Parker Press for 5/25/18 

Parker Families,


Patriot Time Update

Students have been participating in team building activities that they helped create in their Patriot Times classes earlier this quarter.  After looking at student survey results, students were expressing the desire for more activities so they were able to choose the activities that would be used.  Students participated in a back to back drawing activity where one partner needed to describe a design without naming it, and the other partner needed to draw what their partner was describing.  During this activity students practiced working on verbal communication and listening skills. Another activity was If You Don’t A-S-K, You Don’t G-E-T where students used questions to try to locate candy hidden around the room.  This activity helped students to

improve questioning by using and seeing the effects of closed, yes or no, questions vs. open questions that give us more information.  Students had to “Cross the River” with their Patriot Time teammates by working as a team to communicate and follow the guidelines to successfully get across.  Another day they also need to use these skills to untangle themselves during The Human Knot activity. Academic Assistance was offered where students could bring work from other classes that they needed help on or that was missing.  If students did not have any, they were able to participate in sustained silent reading. Patriot Times discussed Memorial Day including; why we celebrate Memorial Day, how it has changed over the years, and how it has remained the same.  They also shared what way they will honor the lives of fallen American soldiers this Memorial Day. Ask your child what information they learned about Memorial Day and what their favorite Patriot Time activity has been over the past two weeks.

Honors Assemblies 

Each year, Parker Middle School honors our extraordinary students including high honors (3.5 GPA or higher), writing contest winners and those students who participated in the TIES program, Unified Sports Champions and WEB leaders. Honors assemblies this year are as follows:

7th grade - MONDAY, June 11 at 8:00 a.m.

8th grade - MONDAY, June 11 at 6:00 p.m. (note this is an evening event by invitation only)

6th grade - TUESDAY, June 12 at 8:00 a.m.

All assemblies will take place in our Commons Area.

W.E.B. Leaders 2018-2019

W.E.B. leaders have been chosen for next school year! Thank you to the current 7th graders who applied and congratulations to everyone that was chosen to be a leader! It is going to be an exciting year and the incoming 6th graders will appreciate you so much!

Summer Lunch Bunch

Once again, The Salvation Army of Livingston County will be hosting its summer meal program The Summer Lunch Bunch at several locations in our community. The Summer Lunch Bunch is a free community meals program that ensures access to plentiful food during the summer months. Summer Lunch Bunch is not just about free food!   Just as important is the fun, featuring guest speakers, games, prizes, contests, art, science, nutrition, literacy, physical education and more. Summer Lunch Bunch is a great meeting place for friends, and everyone is welcome! For more information on the Summer Lunch Bunch, please click here.

Student Council

Student Council is wrapping up another year. Officers Laine Wyatt, Ethan Binns, Grace Fyke, Carson Harris, all the class reps and Advisor Mr. Deadman have completed a productive year at Parker Middle School. The Council sponsored 3 fun and themed dances this year. They adopted Kili the bald Eagle at the Howell Nature Center, Made a substantial contribution to the Gleanor’s Food drive and made a sizeable donation to the Hydrocephalus Association. They sponsored two after school beautification projects where they invited and encouraged all students and staff to clean up the outside area of the school. Student Council works within the building to support all after school clubs with $100 each year. They also have a 4 year plan to add 4 filtered water bottle filling stations throughout the building. They are looking forward to next year and areas they can expand in.

Medications

All medication must be picked up in the office by Monday, June 18.  Any medication left after Monday, June 18 will be properly disposed of by the Livingston County Sheriff Department.

8th Grade Activities

  • 8th Grade Science: Next week students will be presenting their environment reports. Students spent time finding scientific data to support claims that a particular global environmental problem should be fixed. Students will be teaching their classmates about these environmental reports using their own creations, including websites, movies, blogs, books, and demonstrations.

  • 8th Graders will be participating in our annual dress like a greaser/soc contest on Friday, June 1st.

  • 8th graders participated in Civil War Day today.  They enjoyed a demonstration on Civil War Medicine from Mr. Gillingham.  They also had the opportunity to participate in Civil War Dance. The Virginia Reel was especially fun.  The day concluded with a speech made by President Abraham Lincoln. Thank you to PTO for funding this great event!!

  • After reading a short biography on Michigan native, Jon Scieszka; watching a video read-aloud of his book, The Math Curse and a video explaining the Fibonacci Sequence, students in 8th grade Math Power Hour have been creating their own digital version of the book to share with students in eight elementary classrooms within the district.  

  • 8th grade French students will be having a “Book Premier and Celebration” on June 7th where they will premier their end of the year book projects to their classmates and celebrate the language learning that has taken place this year.

7th Grade Activities

  • Aerospace 7th grade - we are now finishing up our glider flying.  After the class finishes the essay, we will be creating our own glider using various items.  We will then have a “shark tank” and attempt to “sell” our gliders to other lab groups. This project will take the rest of the quarter to finish as we have advertisements, scale drawings, and a glider to build from balsa wood and styrofoam.

6th Grade Activities

  • As a culminating project after studying the fantasy genre, and getting inspiration from Chris Van Allsburg’s short stories Jumanji, Zathura, and The Sweetest Fig,  students wrote fantasy picture books for HPS elementary students.  Some of their stories will be read to students at Challenger and Northwest Elementary Schools.

    

  • Quarter 4 Assessment date has been changed to June 11th.

  • Will be taking an end of the year trip to Rollerama on Wednesday, June 13, 2018.  Students will need to turn in their permission slips and money to their 2nd Hour teacher by no later than Friday, June 1, 2018.  The cost for the trip is $15.00 which includes transportation, skates and skating, and unlimited laser tag.  Students can bring a lunch or purchase lunch from the concession stand. This is a school event, so school rules and dress code apply to this event.  

 Choir Happenings

Choir students had their end of year party after school Friday May 18th.  The singers all tie-dyed a t-shirt, played many games and had a great time.  Our concert is May 31 at 7:00pm in the Rod Bushey Performing Arts Center Howell High School.  The theme this year is Disney.

Band Scores!

On Thursday, May 10th, over 60 band students performed for various clinicians at our Spring Solo & Ensemble.  All of the students had a wonderful experience and performed musically. Our Spring Concert is on Thursday, June 7th at 6 pm in the Parker Auditorium.  Come get lost in the movie music as we pay tribute to the big screen. The band will have their end of the year picnic/party on Tuesday, June 9th at Bishop Lake from 5 - 8 pm.  Please see the emails, Remid.com, Google Classroom and Facebook pages for links to RSVP and to bring items.

  • Foosball Club has ended for the year. The members of the club have learned a lot about the game and many friendships were made. The winners of the 2018 Foosball Tournament were Nathan Reimel and Donevan Smith. The winners received a giant bag of goodies and their name is put on the annual trophy.
  • Girls on the run  has ended for this year.  We had a great time meeting bi-weekly for the past few months and discussing friendship, conflict resolution, personal strengths and weaknesses as well as many other topics.  Unfortunately, our Celebration 5K on Saturday, May 12th was cancelled due to hazardous weather conditions. Luckily, the girls had had the opportunity to join Highlander Way MS and participate in a Mock 5K where all the girls finished strong and ran it in under 40 minutes!  
  • All library books need to be returned to the Media Center by this Friday, May 25. All fines need to be paid before report cards go out.

Have a safe and fun holiday weekend,

Mrs. Poelke

Posted by eldredc On 29 May, 2018 at 8:17 AM