Cubs Newsletter

It's not too late to get signed up for Girl's Wrestling or Boy's Basketball, but almost!! Get it done this weekend, please. 😁

The girl's first wrestling practice is this Monday, October 19th.

Basketball starts for the 7th and 8th grade boys this Thursday, October 22nd. The first two practices are team selection practices - Thursday 10/22 and Friday 10/23. The 7th grade boys will practice first from 3:30 - 5:00 PM and then the 8th grade boys from 5:00 - 6:30 PM. All practices are in the Bear Den. Once teams are decided, more information on practice locations will be announced. The 6th grade boys start practice on Monday, October 26th.

Sports photos for Girl's Wrestling and Boy's Basketball are Wednesday November 4th.

I'm attaching calendars for each of these sports.

We certainly hope that nothing will change, but please know that things happen all the time that we have no control over, and there will undoubtedly be changes to the calendar throughout the season.

We have very limited gym space and we are low on the totem pole, so if a High School event gets scheduled unexpectedly, and that happens all the time, we will get bumped. If a nice middle-aged man in Lewiston gets the flu, and he can't drive his usual bus route, Lewiston will cancel their bus to a Moscow game...we have to change our game schedule and that impacts other team's practices. There are a lot of moving parts!!

Chemistry Night is this Wednesday, October 21st, from 4:00 - 6:00 PM in the MPR.

We are very excited to bring you this fun event again this year. Kids of all ages are welcome. We have lots of fun information to share, and cool things to do planned. We appreciate our community school's coordinator, Ms. Godfrey for leading the effort, Mr. Hoyt for helping, and our scientist friends from WSU, The University of Idaho, and SEL for participating.

We hope to see you at Chemistry Night!

I'm so excited to attend our first MMS music concert of the year! Please join us this Thursday, October 22nd, at 7:00 PM at the MHS Auditorium. Students need to arrive at 6:30, please, to get warmed up.

I sneak into music classes whenever I can, and the students are sounding really good! I happened to be in the classroom when Ms. Yenne was teaching Beginning Band students how to produce sound from their various instruments...how to push the buttons, attach the slide, wet the reed...they are making actual music now, not just noise! I know they are very excited to share what they have learned with their families and friends. I'll see you there!

Just a quick note about conferences:

First of all, to our 6th grade parents, conferences at the secondary level are a lot different than at the elementary level. Now that students are older, it starts to become their responsibility to communicate with their parents about how they are doing in school, their grades, their assignments, etc. They are on their way to becoming independent young adults. Also - now that students have several different teachers every day, and those teachers have hundreds of students, it is not logistically possible for each teacher to have a one-on-one 20-30 minute conference with each of their student's parents. It would take days!! Parents would need to attend 7 different conferences!

At the middle level, as with everything else, we have our own unique way of doing conferences. We can't have a conference with everyone, so we focus on the students with the greatest need. We are looking at grades, talking with teachers, and making decisions about which families will need conferences the most. THEN, we will reach out to those families individually to schedule conferences. That is quite a puzzle...a teacher can't be in two places at the same time...so we have to construct quite an elaborate matrix of conference times and places, and our teachers spend the day bouncing from place to place. We are making those plans now, and I'll get more information out as soon as we finalize.

If you don't get a personal invitation to attend a conference, with a specific time and location, that is actually GOOD news! Our teachers try really hard to share as much information with as many parents as possible, between in-person conferences, on October 29th and 30th, while also finalizing Quarter One grades. You might get a class email, or a phone call, or even a card in the mail. Watch for those things, but if you need to attend an in person conference, we will reach out to you about that before October 29th. Otherwise, no news is good news. It means your student is not at the top of our worry list. If we do reach out to you to schedule a conference, it is because we care a lot about your student, and want to work with you to help them be successful. It doesn't mean we don't like them, or that they are a bad kid.

Feel free to email teachers if you have any questions or concerns about how your student is doing in their class. You can also call the school - we have noticed a fair amount of parent emails are landing in our promotions or spam folders - so don't give up! Ms. Stone and Mr. Hespelt are also excellent people to reach out to, if you have any concerns about school. We all want to make sure your student is doing well here at MMS and navigating these three crazy years of life as best as possible. 🙂

We have a great after school opportunity for students to get help finishing up school work called Homework Club. Ms. Whitney - one of our amazing teachers - hosts this club in her classroom and assists students with completing work. She has Chromebooks, if your child needs one to complete work, they are here in the building and can often turn completed work into their teachers or get help from them too, and there is even a bus available to take kids home if that is needed. Parents need to sign up their kids with the link below. Go Cubs!

Did you know that we have a spider celebrity here in Moscow? We do - the Hexura Vandal spider! Our students will have the opportunity to learn more about this spider and help make it the Idaho state spider. This will be happening on November 6th during Home Room. Students will need to sign up to take part in this event with their science teachers.

Next Week

Monday - Girl's Wrestling practices start

Monday - A Team Volleyball away at Jenifer

Tuesday- Football game at HOME vs Pullman

Wednesday - Cub PRIDE Activity - Goal Setting

Wednesday - Chemistry Night at MMS 4 – 6 in the MPR

Thursday - Forest Simulator Machine at MMS

Thursday - 7th & 8th grade Boys Basketball practices start *Team Selection*

Thursday - Fall Music Concert @ 7:00 PM in HS Auditorium

Friday - Day two of 7th & 8th grade Boys Basketball team selection practices

On the Calendar

10/26 - Community Connections Class Field Trip to UI

10/29 - No School for Kids – Conference Day

10/30 - No School for kids – Data/Work Day

11/3 - Girl's Wrestling Intramural matches 4:00 @ Bear Den

11/4 – Sports Photos for GW and BB

11/5 - Girl's Wrestling HOME Duel Meet vs Sandpoint in Bear Den

11/6 – Spider Day in Homeroom

11/5 - Boys Basketball A Teams at HOME vs Sacajawea @ MHS gym

11/6 - Boys Basketball 6th grade matches at 3:30 in the Bear Den

11/9 - Girl's Wrestling "Queen of the Mat" HOME tournament in the Bear Den

11/9 – B Team Boys Basketball HOME games at MHS gym

11/9 – Communities for Youth Data Walk

11/10 - Boys Basketball A Team at HOME vs Clarkston

11/11 - Cub PRIDE lesson – Respect

11/11 – PST Meeting

11/12 - Boys Basketball A Team away vs Lapwai

11/12 – Boys Basketball B Team away games @ Pullman

11/13 - Boys Basketball 6th grade matches

11/16 – Boys Basketball B Teams away games @ Pullman

11/17 - Boys Basketball A Team HOME vs Jenifer

11/17 - Girl's Wrestling away at Sandpoint

11/19 - Fire Drill in the morning

11/19 - Boys Basketball A Team away vs Pullman

11/19 – Boys Basketball B Teams HOME @MHS gym

11/20 - Boys Basketball 6th grade matches

11/23 - Thanksgiving Break

Please see our MMS website for more information. A link to the most up-to-date sports information is below. Go Cubs!