Thunderblast 2023
Taking Risks by OWNING Our Learning- November 19, 2023
... and the Hits Keep Coming!
I am chaperoning the Dominion High School trip to Germany over Thanksgiving break. I will be missing 5 school days. This is a great experience with students who were my first 6th grade class 7 years ago... AND, I am sad. There is nothing I look forward to more than my time at Seneca and time with my family. Sacrificing both of these for 10 days will be difficult, and I will miss you dearly. Below are some quick updates as I wish you a safe and happy THANKSGIVING!
- Thunderblast- There will not be a Thunderblast next Sunday. We are covering as much as we can for the week after in this newsletter.
- Wed, Nov 15: PTO Potluck- As always, our PTO with the support of so many families and our business partner, Local Provisions (see photo), made this a huge success. I'm still full!
- Th-F, Nov 16-17: Bring Your Parent to School Day- Thank you so much for making this a success. We had 67 families sign-up, and we may have had another 80 write-ins if I am reading the form properly. Regardless of the number, for a school of 850 students, to have over 100 family members visit is a huge success. Thank you for taking a risk!
- Sat, Nov 18: Turkey Trot- I have to go back and do my research, but with approximately 18 years of this tradition, this Saturday had the most attendees. We had the Dominion Wrestling Team, Staff Members, CORE Champions, Families, Dogs, and the most Students ever in attendance. What a great event!
- Mon, Nov 20: Bloom Science Event- On Monday, the division will be hosting a Health and Medical Science Event for our 6th Grade Students in our Level-Up STEM program. We love partnering with this team and inviting so many schools in our building.
- Tues, Nov 21: PBIS Activity Day- Our yearly tradition of rewarding our students for great work in the first quarter will take place on Tuesday, November 21. Each grade level will have a block where they are able to participate in various games, sports, salon work, Just Dance competitions, and anything of their choosing. If you are coming for early dismissal, 6th grade is participating B1-2, 7th Grade B3-4, and 8th Grade B7-8. Students are able to be independent with supervision, so it is very difficult to find them in a timely manner without prior communication.
PTO Potluck
Bring Your Parent to School
Turkey Trot
8th grade
1 Tyler Anderson
2 Quinn Bashaw
3 James Whitworth
7th grade
1 Allison Florkowski
2 Paige Goodykoontz
3 Sunay Sharma
6th grade
1 Beni Domonkos
2 Benjamin Honea
3 Daniel Benedict
All Seneca students are welcome to come and dance, have fun, play sports, and be with their friends! Tickets go on sale in person November 28 before school starts by the auditorium. Tickets for the dance are $1, tickets for the dance and pizza are $6. If your student brings in a canned good/nonperishable item, there is a $1 discount on their ticket price! Permission forms and the ticket online payment portal will be available on the school website starting Sunday, November 26. Paper permission forms will be sent home with students in Storm/advisory.
Please email Kelly.OGrady@lcps.org or Emily.McKenica@lcps.org with any questions!
Attendance Policy
Since COVID, chronic absenteeism across the division and across the country has increased to worrisome levels. LCPS has created a more centralized set of guidelines as all schools have this as part of their School Improvement Plans. Once change, is that vacations are now unexcused. We will keep you posted about any patterns we see. See your house administrative assistant for any questions.
Winter VGA
When we return from Thanksgiving Break, we will be conducting our winter session of the Virginia Growth Assessment (VGA). We will give the English VGA on Monday, November 27 and Math on Thursday, November 30. The VGA is a 20-25 questions SOL style assessment that the students take twice a year. Teachers can use the breakdown of this data to determine which Standards of Learning students have mastered and which they might need some extra support with. We will be conducting both assessments as a whole school; therefore, on these two days, students will follow an adjusted schedule so they can still attend all of their classes. Please reach out to Dr. Wakefield, maria.wakefield@lcps.org, with any follow-up questions you might have.
Bounty Of Books
Did you know that we have hundreds of audiobooks in MackinVia? These can easily be downloaded to a phone and played during a long trip. Find all sorts of titles - fiction, non-fiction, short, long - we have them all!
The Book Fair is coming to Seneca!
We are so excited to have Bedford Falls Book Fair coming to Seneca this year. The fair will be open 8:30 - 3:30 December 6th - December 13th, with evening hours Monday, December 11th until 7:00pm. All purchases help the school library be a comfortable and inviting place for all our students!
Unified Mental Health Team (UMHT)
Seneca’s UMHT: One of our goals is to provide families with information on community resources, access to basic needs, mental health/crisis counseling, reducing stress/anxiety, substance abuse resources, and resources to support learning. Please feel free to access the resources below as needed.
PBIS - Students of the Week... I am THANKFUL for YOU!!!
Congrats to this week's PBIS winners!!
Shane Harvey 6
Ezel Demirer 7
Andrew Saleh 8
Gabriel Mengers 6
Avani Ghanti 7
Luke Correll 8
Mackenzie Bergeron 6 J
ennifer Ochoa Reyes 7
Jose Rodriguez Soloranzo 8
Cora Kellogg 6
Rommel Castro Solorzano 7
Peter Lopez Hernandez 8
PBIS - Staff Of The Week
Ms. Kirkendale came to us late last summer from Hillside Elementary School as a fourth grade teacher. At Seneca, she has been working as a coteacher and focused on small group reading instruction. Her dedication, collaboration, kindness, and perseverance have been a huge asset for EACH of our students, especially our English Language Learners! Great job this year, Ms. Kirkendale!
PTO Corner
Visit us on Website- https://srms.ptboard.com/ and follow us on Facebook- Seneca Ridge Middle School PTO & Seneca Ridge Home of the Thunderbolts
NEXT PTO MEETING - Dec 6 at 9am in SRMS library.
Spirit Wear- PTO will be setting up table on Nov 16 and Nov 17, meet us at our table to stock up your school Spiritwear! Check out our in-stock inventory here!
Parent Coffee - Friday, Dec 8 @11:00AM
Frohes Erntedankfest, Senecadianer!
📨 Email: nick.cottone@lcps.org
💻 Website: Seneca Ridge Middle School
🏫 Location: 98 Seneca Ridge Drive, Sterling, VA 20164
☎️ Phone: 571-434-4420