, we created and played Tom Sawyer board games. We also wrote New Year's poems (see them in hall-way!) We are currently creating

Pest Patrol Wanted posters. Science classes are studying simple machines, the concepts of: work, power, and energy. We are exploring simple and complex machines and how they have facilitated the ability of individuals to complete even minor household tasks. We will soon get into a rollercoaster project that we will be building! Many of these con-cepts are an integral part of the ISAT exam - which all students will be taking

the first two weeks of March.

Seventh grade has had a great start to third quarter! In math students wrapped up ra-tios, proportions, fractions, percents and decimals. Currently, we started the ge-ometry unit by creating geometry dictionaries that we will be taking notes in. We are working on angle relationships by using our algebra skills to find miss-ing angles. In social stud-ies the students performed a play on the Constitu-tional Convention, and wrote their own laws to understand how a government functions. We have explored the many daunting tasks facing our forefa-thers in building a nation; establishing a political system - including the transfer of power through a democratic election, di-recting our international affairs, managing

Happy 2010! The eighth grade students are well back into the school rou-tine after Winter Break! In science, the students have begun the study of cells. Also, we are learn-ing how to utilize the microscope. Classes will be using the mi-croscopes to observe cells and various other microscopic items. In Spanish, stu-dents have begun to learn different forms of transportation and learning how to intro-duce people. We’re also learning how to conjugate irregular verbs. In math, stu-

dents have just finished working with exponents and scientific nota-tion. Next, classes will focus on the beginning unit of geometry and solving, along with graphing, ine-qualities. In literature, students have been reading novels.

Classes have been reading Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, Of Mice and Men, and Night. To accompany Night, students have also read The Diary of Anne Frank from our literature textbook series. In

language arts, classes are preparing their writing for the upcoming ISAT testing. Students are beginning the journey of writing narrative and persuasive essays and will be discovering the many attrib-

utes that go into writing a five paragraph essay. Classes will receive packets in the upcoming weeks that will guide them in writing these two essays. Please make sure your son/daughter is review-ing notes and completing

homework on a nightly basis.

Page 6

7th Grade

6th Grade

SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

8th Grade

Language arts and literature classes have been working hard comparing, contrasting, persuading, writing, and coming up with ideas for inventions. Now we will step up our preparation for the ISATs which begins in

March.

The entire 6th grade has a field trip planned to Medieval Times for an exciting lunch which includes jousting, jest-

ers, etc. We will be sending home infor-mation in the next couple of weeks about fundraising activities intended to defray the cost of transportation, dining, and

entertainment. Ask

your child about it.

Triangles, Polygons, Prisms...oh my! Math is working on geometric concepts. We just fin-ished working with protractors, exploring

angle measure-ments and rela-tionships. We have investigated 2 dimensional and 3 dimen-sional figures. Next up: perime-ter, area, surface area and volume. Once we wrap up our geometry and measurement units we will take a sneak

peek at integers and proportions.

Red, White & Blue DayRed, White & Blue DayRed, White & Blue DayRed, White & Blue Day

Vs.

Simmons StaffSimmons StaffSimmons StaffSimmons Staff 7th Grade Boys Basketball7th Grade Boys Basketball7th Grade Boys Basketball7th Grade Boys Basketball

Sports DaySports DaySports DaySports Day

Support o

ur tro

ops!

SPIR

IT W

EEK!

SPIR

IT W

EEK!

SPIR

IT W

EEK!

SPIR

IT W

EEK!

8th Grade

7th Grade

6th Grade

8th Grade

6th Grade 7th Grade

7th Grade

6th Grade

Simmons staff is grouped by teams. Please find below the list of teachers by

team.

6th GRADE

PURPLE TEAM

Mrs. Bentley

jbentley@ridgeland122.com

Ms. Folliard

pfolliard@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Korkosz

kkorkosz@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Martin

mmartin@ridgeland122.com

Mr. Schutt

kschutt@ridgeland122.com

ORANGE TEAM

Ms. DiCosola

jdicosola@ridgeland122.com

Ms. Kirk

jkirk@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. McCarthy

smccarthy@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. O’Connor

coconnor@ridgeland122.com

Mr. Wichert

bwichert@ridgeland122.com

7th GRADE

RED TEAM

Mr. Blabas

dblabas@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Dasbach

mdasbach@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Demma

kdemma@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Olson

molson@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Small

msmall@ridgeland122.com

YELLOW TEAM

Mrs. Brooks

hbrooks@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Chavosky

cchavosky@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Poetz

jpoetz@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Valerio

cvalerio@ridgeland122.com

Ms. VanHoegarden

mvanhoegarden@ridgeland122.com

8th GRADE

BLUE TEAM

Miss. Beltran

lbeltran@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Chavosky

mchavoski@ridgeland122.com

Mr. Gath

bgath@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Hornik

ahornik@ridgeland122.com

Ms. Wells

twells@ridgeland122.com

GREEN TEAM

Miss. Borchers

vborchers@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Dorrance

jdorrance@ridgeland122.com

Miss. Durrant

jdurrant@ridgeland122.com

Miss. Price

tprice@ridgeland122.com

Ms. Valderrama

svalderrama@ridgeland122.com

PE/HEALTH

Mr. Atkins

aatkins@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Francis

afrancis@ridgeland122.com

Mr. John

djohn@ridgeland122.com

Ms. Rusch

krusch@ridgeland122.com

Administrators

Ms. Raine

jraine@ridgeland122.com

Ms. Raz

araz@ridgeland122.com

Mr. Gill

agill@ridgeland122.com

Social Workers

Mrs. Daglas

edaglas@ridgeland122.com

Mrs. Wilson

awilson@ridgeland122.com

Nurse

Mrs. Quinn

mquinn@ridgeland122.com

Speech

Ms. Perry

dperry@ridgeland122.com

E-Mail

SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL Page 8