Hickory Creek Newsletter

Academics Goal:

• We will continue to provide rigor and opportunity for academic growth to all students in grades 6th - 8th.

Social/Emotional Goal:

• We will support staff and student social and emotional needs and enhance the opportunity for growth in relationships.

Communication Goal:

• We will increase opportunities for family engagement both during the school day and through extra-curricular activities.

Safety Goal:

• We will provide a safe learning environment for staff and students in grades 6th - 8th.

February 9th - Student Council Spriit Day - Valentines Days Colors - 6th grade wear pink - 7th grade wear red - 8th grade wear white

February 9th - Geography Bee at 4:00 P.M.

February 10th - Lincoln-Way East will be visiting 8th Graders in the AM for Step Up Day

February 10th - Fastbridge Reports will be sent home

February 16th - FSP hosting Board of Education Forum at HCMS @ 6:30 PM

February 17th - SIP Day - early dismissal 10:45 A.M.

February 20th - No School - President's Day

February 21st - Erin's Law presentations in Connolly and Rodger's classes

February 22nd - Erin's Law presentations in Connolly and Rodger's classes

February 23rd - Student Council Spriit Day - This or That - Wear College or High School Spirit wear

February 23rd - Tiger University Digital Safety Presentation @ HCMS 6:00 P.M.

February 24th - Rebecca Caudill voting party during lunch for students who read three or more titles

Mark your calendars. We will celebrate our 8th Grade Graduation on May 21st at 2:00 P.M. at LW East H.S.

Other 8th Grade End of the Year Events to Look Forward to:

• February 10, 2023 – Lincoln-Way East will be coming to Hickory Creek to discuss opportunities at East for next year.

• February 15, 2023 – Lincoln-Way East Open House for Class of 2027 in the evening.

• May 17, 2023 – Graduation rehearsal will be held in the afternoon (Class t-shirts will be distributed at this practice).

• May 17, 2023 – Parent volunteers are planning the 8th Grade Dance for all students in the evening. This will be held at Zachary’s Red Barn at Konow’s (non-school sponsored event). The information on registration, times, etc. will be shared soon by the parent volunteers. There is a Facebook page created for this event called “Hickory Creek Dance Class of 2023.”

• May 18, 2023 – All 8th Graders will be invited to a class trip to Great America in Gurnee.

• May 19, 2023 – Graduation rehearsal in the morning. (Gowns, tassels, and medals will be distributed at this practice).

• May 19, 2023 – Yearbook distribution, signing and pizza party for the 8th Grade Class in the afternoon.

The Seventh-Grade class will be traveling to Springfield on Thursday, May 25th for a day of exploring and learning about our state history. We will be traveling with Hemisphere Travel for this experience.

Your child brought home an information packet last week that provides all necessary details. You will be receiving a packet on yellow colored paper, that is information for you to keep and a packet on white paper, which needs to be filled out and returned to your child’s first hour teacher by March 17th. The cost of this trip is $130.00 and can be paid online using the following link: https://www.myschoolbucks.com/ver2/prdembd?ref=ZZI454CNBLIPQZG_ZZW9QBF573AQ4S7

Payment and paperwork must be received by March 17th (at 12:00 P.M.). We are unable to accept late registrations. The cost of the trip includes charter busses, admission into sites, a class t-shirt and a pizza lunch.

Once registration closes on March 17th, we will know how many chaperones will be needed and will reach out at that time to secure parent volunteers. We are not able to take chaperone requests at this time.

We look forward to a wonderful end of year experience for your child!

Plans are being finalized for 6th Grade Field Trip in late May. Details will be sent in the next couple weeks, stay tuned.

In the event the District calls for an Emergency E-Learning Day due to bad weather - Hickory Creek students will be supported in their virtual learning in the following way:

• All students will be expected to log in to their Tiger Time Teacher's TEAMs page by 7:45 A.M. for attendance and announcements.
• After Tiger Time, students will attend 30-minute single classes (60-minute blocked classes) throughout the rest of the morning by virtually logging in to each teacher's TEAMs page. The "Virtual Bell Schedule" is attached below.
• All students will be given a lunch and study break from 11:50 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.
• From 1:00 P.M. - 2:30 P.M., students will not be required to be online with teachers unless they have specific questions or are invited to a small group learning opportunity for a specific class. Teachers will be available through Microsoft Chat during this time for any questions that students may have from their morning work.
• During the morning hours, attendance will be taken for each class, students are expected to attend by being on-time and having their camera on, actively participating. If your child will not be in attendance on this day, you will need to call them in to our office so that their attendance can be recorded. These will be learning days and curriculum will move forward, just done virtually.

