November/December 2013

JGMS 1st Annual Trip To Nature's Classroom Was A Huge Success

Despite the chilly weather and a great deal of "transition" time, the students all appeared to have a wonderful time and we didn't leave anyone in Freedom, NH. Many staff sacrificed time out of their schedules and with their families and donated their time to our school community. Many thanks go to Nadine Coletta and Alison Breaux, our 6th grade team leaders, who took the lead in organizing the trip. Thank you also to Derek Johnson, Ken Norling, Jeff LoPresti, Ryan Donaher, Paul Harrington, Denise Breakall, Paula Bakarian, Marie Mallott, Lauren Noferi, Marcy Beinert, Michelle Della Valle, Kris Frazier, Katherine Suduiko, Joanna Daley and Stephen Waite for chaperoning. Thank you also to Vinnie McGrath, Cheryl Pespisa, Nuri Barlas and Jeff Wardwell for staying behind to orchestrate fun daily activities for those students who chose not to attend. It was a true team effort and their commitment to the kids and our school is greatly appreciated.

Upon return, the students were asked to reflect on their experiences in a letter to next year's 6th grade class and by creating team posters. The reflections were all incredibly positive and validated that this was a worthwhile tradition that will hopefully continue for many years to come. As one student remarked, "Nature's classroom was the best experience I have ever had in school and one of the greatest trips I have taken in my life. You learn a ton about the environment, spend an awesome time with your friends and learn a bit about yourself from the trip." Another student added, "I just went to the best place in the world, Nature's Classroom"...and she ended with "I want you (incoming 6th graders) to have this experience because you will learn how to miss your parents". Many students commented on the quality time spent with their classmates, the excitement of sleeping in cabins and the "cool" and "creative" lessons and activities. Thank you, again, to all staff members who made this trip possible and thank you to the parent community for all of your support. If you have any feedback, please send it to me directly. We have already begun planning next year's adventure.

If you have not seen the blog on the trip, please visit here   
Thank you to Marie Mallott, Nadine Coletta, Joe Stanley and Jaime Smith for their help creating and facilitating the site.

I wish everyone a restful and safe holiday season with family and friends.

All the best,

Kevin

Caption: Students display great teamwork helping their peers across the low ropes and across a rope bridge (they constructed themselves!)

Caption: Mr. Harrington displays his athletic prowess in one of 30+ total games of soccer during "transition" time.

Caption: A group of students (and a Principal) proudly pose by their newly constructed shelter. As one Principal noted, spending an hour stripping birch bark off a dead tree with a sharp rock is oddly therapeutic and beats being in the office any day!

From the Health Office

REMINDER: physical exams are due for 6th graders. I need to have these in order to update immunizations for the 7th grade state survey in October.

During the month on March I will be checking all students for scoliosis. The postural screening program is conducted during physical education classes, and each student is checked individually. Assessments for lateral curvature of the spine and /or other postural concerns will be the focus of the program. The Mass. Dept. of Public Health has mandated that children be screened yearly in grades 5-9. These grades cover the years in which adolescents experience rapid growth, and in which signs of curvature most often appear. This program provides for early detection, and regular monitoring. It is not meant to provide medical diagnosis, but rather to detect possible early signs of spinal problems, which should have further medical evaluation. Parents will be notified if their child is referred for evaluation by their physician.

Cold and Flu season is in full swing. The cold weather leads to increased person-to-person contact due to indoor activities. This results in a significant increase in colds. The rhinovirus can live for hours on hands, as well as on surfaces such as Formica, wood and plastic. Thorough hand washing and disinfecting surfaces can result in fewer colds.

Some guidelines that should be considered when making the decision of whether an unwell child should come to school:

• A Sore Throat that is not relieved by over-the-counter pain medication. If you suspect your child has strep throat, please call your physician for a throat culture. If an antibiotic is prescribed he/she should remain home at least 24 hours after starting the medication.
• Elevated Temperature over 99 degrees F in the morning. Temperatures are at the lowest in the morning and often rise as the day progresses.
• Active Coughing and Sneezing. "Germs" can be spread far and wide with one cough or sneeze via droplet infection.
• Vomiting and/or Diarrhea. If a child has these during the night or in the morning, he/she needs to remain at home. It is very stressful for a child to "get sick" at school.

