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Jefferson Middle School
Family Newsletter
Spring 2017-18
April 9 thru April 13 in the Middle School Library
Upcoming Dates
March 26-30 Spring Break Apr. 2 Classes Resume Apr. 4 End of Quarter 3 Apr. 5 Start of Q4 Apr. 6 6th Grade Field Trip Apr. 9-13 Book Fair Apr. 17-24 Forward Testing Apr. 27 Early Dismissal at 12:10 p.m. May 2 Rotary Luncheon for Top 10% Of 8th Grade May 8 PTO, 5:30 p.m. Library May 10 5th to 6th Grade Transition Night May 11 8th Grade Dance May 15 ` Spring Band Concert May 16 Optimist Club Banquet May 22 Spring Choir Concert May 24 Early Dismissal at 12:10 p.m. May 25 No School– Staff Inservice May 28 No School, Memorial Day June 6 Junior Olympics in the Morning Awards Assembly at 1:30 p.m. June 7 8th Grade Promotion at 1:30 p.m., JHS Auditorium June 8 Last Day of Classes, Early Dismissal at 12:10 p.m.
Forward Testing April 17-24 at JMS
The Forward Exam is a summative assessment that gauges your child’s achievement in the content areas tested com-
pared to other students in the state. Along with local measures such as report cards, school-wide assessments, and
other information about your child’s progress in school, the results from the Forward Exam provide insight into how
well your child is doing on a broad measure of achievement.
Trantition—5th Grade Students & Parents
March 2018 JMS newsletters now include the families of our 5th graders. Future editions of the news-
letter will be sent to you by email. If you do not have email, it will be sent via US Mail. Please be sure
that your child’s school has your email address on file.
April 2018 JMS Principal and Counselor visit each elementary school for a question and answer ses-
sion with the 5th graders. During this session many of the following topics are discussed:
6th grade lunch
Schedule
Lockers & Hall passing time
Getting lost (it really does not happen!)
Homework
From one teacher in elementary school to many teachers in middle school
Questions from the students are answered
May 2016 Each of the elementary school’s 5th grades come to JMS for a tour. Students practice open-
ing locks, they meet teachers, eat lunch, and become more acquainted with the building.
May 10, 2018 The 6th grade teachers will hold a session from 6-7 p.m. that includes tours of the building,
topical discussions, as well as a question and answer opportunity. Please look for more information in a
future newsletter.
August 2018 Open house/Orientation night.
This summer you will receive information regarding registration and other activities that will help stu-
dents get ready for 6th Grade at JMS. We look forward to the 2018-2019 school year and welcome you
as part of our middle school family.
Please feel free to call the school office at 920-675-1300 if you have any questions.
What’s going on in 8th grade social studies?
We are starting our “World of Personal Finance” unit where students will be par-ticipating in a multitude of activities to help them become better financial deci-sion-makers. The major topics to be stud-ied include: different ways to invest mon-ey, calculating net worth, managing credit, the role of insurance, budgeting and buy-ing a home. Mr. Utrie’s instructional focus will be to facilitate critical thinking and to help students understand the consequenc-es of different financial decisions.
CoEd Track
Apr. 2 Practice Starts
Apr. 12 Jefferson at Lake Mills
Apr. 23 Jefferson vs. Johnson Creek &
Milton at Jefferson
May 3 Jefferson at Ft. Atkinson
May 7 Jefferson vs. Ft. Atkinson & Milton
at Jefferson
May 18 Invitational at Watertown
All meets start at approximately 4 p.m.
An official schedule can be found on the
district website.
Track and field is an after school extracurricular activity available to all 6th, 7th and 8th grade
students. It’s a great way to stay healthy while participating in a variety of running, jumping and throw-
ing events. The track starts on April 2nd and ends on May 18th. Before the season start, here are a cou-
ple of reminders;
Complete all appropriate paperwork to the office (physical, forms and money)
Practice is everyday after school from 3:15-5:00
Parents should pick their students up from practice at 5:00
A full schedule will be given to athletes the first day of practice.
