Hickory Creek Monthly Newsletter
December 2021
Parent Volunteers Needed at HCMS
- FSP
- Chorus Boosters
- Band/Orchestra Boosters
- Education Foundation
Please email Mrs. Dotson @ tdotson@fsd157c.org if you are interested and she will put you in touch with the right people.
6th Grade
6th Grade ELA
The sixth graders have completed reading, I Will Always Write Back, for core and Paperboy and Copyboy for Honors, so we have moved into our second quarter novel, Soul Surfer . Along with this novel and other articles, we will work on answering our essential question, What makes a person memorable?
6th Grade Math
Students will begin Unit 5 Percentages and continue learning about the relationships between ratios and percent.
Honors- Students will be introduced to Algebra as they learned about evaluating expressions.
6th Grade Science
The students have recently finished their Life Science Unit and are shifting their focus to Physical Science where they will be understanding how we see objects. After Thanksgiving Break, students will work with laser pointers where they look at how light interacts with different surfaces and objects of varying colors.
6th Grade Social Studies
7th Grade
7th Grade ELA
7th Grade Math
Math students have completed their constant of proportionality unit and are moving into their precents unit. Just in time for all the sales! Honors math students will be working on rational numbers. All operations with decimals, fractions including integers. Students can always stay fresh with their skills by working on IXL or Khan Academy.
7th Grade Science
7th Grade Social Studies
8th Grade
8th Grade ELA
8th Grade Math
This month 8th grade Core will be working on the Real Number Unit. We will be working very hard to complete this unit before we leave for Winter break. In other words, another fun month in 8th grade Math!
Students in Honors Math will wrap up their unit on Real Numbers as well, and will then explore the world of exponents. They will learn use the properties of exponents to simplify expressions.
8th Grade Science
8th Grade Social Studies
PE and Encore
Spanish
8th grade students finished up the first half of their unit on food. They learned how to express their food preferences for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They enjoyed learning about different foods through videos and reading. We ended the unit with our first speaking assessment. The students did great and amazed us with their use of vocabulary and how they challenged themselves with various sentence structures. After Thanksgiving, we will move into our next unit, Capitulo 3B Para Mantener la Salud, where they will learn how to talk about what they should do to maintain their health.
7th grade Spanish students are learning how to describe their personality and connect it to what they like to do in their free time. They have been working hard on using a variety of transition words and “level ups” to make their communication more interesting. After Thanksgiving, we will begin to prepare for their Speaking and Reading Assessments.
6th graders have wrapped up their first unit, Capitulo 1A ¿Qué te gusta hacer? They learned how to talk about what they like to do in their free time. After Thanksgiving, we will begin Capitulo 1B, ¿Cómo eres? so that they can connect their hobbies to personality traits that describe them.
Art
2nd Quarter is off to a great start for 6th and 7th grade artists!
In 6th grade we explored the elements of line, shape and color and are putting them together to create an abstract drawing. Next, they will study pottery from various cultures and design and build their own ceramic pot.
7th grade artists have explored composition and illustration and are finishing up illustrations based on a quote of their choice. Next, they will study the expression of emotions in art and design and build a mask out of clay that expresses emotion.
8th grade artists are studying proportion and gesture through creating figure sculptures. Next, they will practice various painting techniques and apply them to both their figure sculpture and their clay house.
Music
6th and 7th grade students are working hard to finish their melody and harmony unit before break where we will be exploring ukulele, and guitars!
8th graders will be creating movies in Wevideo and continuing our progress with the ukulele!
Happy Holidays everyone!
STEM
7th and 8th graders are enjoying their time in the Makerspace. Students are completing projects with Tynker coding, Sphero and EV3 robotics, WeVideo, 3D printing, sewing/embroidery, and the Cricut maker machines.
6th graders have finished learning about the Engineering Design Process and coding and are eager to dive into robotics and 3D printing this month!
PE
Health Topics to be discussed in December are: Nutrition, Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs, Hygiene, Personal/Consumer health, Safety.