Stress Frequent Handwashing! It Really Helps

Thanks, and please feel free to call me with any questions or concerns.
Carol Eaton, R.N. 781-275-3165

Library News

Notes From the Library

The first week of December was very busy with the Scholastic Book Fair. Many students purchased a new release or a favorite book for their own. Just in case you want to make some additional purchases we will have the fair open Wednesday from 4:00 to 6:30 during a portion of the parent conferences.

Book Circulation

Students are reading and reading! Currently over 700 books are checked out. English teachers have assigned new book projects and some students are reviewing a book for Health Class.

7th grade teachers Ms. D'Entremont and Mr. Donaher are reading Quicksilver by Stephanie Spinner as part of their Folklore unit.

8th grade teachers Ms. Bemis and Ms. Stephen asked students to select biography, autobiography / memoir, historical fiction, or non-fiction as one of their independent reading choices.

Ms. Stephen and Ms. Bemis require outside reading for all students. Level 1 are to read 4 to 10 books throughout the year and Level 2 students are required to read 4 to 7 books. Kids complete reader responses and maintain reading logs. Students select books from our library when accompanied by their teacher or on a pas during enrichment periods.

The sixth grade S.O.S. classes have been in to check out independent reading books as well.

Library Activity

Mr. McCarthy's classes have begun writing of their "Changemaker" report. 6th grade students will be investigating people who have made significant contributions to society. They will be using books and databases to acquire information. Students will learn to cite sources accurately.

Popular Books

A few years ago teenagers became mesmerized with "Dystopia" books thanks to The Hunger Games and the new release of Catching Fire.

The Michael Vey series has joined the "always out" book with The Rise of Elgen and Battle of Ampere. In student words... "It shows that being different is not always a bad thing. Action and suspense kept me reading until I finished it. If you like books about powers, evil plots, and friendship, this book is for you."

The Roar and its sequel, The Whisper have 12 year old Mika and his sister living behind a wall that was erected to protect the people from plague-ridden animals. He finds that it is a ruse to hold and brainwash the children using microchips. Twelve-year-old Mika and his sister together try to stop the brainwashing of the people behind the wall and set all of them free.

The Divergent Trilogy is a new book about to grace the silver screen in March and has many students and teachers clambering for each copy. Much like Hunger Games there are different areas – factions that identify a specific virtue and strive to pick the right faction, which in turn, may cause them to leave all whom they know and love behind. Beatrice is 16 years and must make the life choice. Insurgent and newly released Allegiant are the results of the decisions and choices and how her actions affect more than herself.

Of course there is the new Rick Roirdan's newest release, House of Hades which is already flying off the shelves.

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. This year we have a very short span of time between our breaks, so 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 20th! We wish all of our JGMS families 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' English classes are finishing up their unit on the Hunger Games with an Expository writing assignment. All of the 8th graders are eagerly looking forward to our visit to the Burlington Cinemas to watch Catching Fire on Thursday, December 12th!

Social Studies:

Students in Mr. Casey and Mr. Nagle's classrooms have recently finished up their study of the Latin American Civilizations of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. With a focus on explaining cause and effect relationships, students wrote short essays describing the events and factors that led to the conquering or collapse of these pre-Columbian civilizations. Starting right after our Thanksgiving break, classes have begun their study of the Middle East with an emphasis on the growth and development of the Islamic empires. The time before vacation will focus on the impact of geography in the region and the early development of Islam during the life of Muhammad. This year's group has attacked this material with curiosity and energy that has been refreshing and encouraging. Please encourage your child to engage in the daily news stories that come from this region and bring their questions in for class discussions!

Math:

The current unit of study in Pre-Algebra classes involves rules for exponents and scientific notation. In this unit, students multiply and divide expressions with exponents and simplify expressions with negative exponents. Students also read and write numbers in scientific notation and use scientific notation in real world problems.

