November/December 2011
Dear JGMS Families,
As the winter months approach (although you wouldn’t know it with the recent spate of 60 degree temperatures!), JGMS begins to bustle inside with assemblies, musical presentations and athletic pursuits among other activities.
Please be reminded of the following upcoming events:
JGMS Parent Conferences December 7 1PM – 3:30PM
Band/Orchestra Concert December 6 7PM
Choral Concert December 8 7PM
Stand Up! Field trip December 13 school day (*see below)
Student-Faculty B-ball December 23 1:21PM - 2:18PM
Speaking of winter’s approach, you may be wondering just where that jacket, hat, gym pants or sneakers may be, not to mention a variety of other clothing items that you have purchased for your child. I have some good news for many of you! It may be right here at JGMS in a recycle bin or on a “lost and found” table outside of the cafeteria in piles that appears to be growing daily! Please stop by the school to peruse these items. If it belongs to your child or someone else in your family, please feel free to take it home with you. What is left behind after the holidays will be donated, so if you can’t make it by the school, please have your child look through the tables prior to the start of vacation.
In this edition please look for an article from the JGMS Chain Reaction Committee, which is a student organization that works to promote civility and pride among our student body. These students just completed a full-day training at the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University.
As part of our Accept the Challenge initiative 2 students from each team have been selected to participate in the Stand Up! Conference at Northeastern University on Tuesday, December 13th, where thousands of middle/high school students and teachers from across New England will gather for a one-day program to take a stand against all forms of bullying. The event will incorporate musical entertainment and local celebrities as well as a student “town meeting.” JGMS has been invited to highlight its Accept the Challenge program in the exhibition area. It should be an exciting day!
Hoping you have a restful and peaceful holiday season, on behalf of the entire JGMS faculty and staff, please enjoy the upcoming vacation!
Our next newsletter, the January-February edition, will be available on our website beginning January 30, 2012. In that newsletter we will be providing information about course selection and scheduling for the next school year!
Happy Holidays!
P. Jayne Viladenis
Inside This Issue:
Chain Reaction Committee
This was written by Kelsie P., Chain Reaction Member:
The theme of Day of Respect this year is "Bystander". This will include talking about bullies and victims in hopefully a "new" perspective. We will be putting on a flashmob type play in the auditorium where "bystanders" (Chain Reaction Members) are scattered in the audience. Six "victims" will be up on the stage playing the role of their characters who have been bullied in their middle school years. These victims do not want to go to school anymore and are blaming their peer bystanders for not only not standing up for them but for being silent. The play in the auditorium is our main event of the day this year, which we purchased with help from Mrs. Viladenis and by selling Richie's Italian slushies afterschool during the spring sports season. It is nice to know that our hard work was able to purchase such a wonderful program to share with the whole student body. As a group, we have also created a power point presentation and other activities pertaining to the "bystander" theme that students will complete in their advisories during the Day of Respect. We even have a friendly competition where the winning advisory will receive a hot chocolate and munchkin party. We are looking forward to a great day!
Note: Day of Respect has been moved to Wednesday, November 7, 2011!
Student Owned Strategies (S.O.S.)
Bryan Tonini – Red Team
Sandi Smith – Blue Team
The students have applied their newly acquired knowledge (The Keys of Learning) while they worked on their term project booklet and the culminating activity, “The Marshmallow Challenge.”
The Marshmallow challenge was a team-based activity where students tried to build the tallest freestanding structure using only spaghetti, tape and string. The final step was balancing a regular size marshmallow on top. The students needed to use their background knowledge of the materials and their building skills. They needed to know the purpose (goal) of the task. They were certainly actively engaged at all times. After the challenge, thinking about their experience (metacognition) was discussed. Most students wanted to rebuild the structure again, as they felt they had learned from their mistakes. Collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking were evident as the teachers made observations of student learning. It was a fun and successful way of wrapping up the unit.
Next month, your child can look forward to continuing to learn ways to visually organize information and other strategies from project CRISS (graphic organizers, note taking and other like strategies). We will also reinforce how the keys to learning are integrated into many aspects of our student’s learning and everyday life.
In addition to learning more learning strategies, S.O.S will begin to focus more on reading. Students will be asked to read outside the classroom and begin a reading journal. The term project (which will be presented shortly) will also be focused on outside reading. As for the term project, the Red and blue team projects will be slightly different. The blue team will concentrate their project on the reading response journal while the red team will create brochures based upon the books students read. The focus of the projects and the reading journal is to help students connect with the text and to start developing some higher level learning skills.
We look forward to another successful month.
