Art Club

Sponsor: Bjana Lunde

Art Club is open to all students interested in exploring their artistic abilities beyond the exploratory curriculum. Students will engage in a variety of art activities/projects if they choose to participate in the club.

Battle of the Books

Sponsor: Nicoll Blomquist

Battle of the Books is a fun and exciting way for passionate readers to share and grow their love of reading! Students read from a special list of books chosen by the district and then come together to form the DMS team—five members plus one alternate. Our team will go head-to-head with other middle schools in friendly competitions, answering questions that test how well they know the books.

The season kicks off in the fall when the new book list is released. Tryouts are held in January, and the competitions take place from April through early May. If you’re interested in joining the team, stop by the IMC to pick up this year’s book list and start reading!

Bella Voce

Sponsor: Mona Roy

The Dundee Middle School Choral Department offers an auditioned treble vocal ensemble called Bella Voce open to 7th and 8th grade girls who are enrolled in chorus. This ensemble focuses on select treble voices performing more challenging 2 - 4 part music of various styles. Bella Voce performs at all DMS concerts as well as within the community, at festivals, and contests. Rehearsals are once a week on Tuesday mornings from 8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. Auditions and rehearsals begin in September and end in May.

Beta Club

Sponsors: Karrisa Werner and Sue Sullivan

The Dundee Middle School chapter of Junior Beta Club is a part of a national honorary organization designed to provide recognition and leadership experiences to high achieving students. To be eligible to join, a student must be on super honor roll for three-quarters in a row and have shown outstanding merit in citizenship. Beta Club meets once a month to discuss, plan, and implement upcoming activities, such as the annual teacher breakfast, pumpkin-grams at Halloween, and sponsoring a dance. Student ideas for projects and activities are welcome, as one of Beta Club’s main goals is to provide a pleasurable, self-enhancing experience to its members.

Board Game Club

Sponsor: Zack Schamrowski

Board Game Club (BGC) is an afterschool activity for all students. In BGC, we enjoy one another's company while playing various board games. BGC takes place after school and will now run throughout the whole school year. A weekly digital sign-up form is posted on our Schoology page; Be sure to sign-up early as there are only 32 seats open per session. There is no requirement to attend each meeting, but all who come to a session must have a Gaming Contract completed.

Bracelet Club

Sponsors: Kelly Frieders and Colleen Wess

Bracelet club is an afterschool activity, limited to the first 30 students. Meetings are held on Fridays from 3:40-5:00 p.m. Students will enjoy time with friends while crafting bracelets.

Buddy Club

Sponsor: Ron MacDonald

Buddy Club is an after school club centered around developing friendship and social skills. It is designed for students with and without disabilities to come together through a variety of athletic, social, recreational projects, and activities. It provides students with disabilities to form friendships with students without disabilities in the school.

Cardunal Council

Sponsors: Dana Palmer and Madissen Gough  

Cardunal Council is the student government body of DMS and is open to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. Any student interested in joining may become a part of Cardunal Council. The club meets twice a month in the mornings from 8:20am-8:45am. Members of Cardunal Council sponsor the 8th grade dance, Teacher Appreciation Week, and Superfan nights for the girls' and boys' basketball teams.

Chess Club

Sponsor: Sue LaGrippe

Chess club is open to all students interested in learning to play chess or expanding their chess playing skills. All skill levels are welcome. We play different chess variations and for added fun we have a points leaderboard for improvement, attendance, and wins. Chess club is a great way to make new friends as well as increasing skill level.

Fall Play

Sponsors: Jenny Olson, Ashley Estrada, Cristele Estrada, and Melanie Witek

Fall Play is a two-act play that occurs during the Fall semester. It is open to 7th & 8th grade students at DMS.

Flag Football

Sponsors: Matt Joslyn and Kim Duffey

Flag Football is open to all students at DMS and runs during the Fall season. Participants will create teams and compete against one another throughout the course of the season.

Garden Club

Sponsors: Amanda Doktor and Katie Medcalf

Garden Club is open to all students at DMS and runs September through May. Participants do not need any gardening experience or prior knowledge. We are hoping to encourage the love and knowledge of gardening, by bringing students and community together to protect the quality of the environment.

Guitar Club

Sponsors: John Blomquist and Anna Benge

Students get an introduction to guitar and learn the ways of how to become an amazing guitar god. They'll take the first few steps: holding the guitar, tuning it, strumming/picking the strings, and playing chords. Once they have those mastered, it's time to rock out! By the end of the year, students should be able to do the following: play several songs on guitar, feel comfortable enough to practice on their own, and consider trying out for Schoolapalooza. If you have your own guitar, then bring it! You can store it in the orchestra room during the school day. If you don't have a guitar, that's okay. We have a few that people can borrow!

