Hickory Creek Newsletter
November 2022
School Goals 2022-2023
- We will continue to provide rigor and opportunity for academic growth to all students in grades 6th - 8th.
Social/Emotional Goal:
- We will support staff and student social and emotional needs and enhance the opportunity for growth in relationships.
Communication Goal:
- We will increase opportunities for family engagement both during the school day and through extra-curricular activities.
Safety Goal:
- We will provide a safe learning environment for staff and students in grades 6th - 8th.
Hickory Creek October Pictures
Important Dates
November 2nd - FSP Hot Lunch
November 3rd - Dan Gemeinhart Author VisitNovember 4th - 8th Grade- PSAT Testing
November 8th - No School - Election Day
November 9th - Chorus Booster Hot Lunch
November 10th - Veterans Day Band/Orchestra Concert in the P.M.
November 11th - Veterans Day Breakfast and Assembly
November 11th - Veterans Day Hot Lunch for students
November 16th - Band Booster Hot Lunch
November 18th - SIP Day - 10:45 A.M. early dismissal
November 21st - No School - Parent Teacher Conferences
November 22nd - No School - Parent Teacher Conferences
November 23rd-25th - No School - Thanksgiving Break
November 30th - Athletic Booster Hot Lunch
PSAT Assessment for 8th Graders
The PSAT 8/9 is a test that eighth and ninth graders take during the regular school day. It’s the first test in the SAT Suite of Assessments, which also includes the PSAT 10, PSAT/NMSQT, and the SAT. All the tests in the suite measure the knowledge and skills your child is learning in school—the same knowledge and skills they’ll need to succeed in college.
Fast Facts about the Assessment:
- The PSAT 8/9 tests your child’s reading, writing, and math skills.
- The questions on the PSAT 8/9 are grade-appropriate for eighth and ninth graders.
- PSAT 8/9 scores aren’t sent to colleges.
- Lincoln-Way will use College Board PSAT 8 to assess all incoming students’ skills. Results will be used for High School placement recommendations.
- Lincoln-Way will contact families about results and placement recommendations in January/February.
- If your child is absent from HCMS on November 4th, they will need to make it up through Lincoln-Way. The date for the makeup will be shared with absent students after the November 4th assessment.
Parent Teacher Conferences
Attendance at Hickory Creek
If your child is going to be out for an extended time, please complete the attached form and have your child bring it to each teacher, while collecting missing work, and get it signed. https://4.files.edl.io/bbab/08/21/20/144043-e70fd2b5-79e5-4142-8807-65560fc63082.pdf
Remembering Lanyards
Pictures from the Crazy Power Outage Day
Veterans Day Celebrations at Hickory Creek November 11th
We look forward to the culminating activities on November 10th and 11th.
November 10th
At 6:00 P.M. The HCMS Symphonic Band will host a community concert to honor Veterans.
November 11th
At 7:00 A.M. We will be hosting a breakfast for invited family and friends who are Veterans.
- If your child would like to invite a family member or friend who is a Veteran to our breakfast, please complete the attached form to RSVP by November 7th. https://forms.office.com/r/X8HAifxYJ9
At 8:00 A.M. We will host a school wide assembly to honor Veterans and pay special appreciation to our Veterans who joined us for breakfast.
Our student volunteers who signed up to plan our Veterans Day activities will be running a pizza hot lunch that afternoon for their peers. All proceeds will be donated to Honor Flight Chicago.
6th Grade ELA
6th Grade Math
6th Grade Science
6th Grade Social Studies
7th Grade ELA
7th Grade Math
Core math: Students have been working hard on their proportionality unit and will be beginning their precents unit.
Honors math: Students are finishing up their percent unit and will be heading into our integers unit.
7th Grade Science
7th Grade Social Studies
8th Grade ELA
8th Grade Math
8th Grade Science
8th Grade Social Studies
Spanish
8th Grade: All year Spanish students will continue to grow in the areas of listening, reading, writing and speaking. We finished Quarter 1 with a speaking assessment about food preferences. The students did amazing and used lots of detail to share what they eat and drink for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our next unit deals with healthy and unhealthy habits. They will also learn about Mexico’s cultural celebration: Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Students will be assessed on their interpretive reading and communicative writing skills for this unit.
7th Grade: We welcomed our Quarter 2 students by completing review activities to see how much they remembered from 6th grade Spanish. After we finish reviewing likes and dislikes, we will work on a unit about classes, teachers and objects in the classroom.