JGMS Library News
Annual Book Fair
Thanks to all who supported our annual School Book Fair. Students were scheduled to attend the fair with classroom teachers. Book fairs provide students with a wide variety of titles that are of specific interest to them. They are bookstores designed solely for middle school kids.
Many thanks to the parent volunteers who gave their time to help out with the fair. Sparsh Joshi, Liz Carter, and Emily Ricci were the lucky winners from the three daily raffles.
Our Holiday Book Fair was held this year on Nov. 16, 17, and 18.
What’s hot!
Kids remain enamored with The Hunger Games Trilogy. Many are looking forward to the movie. Books that feature dystopias are quite popular.
The Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix is excellent.
David Klass has a trilogy that begins with Firestorm that is a fantasy around environmental issues.
Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick deals with how the powerful try to control society.
Unwind by Neal Shusterman depicts a society where parents can chose to have their unwanted children unwound.
A thank you to all parents who encourage reading. Students gain so much from the dialogue about books. Our summer reading list is posted on the school website and it always a source for title suggestions.
The familiar slogan, Kids Who Read
Succeed, is so true. Currently there are 661 books checked out of our library.
Pat Stephen, Marilyn Bemis, Lynda McGraw, and Nicole d’Entremont all escorted their students to the library to select books for projects that will be due in January. Non-Fiction, biography, historical fiction, realistic fiction, and survival fiction were all chosen.
Ms Stephen and Ms Bemis require outside reading for all students.
Level One students are to read four to ten books throughout the year and Level Two students are required to read four to seven books. Kids complete reader responses and maintain reading logs. Students select books from our library when accompanied by their teacher or on a pass during enrichment.
The size of a Library Media Center's staff and collection is the best school predictor of academic achievement. Students who score higher on norm-referenced tests tend to come from schools that have more library media staff and more books, periodicals, and videos. We have a solid collection of over 10,000 books and access to over 35 magazines, several databases and the Internet.
Tech Ed News
7th Grade
In the 7th grade, students are designing bridges using West Point Bridge Designer software. Next, students will design, build, and test balsa bridges. In this unit of study, students will learn how forces act on a beam, arch, and suspension bridge. Additionally, students evaluate the efficiency of their bridges.
8th Grade
In the 8th grade, students are designing home floor plans using home design software. Home designs need to adhere to the constraints of a design challenge. Throughout this unit, students will study construction technology. During the school year, the curriculum will focus on construction, manufacturing, transportation, and communication technology in order to prepare students for the Science & Engineering MCAS.
Notes from the Gifted and Talented and Differentiated Instruction Program
Notes from the Gifted and Talented and Differentiated Instruction Program
MathCounts News
MathCounts has taken the AMC 8 competition, a challenging multiple choice competition. We are eagerly awaiting the scores and expect them soon. The top ten competitors will be invited to take the AMC 10 competition in February.
The MathCounts school competition takes places on January 30th. Students will need to stay until approximately 6pm to compete.
Students may join MathCounts at any time. Just show up in B210 on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. The setting is relaxed for students who wish to just play with math, with opportunities for more focused work.
WordSmiths News
WordSmiths is finishing up its first session through Youth and Family Services. WordSmiths is taking a hiatus until the spring. Students who are currently involved will have options to continue a smaller version during the winter. We’ve had a great deal of fun this fall and hope to see everyone again in the spring!
Advanced Math Pull-Out Classes
The 6th grade advanced math pull-out class is just beginning our fraction unit. We will begin by exploring methods for finding greatest common factor and least common multiple. 7th graders are working on ratios and proportions. We will soon begin working on compound interest, and will be doing a project where students get to spend a lot of money on credit cards, then figure out how much they will have to pay over time. 8th grade students are learning about functions as a way to think about relationships in algebra and will be researching interesting functions.
Gifted and Talented E-mail List
The Gifted and Talented E-mail list is growing! The list provides resources, interesting websites, and out-of-school opportunities for parents of students with particular talents and/or passions. If you would like to be on the list, send an e-mail.
Math Olympiad
At JGMS, we run the Math Olympiad competitions in the mornings and open them to any student. Students who wish to prepare for Math Olympiad can do so during MathCounts on Mondays after school. The dates for the Math Olympiad competitions this year are as follows:
Competition 1) Tuesday, December 6
Competition 2) Tuesday, December 20th
Competition 3) Tuesday, January 10th
Competition 4) Tuesday, February 7th
Competition 5) Tuesday, March 15th
All competitions will start at 7:00 a.m. in the library. Students who are late may have reduced time to finish the competition. Any extra time will be used to discuss the problems. The contests take about half an hour to complete.
