I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving Break! 

Please remember that assessments will continue for the next two weeks prior to Winter Break. We will follow regular bell schedules for the i-Ready and Science and Civics PMA testing. On December 15, Physical Education students will take the PE Common Final Exam (CFE) following a modified bell schedule. Help us make sure that our Eagles are ready to do their very best on these exams.

In this edition of our newsletter you will find important information regarding upcoming Testing, Intramurals Sports (Sports Physicals are required for participation), Instructional Model Change Requests, Food and Toy Drives as well as additional scheduled Holiday Spirit events.  

It is hard to believe that we are now down to only two full weeks of school left in 2020. The end of the first semester on December 18 will mark completion of half of this academic year. 

Enjoy your week and this beautiful weather!

In Eagle Pride,

Joumana Moukaddam

Proud Principal

Hunter's Creek Middle School

December 7th & 8th: 7th Grade Science and Civics PMA (performance monitoring assessment)

December 9th: Amnesty Wednesday (by teacher invitation only)

December 9th by 3pm: Intramural Sports Interest form due*

December 9th: Instructional Model Change Request due*

December 11th: Last day to donate to the SGA Toy Drive, sign up for the Virtual Cookie Decorating Party, and submit recipes for the HCMS Holiday Cookbook*

December 14th-18th: Holiday Spirit Week!*

December 14th: SAC Meeting (SAC Meetings are now Face-to-Face in the media center.)

December 15th: Physical Education Common Final Exam for Semester 1

December 16th at 4pm: Virtual Cookie Decorating!*

December 18th at 8:45am: HCMS Spelling Bee

Want to take part in the 2020-2021 HCMS Spelling Bee? It will be on Friday, December 18th starting at 8:45am in the HCMS Library. (LaunchEd students will need to come to campus to take part.)

All interested in taking part should email Mrs. Moye at Kellee.Moye@ocps.net to sign up and receive study information.

December 18th: End of 2nd nine weeks

December 19th-January 4th: Winter Break

December 24th: Last day to donate to the Second Harvest Food Drive*

December 31st: Beanstack Read Woke Challenge ends (make sure you’ve logged all your minutes and activities before then!

January 1st: Beanstack Winter Reading Challenge begins

January 5th: Students return to school

*More information below in this edition.

Every Monday 4:30-6pm: Free Curbside Meal Pick Up (in the bus loop)

**The USDA has extended the deadline to allow all children aged 18 years and younger to receive meals at no charge until August 2021!**

Every Thursday 8-8:30am, 10-11am, 2-3pm: LaunchEd Curbside Library Pick Up (View Procedures for more information)

2020 has been a difficult year in so many ways. We have suffered with uncertainty, anxiety, isolation and challenges with our financial situation, health or relationships. One thing that can hold us together and help us get through is kindness. Although we can't change our situation, we can choose to respond to others (and ourselves) with kindness. And when we're kind, everything goes better. We help others, we help ourselves and we encourage others to be kinder too.

OCPS families, please see the district's statement after the Governor's announcement this afternoon that the choices of LaunchED@Home and face-to-face learning can continue into the second semester:

"We appreciate Governor DeSantis’ and Commissioner Corcoran’s affirmation that we can offer parents the choice of LaunchED@Home or face-to-face learning for the second semester without a financial penalty to the district. We will continue to work closely with students who are struggling in LaunchED@Home who might need to return to face-to-face instruction. We are also pleased that current year funding cuts due to enrollment shortfalls have been minimized and can be supplemented with CARES Act dollars. We will thoroughly review the Commissioner’s new Emergency Order to further clarify direction."

You can read the State of Florida Department of Education's Emergency Order here: https://bit.ly/3mjsGTA

You can listen to Governor DeSantis' and Commissioner Corcoran's news conference here: https://thefloridachannel.org/.../11-30-20-press.../

Again, we're pleased that we will be able to continue the current options of both LaunchED@Home and face-to-face instruction for all students.