We encourage all students to attend school regularly. As noted in this newsletter, there is so much that goes on each day to help your child learn, we do not want them to miss anything!!

If your child is going to be out for an extended time, please complete the attached form and have your child bring it to each teacher, while collecting missing work, and get it signed. https://4.files.edl.io/bbab/08/21/20/144043-e70fd2b5-79e5-4142-8807-65560fc63082.pdf

Just a reminder, all staff and students at Hickory Creek are to wear their school issued lanyards with IDs attached to them each day.

Students who leave their lanyard at home will sign out a loaner lanyard for the day from the front office and be expected to return it in a basket in the office before leaving the building.

• Students will be tracked each time they need a loaner lanyard. By the 3rd time in a quarter that they request a loaner- Mr. Crockett will call home.

Students who have lost their lanyard & ID will have the following options:

• 1st Time – free replacement for lanyard and ID.

• 2nd Time – Charged $3.00 to My School Bucks and a replacement will be given.

• 3rd Time – Charged $3.00, a replacement given and a meeting with Mr. Crockett with parent notification

• 4th Time – Charged $3,00, a replacement given and a consequence from Mr. Crockett. Progressive discipline will follow with any infractions after this incident.

When Quarter 3 began on January 17th, student lanyard checks became continuous, until the end of the school year. During the second semester this year, there will not be Quarterly resets. Thank you for your support.

Our sixth-grade students are moving into our Quarter 3 Essential Question: How do events in our life shape who we are? Throughout this quarter, students will examine articles that reflect around the Civil Rights Movement to help answer this essential question. We will also continue to work on writing our Argument Writing Essay.

Students are wrapping up our Expressions Unit and moving into solving Equations. Students will be writing and graphing inequalities, solving one-step equations, and writing equations from scenarios.

Students are wrapping up the chemistry unit and will be diving into Earth and Space Science. In this unit, students will be looking at quantitative and qualitative data to gather evidence on the movement and relationship between the earth, sun and moon.

Continuing with our study of ancient “River Civilizations”, students are studying Egypt and the Nile River. This fascinating civilization has captured the minds of former students and will be equally engaging for this year’s students.

Seventh grade students have jumped in exploring the essential question: What is more important, the journey or the destination? The students will go on a quest down the Appalachian Trail with Jack Baker and Early Auden, the main characters in Claire Vanderpool’s novel, Navigating Early. While others will embark on a journey on the Orient Express searching for the murderer of Edward Ratchet. All students will navigate through the narrative writing process by the end of the quarter!

Friendly reminder that Springfield Field Trip permission forms (two forms) are due by March 17th!

During the month of February, 7th grade core math students will be working on expressions and equations. This will incorporate all of the standards we have covered thus far in 7th grade. In 7th grade honors math, students will continue with their expressions and equations unit including the 8th grade standards.

We just finished our Power Point Presentations and have diagnosed M’Kenna! In February, we will investigate the chemical reactions occurring in the respiratory system. Physics will be our next unit.

It's that time of year in 7th grade the Constitution Unit! Students have begun studying the U.S. government and the Constitution. Students will learn about the roles and responsibilities of each branch in the U.S. government. In addition to coming away with the understanding of how democracy and the Constitution provide American citizens liberties and freedoms, but also ensure the limit of government power.

8th grade ELA is exploring the essential question “How does othering affect individuals and humanity in general? What does the way an individual treat others reveal about them?” We are reading both fictional and non-fiction texts related to this essential question, including Night, while continuing to bulk up our vocabulary and grammar.

For the month of February 8th graders will be starting a chapter on exponents and scientific notation. They will be learning all the rules to add, subtract, multiply and divide exponents. We will also be exploring what scientific notation is, why it is used, and how to write it properly. In Honors, we will complete the above information as well as all operations with scientific notation and application problems.

We are wrapping up our Life Unit with Genetic Disorder research & presentations. 8th graders will be moving on to Physics (no pun intended) where we will be conducting many activities to the forces which make something move, stop moving and change direction.