Out of School Resources
Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page
This is an excellent resource page for parents and children in understanding the needs of gifted students. In particular, for this time of year, there is a great gift guide at http://www.hoagiesgifted.com/shopping_guide.htm.
Grade 6 News
English:
On the Blue Team, we have finished our work with Magician's Nephew and are quite proud of the character and motif analysis that we did. The "empty head drawings" have become beautiful masterpieces that are in depth representations of each character's traits as developed in the novel. This is the perfect segue into our next unit: biography research. Each student will be researching a person who has made a difference in the world. This is quite an in depth unit, so we will be working on it for several months.
We would also like to welcome Sarah Perkins who has taken over for Mrs. Grant while she is on maternity leave. Sarah is off to a running start and is an enthusiastic new member of the blue team! A huge congratulation to Ms. Grant, who welcomed baby girl Clara on November 28th!
Red Team: Imagine if 9/11 could have been stopped. Imagine falling endlessly into an abyss and then being told that you had a choice: stay there forever with all of your wishes coming true or go back home. The choice could only be made once. Imagine being the Yeti who wants friends but is misunderstood to be a mean monster. Imagine having to learn to walk again after a terrible accident leaves you paralyzed. Imagine making a choice between having a bionic leg and competing in a track competition or relying solely on your own human capabilities. These are just some of the creative and thought-provoking plot problems that became short stories. I was thrilled with the variety of short stories that were submitted and found myself often entranced while reading. As we have wrapped up that unit, we will now begin our unit on The Magician's Nephew. In this unit, we will be looking carefully at how authors develop characters and the sub-text of a novel. We will also be delving into the at times complicated world of grammar, as we study nouns and review the rules of capitalization.
The red team is pleased to congratulate Damien D. as our October student of the month. He has made a wonderful transition to Bedford and shows a positive attitude each day. Thanks for being such a wonderful member of our school community Damien!
 | Science:
The scientists on both the red and blue teams have been hard at work learning the scientific process. We began by watching an Alka-seltzer dissolve and then changed different variables to try to affect the dissolving rate. Currently, we are exploring what happens when a mint Mento is dropped into a bottle of diet coke. We are using this reaction to learn the scientific method, write our own testable hypotheses that change only one variable in the experiment, and develop lab reports.
Looking ahead, our next unit of study will be learning how to measure matter, including properly using graduated cylinders, electronic balances, and other lab equipment and then we will be diving into the topic of density |
Math:
Both teams are finally moving on from operations with decimals and starting Unit 4 by playing the factor game. We are going to start work on prime factorization transitioning into working with Least Common Multiples and Greatest Common Factors. This is part of our preparation for the giant fractions and percents unit.
Social Studies:
The red and blue team social studies classes are using a curriculum called "Material World, A Global Family Portrait" By viewing photos and reading statistics we are taking a look at the material goods of people around the world. The students are discussing, processing and writing about what they see and learn. Additionally we are comparing the goods in the slides to our own "material goods". We encourage you to have a conversation with your children about what they are learning. We recommend you ask them to describe the photos we are viewing and ask them to compare the material goods of those families to the material goods your family owns.
Student Owned Strategies (S.O.S).
The students have applied their newly acquired knowledge (The Keys of Learning) while they worked on their term project booklet and the culminating activity, “The Marshmallow Challenge.”
The Marshmallow challenge was a team-based activity where students tried to build the tallest freestanding structure using only spaghetti, tape and string. The final step was balancing a regular size marshmallow on top. The students needed to use their background knowledge of the materials and their building skills. They needed to know the purpose (goal) of the task. They were certainly actively engaged at all times. After the challenge, thinking about their experience (metacognition) was discussed. Most students wanted to rebuild the structure again, as they felt they had learned from their mistakes. Collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking were evident as the teachers made observations of student learning. It was a fun and successful way of wrapping up the unit.
Next month, your child can look forward to continuing to learn ways to visually organize information and other strategies from project CRISS (graphic organizers, note taking and other like strategies). We will also reinforce how the keys to learning are integrated into many aspects of our student’s learning and everyday life.
In addition to learning more learning strategies, S.O.S will begin to focus more on reading. Students will be asked to read outside the classroom and begin a reading journal. The term project (which will be presented shortly) will also be focused on outside reading. As for the term project, the Red and blue team projects will be slightly different. The blue team will concentrate their project on the reading response journal while the red team will create brochures based upon the books students read. The focus of the projects and the reading journal is to help students connect with the text and to start developing some higher level learning skills.
We look forward to another successful month.