Homework Help/Spanish Homework Help

Sponsors: Nicole Gomez-Johnson and Evelyn Garcia

Homework Help is available from September through April and is an opportunity to get help with difficult assignments, tests, or getting caught up on late work! For help in Spanish, come Monday or Tuesday. For general topics and classes, you can come Wednesday or Thursday. Sign- up is located at the main desk in the IMC. The only requirement needed is to sign-up in the IMC the day before you need assistance!

Intramural Badminton

Sponsors: Aaron Godfrey and Robyn Kovar

Intramural Badminton runs during the month of March and practices are before school. Please contact Mr. Godfrey or Mrs. Kovar for more information.

Intramural Basketball

Sponsors: Mike Haase and Aaron Godfrey

Intramural Basketball is open to 6th grade students at DMS. Students are put on a team that is coached by an 8th grade student(s). Teams compete in games that simulate the middle school basketball experience. The season typically occurs during the Spring Semester; usually the last three weeks leading up to Spring Break.

Intramural Cheer

Sponsor: Lauren Wagenaar

6th grade girls are invited to join DMS poms and cheer. Intramural poms and cheer have no cuts, so everyone makes the squad. There are 8 practices and 8 games. Practices begin after Winter Break and games are held after school in March.  Previous cheerleaders will help coach the 6th graders throughout the season.

Intramural Poms

Sponsor: Tiffany Rice

6th grade girls are invited to join DMS poms and cheer. Intramural poms and cheer have no cuts, so everyone makes the squad. There are 8 practices and 8 games. Practices begin after Winter Break and games are held after school in March. 8th grade cheerleaders will help coach the 6th graders throughout the season.

Intramural Soccer

Sponsors: Lauren Reiff and Anna Benge

Intramural Soccer runs during the month of April and practices are before school. Please contact Ms. Reiff or Ms. Benge for more information.

Intramural Volleyball

Sponsor: Don Wicker and Aaron Godfrey

Intramural volleyball runs during the month of April and practices are before school. Please contact Mr. Godfrey or Mr. Wicker for more information.

Jazz Band

Sponsor: Michael Kasper

The Matt Bishop Big Band and Ella Fitzgerald Big Band are extracurricular ensembles built to perform music from the large jazz ensemble genre.  Instrumentation includes saxophones, trombones, trumpets, drum set, bass, guitar, and piano.  All students are welcome to audition for the DMS Jazz Program.  While 7th and 8th Grade students join at the start of the year, most 6th Grade students will join the ensemble in January.  Rehearsals will be before school from 7:30am-8:45am.  Performances will be held throughout the community, including regional festivals, dinners, and other unique opportunities which may become available.

Musical

Sponsors: Jennifer Olson, Ashley Estrada, Cristele Estrada  and Melanie Witek

Students who participate in chorus at DMS have the opportunity to audition and participate in the annual DMS Musical. Many opportunities for participation are available including leading roles, chorus parts, stage directors, costume and set design. The musical is held at the Blizzard Theater at ECC each April. Frozen Jr., Seussical Jr., Moana Jr., and Little Mermaid Jr.,  are some of the DMS musicals in recent years. 2026 will be the 23rd year of our musical partnership with Elgin Community College.

Newspaper Club

Sponsor: Sue LaGrippe

The Dundee Middle School newspaper is called the Cardunal Chronicle which publishes six editions each year. We begin staff recruitment in September. Newspaper staff will come up for ideas for the paper, report on activities, clubs, and sports, and create a digital school newspaper.

Outdoor Club

Sponsors: Aaron Godfrey, Tom Sitkie, and Don Wicker

Outdoor Club is open to all students at DMS and runs throughout the entire school year. Meetings are held once a month, learning about everything outdoors and activities include a fall kayak trip, a winter ice fishing trip, and a spring trip still being decided. Open to all grade and skill levels!

Pokemon Club

Sponsors: Ginger Pingitore and Brenden Forrest

Pokemon Club is open to all students at DMS and runs through the first semester. Meetings are held twice a month. Students can connect with others who like Pokemon to trade, battle, and build friendships.

Robotics Club

Sponsor: Jon Nielsen

This club is an option for all 6th-8th graders, regardless of prior experience with robotics. Depending on the number of students interested, there may be an application process, as the amount of supplies available is feasible for 20-25 members. Students work in groups and use the Lego Mindstorm EV3 building materials/bricks and programming to create various robots and obstacles. Unlike the Robotics Team, we do not go to competition. The atmosphere of the meetings is more laid back and based around teamwork & exploration.