A schedule of meets can be found the the sdoj.org website
Bring outdoor clothes to practice (sweatshirt, sweatpants, older shoes)
Student should make sure their school grades allow them to eligible
Please direct questions to Mr. Rucks ([email protected]), Mr. Matuszeski ([email protected]), or Mr. Wilharm, or
by calling the JMS office at 920.675.1306.
JMS TRACK AND FIELD
6th Grade Science
Science class has been busy investigating aspects of our environment. We started off the unit creating milkweed bug habitats. We have been using the milkweed bugs to perform a popula-tion study similar to the one Jane Goodall did with her chimps. The students have enjoyed see-ing the life cycle thus far. We are covering a variety of topics such as adaptations, symbiotic re-lationships, food webs, food energy, plant processes, limiting factors, and human interac-tion. Our next engaging unit is called Electromagnetic Force. It is a physics unit that involves force, friction, magnets, energy, and electricity.
6th Grade - Welcome to Tech Ed. On March 5th, the wheel classes changed and 6th grade students started their last
term in Technology and engineering class. 6th grade Tech Ed is a hands on class that focuses
on building units in transportation, construction and engineering. Almost all project are de-
signed and build by students.
For transportation, students build and race magnetic levitations vehicles. In construc-
tion, students will build, design and test straw bridges. In the engineering unit, students will
build a golf ball roller coaster with a group of students. Lastly, students will discover career
options as part of the JMS academic and career planning process.
If you have any questions please contact:
Eric Rucks - Jefferson Middle School Technology and Engineering Teacher
Email - [email protected]
MEMORY BOOK PURCHASES for 6th & 7th GRADERS
If you have not already purchased a Memory Book you may still do so. Form are
available in the office and must be returned with payment by Thursday, Apr. 5th.
The Memory Books for 8th graders will be paid for by our PTO.
Academic Bowl
Jefferson Middle School participated in the Academic Bowl in Fort Atkinson! This was Jefferson's first time participating in this very challenging event and WOW! These kids are awesome! They took an extremely challenging 45 minute indi-vidual test in varying content areas and then competed as three mixed grade level teams for a Current Events challenge. All of the kids did fantastic and there were many close re-sults and the judges even needed to bring in the tie breakers! The Results 6th Grade Alison Werning-- 2nd place in Language Arts Anna Dehnert--3rd place in Social Studies 7th Grade Colleen Wilson--3rd place in Social Studies Dylan Dettmann--1st place in Science 8th Grade Kate Utrie--2nd place in Language Arts Hawk Blackledge--2nd place in Social Studies Brody Bredlow--3rd place in Science Jefferson also placed 2nd OVERALL out of 7 districts! Awesome job!! All of our student scores con-tributed to our final success. If you see the Academic Bowl team around, be sure to give them a big 'Congratulations!' Thank you to all who helped in the selection process! A huge thanks also goes out to Adam Auer and Jim Altermatt for helping at the competition today!
Go Jefferson!!!
Progress Report Mailing Practices
Due to the fact that many of our families (and students) regular-
ly utilize PowerSchool to keep track of student progress, we will
not be sending progress reports home unless a student is earn-
ing a D or F in a class. As we move towards an increased online
presence for communication and learning in our district, we
anticipate continued shifting towards real time student learning
information. That being said, please let us know your prefer-
ences and we will do what we can to make sure everyone is
working together and on the same page.