Algebra classes are completing 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.

Finally, assessments for high school placements will begin taking place in January. All students will complete a midterm as well as a program inventory, which will be used to help make recommendations for 9th grade.

Science:

In the upcoming weeks students will continue their investigations of minerals and learn how rocks differ from minerals. Students will be engaged in many hands-on activities throughout this unit. Together we will design an experiment to look at how mechanical weathering affects different types of rocks. Students will conduct the experiment in groups and do a formal lab report individually.

After rocks, we will move onto our study of the geologic history of our planet.

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. and to apply for financial assistance is past due.
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.

7th Grade News

We hope that you enjoyed a pleasant Thanksgiving! Paper copies of report cards are being sent home with students and are also posted and posted on Aspen, so we hope you have had a chance to see how your child did for 1st Quarter. If you have concerns about a particular class, please contact the teacher. If you have general concerns about trends across classes, you can contact the team leader (Liz Cowles for Navy or Allison Hammer for Purple) and/or Maureen McDermott, the Guidance Counselor. The second day of parent conferences will be held on Wednesday, 12/11, between 4:00-7:00.

Here is what has been happening in the 7th grade classes.

Social Studies
Social Studies classes have recently completed the unit on Early People during which they learned about the different characteristics of early humans, the development of tools, language, and culture, and the beginning of settled farming in towns and city-states. We have begun out study of Mesopotamia, focusing on the characteristics of a civilization, geography, the region of Sumer, and the city of Ur as an example of one of the first civilizations. Students have been working on proving how Ur meets each of the six characteristics of a civilization and will write a 3-paragraph mini-research paper. Right before the December vacation, Navy and Purple students will be mixed together into groups to complete a short research presentation assignment about Mesopotamian culture.

Math
All 7th grade math classes just finished an Algebra unit on solving and graphing linear equations. They are now working on a fraction unit. They also all put great effort into the cartoon graphing projects before Thanksgiving. 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 in January.

Since we are well in to the school year, students are running out of materials. Please check in with your child to make sure that they are bringing a calculator, pencils, and graph paper and lined paper to class each day. Having a calculator at home and one at school is very useful to students. Testing for 8th grade mathematics class placement will begin in February. Students will be placed in either Pre-Algebra or Algebra for 8th grade. Placement will be determined by the results on these placement tests as well as on current class work.

Science
Wrapping up our unit on Ecology, students created a bottle decomposition column and have been observing the process and all the changes that have occurred over the past several weeks! 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 common to all cells, and compared and contrasted the two basic types of cells. Students have been using microscopes and will be observing plant and animal cells in the weeks to come. Term two will also include an at-home project in which students will be creating a 3-dimensional model of a cell.

English
Seventh grade English is going very well so far this second quarter. Students are continuing to improve their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We are finishing the Folklore unit in which we learn about fables, tall tales, legends (including "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") and Greek Mythology. After reading some myths, we will begin our first novel entitled Quicksilver by Stephanie Spinner. Along with reading, students will be writing open responses and a long composition related to this unit. Students should continue to seek help, ask questions, and self-advocate this term!

6th Grade News

General Announcements:

Nature's Classroom: Our sixth grade class trip to Nature's Classroom was a success! All who attended had a wonderful, albeit cold, time during our trip in November. Students had opportunities to experience learning in an alternative setting, work collaboratively with one another, and create memories of a lifetime!

Please visit our blog to read more and see pictures from our trip!

School Newspaper: The John Glenn Journal has published its first edition for 2014. It is available on the JGMS website. Click to read Mr. Mehler's thoughts on his new position here at JGMS, to determine which Smartphone may be best for you, or to be "in the know" about the opening of Ken's New York Deli. A hearty congratulations to the newspaper staff for their hard work in putting this issue together.

Curriculum Updates:

Math: As we move from the fall and prepare for the cold winter months, we will transition from working with decimals to fractions and percents. Students will perform calculations using all four operations with fractions and mixed numbers. Students will also focus on converting between fractions, decimals and percents. An emphasis will be placed on the understanding of when it's appropriate to use fractions, decimals and percents.

