August 2013

April / May 2017

Katie Towler, Principal

Loren Velasquez, Assistant Principal

Rebecca Rieken, Assistant Principal

Mission Statement: West Middle School educates the whole child with the belief that all children can learn. WMS exists to meet the social, physical, emotional, and academic needs of all students.

WMS—3301 W. 19th St.—Sioux City, IA 51103 Phone 712-279-6813 FAX 712-277-6138 www.siouxcityschools.org

IMPORTANT NEWS...Infinite Campus Record Verification

The Infinite Campus Record Verification for 2017-2018 school year started on May 15. All parents and guardians must complete this process by the start of school on August 23. This process is critical to ensure that we have the most

up to date information for your child in case of an emergency. To access, log into your Infi-nite Campus portal accounts and select Online Verification in the lower left corner. You may contact the school if you do not remember your password or use Let’s Talk! at http://

www.k12insight.com/Lets-Talk/Dialogue.aspx?k=WY6F8ZLT@DNXG1ZLT

NOTICIAS IMPORTANTES...La Verificacion de Informacion

en el Sistema Infinite Campus

La Verificación de Información en el sistema Infinite Campus, para el año es-colar 2017-18, comienza el 15 de mayo. Todos los padres y guardianes tienen que completar este proceso antes del comienzo del año, el 23 de agosto. Este proceso es crítico para asegurar que tengamos la información lo más actual-

izada de su hijo, en caso de una emergencia. Para acceder, entre en su cuenta de portal para padres de Infinite Campus, y seleccione “Online Verification” en la parte inferior del lado izquierda. Puede contactar a la escuela si no se acuerda de su contraseña, o use Let’s Talk! (¡Hablemos!) en http://www.k12insight.com/Lets -Talk/Dialogue.aspx?

k=WY6F8ZLT@DNXG1ZLT

Nondiscrimination Statement: The Sioux City Community School District is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. It is an unfair or discriminatory practice for any educational institution to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, age (for employment), disability, socioeconomic status (for programs), marital status (for programs), or veteran status in its educational programs and its employment practices. Inquiries or grievances may be directed to Jen Gomez, Director of Student Services & Equity Education at 627 4th Street, Sioux City, IA 51101, (712) 279-6075, gomezj2@live.siouxcityschools.com.

Attention Parents: Student medication

for end of 2016-2017 school year

Student medication and/or medical supplies will be sent home with your child on the last day of school. If you would like to make other arrange-ments, please contact the school of-fice before the last day of school. Any unused medication that remains at school will be given to School Re-source Officers for proper disposal.

Virtual Backpack

Virtual Backpack is another way to inform our parents and guardians of events and activities in the community that directly benefit school-age children. You can ac-cess Virtual Backpack on the Sioux City Community School District’s website at

www.siouxcityschools.org under “Parents”.

End of the Year Activities

May 24-30 Common Assessments will be given

May 25 7th gr. Music Students Incentive—Movie

@ Promenade Cinema 9:45-12:30

May 25 Talent Show / WMS gym / 6:00 P.M. / $1.00

May 26 Yearbooks Distributed / Signing Parties (am)

May 26 Dodge Ball Game (pm)

May 29 No School—Memorial Day

May 30 Special Olympics Recognition Fieldtrip

9:00 A.M.-1:30 P.M.

May 30 8th grade Fun Day 1:15-2:45 P.M.

May 31 8th grade Honors Assembly / WMS Gym / 12:00-1:15 P.M. (parents may take their student at

the end of the program)

May 31 Students’ last day / 1:45 P.M. Dismissal /

Report Cards sent home with students

A note from the Principal…

Dear parents and guardians,

It is with excitement and anticipation that I write you as we end another school year. Thank you for allowing us to serve your child and your family. We aim to improve our services as we continue to grow as a school. We operated this school year under the word, GRACE. We embarked on a new beginning this year with new leadership on the administrative team and many new faculty and staff members. While there were some bumps in the road, we’ve come out on the other side successful. I am proud to share with you that of the 9 areas we could improve upon in our state testing, we saw growth in 6. We are certain with continued hard work we will

see an even greater increase next year.

As we prepare to release the students for summer, please know that the faculty and staff at WMS will be hard at work preparing for next year. Teachers, consulting teachers, and administrators will be taking advantage of summer learning opportunities that will expand our knowledge base surrounding reading in every content area. Our teachers will continue this learning next school year so that we may

provide the best instruction and assessment for your students.

As we look to next year, we will focus on the word GRIT. We plan to

attack the year head on, working hard for and with your students. It

is our great honor to work with you for the benefit of your student and

the Westside community. Thank you for supporting us and holding us

accountable. Have a great summer! Katie Towler—279-6813

Heath / Fitness Tip: Eat foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. Eat whole, fresh foods in a rainbow of colors. * Info from gethealthyu.com

Harvest Magazine

Congratulations to Jael Walker & Ty Oleson for having their de-scriptive paragraphs chosen for

publication in Harvest Magazine.

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WMS WILDCAT NEWSLETTER, APRIL / MAY 2017

8th grade Math Bee

The following students participat-ed in the 8th grade Math Bee held at Morningside College and repre-

sented WMS well. Good job!

