St. James Middle School

SCHOOL SMILES!

Parents/Guardians,

School Smiles will be at the middle school on November 2nd to provide students with cleaning, fluoride, x-rays, sealants, restorative care, and other important services!

Nurse Cheryl handed out flyers at school, so be sure to check your student's backpack for the information!

Ready to sign up? Simply scan the QR code on the flyer to complete the registration.

IMPORTANT DEADLINE: All forms must be completed and returned by October 28th!

If you have any questions or need more information, please contact Nurse Cheryl.

Here is the link to the form: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YiDiq36lwbxAPRYMYGHiEzRMqMOHkvjC/view?usp=sharing

Critical Thinking in the Sunshine 🌞 Students in Mr. Benson's class took advantage of the sunshine to work on their measuring and unit conversion skills!

Awesome cross country meet in Steelville tonight! Our runners improved their times from last week, and Jordan brought home some hardware!

Effective Communication isn't just speaking or listening...it is also the ability to read, comprehend, and transfer that new knowledge to something else. It is much more fun to have choice in what we read, and Mrs. McCurdy makes sure every student has access to so many great reads! Our kids are back in the library, and we couldn't be happier!

Team building is the game this week! Establishing trust among a classroom community is vital to creating a space where students feel safe, comfortable, and free to overcome failure. Mrs. Mulhall's Teen Leadership students are doing just that! Activities like this install the value of Engaged Citizenship, on of our core values of Portrait of a Graduate.

The first day of classes are full of teamwork, relationship building, and setting expectations. Oh...and a little bit of fun :)

Today we are celebrating students who have completed all topics with 100% mastery in ALEKS. Aleks is a self-paced math program that supplements classroom instruction by catering instruction to each student's individual learning needs. We are proud of these ALEKS ALL-STARS!

Thank you to the high school FFA for coming over and speaking to our Exploring Agriculture students! We appreciate your time to discuss all of the opportunities that FFA has for these students when they go to high school! It's important to find an organization and to be engaged within that community to make it grow, and these partnerships help students do just that.

Students engaged in an interactive activity lead by Prevention Consultants of Missouri that focused on building strong communities. Students shared what makes them feel belonging as well as what they could do to make sure others feel like they belong. It is so important to teach our young people to be accepting of others and how to help those who do not have a sense of belonging.

Future Focused in Careers Class! Students have been preparing for their future and learning about job skills needed for the career field. So far they have practiced skills of problem-solving, teamwork, and collaboration. Today they put their skills to the test to complete a challenge! They worked together to effectively pass the tin can around the circle, only using their feet, without dropping it.

Thank you, Mrs. Doddema, for attending Advocacy Day for school counselors in Jefferson City this week. She spent the day advocating for education and school counseling with several legislatures. She and Sarah Kaelin from Rolla High School respresented the South Central Region and spoke directly with Representative Tara Peters and Justin Brown.

Engaged Citizenship at work!

We are celebrating today! We recognized Tailor for being the first 8th grader to not only finish all topics in the 8th grade ALEKS program, but to complete it at 100%! What a feat! Tailor is future focused and motivated to move on to Algebra 1!

Voice and choice are paramount to student engagement! When students have a say in their own learning, they take ownership, and that is always a goal in middle school. 💪 ☕️📚Mrs. Waldmann and Mrs. Siders designed a choice novel study unit and created a "Starbooks" book tasting event so students could research and "taste" several books before choosing one. Over the next several weeks, they will read independently and conference as small groups with each student having a weekly "job," or concept/standard to analyze. Critical thinking 🧠, effective communication🗣, engaged citizenship🤝...this unit has it all!

We were excited to announce the nominees and winners of the Fort Leonardwood Army Values Leadership Award yesterday! SELFLESS SERVICE Cason Smith, recipient Will DeLuca, nominee Adeline Bahr, nominee HONOR Adeline Bahr, recipient Rem Cantrell, nominee Gavin Gray, nominee Harrison Gardner, nominee

Thank you to everyone who made last night's 8th grade boys basketball parent recognition night a success!

On Friday, we were able to recognize and celebrate our students who had perfect attendance for 1st semester!

The critical thinking did not stop before Christmas break! Mrs. Stack designed a lesson to preview math skills students would be learning when they returned in January. Students figured percentages of ingredients to make trail mix, and they enjoyed a sweet treat while computing their recipe. The best part was making real connections to how this math is essential in real-world scenarios...not just in math class!

St. James R-1 School District will be closed on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, due to unsafe road conditions. This will be a traditional snow day and no AMI work is required. Stay safe, Tigers!

It's dance time! Student Council is hosting a winter dance on December 10th. Save the date!