Patrick Henry Middle School -

🎶 Big Congratulations to our Patrick Henry singers! 🎶 We’re excited to announce the 7th and 8th grade students who were selected to perform in the South Dakota Junior Honor Choir in Rapid City on January 23–24! Their hard work, dedication and passion for music have truly paid off. We’re so proud of you—go represent PHMS! 💙🙌🎤

It’s a short week —just two days of school before Thanksgiving Break! 🦃🍁 We’ve got one home basketball game on the schedule and we’re also spotlighting some awesome moments from Mrs. Roberts’ CTE (Career & Technical Education) classes. Our students are creating, building and learning real-world skills every day! 🔧📚✨

Our 8th graders attended the JA Inspire Career Fair earlier this week and came away inspired! Representatives from South Dakota companies introduced students to high-demand fields through hands-on booths, demonstrations and one-on-one conversations. The event gave students a firsthand look at the skills, education and opportunities tied to each career—helping them make informed choices as they prepare for the next steps in high school and beyond.

🎉 Pajama Drive Update! 🎉
Thanks to our amazing PHMS community, we’ve gathered 170 pairs of pajamas so far! Your generosity is making a real difference.
🏆 Current Classroom Leader: Miss Haugland’s class is in the lead with an impressive 31 pairs!
💙💛🐾Keep those cozy donations coming, Panthers! Let’s see how many pairs we can collect - the deadline is next Tuesday, November 25! 💙💛🐾

Our school-wide mystery game of Clue is underway and the excitement is building! Each day, students and staff receive new clues to help eliminate suspects, rooms and objects as we work together to solve the case.   Students are analyzing clues, crossing off possibilities and putting their best detective skills to work. Stay tuned—Who will crack the mystery first? 👀🔎

Today we’re shining a spotlight on the amazing Education Support Professionals who make our Patrick Henry community stronger! They support, guide, encourage and care for our students in countless meaningful ways. We’re grateful for their dedication—today and every day! 🌟

Last week, our Panthers showed just how big their hearts are! From dress-up days to thoughtful acts, students and staff shared kindness, smiles and positivity throughout the school. Highlights included Compliment Day, Kindness Bingo and the creation of a Kindness Quilt—we loved seeing so many students participate and spread joy. A huge shoutout to our students for embracing the Panther Pride values of respect, responsibility and safety in the kindest way possible. Let’s keep spreading kindness every day! 🌟

📅From Girls Basketball games to 8th Grade Junior Achievement, there’s plenty of Panther Pride in action. Check out the schedule and get ready for a great week! 🐾

Meet our November Students of the Month! These Panthers were nominated for consistently showing our Panther Pride values of being respectful, responsible and safe. We’re proud of the way they lead by example and make our school a better place. Keep shining, Panthers! 🐾🎉

Join us at Qdoba tonight for our PTO fundraiser! A portion of sales goes right back to support Patrick Henry PTO! Let’s taco ‘bout supporting our Panthers! 🐾💛💙

Big things are happening at Patrick Henry! 23 of our 6th & 8th grade students formed 5 teams and accepted the challenge to write proposals for the NASA TechRise Student Challenge. Teams could submit a proposal in 1 of 2 categories. Experiments winning the high-altitude balloon category will soar between 70,000-95,000 feet and those winning in the sub-orbital flight category will reach peak high, also known as apogee - 262,467 feet or more! 🚀Winning teams will receive $1,500 to build their experiment and a spot to test their payload on a suborbital-spaceship or balloon flight. Students will find out in January if their proposals were accepted to move onto the next phase of the challenge! Way to go, innovators! Your curiosity and hard work are out of this world. 🌍✨

Today, we pause to thank the brave men and women who have served our country with courage and dedication. We are grateful for their service and the example they set for our students and community.❤️💙

This post is brought to you from a 6th grader's POV:  In 6th Grade Social Studies we became ancient scribes! We made cuneiform tablets like they did in ancient Mesopotamia! We used clay and a stylus to press symbols into our tablets — and let’s just say writing without pencils is WAY harder than it looks! We had a blast and now we know what it felt like to be one of the first writers in history. Pretty cool to say we tried a 5,000-year-old writing style!  

Here’s what’s happening this week at PHMS! There’s no school on Tuesday as we observe Veterans Day and the rest of the week is packed with Kindness Week dress-up days, the Qdoba PTO Fundraiser Night and the first girls basketball game of the season. Let’s show kindness and Panther pride all week long! 💙💛

Throwback to last week’s dance! 💃🕺Our students showed off their best moves, smiled nonstop and had a blast on the dance floor! Panthers sure know how to have a good time! 💛💙

🌮⚠️Warning: Tasty Fundraiser Ahead!⚠️ 🌮 Join us next Thursday, November 13, from 4:00-8:00 PM and support the PHMS PTO just by chowing down at Qdoba on 41st St. Show the flyer or use QDOBAGIVES online!

Our hallways were filled with creativity, teamwork and powerful messages about making healthy choices during last week's Red Ribbon Week Door Wars . A huge shoutout to all the classrooms who participated. One decorated door from each grade level stood out above the rest and received pizza delivered by none other than the Patrick Henry Panther! 🍕🐾
🏆In 6th Grade: Mrs. Chohon’s Door
🏆In 7th Grade: Mrs. Rentschler’s Door
🏆In 8th Grade: Mrs. R. Johnson’s Door

Patrick Henry Spirit wear is on sale and it’s the perfect time to stock up for the holidays! Warm hoodies, cozy tees and ALL the blue & gold! The deadline to place an order is November 6, 2025 at midnight! To place an order, visit this link: https://patrick-henry-winter-2025.itemorder.com/shop/home/

Patrick Henry Middle School Student Council is partnering with the Pajama Program to bring warm, cozy sleepwear — and books! — to children in need. During the month of November, students are encouraged to participate! For every pair of brand-new pajamas donated, Scholastic will donate a new book to the Pajama Program, helping support kids facing adversity. Let’s spread comfort, kindness and bedtime joy! 💛 Send in those PJs, Panthers! 🐾

This week we are celebrating our amazing school psychologist, Renita Ratzloff! Her dedication to supporting students’ mental health, well-being and academic success makes a meaningful difference every day. Mrs. Ratzloff empowers students, staff and families and helps create a caring, positive learning environment for all! 💙💛 🐾