November 8, 2013
11/8/13
Happy Friday to everyone! I hope you have a chance to enjoy the sunny
forecast for this weekend. If anyone is
bored, I will be staining my deck – all are welcome. Bring your own roller or brush. And lunch.
CALENDAR ITEMS
Monday,
November 11
LMS Penny War (all
week)
Tuesday,
November 12
6th
Grade Parents to Lunch, LMS Cafeteria – 10:38 – 11:08 a.m.
6th
Grade Parent meeting, LMS Library – following lunch shift
Wednesday,
November 13
7th
Grade Parents to Lunch, LMS Cafeteria – 11:26 – 11:56 a.m.
7th
Grade Parent meeting, LMS Library – following lunch shift
LMS Vocal Music
Concert, LHWHS Auditorium – 7:00 p.m.
Thursday,
November 14
8th
Grade Parents to Lunch, LMS Cafeteria – 12:14 – 12:44 p.m.
8th
Grade Parent meeting, LMS Library – following lunch shift
Friday, November
15
No School
Monday, November 18
LMS Canned Food Drive (through
November 25)
Thursday, November 21
Anticipated delivery of
fundraiser cookie dough
Tuesday, November 26
LMS Turkey Trot
All School Celebration
Assembly
Wednesday, November 27
through Friday, November 29
No School
NEW ITEMS
Discovery Education (DE) Testing
DE exams are given to all
students three times during the school year.
These serve a bench marking assessments to track student progress and
growth, in addition to helping us make appropriate placements in some classes
for the following year. Our next round
of DE testing will occur Monday, December 2 through Thursday, December 5. In order to provide enough time for this, we
will be on a Block Day schedule during these four days.
Inclusive Schools Week
Special School
District of St. Louis County has designated the week of December
2nd as Inclusive Schools Week. To support the campaign, Ladue Middle
School will participate in several school-wide activities throughout the week.
The first of which will be "Spread the Word to End the Word". This is
an international campaign to stop the use of the word "retarded".
Students will be asked to sign a pledge committing to stop their use of
the "r" word. Pledge forms will be available to complete before
school and during all lunch periods. The grade level that completes the
most pledges will be recognized. Additionally, students will participate in a
disability awareness discussion during social studies classes on Monday,
December 2nd and Tuesday, December 3rd using resources and materials
provided by Special Olympics and Best Buddies International. Ladue art students
will create art work depicting reasons why they like being part of an inclusive
school. The artwork will be turned into a slide show that will be shown
school-wide during lunch. Sixth grade middle school skills classes will
participate in a disability awareness activity to promote understanding of our
increasing diverse student population. Finally, students with
disabilities will be asked to take part in our school wide "I Am LMS"
days. Willing students will create a presentation or video to share with
the student body explaining who they are, what makes them special, and why they
like being part of an inclusive school. For more information regarding the
"Spread the Word to End the Word" campaign please visit www.r-word.org.
Dine to
Donate - Restaurant FUNdraiser for LMSPA
Enjoy lunch
out, a night off from cooking, or buy your office lunch and earn money to fund
events and supplies for our kids’ school at the same time!
Bring in the
attached flyer and 20% of purchases will be donated to LMSPA by California
Pizza Kitchen in Creve Coeur on Wednesday, November 20 or Thursday,
November 21. Purchases include
CARRY-OUT, DINE IN or CATERING, any time of the day, lunch or dinner.
Flyer MUST be presented at time of purchase.
Thank you for your continued support!
Mothers’ Coffee
Are you an LMS mother interested in exploring
other cultures? Would you be interested
in sharing your culture, your experiences with other mothers? LMS and the ESL Department is planning a
“Mother’s Coffee”. The “coffee” will be
a chance for LMS mothers from various cultures to informally meet and share
their differences and commonalities. The
tentative date for the actual coffee is Monday, December 2. A planning meeting is scheduled for Monday,
November 11 at 10:00 am at the Middle School.
If you are interested in attending either the planning meeting or the
actual “coffee”, or have questions, please contact Lou Galloway-Zapiain lgallowayz@ladueschools.net
, Marie Keath Mkeath@ladueschools.net
, or Dr. Taylor-Johnson ttaylor@ladueschools.net
Movie
The
following is from St. Louis County Library:
The St.
Louis County Library Headquarters invites teens ages 12-18 to
The
Hunger Games Text 2 Screen Movie Night on Friday, November 15 at 6:30 p.m. During the
movie, teens will be able to text comments to the screen for an interactive
movie-watching experience. If you don't have texting on your phone, there is
also an app you can use. We'll have lots of snacks and soda plus Hunger
Games door prizes! Please click here to
register: http://mo.evanced.info/slcl/lib/eventsignup.asp?ID=85877
Or give us a
call at 314-994-3300 for more information.