7th Happenings
In Mr. Auer’s 7th grade Math classes students are currently finishing our Chapter 6 unit on percents and how they apply to everyday life situations, taxes, tips, interest rates, mortgages, and commis-sion. We are moving on to Chapter 7, which will discuss measurements of data and displays. Language Arts - Students are expected to read independently for 20 minutes every night to meet their 25 Book Challenge. We recommend that students talk about what they are reading with par-ents at home. In class we are reading the novel Moon Over Manifest. This award-winning book has it all - history, mystery, strong characters with deep conflicts, and a powerful theme. For writing, stu-dents recently completed an advertisement for a fake product. World History- We are currently finishing our unit on Ancient Greece. Students have analyzed pri-mary source documents dating from the Ancient Minoan civilization to the empire created by Alex-ander the Great. The assignment students are working on now is a research project dealing with Greek mythology where students are in groups videotaping a report on an aspect of Greek mytholo-gy in front of a green screen. We will then head down to the computer lab to edit their project and add graphics. Science- We are in our Chemistry unit in science. Currently we are studying substances, elements, and particles. Students were able to observe a mystery-mixture reaction and compare the charac-teristics of reactions that occur when they mixed pairs of known substances. Through careful obser-vations and testing they were able to narrow down and identify the two substances that made up the mystery mixture. Students are also learning about the periodic table and we are discussing proper-ties and categories of elements. Students had the opportunity to research an individual element and use that information to create a poster and a “superhero element”. We are starting to study gas-es and develop a better understanding of the relationship between particles in matter. Spanish - 7th graders experienced a turn of the Wheel, and now they are taking Spanish. Mrs. Dresdow sent home a parent letter at the beginning of the week, outlining course expectations.
Telephone & Address Changes
Please notify the school office immediately if you change your telephone number, address or email address. Your help with this will ensure that you receive mailings such as this newsletter and important reports about your child. Correct phone num-bers are extremely important in the event your child is ill or injured. Thank you for keeping us informed.
Report Cards
The last day of the third quarter is April 4th.
Report cards will be mailed home shortly after.
Jefferson Middle School Readers Place 8th in State!
Jefferson Middle School is incredibly proud of all our Battle of the Books participants! Each and every one of them showed tremendous effort and dedication throughout the competition. Battle participants began reading books back in October, from a list of twenty titles selected by the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association (WEMTA). Grade level teams then competed against one an-other and were eliminated through a series of playoff rounds at each grade level. The top team from each grade level then competed against one another for the opportunity to represent JMS in the final statewide battle.
(Pictured left to right Kate Utrie, Emily Zilisch, Dayanara Ramirez, Joanna Guevara and Tori Turner) This year’s Jefferson Middle School final battle team, was comprised of Dayanara Ramirez, Joanna Guevara, Tori Turner, Kate Utrie and Emily Zilisch. During the final state battle, the girls had to answer 50 questions from the 20 books they read with 100% accura-cy in a 30 minute time frame. The battle also included a tiebreaker round with 10 questions. Of the 144 Wisconsin middle schools competing in the final Battle, our JMS team placed 8th overall with a score of 300 out of a possible 360 points. Their point value also placed them in the top 20% statewide, earning them Honors Club Status. Congratulations on a job well done ladies! At right, JMS Battle of the Books students enjoy a fun filled party celebrating the end of competi-tion.
Spring into Fitness With spring around the corner, Mr. Mooney and Mr. Mueller are excited about the idea of getting
back outside with phy ed classes. For springtime Physical Education units, students will learn a variety of
skills needed to participate in many lifetime fitness activities and games. Spring Phy Ed units include tennis,
soccer, flag football, softball and La Crosse.
With springtime comes the possibility of weather issues. Here are a few friendly reminders for spring-
time phy ed.
Make sure to have an older pair of shoes available
Be prepared to go outside (sweatshirt, sweatpants)
Always practice good sportsmanship
“Let’s keep up with all our fitness goals together!!!”
Spring into Investing!
Investors’ Club is back with fifteen 6th to 8th grade stu-dents participating in the statewide Stock Market Simu-lation competition. The participants manage up to $200,000 investing in different stocks in order to get the highest return by April 13th. Investors' Club meets on Tuesdays from 3:15-4:00 in Mr. Utrie's room.