6th Grade: We are so excited to welcome our 2nd Quarter students to Spanish. They bring a lot of excitement to learning the language. Our first unit has the students talking about the activities they like/don’t like to do.
Art
A new Quarter begins for 6th and 7th grade Art classes and we are off to a great start. 6th grade artists will begin by studying the color theory and applying it in their own graphic designs. 7th grade artists will begin by studying illustration and composition and will design and create their own illustration collage.
8th grade sculpture students have just put finishing touches on their clay houses and will soon begin studying proportion and use it in their own action figure sculpture
Music
6th and 7th grade music classes are off to a great start! We are beginning the quarter by looking at music through the lens of rhythm. During the rhythm unit students will learn how to read, write, play and create rhythms. Students will also have the opportunity to play a variety of rhythm instruments and drums.
Instrumental Music- This class just finished up a quarter of guitar and will soon be moving to other instruments such as ukulele, world drums, rock ensembles, and more!
The 8th Grade Video Production class is hard at work creating video features, graphics, writing scripts, filming, and editing for our weekly Broadcast of Tiger TV.
STEM
6th Grade – We are beginning a new Quarter and learning the Engineering Design Process through building challenges using index cards, Legos, and spaghetti. We will also learn to type more proficiently using keyboarding shortcuts.
7th Grade – We are beginning the Quarter with building challenges, focusing on creating a spaghetti bridge that can hold a two pound weight. We will also be learning and reviewing the Engineering Design Process and writing SMART Goals. Lastly, we will select our first choice project in the Engineering Design Unit.
8th Grade – We will be learning various coding styles including python, java script, and HTML. The students will also be building Lego Battle Bots to compete in various challenges.
PE
Health classes have begun! Mr. Purpura, Mr. Ford and Ms. Ziemba’s classes will all be in health classes Monday through Thursday during Quarter 2. Every Friday we will be back in PE participating in a fitness Friday activity. All classes will begin talking about mental health and how it can affect one’s overall health.
Meanwhile, Mr. Connolly and Mrs. Rodgers classes will stay in PE for the quarter. They are starting the quarter playing team handball, and will also participate in a basketball, volleyball, and dance units.
Tiger Time Advisory
Tiger Time
- Monday - Tiger Time TV viewing
- Tuesday - Executive Functioning Skills
- Wednesday - "WIN Day" - What I Need Help With Day
- Thursday - SEL Lessons based on the Second Step Curriculum
- Friday - Team Building
Second Step Social and Emotional Lessons for the month of November
6th Grade Lessons
Lesson 14: What Emotions Tell You
Summary
In this week’s lesson, your child will learn how to recognize the kind of information their emotions can give them in different situations and how that information can be useful.
Question
Ask your child what type of emotions they felt today. Tell them the emotions you felt. What information did they get from those emotions? What did your emotions tell you?
Lesson 15: Emotions and Your Brain
Summary
In this week’s lesson, your child will learn how different parts of their brains play a part in managing their strong emotions.
Question
Ask your child to teach you about some of the different parts of the brain and how they manage emotions. Look up a picture or video of the brain and learn some more!
7th Grade Lessons
Lesson 14: Emotions Matter
Summary
In this week’s lesson, your child will learn how their brain handles strong emotions and brainstorm positive and negative decisions they might make when they feel a strong emotion.
Question
Ask your child about a negative decision they recently made because they were feeling a strong emotion. Help them think about how they can turn that negative decision into a positive one if they feel that emotion again.
Lesson 15: Feel, Think, Do
Summary
In this week’s lesson, your child will distinguish thoughts from emotions. They will also analyze how emotions affect their thoughts, and how their thoughts can influence the decisions they make.
Question
Ask your child to explain the difference between an emotion and a thought. Take turns expressing sentiments aloud and having the other person identify if the sentiments are thoughts or emotions. (For example, Emotion: “I’m so mad at the coach for not putting me in the game.” Thought: “That’s it—I quit!”)
8th Grade Lessons
Lesson 11: Speak Up and Start a Movement
Summary
In this week’s lesson, your child will explore how two strategies, speaking up and starting a movement, can disrupt the factors that enable bullying and harassment.
Question
Ask your child about these strategies and how they think they can help eliminate bullying and harassment in their school. Expand your discussion to include areas outside of school.
Lesson 12: Be Inclusive and Ask for a Change
Summary
In this week’s lesson, your child will explore two more strategies—making school more inclusive and asking for a change—to disrupt bullying and harassment.