UPDATED ITEMS
Fundraiser/Cookie Dough Delivery
Thank you
for you support of LMS during the magazine and cookie dough sale. We had
a very successful sale. The cookie dough will be delivered to LMS on
Thursday, November 21. We will send orders of 4 cookie items or less home
with your student on the bus or in carpool. Orders of 5 or more cookie
items will need to be picked up at LMS on November 21 between 3:15 and 6:00 pm
(location to be determined). Please make
arrangements now to pick up your orders since cookie dough requires
refrigeration. Please email Elizabeth Cobin at Cobin@att.net if you have questions. Thanks.
Girls On Track
The following is from Lisa
Witzofsky:
Girls On Track, an after
school program for LMS girls, will return next semester. Lisa Witzofsky,
one of the parent volunteers, is currently looking for six parents to commit to
one practice day per week – either Tuesday or Thursday. Time frame
February 17th - May 10th. 3:05pm until 4:20pm If you are interested
and/or need additional information, please contact Lisa at blwitz@charter.net or at 314-989-1993. The more coaches we have,
the more girls can participate.
REPEAT ITEMS
Penny War/Canned Food Drive/Turkey Trot
For those of you new to LMS,
these coordinated activities raise money and food donations for Gateway 180, an
area shelter that distributes food and funds to many area homeless
shelters. These annual events are a
great way for students and staff to serve others as we lead up to the
Thanksgiving holiday and break. A brief
summary of each activity follows:
·
Penny Wars: November 11 – 15. Each grade level will have a jug placed in
the Lobby for donation collection. All pennies and checks (made out to Ladue
Middle School) placed into a jug count as a positive amount for that grade level. All silver
coins and paper money counts as a negative
amount equivalent to that donation
for that grade level. As you can
imagine, the strategy is to load your grade level jug with the most positive
points while adding donations to the other grade level jugs that result in
negative points (okay, Mr. Obvious). The
grade level with the greatest positive amount at the end of the week wins.
·
Canned Food
Drive: November 18 – 25. There will be a competition to see which
class at each grade level brings in the most canned goods. The class with the best overall donations
will earn a pizza party.
Students/parents may choose to bring in money instead of cans. One can equals $0.50. Checks should be made payable to Ladue Middle
School. All cans will be collected in
the “before school waiting area each morning (i.e. Cafeteria or Gym). All students bringing in 100 or more cans
will receive a 100 Can Club Certificate.
This will be displayed in the hallway and their name will be read on the
afternoon announcements. Members of the
100 Can Club will also have an opportunity to throw a pie at, or shave the hair
of, their favorite teacher at an assembly before Thanksgiving break.
·
Turkey Trot:
November 26. We invite all parents to
join their child in the running of this year’s 16th annual Turkey
trot (you can choose to run or walk our one mile course). The top make and female finisher at each
grade level will receive a special trophy.
The top ten male and female finishers at each grade level will receive a
Turkey Trot t-shirt. Parents who plan on
running/walking with their students should meet them on the upper soccer field
behind our Administrative Center. Times
will be subject to weather conditions:
6th
Grade: 1:01 – 1:39 pm
7th
Grade: 11:07 – 11:45 am
8th
Grade: 11:49 – 12:27 pm
· You may purchase a Turkey
Trot t-shirt for your student at http://www.laduespiritstore.com/Turkey-Trot_c27.htm
·
All School
Celebration Assembly: November 26. This
will occur in our Gym at 2:25 pm. The
following groups will be recognized: Winning grade level of the Penny War,
Winning class of the Canned Food Drive, 100 Can Club members, and Turkey Trot
winners.
Ski and Snowboard Club
Parents: Do
you want to get your kids off the couch and away from staring at their
computer, television or phone screens every Friday night this coming
winter? Once again this year we will be
taking kids to Hidden Valley for some fun on the slopes to ski and snowboard.
Blue information/permission forms were available during conferences last
week.
If you did
not receive them, please see the Hidden Valley ski information sheets that are
available on the front page of the LMS home page.
Registration
for the Friday ski pass is done on-line. However, signing up for the bus
transportation and/or pink hooded sweatshirts will be done before school
beginning at 7:30 AM on the following dates in the LMS lobby.
Nov. 12 -
8th Grade
Nov. 13
- 7th Grade
Nov. 14
- 6th Grade
Nov. 15
- no school no turning in forms - this was an error on the
original permission form
Nov. 18
- Extra day for anyone who missed the other days
Thanks for your time
and have a great day and weekend. I will
send out a subsequent message if I’ve forgotten anything (or messed anything up
above).
Greg
