January LMS School Report
Students and staff enjoyed the winter break but were happy to be back at school last week. Clubs continue to have a great turn out. Over 64% of our students are participating in a club this year. Clubs meet on Thursdays during lunch/recess. The options this year were Leadership, Store Managers, Yearbook, Craft Club, Engineering, and the return of the much-requested chess club. Diversity club has also begun as they meet every Monday during lunch. The Merry Madness activities put on by leadership, were a great success this last month. Students will continue to enjoy fun events and activities as they show they can manage to keep their focus on academics. The last day before winter break ended with a dance for the 7th and 8th graders and a movie/craft activity for the 5th and 6th. The turnout for both of these events was fantastic and the students had a great time.
Attendance continues to be good with an average of 92% each day even after the recent surge in illnesses. Homeroom classes are given a reward for spelling out LINCOLN PRIDE as they earn a letter every time their attendance is above 95%. At this point in the year, every class has earned their reward at least once with multiple have earned it twice.
Wrestling and Girls Basketball started practice last week and look forward to their first events starting next week.
PBIS committee continues to work on reducing referrals and improving student behavior and buy in. This quarter we will work on providing an opportunity for students to participate in a party if they receive one referral or less in the 2nd quarter. PBIS is also changing the locker plaque as it was found that the interest in the plaques had dwindled. Plaques will now be done by homeroom where all students will put their reward stickers on the class sheet to compete with the other homeroom of their given grade.
Students have done a good job of participating in the Pride t-shirt days ever Thursday as we continue to get good engagement.
5th grade will be participating in outdoor school this year during the month of March. Planning has begun and more information will be coming out to families as we move forward with this exciting opportunity. We look forward to making this a yearly activity where students stay overnight at a location with school staff for two nights. Students will be traveling to Fossil Oregon to attend an outdoor school put on by OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) called Camp Hancock. As of now we have 56 out of the 60 5th grade students who are planning to attend outdoor school.
The end of the second quarter is fast approaching (two and a half weeks away) as we continue to remind students to come back from the break strong.
January LMS Counselor Report
Over the past month at Lincoln Middle School, our SEL Coordinator has helped families and students to obtain a wide variety of needed resources as the holidays approached. Some of our students received additional food assistance for the extended break from school, external referrals for a variety of counseling and medical needs, as well as tangible resource referrals and supplies such as toiletries, clothing, and shoes. Several families received additional information on community-based resources and programs available to meet their unique stressors or needs, while several students prepared personalized coping skills and strategies to proactively plan to manage holiday-related changes and anticipated needs prior to leaving on winter break.
At Lincoln, family-initiated referrals have increased, with more parents and guardians reaching out for school-based supports for their student(s) and/or family goals. We love the partnering with parents and working together to help all of our students grow and meet their potential!