English: On the Yellow team, we have completed the research portion of our "Change-Maker" project. Students learned how to take notes by finding quotations or paraphrasing from a range of sources including books and online databases. The goal was to complete 35 note cards on an individual who has changed the world. Students researched facts about their life, details about their important work, and the major issue that made the individual a change-maker. In the weeks to come, we will be working on turning these notes into a five paragraph research essay and will be learning how to write a thesis statement that will be supported by research.

On the Orange team, we are wrapping up our descriptive writing unit. We are sharing our descriptive writing pieces with our writing mentors for feedback to help us revise and polish. WIt goes without saying that we will be using our rubrics as a guide in this process. All of this is preparation for the big hurrah...writing a short story. These will be completed prior to vacation so that we can share them with our counterparts in seventh or eighth grade. Who wouldn't want to end 2013 by hearing a gripping story? We are also reading some examples of descriptive and engaging short stories as we journey back to dinosaur times in "The Sound of Thunder", engross ourselves in a bit of wartime history in "Baseball Saved Us" and an excerpt from "Unbroken", and ponder mysteries and philosophies in a few others.

Social Studies: Your students are becoming global citizens by learning the basic facts about the five major world religions. In social studies we have started by learning about Islam and Judaism. Students have learned about the history, basic beliefs, holidays, and celebrations of these religions. We will continue our study with Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. At the conclusion of each lesson we ask the students what they have learned that surprised them and if our examination of the religion changed any preconceived ideas they might have had. This has lead to some insightful and interesting discussions. Be sure to ask your students about these lessons.

Learning Strategies: During the second term of Learning Strategies we will be working on Project Criss. So far, we have introduced the 5 Keys of Learning, which are mostly geared towards good reading strategies. We will be finishing up the 5 Keys in the next couple of weeks and then will begin our Author's Craft project. This will be done in class and at home. This project will involve the students creating mini-books while incorporating their knowledge on the 5 Keys of Learning.

Science: We had a lot of fun in the Science classes at the beginning of the year, learning basic science skills and lab safety. As we finish our introductory lab reports on Diet Coke and Mentos, our focus will shift to Matter. We will be learning how to measure matter, specifically Mass and Volume, and the difference between Mass and Weight. After the break will will start to look at the Periodic Table of Elements and discuss the differences in Matter, including Physical and Chemical properties and changes. Students can look forward to many experiments as we explore the Matter around us!

Spanish News

Grade 6

In 6th grade students learned that expressing likes and dislikes in Spanish is grammatically different than in English. In Spanish they need to use the verb "gustar". They also learned that origin is expressed using the verb "ser +de".

By the middle of December students will start the new Unidad 1 Lección 2. In this unit, students will keep practicing and extending the concept of the verb SER (to be) and they will be able to describe what somebody is like and his/her profession. They will also learn how to identify people and things. We will continue to explore the influence of the Latino community within the US and its history (for example: El Alamo, Texas.)

Grade 7

In 7th grade Spanish, the students are currently learning to say what people like and do not like with both verbs and nouns. They are also using various tener idioms to express how people are feeling; extending their vocabulary related to food and meals; and using regular –erand –ir verbs to say what people do. Additionally they are expanding on and reviewing question words. The setting is the first of two lessons on Puerto Rico, in unit 3 lesson one. They are learning about foods of Puerto Rico and El Salvador, about Old San Juan, el Yunque rainforest, and more.

Grade 8

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 previously studied e>ie stem changing verbs. Students are also reviewing the use and placement of direct objects and direct object pronouns. They are now being introduced to indirect objects and indirect object pronouns. They are developing an appreciation for the hand made items of the outdoor markets in contrast to the mass produced items sold at department stores.

French News

French 6 has become well familiarized with food vocabulary and requesting meals in formal and informal formats. They are now starting Leçon 4 which introduces telling time, calendar dates and weather expressions. We are still watching Babar videos and have just begun to recite a poem Chanson pour les enfants l'hiver by Jacques Prèvert. The students are becoming aware of mneumonic devices that help learn language such as songs, rhyme, word play and poetry. Using Moodle students will have a spoken assessment this month.