Grade 7 News
We hope that everyone is enjoying the mild winter weather. It was great for teachers to be able to meet with so many parents during conferences in November and we hope parents have signed up for the December conferences. The 2nd Quarter has begun and we will be approaching the mid-way point soon. Interims will be posted after school on Monday December 12. As always, if you have questions about how your child is doing in any class, please contact the teacher via email or phone. Email addresses and phone extensions are available on the school website.
Here is what is happening in your child’s classes:
Social Studies:
Students have completed their unit on Early Humans and have been working on writing a 3-paragraph essay answering the question, ˜What makes the city of Ur a civilization” ? using the six characteristics of a civilization. As the first writing assignment, students were limited to using their textbook to conduct the research and are learning the basic format for history research papers. This practice will help them to prepare for more independent research assignments later in the year. This essay is also the introduction to the third unit of the year, the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, which was located in present-day Iraq.
English:
Students have been finishing up our folklore unit in which students wrote their own fables showing a moral, the students read some tall tales otherwise known as American myths, and the students read a dramatic version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The students will be ending the unit by taking a cumulative test that will include fables, tall tales and legends. As part of the test they will write a character analysis of Ichabod from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Next the students will venture into writing a longer essay describing a person whom each student knows quite well; a parent, best friend or personal mentor of sorts. The students will focus on how to write a strong introduction to hook the reader. Remember that all students have an independent reading book project that will be due after the December break.
Science:
Wrapping up our unit on Ecology, students learned first-hand how the abiotic factors of an ecosystem, such as a snowstorm in October, can have a major affect on the biotic components in that ecosystem, our students! Recently, we have begun to explore an entirely different world around us, a microscopic one! Students have been introduced to the discovery of cells, learned the parts of cells that all cells share, compared and contrasted the two types of cells. Students will be using microscopes to observe plant and animal cells in the weeks to come. Term two will also include an at-home project where students will be creating a 3-dimensional model of a cell. Check Aspen soon for project details.
Math:
All 7th grade math classes just finished an Algebra unit on solving and graphing linear equations. They also all put great effort into their cartoon graphing projects submitted before Thanksgiving. The cartoons make a colorful and vibrant display in the math classrooms. The 7th Grade Mathematics classes have started a unit on fractions. The 7th Grade Pre-Algebra classes are beginning a unit on ratios, proportions and percents. Students will also be working on Part II of their cartoon enlargement project, which will be due on January 9, 2012. Testing for 8th grade mathematics class placement will begin in early February. Placement will be determined by the results on these placement tests as well as on current class work.
In all classes, the teachers will continue to provide meaningful learning experiences through the last day of school prior to the December vacation, so we appreciate the help you give to keep your child focused on homework and studies. We hope you enjoy the winter break
Grade 8 News
8th GRADE NEWS
With the holiday season upon us, and the winter season officially underway, the 8th graders have continued to bring enthusiasm and leadership to JGMS and their individual classrooms. With the winter vacation a couple of weeks away, you can imagine that the excitement level has certainly increased in lower A Wing. We encourage parents to remind their children to work hard until the close of school on December 23rd! We hope all of our JGMS families have a wonderful holiday season and a restful and enjoyable winter break!
Below are some of the academic highlights for both the Green and the Grey Teams:
English:
Mrs. Stephen and Ms. Bemis have introduced their students to Edgar Allan Poe and his philosophy of careful word choice and conscientious development of a single effect to create powerful writing. After a grammar review detailing when to use quotation marks or underlining and how to properly quote dialogue, we are working
on a personal narrative. The topic of this in-class writing assignment is to describe a winter memory based on a contrast or change in you or those around you. This two to four page story will be collected on 12/21 to provide us with some exciting reading over the winter break!
Social Studies:
Students in Mr. Casey’s and Mr. Nagle’s classes are continuing their study of the Middle Ages in Europe and are currently finishing their units on the Black Death and the development of the Magna Carta in Western Europe. Coming attractions include a major technology project using the program ‘Google Apps” to study the Renaissance period and the impact the Humanist Movement had on the development of the Western World. This project will begin in mid-December and will be due when students return from their vacation in early January.
Math:
The current unit of study in Pre-Algebra classes involves factors, fractions and exponents. In this unit, students use factorization of numbers and also factor monomials. Students find the greatest common factor and least common multiple of numbers and monomials and use these quantities to simplify, compare and order fractions and mixed numbers.
Algebra classes have recently completed a unit on functions. Students represented functions in a variety of ways, such as graphs, tables, equations or words. Students also explored when each representation could be particularly useful.
