HOISINGTON — The Hoisington Middle School Cardinal Action Council felt the larger community would benefit from learning what activities and experiences students at Hoisington Middle School take part in throughout the school year. During the second half of September, the school kicked off its Kindness Initiative. 

Pat Reinhardt — Principal

It has been an exciting year. “Kindness” and “One Person Can Make a Difference” are our initiatives this year. We also focus daily on our HMS Cardinal Core Values; honesty, accountability, respect, responsibility, and leadership. 

The volleyball, football, and cross country teams have all seen growth and victories.

As a district, we will be starting MTSS (Multi Tier Support System) in both math and social-emotional areas.

Please stop by and see our greenhouse and outdoor classroom plans.

HMS is a great place to be!

Katelyn Kaiser — Counselor

As an entire school reform project we have put in place our Kindness Initiative. We are working with the key concept of “One person can make a difference.” 

We will implement structural changes including how we handle bullying, the counseling aspect regarding referrals to find the underlying causes for choices made and working with students to develop strategies to correct the behavior.  While all of our students in the district are receiving social/emotional instruction outlined in our Second STEP Curriculum, we are supplementing the teachings by recognizing Suicide Prevention Awareness Month during the month of September. Students are learning about The Jason Foundation, how to recognize signs, talk to, and get help for someone contemplating suicide, the crisis call and text lines, and also participating in a community service project to spread encouragement and awareness to our local families.

Cindy Wilborn — Wellness/Cardinal Action Council 

Cardinal Action Council (6-8) is currently studying service learning. We are brainstorming and collaborating on events and activities for our student body for this school year. We are planning a pep rally, working on a service project for our student body to participate in before Christmas break and also getting ready to take orders for cardinal shirts, sweats, and reusable Cardinal grocery bags. 

8th Grade Wellness class is currently studying “The 6 most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make” by Sean Covey. 

7th grade Wellness Class is working on better understanding other people’s perspective as they read the book “The Noticer” by Andy Andrews. All classes have daily team building, journaling, and discussion opportunities. Our focus is on social-emotional wellness and personal leadership. 

Karisa Cowan — Sixth Grade Science 

Mrs. Cowan’s class started their very own seedlings. We picked the planting medium (soil, rock wool, clay beads, or a combo of each). The students chose what seed they wanted to plant and added their choice of their fertilizer. The students cared for their seedlings and logged their progress. Some grew over a feet in two weeks. The location of their seedling was one independent variable that influences the growth. Student can take their seedlings home when the experiment is complete. 

Leslie Klug — Sixth Grade Social Studies

We just wrapped up our unit on 9/11. We watched a video reenactment of Flight 93, watched a tribute to the children that lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and watched video clips of NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox News that showed live coverage of the events as they unfolded that day. All three videos are very emotional especially the four minute video of the children that lost their lives. Three of the children that lost their lives were on Flight 77 were sixth grade students traveling with their teacher to a History Conference in California that day. Even though there are very few dry eyes in the room after watching that video, the emotional impact that it has on my students really enables them to better grasp 9/11. 

Shari Blase — Seventh and Eighth Grade Language Arts 

We began the year talking about Growth Mindset, and students created goals pertaining to English class for the first nine week period. You might ask your student what their goal is and if they feel they are reaching it.

This year both 7th and 8th grades can access their literature books online. This provides students current issues of textbooks, as will as interactive reading texts. With each selection the students not only have fiction and nonfiction text, but they also have magazine articles, and videos that explain and add to the text. 

The students have also enjoyed reading Scholastic Scope magazine and some of the students entered a poetry contest. You might ask your student what they think their name means, as this was the subject of the poem. 

Sara Reichuber — Band 

Seventh and eighth grade band is currently working on improving music for Pep Band to be performed at the Home Varsity Football and Basketball Games. Seventh and eighth grade band also marched with the high school band at Labor Day and competed with them at the Kansas State Fair receiving a “2” rating. Sixth grade band is continuing to develop basic skills in reading music and note accuracy. 

Debra Lewis — Sixth Grade Music and Music Theater

We will be having a performance day with the music theater class during the week of Oct. 22. Students may sing, dance, play an instrument etc., as a solo or with another student. The activity will happen during class time and we look forward to seeing what special talents students will bring.

The Middle School Vocal/Band Concert will be at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 11 in the Lee Dicks Auditorium at Hoisington High School.

Teri Doze — Library 

We are beginning a new year with a new library system! Students can “order” books that are not available in HMS library, from other libraries across the state. This opens up access to so many more reading opportunities for our students. So far we have loaned out eight books, and requested and received four.

Mary Schridde — Seventh Grade Science 

Seventh grade science classes grew bread mold over a week-and-a-half, checking the growth daily. Then, they prepared slides for the microscope using the bread mold as the specimen. They observed what the mold looked like under the microscope, noting what they saw.  

Kyle Haxton — Middle School Physical Education 

Middle School P.E. is off to a great start. Our students in sixth through eighth grades have learned some fun lead-up games to volleyball and football. These games include Chicago, Beach Ball Volleyball, Short Court King/Queen of the Court, Speedball, and Capture the Flag. I am impressed with the effort and enthusiasm that the students have shown in class.

Zach Baird — Seventh and Eighth Grade Physical Education 

HMS offers two different types of Physical Education, Introduction to Weights and Strength & Conditioning. Introduction to weights is a class designed for seventh graders who are interested in strength training. Strength and Conditioning is an advanced strength training class designed for eighth graders who are serious about lifting.   

Bob Brungardt — Resource Room

We are working on becoming elite people by trying to be better than we were yesterday and being better tomorrow than we were today. We are working on being accountable and responsible people by not complaining, blaming others, defending our bad choices, and remembering everything that happens is in our best interest and an opportunity to learn and grow. Last but not least when they are nice to you and especially when they are not, as well as being honest and truthful to ourselves so that we can be honest and truthful to others.

Joe Cotten — Social Studies 

To commemorate Constitution Day, Sept. 17, all seventh and eighth grade students examined the Constitution of the United States, it’s seven articles and the first 10 amendments also known as the “Bill of Rights.”

Students were challenged by the following thought: If you aren’t aware of your rights that are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, how will you ever know if they are being taken away from you?

Crista Robinson —  Math Enrichment 

Currently in Math Enrichment, we are working on the “Xtramath” program. 

We are excited to be working with a new smart board that goes with our new math curriculum.

I also supervise Homework Help after school. Homework Help is recommended for anyone who has a D or F in any class, however, anyone is invited. I have students who agreed to come in everyday just to stay caught up on their homework and studying for tests. It is a great way to get help on assignments or do corrections for a class, to get a grade up.

Cindy Wilborn is the Wellness teacher at Hoisington Middle School. Contact her at cwilborn@usd431.net