Eighth grade social studies will be exploring World War I and the major themes surrounding this event – alliances, nationalism, imperialism, and militarism. After studying the war, students will look at the impacts of Treaty of Versailles and will begin the study of the Roaring Twenties.

Our 8th grade students finished their Spanish 2 Placement Assessment for high school next year! We are so proud of how much they have progressed and accomplished this year so far. They were able to recall and use vocabulary from the beginning of the year. They continue to amaze us!

As we begin 3rd Quarter, our 8th grade students are learning how to invite others to do something and accept or decline an invitation. We will move on to describing family members.

7th Grade students are diving right into Spanish this quarter! We are reviewing ways to introduce and describe ourselves, and to talk about what we like to do in our free time. Our first unit will be Capitulo 2A where students will learn to talk about their school schedule.

In 6th Grade Spanish, we are learning to introduce ourselves and talk about what we like to do. It has been awesome to watch our students embrace speaking in the target language!

3rd Quarter is off to a great start!

8th Grade Drawing and Painting students are beginning their semester by practicing chiaroscuro shading techniques developed during the Renaissance.

7th Grade Art students are studying a variety of different still life artists and will use them as inspiration for their own creative still life compositions.

6th Grade Art Students are starting their quarter by reviewing the color wheel and diving deeper into color theory. They will then create an abstract work of art focused on color.

8th Grade Music Production has been starting the semester with an Introduction to our Digital Audio Workstation Soundtrap. To help with our exploration we will be creating our first project: AABA.

8th Grade Video Production Class has started the semester with their first episode of Tiger TV and learning about all the different roles of the broadcast’s production.

7th Grade has been starting the quarter with a rhythm unit, where students have been exploring many different genres of music while learning about rhythm.

6th Grade has been starting the quarter with a rhythm unit, where students have been exploring many different genres of music while learning about rhythm.

8th Grade STEM – The Engineering and Design semester long classes are underway! The students will create wiggle bots to race as a table group, as well as select and complete a project from our classroom’s Maker’s Cart.

7th Grade STEM – The students will be creating a project using the Engineering Design Process they learned, as well as beginning to create a design they wish to 3D print!

6th Grade STEM – The students will learn shortcuts on their computers that will make their coding unit a breeze. The students will also learn to code a variety of robots and microprocessors.

Students with the teachers of Mr. Ford, Mr. Purpura, and Ms. Ziemba recently finished their quarter of health and are back in PE every day. Some of our units they will be exploring in PE are Volleyball and Basketball this month.

Mr. Connolly and Mrs. Rodgers class are in Health getting a variety of topics taught to them. They will be in health class Monday through Thursday, and on Friday they will come down to the gym for Fitness Friday.

Tiger Time Advisory has had a very successful launch this school year. Each morning students meet with their group of peers and teacher advisor for 20 minutes. During this time, the following activities and lessons are shared:

• Monday - Tiger Time TV viewing
• Tuesday - Executive Functioning Skills
• Wednesday - "WIN Day" - What I Need Help With Day
• Thursday - SEL Lessons based on the Second Step Curriculum
• Friday - Team Building

Lesson 24: Resolving Challenging Conflicts

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will think through different ways to resolve a conflict and choose the one they think is best.

Question

Ask your child why they think different conflicts need different solutions. Tell your child about a time when you had to think about the best way to solve a conflict. What did you think about? Did it work out in the end?

Lesson 25: Making Amends

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn ways to make amends and restore a relationship they may have harmed.

Question

Tell your child about a time you had to make amends with someone. What did you do to repair the harm?

Lesson 14: Emotions Matter

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn how their brain handles strong emotions and brainstorm positive and negative decisions they might make when they feel a strong emotion.

Question

Ask your child about a negative decision they recently made because they were feeling a strong emotion. Help them think about how they can turn that negative decision into a positive one if they feel that emotion again.

Lesson 15: Feel, Think, Do

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will distinguish thoughts from emotions. They will also analyze how emotions affect their thoughts, and how their thoughts can influence the decisions they make.

Question

Ask your child to explain the difference between an emotion and a thought. Take turns expressing sentiments aloud and having the other person identify if the sentiments are thoughts or emotions. (For example, Emotion: “I’m so mad at the coach for not putting me in the game.” Thought: “That’s it—I quit!”)

