Rice Middle School eNews
Monday, March 18, 2019
End of Year Planning
Please be aware of our end of year calendar when making travel arrangements. The last day of school is May 24th and finals are given May 21st-24th. STAAR and End of Course Exams will take place from May 7th-17th. Due to State testing, students will be unable to take their exams early. Students will need to be present during part or all of the week of May 20th in order to complete their school year. We appreciate your understanding and support in making your child's school year successful!
Choir Hits a High Note!
All of our 7-8 choirs competed at UIL the week before Spring Break, and every choir received the highest scores from every judge! They did a wonderful job and represented Rice well! Congratulations to them and Rice's fabulous choir teachers, Mrs. Farmer and Mrs. Young.
Rice Orchestra's Perfect Pitch!
Congratulations to Mrs. Fox and all of the orchestra groups who competed the week prior to Spring Break in UIL. Each made Sweepstakes, which is again wonderful and exciting. We are so proud of the hard work and professionalism of our students.
Congratulations to Rice's Whiz Quiz Teams!
Our amazing RMS Whiz Quiz teams all took 1st place in the district at the district finals! The matches were very close and exciting, but our Ravens won the evening over Otto's 8th grade and Renner’s 6th and 7th grade teams.. Congrats to these amazing kids and Mr. Sommer!
Dallas Regional Spelling Bee
Gateway Summer Engineering Camp
The Gateway Summer Engineering Camp is a hands-on, project-based camp designed to introduce middle school students to the fundamentals of STEM and recruit them into PLTW courses. Certified PLTW instructors provide expert instruction in small group settings. Students work together in a fun, exciting environment using leading-edge technologies to sample engineering related activities and projects and get a taste of how fun it can be to be an engineer.
We are offering camp sessions at Jasper HS and Otto MS. Each session is four days long.
Learn more about the camp and register at https://www.pisd.edu/gatewaycamp
Click on the flyer below to learn more about this opportunity. Registration opened on March 1st!
PTA News
A. Historic Evening with Eva Schloss
The Plano ISD Council of PTAs has partnered with the Chabad of Plano on an upcoming, low-cost, educational event. The program, “Learning from the Past, Living in the Present, Looking to the Future,” features Eva Schloss, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, who will share her memories of her step-sister, Anne Frank. The program takes place at the EISEMANN CENTER on Wednesday, March 27. For further details about this event, click on this link.
B. Sign up for a PTA Membership
We thank you for your help and Pernille Nordstorm's efforts for bringing us the Fall Membership increase award.
While you’re in Membership Toolkit, sign up for your 2018-19 Rice PTA membership. Families need to renew each July 1 for the coming school year. Signing up for PTA doesn’t mean you have to volunteer, although we appreciate those who do.
Why join PTA? Since we don’t hold traditional fund raisers at Rice, our membership dollars are key to supporting all the wonderful activities and services offered each year. Membership dollars help fund classroom wish list items, student programs, teacher conference registrations, parent education programs, teacher appreciation luncheons and special amenities throughout the building.
This year, we would like to see 100% parent participation in membership. This may be a lofty goal, but everyone can benefit from being a PTA member. Sign up at http://ricepta.org.
C. Complete your Volunteer Application Now
Rice Middle School PTA new and returning volunteers for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year must complete an online volunteer application through PISD to be eligible to volunteer. Get a head-start and submit your application today at https://www.pisd.edu/volunteer.
You can also select the Rice opportunities that you are interested in volunteering for through our Rice PTA Membership Toolkit athttps://ricemspta.membershiptoolkit.com/home - just log in and click on the "Volunteering At Rice 2018-19" form to submit your preferences.
Contact volunteers@ricepta.org with questions. Thank you in advance for your service to the students and staff at Rice!
D. Please Continue to Send in Your Box Tops
Hello, Parents, We would like to thank the families who have contributed to the Box Tops fundraiser. With your help, we are expecting to raise money just like previous school years. Thank you! For this year our target is $500. Please continue to support our school by sending in your Box Tops! It's easy: just tear or cut off the Box Tops logo from your grocery item boxes and have your child bring them to the front desk of the school where a container is there to collect them.
Please like the Rice PTA Facebook page to stay informed about PTA activities!
Speech Tournament Permission Forms Due Tuesday!
ESL News
Parents of ESL students,
Please come learn more about the ESL program in Plano ISD, as the ESL instructional specialists and Rice lead counselor will provide information and ask questions. We look forward to seeing you on March 26th in the Rice Library!
ILLNESSES
We ask that if your child is sick, or showing signs of illness, that you let him or her stay at home in order to get rest and feel better. We know school is important, but your child will be able to make up any work he or she misses. Thank you for your consideration on this issue.
Important Information from Nurse Yang
Attention 6th Graders:
Please read this linked letter for required immunizations in order to enter 7th grade. A separate parent letter with your child's detail immunization requirements will be mailed to you in March 2019. These required immunizations are due by last day of school, 5/24/2019. You can also view your child's current immunization record on file with the school on https://parentviewer.pisd.edu/
Flu Season Is Here!
To learn more about seasonal influeza, please click on the link below:
https://www.pisd.edu/cms/lib/TX02215173/Centricity/Domain/233/Influenza2014-2018A.pdf
Guidelines for Exclusion due to Communicable Disease
Communicable Diseases – Exclusion from school for health reasons
Mean Green Summer Debate Camp
Eco Club News
Bottle Caps and Tin Cans!
The Eco-Club @ Rice needs plastic bottle caps of all sizes and colors. We also need tin cans of all sizes. Please wash them and bring them to Room 817. We appreciate your help. Thank you.
Cartridges and Electronic Devices
The Eco-Club at Rice is participating in a program called Cartridges for kids. They are a Product Recover Service that collects ink cartridges, cellphones, laptops, Ipods, tablets, ereaders, to provide help to children in need. Please consider donating any of these items instead of disposing them once they are no longer being used. For more information visit: http://www.cartridgesforkids.com/
Jasper Tennis Tryouts
Are you going to Jasper next year? Do you play competitive tennis? Do you know what a UTR and USTA stand for? If so, please consider trying out for the Jasper Tennis team next year. To tryout you must sign up for tennis and be ready to tryout next year. This is not a PE class where you learn how to play. If you have any questions please email Coach Moore at mark.moore@pisd.edu
Plano West Wolves Baseball PSA Middle School Night
Come out to The Ballpark at Plano West, Friday, March 22 and join Plano West cluster Middle School students, families and teachers as the Wolves take on city rival Plano Wildcats! The Varsity game begins at 7:30pm!
Come early to cheer on Junior Varsity at 4:30pm, grab food, snacks and drinks from the concession, enjoy the new picnic area and to participate in the pre-game ceremonies! Middle School students, stop by the PSA tent before 6:45pm on game day to win a chance to throw out the first pitch of the game! There will be great high school baseball, music, drawings for giveaways and fun for all! Let’s pack The Ballpark with Wolfpack pride!
Join our Plano West cluster community on Friday, March 29 for PSA Elementary School Night as Plano West Wolves take on McKinney Boyd!
Follow Plano West, Jasper and Shepton Baseball at planowestbaseball.org and on Twitter @PWBaseball2019
Helpful Links!
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