PCMS Weekly Update
October 28, 2022
Good afternoon PCMS Families!
Thank you to everyone who attended our Parent-Teacher Conferences last night, as well as those of you who will be conferencing tonight. With 10-12 minute appointments, we know there were limited slots available. If you could not schedule one of these allotted slots, please email your child's teacher to schedule an alternate time. We want to give a huge THANK YOU to our PTO for providing our teachers with a delicious supper last night and organizing all of the goodies and snacks that parents dropped by - we greatly appreciate it!!! We’re also thankful for all of the Teacher Call-Outs that you sent us - we handed out over 25 positive notes to your child’s teachers so thank you so much for those!! It’s not much, but a good ‘ol fashioned thank you note is amazing so thank you all again who were able to submit one. There is no school tomorrow, but the calendar will get quite busy as we head into November. If you were wondering, there are only 20 more days until Thanksgiving and 52 days until Christmas!
Don’t forget to set those clocks back Saturday night and enjoy the extra hour of sleep! GO PIRATES!!
🚀 Check Out What We Did This Week!
Students learning Stop Motion Animation in Mrs. Robertson’s 7th grade Design and Modeling class!
Mr. Johnson generously volunteers his plan time every Friday to do Science experiments/projects with the Special Education Class. Last Friday they launched their amazing rockets!
Our teachers all got creative with dressing up for Halloween. Mr. Svendsen (6th Grade Science) is always a hoot!
🧡 This Week's CharacterStrong Focus
Here’s a quick recap of what we talked about this week in our CharacterStrong sessions - some good stuff right here!
- 6 Grade talked about Values in Community. This was the 2nd of 3 sessions focused on exploring values, in this session we considered how different people demonstrate their values and how we show others what we value. The class chose 1 Community Agreement and explored it from different value perspectives.
- 7 Grade learned about Emotions Regulation. This was the 4th of 5 sessions related to emotion understanding and regulation. Handling powerful emotions requires learning strategies for calming down and we learned two new strategies and revisited one we learned last week in this session.
- 8 Grade worked on Making Habits. This was the 3rd of 3 sessions on values and habits. In this session, we focused on how our values, goals, and habits are all connected.
🎺 Pirates in Action
Here’s a quick recap of our Pirates in action from this past week.
Congratulations to our Robotics Teams for an awesome showing at their first tournament in Omaha this past weekend. Three of four of our teams made it past the qualifying rounds against all high school teams!
Basketball, Wrestling, and Archery Teams are feverishly practicing to start competing in a few short weeks!
Good luck to our band students who will be auditioning for All-District Band Honors on Saturday!
🏴☠️ October Pirates of the Month
Last week, we recognized our Pirates of the Month at our Pirates ROCK assembly. These students were nominated by their teachers for doing it the Pirate Way by showing great character! Our Pirates of the Month were Kyle Thrasher, Boston Wasserman, Jackson Von Glahn, Addison Stone, Journey Martin, and Jillian Fields. These students receive a certificate, a gift bag with a water bottle, candy, and a DQ gift card. They also get a pizza lunch with a friend and enjoy some time in the game room with the PCHS Got Character Students. Congratulations - we’re super proud of them!
🎖️ Veteran's Day Assembly on Friday, November 11
PCMS is calling all Veterans, active duty, and reserve military personnel! The students and staff at PCMS would like to express our thanks for your service to our country by inviting you to our Veteran’s Day Breakfast and Assembly on Friday, November 11 at 7:00 am starting in the cafeteria. We will have guest speakers, student speakers, and performances by our choir and band. To all past and present military personnel - thank you for all you do!
🏫 Upcoming MOCSA Training for 8th Grade
8th Grade Parents: Please review the letter below regarding upcoming training provided by the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA). If you do NOT want your child to attend this presentation, please complete THIS FORM by Wednesday, November 9.
MOCSA’s consent presentation is a developmentally appropriate conversation about the definition and laws of consent, understanding verbal and non-verbal boundaries, and how to support people that may have experienced violence. Each presentation is a discussion with students to talk about what they are seeing and understanding from their perspectives and always ends with a call to action to identify safe people to speak with should they need it.
👩⚕️ Northland Career Center Open House
You're Invited! Students in the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th grades and their families are invited to NCC's Open House between 4:30 and 7:30 pm, Thursday, November 10! This event will be an opportunity for families to find out more about our 12 programs by speaking with instructors and current students and touring Northland Career Center. NCC offers the following programs:
Agricultural Sciences
Aviation Technology
Construction Technology
Culinary Arts
Diesel Technology
Health Sciences
Heating/Cooling & Climate Control
Industrial Welding
IT Professionals
KC Tech Academy
Law Enforcement/CSI
Teaching Professions
📸 Picture Retakes on November 16
Retakes are scheduled for November 16 from 8:00 am - 10:00 am for any students who missed the first picture day or any student who needs to retake their picture. Online ordering is not available at this time however you may send money with your student on picture day or by calling Reed Portrait at the following number 816-436-5550. All checks MUST be made out to Reed Portrait Group. Below is the link to the order form to view available packages.