Lesson 14: Understanding Stress and Anxiety

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will examine how they feel, what thoughts they have, and how their body responds when they’re stressed.

Question

Ask your child what they do or feel when they’re stressed. These signs will help you notice when your child is stressed, so you can ask them how to help or support them.

Lesson 15: Where Does Stress Come From?

Summary

In this week’s lesson, your child will learn where stress comes from, identify stressors in their life, and examine which stressors they can control.

Question

Ask your child if they have any stressors they can’t control. Discuss what they do have control over.

Cold and Flu season

Please do not send your child to school if they are ill. We are seeing a lot of runny noses, coughing, and sore throats. Please remind your child to wash their hands frequently throughout the school day and always before eating lunch or snacks.

Caudill voting is this month on February 24 during lunch. If you have read at least 3 Caudill books by February 17, you are eligible to participate. You will vote, use your points for a silent auction of prizes, and get pizza! Make sure you check in with your ELA teacher to get credit for all the books you have read. If you have read all 20 books, please contact Mrs. Raynes and fill out the form for each book with this link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=VyRK37K0O0Cd-fcLj2fipWT9eJvOPlhBlFDF8UyPOnRUN0UxMVhFV0ZNUEhKTE9YQ0ExMUtCQzdCNi4u

This month is Black History Month. The library has a display that follows this theme on the shelves under the clock.

Mrs. Raynes is returning this month and is excited to see all of you when you come in with your class!

Many of our band and orchestra students will be participating in this year’s Solo and Ensemble Contest on Saturday, February 11th at Liberty Junior High in New Lenox. Good luck to our hard-working musicians!

All 157-C Orchestra students will be participating in this year’s Strings Extravaganza at LW East on Monday, February 13th. Our string students will be playing with other musicians from District 161, LW Youth Strings, and the LW East Orchestra. It is a huge event for our students and always so much fun!

This year’s HCMS Band and Orchestra Social is set for Monday, March 13 here at school! Mark your calendars and be ready for more info!

Varsity Chorus, Advanced Choir, and Show Choir are all busy learning new repertoire for the IGSMA District Choral Contest in March. Many chorus members are busy preparing vocal solos and ensembles for the IGSMA Solo-Ensemble contest this month. Spring musical auditions have been held and we are excited to get the amazingly talented cast started on this year’s production of “Shrek the Musical”!

Throughout the month of February, Student Council members will be leading a collection of school supplies in partnership with the Frankfort Lions Club and all three FSD157-c schools. Supplies collected will be donated to schools and shelters in need to finish the school year off successfully. The Lions Club will provide pizza parties to the classes that collect the most supplies at all three schools.

In an effort to power through these long winter months, Poz Squad members engaged in activities to better understand our many feelings and how they originate. We discussed strategies to help us to remain positive in tough and overwhelming times and to help us to be our best selves. We also played some really fun games and had lots of laughs! Thanks for always making one another smile!

Our February meetings will take place on February 8th and February 22nd.

Our school wide Spelling Bee was held after school on January 17th. We had outstanding representation from each grade level. The students battled through ten rounds of words. I am so proud to say that our champion this year comes to us from team 6A.

Way to go Adrian Beri, we are so proud of you!

Best Buddies did not have a January meeting, but we will meet on February 13th. February’s meeting will consist of our club getting ready to spread the word about the mission of Best Buddies. It is our mission to inform our student body about the mission to include others.

On Friday, January 20th, 2023, we had our member meeting. We discussed the Outstanding Achievement Award, future service hour opportunities, the pillar of scholarship, and gave shoutouts to the NJHS members with all their service hours complete. We then welcomed our new 8th grade members. Congratulations to Henry Phillips, Lucas Shannon and Alini Puri on becoming new members of NJHS. Finally, we finished the meeting with a fun riddle competition to show off our knowledge. Any member that is interested in applying for the Outstanding Achievement Award can find information on our Teams page. Our next meeting will take place on: Friday, February 10th.

New 8th grade members- pictured below:

Alina Puri, Henry Phillips, Lucas Shannon

There is one more Thursday meeting, February 2, 2:15-3:15 followed by the Geo Bee on Thursday February 9. The students have reviewed the themes of Geography, physical features of the earth, state flags, countries & capitals, and map labeling. The skills used in geography include map reading using scales and keys. The students in this group are fun and very competitive when we practice via Kahoot.it games and mock GEO Bees!

