Making the best of a cold December!

What a busy month of December we have had. In fact, this month has been so busy with activities that we have not had time to update you on our happenings in the blog! Below are some snapshots of what we have been doing this month.

Additionally, please take some time to complete the parent survey below for the middle school. This survey will help us to continue to improve our school, and is an opportunity for you to provide us input on what we are doing well, and what we need to continue to work on!

Freeland Middle School Parent Survey

Choir - Caroling at Assisted Living Facilities
Our middle school choir recently went to Bartonwoods and Stone Crest Assisted Living facilities to sing carols to the residents. It was a wonderful afternoon for students, and was a great way for them to give back to the community.

Students Giving Back

Laney Rigg and Jessica Latty recently visited Good Samaritan Rescue Mission in Bay City to do crafts with children who are staying at the rescue mission. This was an opportunity for them to give back to their community, and uplift spirits for the holidays!

Band and Choir Concert
Earlier this month both the band and choir had their Christmas concerts. The house was packed watching these two groups perform. Both did an amazing job!

GRIT Homeroom
We had a homeroom in December focused around our second marking period theme - resilience. This is part two of our year long GRIT theme. First marking period we focused on growth and what it means to have a growth mindset. Next marking period we will be discussing integrity.

2nd Annual Feliz Navi-Dodgeball

Our second annual dodgeball tournament was a HUGE success. None of this could have happened without the organization, planning, and preparation that Mrs. Gotts and the student council put into the event. We had 16 teams participate, and had a full house watching the tournament this year. A huge thank you goes out to the FAA and all teachers who participated in the event. Whether it was working the concessions stand, playing in the teacher round, or being a ref during the game, everyone was involved in making this year's dodgeball tournament one filled with great middle school memories!

Congratulations to the winning team The Snipers!

And a huge shout out to all of our parents who participated in the parent vs. student game!

For even more images of the dodgeball tournament, check out this Google Folder. It is full of images from the entire event!

Have a wonderful winter break and Happy New Year! See you all in 2017. 

Middle School Parent Survey

In order to continue to improve our school, we ask that all parents take time to complete the Middle School survey attached below. This is a survey that will only take about 10 minutes of your time, and is very beneficial for our staff and students!

We will also have this survey available during our February 9th conferences.

Middle School Parent Survey 

Thank you for taking this survey and sharing your thoughts with us. Your responses are appreciated!

The start of a new marking period brings many new adventures...

Wow! It is hard to  believe we have already wrapped up our first marking period and are headed quickly towards our Thanksgiving Break. Where has the time gone this year?

Recently, we have have had a lot of new things going on at the middle school. We had a pep assembly for students as well as a field trip. Both of these have brought our students together and have made our Freeland Middle School family closer! Additionally, we have many genius hour projects that are going exceptionally well. Finally, we also have a lot to celebrate as we honor two students who are our Optimist Club recipients this year.

Pep Assembly

To celebrate the end of the first marking period we had a great pep assembly recognizing students who showed GRIT first semester. We focused on what our second marking period theme will be, Resilience, and also recognized students for their sports and clubs.

Genius Hour

We also have had some great projects going on for our Genius Hour. Genius Hour is a concept that Mrs. Williamson (8th grade ELA) learned about this summer at a conference. The idea is to allow students to explore things they are truly interested in while engaging in essential research skills, presentation skills, and other key literacy skills. Mrs. Williamson is working on Genius Hour every Friday and her students are doing some fantastic work! So far, some of the genius hour projects have focused in on raising money for cancer awareness, making a mark on Freeland Middle School through an 8th grade class mural, collecting items for the Underground Railroad and many more! Students are truly "owning" their learning with these interest projects.

Optimist Club

A huge congratulations goes out to Amanda Comstock and Alex Holt for being chosen by their 8th grade teachers for the Optimist Club award recipient this year. These students are positive leaders in the school, and do a great job making FMS an inviting and positive place to be!

Spirit Game Field Trip

On Wednesday, November 16th our whole school celebrated our GRIT theme by attending a Saginaw Spirit Education Game day. The day started with a STEM exploration at the Dow Event Center where students were able to do things like create replications of their own DNA. Following this, students celebrated together by watching a Saginaw Spirit game. For some students, this was their first ever hockey game and was something they truly enjoyed!

Many... many...many middle school updates!

We have had so many great things happening in the middle school recently. The last two weeks we have spent our lunch periods having a great volleyball tournament. We had over 10 teams participate in this tournament which got 50+ of our students participating in the tournament during this two week period.

Congratulations to our winning team!

Also, thank you to all of those students who participated and watched the tournament for the last two weeks.

What else have we had going on? We just had our first middle school dance! We are so excited about how it went and have to give a huge shout out to Mrs. Gotts and our middle school student council for putting on a great Halloween dance!

Finally, another shout out goes to Mrs. Gotts and her Health class for putting on a fantastic Project Based Learning gallery walk based on various research projects on different systems in the body. Whether it was the cardiovascular system, muscular system, digestive system or more the 8th grade health students knocked it out of the park with their presentations!

Great job Freeland Middle School students and staff - you make us proud to be Falcons. Every Day. Go Green! Go White! Go Falcons!

Freeland Middle School loves STEM!

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. This year, Freeland Middle School has embraced STEM in a variety of ways. There is no better way to show how we are positively impacting students through work in the STEM areas than through some pictures!

Ms. Heckman's 8th grade Science class had a great time exploring the STEM bus. Delta partnered with our school to bring the bus to FMS and engage students in a variety of activities including crime solving activities, virtual reality simulations and more!

We also started our first middle school after-school math club! Ms. Mehnert is using the MathCounts "club in a box" curriculum to guide students through a fun and exciting math based activity every week. The club meets after school every Monday, and has been a great success so far!

In class, Ms. Shea and Ms. Hannon make sure that our Chromebooks are being put to good use! They use technology almost daily in class to enhance student learning and have seen students engagement levels improve with the new Chromebooks the middle school purchased over the summer.

Overall, it is a great time to be a Falcon at Freeland Middle School! We are enjoying our start to the school year, and already have built great memories in our classes.