Question
Continue your discussion from last week with this week’s strategies. Ask your child to share their ideas about what they could do to disrupt bullying and harassment.
Nurse Updates
From the Desk of Nurse Tammy
8th graders will be screened for vision and hearing this month.
With the colder weather approaching please remind students to dress in layers and use their lockers to store coats.
If you still need to update your child’s individualized health care plan, call me at your earliest convenience. All health-related forms can be found on the district website.
Continue to send IL Dental and Eye exams as they are completed for all incoming 6th graders and new students.
Library News
From the Desk of Mrs. Raynes
Extra Curriculars
Drama Club
Lights! Camera! Action! The HCMS Drama Club is in full swing! Presently, members attend weekly rehearsals, perfecting their chosen scripts. Students work with their coaches and group members on memorization, voice, body and facial expression, stage movement, and characterization. Each practice brings us closer to the IESA State Speech Contest, at Peotone Junior High, on Friday, November 11th,
We have such an amazing group of talented students at HCMS! We cannot wait to see their performances!
Drama Club Coachers: Pam Swierczewski, Rebecca Schumacher, Dave Wonder, and Renee’ Grady
Band and Orchestra
The Symphonic Band and Advanced Orchestra Chamber Group will be performing on The Veterans Day Concert, November 10th in the HCMS Gym. Mayor Ogle will lead the ceremony to honor our veterans.
Congratulations to our band and orchestra students that auditioned for and made the Illinois Music Educators Association honors festival. On November 5th, 8 of our talented musicians will be rehearsing and then performing with students from all over the Chicagoland area.
Chorus
We are also getting ready for chorus members to sign-up for the IGSMA Solo-Ensemble contest – all chorus members can choose to participate.
Special thanks to Chris Kalpakidis, Maryann March, Jules Stasukewicz, and Breck Phillips for being the assistants for Varsity Chorus this year!!
Student Council
Best Buddies
National Junior Honor Society
On Friday, October 26th, 2022, we had our second member meeting. We discussed Red Ribbon Spirit Week dress-up days, service hour opportunities, and the pillar of the month; character. We finished our meeting with a fun “No Drugs” bingo game to bring our schools Red Ribbon Spirit Week to an end.
Our next meeting will take place on: Friday, November 11th, Veterans Day. In addition, on November 11th NJHS dues of $20 should be paid.
Thank you!
POZ Squad
In the month of November we will show our gratitude for others. We will be busy creating something special for those who inspire us daily.
PozSquad members will also educate and encourage others with the following character challenge: When working with another person, we will make sure they feel their job is important and needed. Working together is a lot more fun that way!
Our upcoming meeting dates:
Nov. 2
Nov. 9
Tiger TV
Tiger TV is HCMS’s AV Club! We live stream games and events. We also produce a weekly broadcast with many great segments such as: Week in Review, Upcoming Events and Announcements, Joke of the Week, Teacher Feature, Special Feature, Random Facts with Humans, and more. This year’s club is up and running. There are five production teams and many students that are in the club, to stream, take pictures, and create video edits. To see a list of all the students please check out our TEAMS page.
We also have a new YouTube Channel where we post our weekly broadcast, plus individual features from past episodes. Please check out our channel and subscribe using the link below.
JV and Varsity Girls' Basketball
6th Grade Girls' Basketball
Cheerleading
7th and 8th Grade Boys' Basketball
6th Grade Boys' Basketball
Cross Country
The cross-country team ended their season on Saturday, October 15th at the IESA state meet in Normal, IL. The girls advanced as a team and finished in 17th place out of 27 teams.
Team members included: Ava Feigl, Emily Creech, Alina Puri, Maddie Valerius, Annie Gabey, Grace Kadan, Dani Schedin, Ana Lewikowski, Grace Rattigan, and Ellie Freeland.
Andrew Creech and Nathan Schroers ran as individual runners in the boy's race. Nathan finished in 26th place and Andrew in 81st place out of 233 total runners. Amazing finish to an awesome season!
Students of the Month for October - Recognizing Respect
6A-Adelyn Trice & Aiden Caballero
6B-Ryan Scaletta & Claire Connolly
7A-Landon Kelley & Selah Navarro
7B-Kate Polomsky & Andrew Langlois
8A-Amber Saldok & Drew Harper
8B-Nia Evans & Kiernan Hannigan
ENCORE-Eleni Xenidis
PE-Karson Kuzlik & Clara Leyden