Robotics Team

Sponsors: Tony Parise and Gaspar Ponte

This team is for 7th and 8th graders who will build and program robots to solve problems and compete at a local competition. Our team uses Vex Robotics materials in order to prepare them for what is used in the D300 high school classrooms.  The team consists of 10-12 students who go through an application process in the spring (April/May) of the previous school year.  In addition to using Vex, students on the team also participate in the Fluid Power Challenge held each year at Bucher Hydraulics.

Schoolapalooza

Sponsor: John Blomquist

This club supports the annual rock concert held near the end of the school year. Participants include musicians, singers, and stage crew. Meetings will start in November to start the preparations. See Mr. Blomquist with questions. Listen to the announcements for the first meeting date!

Science Fair Club

Sponsor: Tom Sitkie

Science Fair Students participate in science fair to investigate a science topic of interest to them. Students gain an insight into the problems and methods of thinking scientifically and work with science instructors to draw conclusions about their research. Completed projects are judged and displayed in late spring. This club is open to seventh and eighth graders.

Ski Club

Sponsor: Tom Sitkie

The DMS Ski Club schedules three ski trips each year during the months of December, January, and February. Students may attend on a first come, first serve basis and are responsible for their own costs. Trips are planned on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Fridays after school from 3:45 p.m. to 11 p.m. Trips are always contingent upon appropriate weather conditions.

Spelling Bee

Sponsor: Amanda Hurley

The spelling bee is an event sponsored by the National Scripps Spelling Bee that all students have the opportunity to participate in. The competition starts in each grade level's classrooms and then will move on to select grade level and school level winners. The students who are grade level winners will have an opportunity to also participate in the District 300 spelling bee to compete against students in their grade level at the other District 300 middle schools.

SSA Club

Sponsors: Lauren Boaz and Jessica Jagielo

"Safe Space for All" (SSA) is an open forum, multicultural group to discuss current events with peers. We welcome all groups of students and students that ally with other groups. SSA strives to make a welcoming environment for individuals in the community and their allies to meet together and express themselves without fear. Our club is student-led, where students will have the opportunity to dictate club norms and expectations, and raise topics for discussion that are meaningful to them.

Ultimate Frisbee

Sponsor: Brenden Forrest

Ultimate is an exciting, non-contact team sport, played by thousands the world over. It mixes the best features of sports such as Soccer, Basketball, and Football into an elegantly simple yet fascinating and demanding game. Ultimate is open to any student at DMS and will be offered in the fall and spring. Athletes are encouraged to show up as much as possible so they can practice skills and learn the game.

Ultimate Frisbee Information website

Valiant Voices

Sponsor: Mona Roy

The Dundee Middle School Choral Department offers a singing group called Valiant Voices. No audition is required. Rehearsals are once a week on Friday mornings. They begin in September and end in May. This group performs at concerts and events around the community throughout the year. This group allows boys to feel comfortable singing within an ensemble organized around their voice quality, range, and tessitura during this developmental time combining unchanged, changing, and changed voices in one group.

Wrestling Open Mat

Sponsors: Matthew Joslyn and Don Wicker

Intramural Wrestling runs during the month of December and practice will be in the aux gym. Students will learn the basics of wrestling before the school season starts to help gauge interest and prepare for the season.

Yearbook Club

Sponsor: Shannon Lesko

Yearbook Club is open to students who enjoy photographing school events and contributing creatively to the yearbook.

Students who wish to use school cameras must complete a mandatory training session.

Yearbook photographers will attend various school events before, during and after school to capture photos that may be featured in the yearbook and other school media.  If you are interested in being a yearbook photographer, please see Mrs. Lesko in room 175 or send her an email expressing your interest at shannon.lesko@d300.org. In addition, students who enjoy graphic design—especially using tools like Canva—can help create signage and visual elements for different sections of the yearbook.

Meetings begin in January. Stay tuned to the morning announcements for specific dates and times.

Yoga Club

Sponsor: Kaylene Shannon

The Yoga Club was created to offer students and staff an opportunity to learn and practice traditional yoga together. Yoga practitioners will learn a variety of breathing techniques (pranayama), basic yoga poses (asanas), and guided meditation practices to help students gain awareness, balance emotions, reduce stress, and increase balance, strength, and flexibility. Yoga Club is open to all. No experience is necessary.