8th grade will receive a personal and heartfelt presentation/experience on Drugs from Kim White.
6th Grade SEL
7th Grade SEL
8th Grade SEL
Santa Letter Program - supporting Chavez School.
Library News
Library
Our next Library LitWits book discussion is on Friday, 12/17. Please join us to talk about To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan & Meg Wolitzer.
Please make sure your students’ late library books are all returned or paid for before we leave for break—start the New Year with a clear account!
With the gift-giving season in full swing I am happy to provide you with a list of popular, age-appropriate titles! Just contact me at mraynes@fsd157c.org.
Vision and Hearing Screenings starting in December- As mandated by the state of Illinois, all 8th graders will be tested for Vision. Any student who is in special education (IEP), new to the district, or referred for an evaluation by teacher or parent will be tested for VISION and HEARING. Please email me if you have concerns about your child’s hearing or vision at tbush@fsd157C.org.
Please remind your students on the importance of proper mask wearing and effective hand hygiene to prevent the spread of germs.
Girls Basketball
6th grade girls' basketball A team went into the DPVC tournament with a 9-2 record. The B team finished with a 10-1 record. The team recieved 2nd Place in the DPVC tournament! Congrats!!The girls all made amazing progress this season.
7th and 8th grade girls' basketball recently closed out their regular season with a win over Manhattan. The 7th grade team played an outstanding first round of Regionals but unfortunately, had to exclude due to Covid and cut their season short. We are so proud of this team and the way that they handled adversity this year!! Great things are to come in 8th grade for them. The 8th grade team plays their first game of Regionals this week. Good luck Tigers!!
Cheerleading
Boys Basketball
8th Grade Boys are currently 1-4 and are improving each and every day.
7th Grade Boys are currently 4-1 and look to continue their success on the court.
6th Grade Boys continue to grow and find success as well.
Go Tigers!
Girls Volleyball
Wrestling
Chorus
All of the HCMS choruses will also be performing at the Frankfort Tree-Lighting on Breidert’s Green on Thursday, December 2 at 6:30 p.m.
Drama Club
Best Buddies
November was a time for us to reflect and appreciate all that we have in our lives. We also had a few more members join our club, so it was exciting to meet our newest members. Our December meeting will take place on December 13th, this meeting will be a chance for us to play some holiday themed games with our buddies.
Tiger TV
Tiger TV is off to a great start! The studio has been installed and crew leaders have been trained! Members will spend the month of December mastering the studio equipment and beginning to film morning announcements. All spirit wear should be distributed before students leave for winter break. Live streaming crew rotations will begin in January!
NJHS
Chess Club
Mathletes
m4+H<∑+∑5 (MATHLETES):
Mathletes coaches Mrs. Jeglinski and Mrs. Rutovic were so excited to see so many students come out and join the team for the 2021-2022 season! In December, our team will be participating in their first competition – the ICTM mail-in competition. Students will compete both individually and as a part of a team. The contest will be held at Hickory Creek on December 6th and 13th for sixth graders and on December 7th and 14th for seventh and eighth graders during regularly scheduled practice times. Good luck to all!
POZ Squad
PozSquad has been learning new strategies to take care of our minds and bodies. Our next meeting is Wednesday, December 8th from 2:30-3:30 and we will have a PozSquad “Spa Day!” Students will rotate between different classrooms and enjoy activities to help them learn new strategies for self-care.
Student Council
Students of the Month for October
We would like to recognize our Students of the Month for November 2021. Each grade level and team selected two students, who encompassed this month’s character trait: Respect! Congratulations to the following students:
6A: Chase Williams & Alex Dobbs
6B: Vinnie Whelton & Sahana Vijayaraj
7A: Trey Austin & Luna Flores
7B: Sam Lee & Leah Sandusky
8A: Camden Storako & Griffin Chojnacki
8B: Brayden Sears & Ella Klaas
Encore: Laura Maldonado-Valadez & Dario Stipcic
PE: Amaya Johnston & Brenden Christoff