💬 WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK: Please Complete the Parent Survey by December 4
Platte County School District is conducting its annual parent survey to gather feedback on strengths of the district, as well as areas to consider for growth. Your input is important and will be considered when making future decisions.
If you have not already completed the survey during Parent/Teacher conferences, we ask that you complete the survey by clicking on the link below. If you have more than one student, please be sure to answer those questions for each building. The survey should take approximately fifteen minutes to complete. Thank you in advance for your feedback!
☕ Coffee & Conversation with Dr. Jay Harris, Superintendent
Our new Superintendent, Dr. Jay Harris, is inviting parents and community members to join us for "Coffee & Conversation" connections in our buildings, and will be visiting PCMS on Friday, November 18 from 7:45-8:45am in the Cafeteria! These informal events are designed to share our District goals and listen and learn from families to improve our overall educational experience for our students. We hope you can join!
🎓 Future Freshman Day at Platte County High School
It's time for 8th graders to start thinking about high school course choices! To assist the Class of 2027 with course planning, students will visit Platte County High School on Friday, November 18 from 9:30 am-11:30 am for information about freshman course choices and a tour of the school. Students will have the opportunity to hear about course choices and identify possible course selections, but will not enroll in courses on that day. Parents will be invited to the annual information meeting in January, and course enrollment will happen in February.
If you have questions about Future Freshman Day, please contact Kim Schank, a counselor at PCMS (schankk@platteco.k12.mo.us).
❄️ Winter Weather Information
Click here for information on school cancellations/modifications due to inclement weather, how the District will notify parents, as well as information on recess, Y Club, and Inclement Weather Virtual Learning Days. As a reminder, PCR-3 will implement traditional inclement weather days (no school and no virtual learning), until we reach a threshold that would push the school year past Memorial Day. We will make those days up per our academic calendar, and if we go past our planned make-up days for inclement weather, we will implement our Inclement Weather Virtual Learning Days.
🛒 Support the PTO while shopping on Amazon
AmazonSmile is a simple and easy way to support the PTO every time you shop on Amazon, at no cost to you! AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases ~ over $300 has already been raised this school year.
To set up AmazonSmile go to smile.amazon.com and search for “Platte City Middle School PTO”.
To activate AmazonSmile in the Amazon Shopping app, simply tap on “AmazonSmile” within the Programs & Features menu or Settings and follow the on-screen instructions to search for “Platte City Middle School PTO”.
🏴☠️ Pirates ROCK Character Trait for November: Citizenship
Pirates R.O.C.K. (Raising Outstanding Character Kids) is a program designed to surround our families with examples of strong character traits through school experiences, at home, and reinforced in their community. Each month our community focuses on a specific character trait and students are recognized for exhibiting these traits: Self Confidence, Pride, Responsibility, Citizenship, Compassion, Individuality, Self Control, Integrity, Perseverance, Respect, Honesty, and Cooperation.
November’s #PiratesRock trait is Citizenship: providing service and duty to your community.
📅 Upcoming Events
November 9
PLC 2-hour Early Dismissal
Archery Parent Meeting in Forum Room, 6:30-7:30 pm
November 11
Veterans Day Breakfast and Assembly, 7-8:30 am
November 12
Robotics Tournament @ Basehor- Linwood HS
November 14
Wrestling vs Antioch Middle @ Home, 4:00-6:00 pm
November 16
Picture Retakes
Wrestling @ Maple Park Middle School, 4:00-6:00 pm
November 18
Coffee & Conversation with Dr. Jay Harris, Superintendent, 7:45-8:45 am
Future Freshman Day, 9:30-11:30 am
November 19
5th & 6th Grade Honor Choir Concert, 3 pm
7th & 8th Grade Honor Choir Concert, 4 pm
All-District Jazz Clinic/Concert
November 23
No School - Thanksgiving Break
November 24
No School - Thanksgiving Break
November 25
No School - Thanksgiving Break
💼 Thank You to Our Pirates ROCK Star Business Partners!
Email: tomlinsk@platteco.k12.mo.us
Website: http://www.pcms.plattecountyschooldistrict.com
Location: 900 Pirate Drive, Platte City, MO, 64079
Phone: (816)858-2036
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plattecitymiddleschool/