Chloe Barcus, Michael Duax, Adam Eberhardt,

Colin Houts, Reid Jansen, Mason Jelken, Holland

Larned, Nathanial Marbley, Jacob Moeller, Jazmine Murdock, Matt Pauling,

Faith Taylor, Corey Wigton

Teachers’ Professional Development

5/1 Summative Reporting / Finalizing IPDP

5/8 ELP / PBIS

5/15 Iowa Assessments

5/22 End of the Year Wrap up

Home to School Communication Tool

If you have questions about your child’s progress in school, please feel free to contact your child’s team or their counselor

at 279-6813.

6th grade team time: 8:13-8:57 A.M. / Ms. Galloway - Green Team Counselor & Ms. Lichty—White Team Counselor /// 7th grade team time: 9:00-9:44 A.M. / Ms. Galloway—counselor /// 8th grade team time: 9:47-10:31 P.M. / Ms. Lichty—counselor

/// Graduation Coach (grades 6-8) / Ms. Petersen—counselor

8th grade Celebrates Pi Day

Pi day is March 14 (3.14) every year. This year the 8th grade students participated in Pi Day Activities. One of the activities was

the Pi Walk. Students went around the circle to music. When the music stopped and their number was drawn, they could tell us Pi

day trivia or answer a question. Another activity was the cotton ball toss and straw throw. Students estimated how far they could

throw and then tried to throw their object that far. Many students fell short of their projections! The last activity was team competi-

tion “Are you Smarter than a 5th grader?” Students tried to answer the most questions correctly. The winners of the activities were

rewarded with a brand new pencil and eraser, Oatmeal Crème pies, Cutie pies, or Fudge pies. Students commented it was nice to

work with other 8th graders. Many loved the prizes. Most students were amazed that Pi is infinite and how many places Pi shows

up around the world and in space. Some of the students made the news as all three local television stations came to learn how

WMS 8th graders celebrate 3.1415926……………..

Operation: Rescue Drop

The 8th grade Science students have been given the task of design-

ing a device that can safely deliver supplies to a disaster or war torn

area. To support the design process, students came up with ques-

tions that they needed answered in order to make their design suc-

cessful. We’ve been studying concepts like speed, acceleration, mo-

mentum, gravity, air resistance, and Newton’s Laws to help us find

answers to our questions. After groups create a design, they will

drop it from a tall height and test how well their device does. Groups

will then go back and make improvements to their devices and pre-

pare for a second drop. Have your student show you their design

and ask them about their group’s success.

Math is finishing up the unit on percentages by finding dis-

counts. We also prepared for the Iowa Assessments.

English classes are finishing up their persuasive writing unit. They have become excellent at using the OREO method to structure their persuasive writing. In quarter four, we look

forward to working on our personal narrative writing skills.

Science students are learning about the human body sys-tems and are looking forward to applying their learning in lab activities. Students are getting excited, as they prepare for

their upcoming dissections.

Civics students will be discussing community issues and

how it relates to individuals as a whole.

Reading class is working on locating textual evidence within

texts.

In Digital Production, seventh graders are forming new groups to work on their final project. They are to create a video that addresses this Driving Question: “How would a production team identify a potential client and produce a video that best meets the client’s needs?” The team's chal-lenge begins with planning how to find a client that needs a video or DVD produced. The client can be a school class, club or extracurricular activity, a nonprofit agency, or similar venture. The video will meet client needs, such as a promo-tional video, a fund-raising video, a training video, or a public

service announcement (PSA).

You Be the Chemist Challenge

On March 15, West Middle School competed with NMS and EMS in the “You Be The Chemist Challenge.” The challenge consist-ed of three preliminary rounds and then two final rounds and involved 34 students combined from the schools. The group was cut to the top 15 after the preliminary rounds and WMS had four that made it to the finals. After the final rounds, the top 8 qualified for the next level of competition which was the Iowa State Challenge held at Ames, Iowa, the end of April. Zane Bennett made the

top 8 and represented WMS at the state level. Congratulations! WMS was nicely represented by the following students:

Chloe Barcus, Zane Bennett, Michael Duax, Adam Eberhardt, Colin Houts, Reid Jansen, Mason Jelken, Jazmine Murdock

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WMS WILDCAT NEWSLETTER, APRIL / MAY 2017

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WMS WILDCAT NEWSLETTER, APRIL / MAY 2017

Quiz Bowl Champions

This awesome team of boys won 1st place at the Quiz Bowl competition in Algona and qualified to compete at Nationals in Chicago June 9-

12. Way-to-go, guys!!!

6th Grade GIRLS took home 1st Place in the 400 x 1 Adalyn F., Maya A., Kellese

H., Breanna V.

6th Grade BOYS 3rd Place in

400 x 1 Mark D., Giovanni R., Terrance T., Antonio M.

7th Grade GIRLS 2nd Place in the 400 x 1 Madison M., Tylee N., Allie H., Holly D.

7th Grade GIRLS 3rd Place in the 400 x 2 Gabby W., Madison M., Holly D., Tylee N.

8th Grade Girls: Gracie R. placed 5th in

the 800m 8th Grade BOYS took home 1st Place in

the 400 x 1 Cesar V., Rey G., Ethan B., Hayden S.

8th Grade BOYS: Ethan B. placed 2nd in

800m – he ran a Personal Best of 2:18!!

Ongoing School Fundraisers

All you need to do is SAVE YOUR HY-VEE RECEIPTS, BOXTOPS, & POP TABS. Please send these to school as often as you like, and your child can turn them in to

their homeroom teacher or the office. Students can even use BoxTops to pay

library fines!