Science:
On the Green Team, students have just completed lessons on Earth Chemistry and are beginning a unit on minerals.
In the upcoming weeks students will learn how scientists categorize minerals into two main groups. Mineral formation and classification will also be studied. Students will identify unknown minerals according to their color, streak, luster,how they break and density. Special properties of minerals are to be highlighted by demonstrating the optical properties of calcite (double vision), chemical reactivity (calcite and weak acid) and fluorescence.
Students will be engaged in many hands-on activities throughout this unit. They are also working on a mineralresearch project and creating an advertisement for their mineral and its uses.
On the Grey Team, students just finished units on Minerals and Rocks and the Rock Cycle. Students learned how the different classes of minerals are formed, where they are found, and how they are classified. Students worked to identify minerals and also studied specific special properties of minerals.
Students learned how rock formation is tied into mineral formation. Students studied the 3 rock types and followed their progression through the rock cycle. Students learned to identify rock types associated with specific plate boundaries.
Students will next learn about the history of our planet, what evidence we have of changes, and learn about geologic time.
8th GRADE WASHINGTON D.C. TRIP
A reminder to all 8th grade parents that the deadline to register for the annual 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. trip is rapidly approaching. Students are expected to have their initial deposits and registration submitted to World Strides by January 15th. Parents who are requesting financial assistance for their child are asked to fill out an application (that can be found in the main office) and return to principal Jayne Viladenis by December 15th.
A mandatory parent meeting regarding the trip will be held for all in April, but parents who have any questions surrounding the trip are asked to contact Mr. Casey.
Spanish News
6th Grade
Sixth grade Spanish students have been working on using the verb gustar with infinitive verbs to talk about what they like and dislike as well as activities that they enjoy doing. They have learned many new verbs during this unit and are creating wonderful, original sentences to talk about their lives and interests. Their new vocabulary has a blend of adjectives to describe people’s physical appearances and personalities, as well as colors and clothing. The current chapter takes a look at the Spanish influences in the city of San Antonio, Texas. Students will read about traditional clothing and music seen in San Antonio and compare them with their own music and clothing interests. By the end of the chapter they will be able to describe people by talking about their looks, personalities, and what they wear.
7th Grade
In seventh grade the Spanish students are currently learning how to say what people are going to do, and use regular and irregular –er and –ir verbs to say what people do after school. They are also learning to use sequencing words to create better transitions in a paragraph. This improves their writing noticeably. This is the final chapter in the unit based in Mexico City. The next unit is in Puerto Rico and will include learning to extend invitations, talk on the phone, express feelings, and say where they are coming from and what just happened.
8th Grade
Students in Spanish 8 have been studying and practicing the art of bargaining for items sold at outdoor markets in Oaxaca, Mexico. Talking about shopping, making purchases and giving gifts are also embedded in this context. They have learned the vocabulary to describe many handicrafts and other items offered for sale at these outdoor markets. Grammar points include a group of o>ue stem changing verbs along with the review of the e>ie stem changing verbs studied during grade seven. Students are also reviewing the use and placement of indirect object pronouns.
Students are now beginning a lesson about a visit to a Mexican restaurant. They will be sampling Mexican food and learning to order typical main dishes and desserts!
¡Buen Provecho!
In 6th grade French we have been studying the verb Avoir, possessive pronouns and family members. We have been practicing with various internet sites that are good for review and oral/aural proficiency. The students are also recording their voices on a program called Lingt Language which acts as a makeshift language lab. All of the programs we are using are on the French 6th website on Aspen.
In 7th grade French we have just finished Lesson/Chapter10 which addresses articles, plurals and negative forms of verbs with Avoir. We looked at Haiti and its rich culture. Students have been learning to express their opinions and describe friends and family. As a warm up in class we are slowly introducing the past tense in our activities. They have recorded their spoken and written responses on Lingt Language and have gained significant fluency since the beginning of the year!.
In 8th grade French we have been using the past tense (passé composé) in both written and oral work. Students are gaining confidence in both group and pairwork. We are frequent visitors of the computer lab where students use various interactive language programs tailored to their current grammar and vocabulary lessons. We are finishing up Unit 6 in Discovery French Bleu and will soon transition to a new textbook Discovery French Blanc.
Winter Apparel Sale
The BHS Class of 2015 is holding a Winter Apparel Sale! Sweatshirts, sweatpants, and winter hats are being sold. Order forms for the sale were given out in students' Advisories. Students should be sure to return their order form and payment to their advisor no later than Wednesday, December 7! Please contact Mr. Grunwald or Emily Moss with any questions. Apparel will be ready for pickup in time for the holidays!