Rice Middle School eNews
Monday, February 8, 2016
Table of Contents
1. Rice's 2016 Geography Bee Champion is...
2. Rice Students Win Big at District Spelling Bee!
3. Rice's Whiz Quiz Teams Wow at Competition!
4. Rice's Chalk Artist of the Week
5. Drug and Alcohol Prevention Information
6. 2014-2015 State and Federal School Report Cards for Rice
7. PTA News
8. Interested in AVID for the 2016-2017 school year?
9. News from Nurse: Parents of 6th Graders
10. Yearbook News
11. Scholarship opportunities for PISD's CenterStage Summer Camp!
12. Speech and Debate Classes at Rice
13. Join the Rice Cheerleading Squad!
14. Donations Still Needed for Rice's New Makerspace!
1. Akshay Shyam, a 7th grader, is Rice's 2016 Rice MS Geography Bee Champion!
We are so proud of your achievement, Akshay!!!
2. Rice Students Win Big at District Spelling Bee!
The PISD Spelling Bee was held last Friday after school. Rice Middle School sent three students out of a total of 39. After eleven rounds and over three hours of spelling, five students from our district are advancing to the Collin County Spelling Bee. Two of these five students are from Rice. Congratulations to Nairit Sarkar (6th grader) and Neha Thomas (8th grader).
* In the picture below Neha is first from the left, and Nairit is in the middle with the red shirt. We are so P-R-O-U_D of you!!!
3. Rice's Whiz Quiz Team Wows Competition!
Congratulation to our 3 awesome RMS Whiz Quiz Teams for their performance in the District tournament on Saturday! ALL 3 grade-level teams will go on to the district finals this Wednesday night in the PISD Administration Board Room! 8th grade will face Schimelpfenig, 7th grade will face Murphy, and 6th grade will face Otto to decide the district champions!
Way to go RMS Whiz Quiz Teams!
4. Congratulations to Abhitha Batikeri, 8th grader, Rice's Chalk Artist of the Week!
5. Drug and Alcohol Prevention Information
Did you know that PISD has a Substance Abuse Prevention website?
Here is the link, http://k12.pisd.edu/substance-abuse-prevention be sure to check out the videos linked on the home page and the excellent informational websites linked on the “Resources” page.
You might also want to take a moment to read the article, "“Increasing Overdoses From Synthetic Cannabinoids (“Spice,” "K2,” etc.) in Several State," featured in the link below:
6. 2014-2015 State and Federal School Report Cards for Rice
The State and Federal 2014-2015 School Report Cards for Rice Middle School has now been released, and posted to the Rice Middle School website: http://k12.pisd.edu/rice-middle-school/tapr. These reports are required by the Texas Legislature and Federal Department of Education. The report provides information concerning student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), as well as information on student enrollment, class size averages, and financial expenditures. The information contained in the School Report Card is briefly described in the "School Report Card Definitions." If you have any questions concerning the School Report Cards, please let us know. Thank you for your continued support of Rice!
7. PTA News
A. World Arts Family Night
Attention Rice Families!
Our PTA is sponsoring a World Fine Arts Family Night on Monday, February 29th at 6:00 PM in the Rice cafeteria.
Do stop by to enjoy this fun event during the Open House.
Mark your calendars now for the Leap Day evening! More details will follow next month.
*If you would like to volunteer or help out with Henna art, please contact:
Sona Kasargod
Rice PTA Cultural Diversity Program Chair
Email: sonadileep@yahoo.co.uk
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B. PTA Board Openings 2016-2017*
*President
*1st VP of Membership
*3rd VP of Ways & Means
*4th VP of Volunteers
*Secretary
*Treasurer
*Parliamentarian
*Communications
*For more information on any of these contact Shannon DeWolf at president@ricepta.org
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C. Attention 8th Grade Students and Parents!
Celebrate your final year at Rice with an end-of-year 8th grade party at the Heritage Farmstead Museum on Friday, May 20th, from 7-9 PM. Plans are already underway, and we are currently looking for someone to create a video to highlight the past three years at Rice. If video creation is your thing and you would like to help out, please contact either Bethany Ulteig (gulteig@sbcglobal.net) or Cristi Dyer (cristi.dyer@pisd.edu). We will need lots of additional volunteers to make this event fun for our students. Please be on the lookout for announcements in the coming weeks with more information regarding 8th Grade Celebration.
8. Interested in AVID for the 2016-2017 school year?
Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) is a year long elective that teaches study skills, provides in class tutorials, encourages leadership and community service, and requires students to participate in courses of rigor. Recruitment for the 2016-2017 school year will get underway soon. If you are interested in your child joining AVID next year, please attend the Parent/Student Information Night on Wednesday, February 10th, at 6 PM in the library. Our AVID coordinator, Mrs. Dyer, will present information about AVID at Rice and the high school level. Current Rice and high school AVID students will share their experiences as well.
9. News from the Nurse--Attention Parents of 6th Graders
Please click on the link below to view important information from Nurse Yang, regarding immunization requirements students who will be 7th graders in 2016-2017.
10. Scholarship opportunities for PISD's CenterStage Summer Camp!
Are you an 8th grader and plan to take a theatre or tech theatre class at Jasper next year? Jasper Theatre and Jasper Theatre Boosters are providing full and partial scholarships to PISD's CenterStage Summer Camp. Please see Mrs. Petropoulos in room 731 for more information and to apply.
11. Speech and Debate Classes at Rice
Interested in taking a speech class at Rice next year? Click on the following link to get information on speech classes and access the applications for debate and tournament prep
12. Yearbook News
13. Join the Rice Cheerleading Squad!
If you are a 7th grader interested or want to know more about what Rice Cheer is all about, please attend the student interest meeting Wednesday, February 24 at 3:45pm in Ms. Hughes room 813. We will have current cheerleaders present to tell you what they love doing. Parent meeting with be held Monday, February 29 at 5:30pm in the Rice Library. The parent meeting is mandatory for all cheerleaders wanting to join. If you have any questions contact the cheerleading sponsors Mrs. Epley nicole.epley@pisd.edu or Ms. Hughes ashley.hughes@pisd.edu.