The Florida Department of Education’s new emergency order continues to give parents the choice between the face-to-face and LaunchED@Home learning models for the second semester, which runs January through May. If your child is making adequate progress and you do not wish to change your child’s instructional model you do not need to do anything.

However, If your child is struggling with LaunchED@Home, we encourage you to consider the face-to-face model for the second semester. All change requests should be sent to Ms. Nicole Sims at 41304@ocps.net no later than Wednesday, December 9 at 4:30 p.m. We will continue to communicate with parents and guardians of students who are not making adequate progress in the LaunchED@Home learning model.

Also, if your child is changing to face-to-face instruction and qualifies for and intends to use bus transportation, please include that information. If at all possible, carpooling or driving your children to school is still encouraged to maintain social distancing on our buses.

Again, if you would like to change your child’s learning model please submit your request no later than Wednesday, December 9 at 4:30 p.m. I want to thank you for your support and cooperation as we prepare for students for the second semester.

If your student is interested in playing Spring Intramural Sports at HCMS, please fill out by Wednesday, 12/9 to let the coaches know you are interested and get information about what is required (Sports Physicals are required for participation):

Other information can be found at https://hunterscreekms.ocps.net/athletics

Now through December 24th, HCMS, hosted by Ms. Perez’s classes, are hosting a virtual food drive in preparation of helping those in need during the winter holidays. Visit http://www.feedhopenow.org/goto/hcms to donate to HCMS’s Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida donation page.

SGA is hosting a toy drive to benefit XL 106.7’s Baby DJ Program by providing toys/presents for families in need. The attached poster was created by our president, Minaya Amarasekera.

Donations will be accepted December 1st-11th. There is a donation box in the front office behind the desk, Mrs. Shilling will help to collect the toys. Donations should be new and unwrapped, please. 

Submit your recipe here:

Any Hunter’s Creek Middle School’s students coming in late for the day are required to have a parent/ guardian come to the Front Office with them to sign in the student(s). Tardies rob our students out of important instructional time. Students must be present in class for bell to bell instructions. Please remember that the first bell rings at 9:25am and the late bell rings at 9:30am. Breakfast is served from 8:30 am-9:25am.

For truancy purposes, five (5) tardies to school, or a combination of tardies to school and early departures that equals (5), shall equal one unexcused absence. However, this unexcused absence is for referral purposes and the electronic record is not to be altered. Actual presence or absence on campus must be accurately reflected in the electronic record.

Thank you to all of our community members and teachers who took part in the 2020 Teach In! Teach In is focused on showing students a variety of careers.

Photographed: Jill Gutierrez visiting Ms. Berry’s classroom; Aircraft Loadplanner from Antarctica in Ms. Spilker’s classroom

These digital pieces were created using the art apps “Paint 3D" and "Fresh Paint” that are pre-loaded on student laptops. Some students used a stylus and many just used their finger!

Mrs. Moye’s LaunchEd Library classes of Student Literacy Leaders created literacy and reading focused posters to display around the school. Face-to-Face Student Literacy Leaders, along with Mrs. Moye and Ms. Armstrong, then displayed their posters on bulletin boards around the school.

Ms. Calderon’s 6th grade students created a display sharing about a Hispanic/Latin country. The students did a great deal of research and planning to prepare their presentations as seen below (Part 2).

Thank you to our administration team and CHEER for providing tea and treats for our faculty and staff before November Break!

Copyright Notice

Reproduction of this material, either written or electronically, including the general layout, graphics, analyses, and content topics without the express approval of Target Performance Systems, Inc., a Florida corporation, and OCPS - Hunter's Creek Middle School is forbidden without written consent. Thank you for your support of the Orange County Public Schools and especially Hunter's Creek Middle School. Please contact Mrs. Joumana Moukaddam at 37895@ocps.net with any questions related to the program.

Hunter's Creek Middle | Mrs. Moukaddam, Principal | 407.858.4620 | HCMS Website