Our Mathletes are gearing up for their first in-person competition. We will be heading to Momence on February 8th to compete. Permission slip forms are due back by January 31 and for us to be there on time to participate, students will need to have their own ride there and back. The coaches appreciate your help in making this competition happen for our students!

Tech Club kick off is February 2nd! The club will run every Thursday in the months of February and March. Students will have the opportunity to work with various forms of technology and it will be student choice! Please email Mrs. Caruso or Mrs. Fletcher if you have any questions.

HCMS is having a great season! Our players are meeting and tracking friendly games, while our state bound students are working on upping their openings. Soon, we will add timed play into the mix, as well as learning notation in preparation for our State Bid! State players will compete in Peoria in late February.

HCMS debate is anxiously awaiting it’s March 14th kick off date. Mrs. Drozd and Ms. Fillipo are preparing for this date!

Tiger TV is HCMS’s AV Club! We live stream games and events which can all be found directly on our YouTube Channel. We also produce a weekly broadcast with many great segments such as: Week in Review, Upcoming Events and Announcements, Joke of the Week, Teacher Feature, Special Feature, Random Facts with Humans, and more. . There are five production teams and many students that are in the club stream, take pictures, and create video edits. To see a list of all the students please check out our TEAMS page. We also have a YouTube Channel where we post our weekly broadcast, plus individual features from past episodes. Please check out our channel and subscribe using the link below.

(7) Tiger TV - YouTube

The cheerleaders have had a successful run so far at competitions this year. We look forward to supporting them at the State Competition on February 15th! Go Tigers.

Our Wrestling season is continuing strong coming off Winter Break. We had 6 individual wrestlers place in the Homer Invite and 7 placers at the Coal City Warrior Invite which is outstanding. Our Dual Team has been improving all year and narrowly pulled an upset of a team that took 1st in State last year. The energy level during that dual was awesome and provided much excitement for all!

We are winding down our regular season and looking forward to the State Series that begins with Regionals at Homer on Feb 25th and Sectionals the following week at Lincoln-Way West. Come see what you are missing in this exciting upcoming sport! Both Coach Adamos are very proud of these young wrestlers who continue to work hard every day! Good luck to our 8th graders in HS!

The 7th grade team had an outstanding regular season as they finished with a record of 17-3. The 8th grade team also had an amazing regular season finishing 17-3 as well. There are a lot of quality players on each team that have bright futures as they take the next step forward. Coach Ford is proud of all the hard work and dedication from all the players and parents that contributed to all the success. The two 7th grade players that were selected for the DPVC All Conference were Marcus Gordon and Jimmy Hellrung. The two 8th grade players selected for DPVC All Conference were Evan Riiff and Aaron Stauffacher.

Congratulations to the 6th grade boys’ basketball teams after both A and B squads recently completed successful seasons!

The A team finished on top of the Des Plaines Valley Conference standings with a 12-2 record and earned the top seed in the post-season tournament. During the tournament, the Tigers won all three of their games (Bentley, Nelson Ridge, & Hadley) to capture the title. Overall, the team ended the season with an excellent record of 17-3. During the year, the Tigers exhibited a very unselfish style of play and frustrated many of their opponents with their strong defense.

The 6th grade boys’ basketball B team completed its difficult schedule with a remarkable 17-0 record. The undefeated Tigers hustled all over the court and supported each other with incredible teamwork throughout the season.

Coach Ziemba is extremely proud of the hard work and dedication both teams showed this season and had so much fun being the 6th grade coach.

Our Girls Volleyball program is having a fantastic season! As of 1/25/23, our records are 8-0 (JV) and 4-4 (Varsity). In the month of February, we will continue our regular season conference play and compete in the Des Plaines Valley Conference tournament. Coach Roberts and Coach Vallejo are so proud to coach this amazing group of girls and we can’t wait to see how far they go this season!

6A

Rafferty Cooley and Ameena Nassar

6B

Katie Harper and Demetri Berdusis

7A

Ethan Langlands and Megan Sullivan

7B

Emerson Haefener and Colton Woodward

8A

Jonathan Nwoko and Julia Bisinotto Melo

8B

Ava Feigl and Sam Lee

ENCORE

Sarah O’Connor and Colton Zvonar

PE

Olivia Santiago and Ben Rigoni