Mandarino Minutes: Mandarino Minutes for 2-17-23

Dear Upton Middle School Families,

7th grade Skate Night Tonight-

Tonight for our 7th graders only we will have a skate night at the John & Dede Howard Ice Arena from 6:00-8:00 PM. This is free of charge thanks to the generosity of Honor Credit Union.

Thank you!

I wanted to send a special shout out to two young men who went the extra mile in helping out. Baxter D. and Nick Z. stayed back once the event was over and helped clean up and return all the skate aides back to the warming hut. Baxter made a point to ask if any additional help was needed which was pretty impressive.

Cloverleaf Spelling Bee Next Week-

All the hard work of the Upton Middle School Spelling qualifiers will be determined Wednesday, Feb. 22 during the Cloverleaf Spelling Bee held at Lake Michigan College, Mendel Center. The educational goal of the Spelling Bee is to encourage children to perfect the art of spelling, but also to help enlarge their vocabularies and widen their knowledge of the English language. The purpose of the Cloverleaf Spelling Bee is to add emphasis to the teaching of spelling and vocabulary study; to increase interest in spelling for students and parents; to increase the ability of the students to think correctly and quickly in competition; to promote friendship and understanding among students in the academic field. The Cloverleaf Spelling Bee will use the “Words of Champion” list of 4,000 words provided by The Scripps National Spelling Bee. After that, words will be used from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.

Best of Luck to our three 7th-grade qualifiers Swarnali Basu, Suprabha Singh, and Kavya Singh.

Students of the Week -

Upton staff votes each week on students that go above and beyond in the classroom. This week’s students of the week are:

Ashton Warsow, Maisy Gable, Josiah Wagoner,

& Reaghan Scott

Educator of the Week -

Congratulations to Mrs. Fairchild the UMS educator of the week!

National Kindness Week -

We had a great week at Upton celebrating kindness! I am hopeful this can carry on throughout the rest of the school year! The students also created a "chain of kindness" that is hanging in our office. Our kindness sheets that the students are filling out can be turned in until Monday, February 20th.

Rotation 3 ends for 6th & 7th Grades-

Rotation 3 ends Tuesday, February 21st and Rotation 4 begins Wednesday, February 22nd. Have your child check their schedule in PowerSchool. We do not print off schedules for rotation changes.

President’s Day - Monday, February 20th-

We DO have school on Monday!

Facts about President's Day: Presidents' Day is a federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, the holiday became popularly known as Presidents' Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the birthdays of Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other figures, Presidents' Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents, past and present.