Hidden River Newsletter
Week of September 26 - 30, 2022
Weekly Reminders
- SAVE THE DATES (Safety Drill practice this week):
Monday, Sept. 26th - Picture Day - ALL DAY
Next Week: (10/3-10/7)
What's in the Newsletter?
- School Information (iUpdate)
- Online School Store - Otter Gear!
- FSO - Volunteer options
- FLIPSIDE (After-school)
- Classroom Updates
- MYP Info
- Literacy Corner
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Counseling Connection Corner
- BINGO for Books highlights
- Additional Opportunities for Students & Families
School Information
- Picture Day: Monday, Sept. 26th. Picture Day is Monday, Sept. 26. Monday is also a Jewish holiday and recognize that some of our students will be unable to get their picture taken. Lifetouch is able to send a camera for our students who will be celebrating Rosh Hashanah on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27. This will enable our Jewish families to also access the picture retake day in late October. Click here to access the ordering link: http://my.lifetouch.com/mylifetouch/pictureDayId/EVT76HDJZ
- FAST Screener Testing: Testing will be taking place in Math and ELA/Reading classes. Please see attached letter for more information. Click here for more info.
- School Office hours: 8:00 am - 3:00 pm, Office phone 651-293-8860
- Attendance: If your child will be absent please call the school and leave a message with Sue Roach 651-744-4750
Online School Store
Please read the website carefully. Reach out to Advanced Sportswear with any questions.
Family Staff Organization (FSO) - formerly known as PTO
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES
PICTURE DAY – MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26th:
Volunteers are needed to assist LifeTouch photographers on Monday, September 26th as Hidden River students and staff have their pictures taken. You can sign-up to cover a two-hour shift through this link: CLICK HERE
WEEKLY IN OFFICE OR CAFETERIA:
Can you make a weekly commitment? Staff has requested help in the office daily from 8:30 – 9:30 am and 2 – 3 PM. Volunteers also help to make sure that students are responsibly sorting their trash, recycling, and organic compost in the lunchroom each day from 12 – 1:15 pm. Curious about any of these? Please fill out this form and we’ll reach out to you with more information! CLICK HERE
FLIPSIDE - After-School
Flipside programming runs Monday to Thursday 3-5pm. Our fall session begins October 10th! BUSSING WILL BE AVAILABLE ON MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS ONLY! Students must provide their own transportation on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
We have a wide variety of offerings from dance to math team along with musical and visual arts. Here is a class list with descriptions. Please follow the link below to see our offerings and register! Paper registrations can be found in the front office or Ms. Teanna's office (1009).
We are still looking for instructors for newspaper and lego league please let me know if you have any interest!! Please contact the Flipside Coordinator Teanna Rouillard with any questions! teanna.rouillard@spps.org or 651-744-6969
Classroom Updates
Reader's Workshop with Ms. Fontana
Physical Education
Spanish
Minnesota Studies - 6th grade with Ms. Walter
Math 6 with Ms. Skaja
Foundations - Student Council
MYP Info
Literacy Corner
Ultimate Frisbee
If your student athlete is interested in participating in Ultimate Frisbee for the 22-23 school year, please fill out this Google Form with your information and look for an email this weekend with practices, dates, times, and events that are coming up for our fall season.
Here is a overview of what Ultimate Frisbee is if you don't know much about it:
Combining the non-stop movement and athletic endurance of soccer with the aerial passing skills of football, a game of ultimate is played by two teams with a flying disc on a field with end zones, similar to football. We also have students joining us from different schools in the SPPS district as well as a few private and charter schools, but our home base is Hidden River Middle School. This is a great way to become connected to the Hidden River Community! We would love to have your student athlete join our team.
Please connect with Ms. Ekegren (Alicia.Ekegren@stpaul.k12.mn.us) if you have any further questions.
Counseling Connection Corner
Schedule Changes
As a clearer picture begins to emerge regarding Hidden River's overall student enrollment, counselors are looking for ways to reduce over-capacity class sizes at impacted grade levels. What this means is that students will see some schedule changes as we work to balance classes. And by changes, we are speaking of the order in which classes appear on their schedule. Usually, this process is not able to begin until October, so we appreciate starting the process earlier, as this goes a long way towards helping students feel settled. The overall process is rather random, therefore, at this time, we are unable to honor requests to leave a schedule "as is". Every effort will be made to minimize the overall disruption to student schedules, and we will connect with impacted students prior to making any change to their schedule.
**Requests to Change Lunch Periods**
Ensuring adequate seating to cover each lunch period it vital, therefore requests to change lunch periods cannot be granted. Lunch is not a stand-alone class but rather, tied to 5th period classes. Each lunch period has a mixture of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and is not grade specific.
New Faces in the Counseling Office
The Counseling Office has welcomed 2 counseling interns this Fall.
Lauren Beckman comes to us by way of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and
Eva Bulson-Lewis joins us from the University of Minnesota. Both are pursuing their graduate degree in School Counseling and have gotten off to a busy start supporting students in the counseling office. They will be wrapping up their learning with us between mid-October to early November.
Quarter 1: SEL, IAS & PLPs
This year, counselors are kicking off quarter 1 with the introduction (or re-introduction) to Social-Emotional Learning(SEL), Individual Advising Meeting(IAM) for 8th graders and Personal Learning Plans(PLP). Through Counselor Classroom Visits and lessons facilitated by Foundations Teachers, students will explore an array of topics that promote Social Emotional Growth, Career Exploration and Academic Achievement. Lessons will include Digital Citizenship, Positive Peer Connections, Academic Success and Career Exploration to name a few. Foundations teachers have received a robust toolkit of lessons/activities to get started this month.
Quarter 1 Goals:
- Digital Citizenship (technology & internet safety) lessons complete by Sept. 30th
- Individual Advising Meeting for each 8th grade student (with their counselor) by Oct. 19th *Uniform timeline set for all SPPS 8th grade students*
- PLP-Personal Learning Plan review (via Xello & Clever iPad Apps) both in Foundations and during Counselor Classroom Visits
- Weekly Foundations lessons focusing on Social Emotional Learning/Growth/Development
With so much information to take in at the beginning of the school year, we encourage students and families to reach out to the Hidden River Counseling Team with any questions that may arise.
~Barbie Woodruff: barbie.woodruff@spps.org (Grades 6-8, last names A-L)
~Ayoub Nigatu: ayoub.nigatu@spps.org (Grades 6-8, last names M-Z)