French 7 is exploring the many uses of the verb Avoir and articles in Leçon 19. They are learning songs that incorporate the verbs and expressions from the chapters. They have finished Finding Nemo and are now watching Where The Wild Things Are in French. They are going to recite a poem Chanson pour les enfants l'hiver by Jacques Prèvert as well as illustrate the actions of the poem. Using Moodle students will have a spoken assessment this month.

French 8 is finishing up Leçon 20 which addresse the use of RE verbs, Avoir expressions and the Imperative. Students have written a composition on Google Apps which has been teacher and student edited and will be a written piece for their portfolio. We have started a beautiful narrated French film Le Renard et L'Enfant and continue to watch Les Choristes in the other 8th grade. We are also practicing songs that incorporate vocabulary and grammar from our Unit. In the spirit of Winter we will recite and record a poem Chanson pour les enfants l'hiver by Jacques Prèvert. 

Tech Ed News

During the 2nd quarter in the 7th grade, students will design, build, and test balsa bridges. Students have developed an understanding of how forces act on bridges by completing an activity here. Additionally, students have learned how to select a bridge style for a particular location. At the end of the unit of study, students will create a PowerPoint presentation that summarizes key ideas of bridge technology.

During the 2nd quarter in the 8th grade, students will design homes. In this unit of study, home designs are required to adhere to constraints of a design challenge. While working on this unit of study, students will develop an understanding of parts of a house. For example, students will be able to identify and describe the function of the foundation, girder, and load bearing walls. Additionally, math connections will be addressed by having students calculate square feet. 

Notes from the Gifted and Talented and Differentiation Instruction Program

MathCounts News
MathCounts has taken the AMC 8 competition, a challenging multiple choice competition. The top 10 students will be invited to take the AMC 10 competition in February. We are all eagerly awaiting our scores!

The MathCounts school competition takes places on December 16th. Students will need to stay until approximately 5:30 p.m. to compete. The top 10 students will then compete at the Northeast Chapter competition in February. Good luck to everyone on December 16th!

Students may join MathCounts at any time. Just show up in B219 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.

Advanced Math Pull-Out Classes
The 6th grade advanced math pull-out class is working through our unit on decimals and fractions. We are building automaticity with fraction operations, then extending with variables and various interesting explorations on fractions. 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 are researching or creating 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.

Enrichment Seminars
The current 6th grade open enrichment seminar is Writer's Workshop. We will likely be wrapping up Writer's Workshop before the December break, and will be offering a new topic in January. If you or your child has a particular topic request, please send an e-mail. 6th grade open enrichment seminars are open to all students who have enrichment on day 6, period 2, which is nearly every 6th grade student.

We have just finished our Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! open enrichment seminar for 8th grade and are about to begin our next topic. For the next seminar, we will be competing in the C-Span Student Cam competition. Students will work individually or in teams of up to 3 to create a documentary on the most important issue they feel U.S. Congress should consider in 2014. This will involve planning the documentary, script writing, filming, editing, and a deep understanding of a current issue. If enough students choose to join, we will choose a winning documentary for the school as well as send all our entries to the national contest. For more information, go to www.studentcam.org, where you can read contest details, get information on prizes, and view past winning documentaries.

Maternity Leave Substitute
As many of you know, I will be out after the December break, returning at the end of March. During this time, gifted and talented programming at JGMS will be coordinated by my long-term substitute, Josh Shaine. Josh will teach the advanced math and enrichment classes, plus provide support for gifted programming throughout my absence. Josh has many years of experience in the field of gifted education, a wealth of background knowledge to lend to all aspects of programming at JGMS, and a deep understanding of the nature and needs of gifted students. I feel incredibly lucky that he will be covering my leave, although I am somewhat concerned that the students will not want me to return! A letter with more details will be coming to all parents of students in gifted programming at JGMS shortly.

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 here.