FALCON UPDATE
Fuller Middle School
Principal's Message
Dear students and families:
I trust that you are well and enjoying the warm weather in this last full month of school. The month of May has been very busy for our students and staff as they participated in the state standardized assessments and many extra-curricular activities. I am happy to share with you that all students have completed the Spring MCAS, and I was very pleased to observe the commitment and effort of our students while they were taking the test. It is my expectation that we will achieve better results this yea,r and I am eagerly looking forward to receiving the results during the summer. You should also know that during this week, we are administering the iReady assessment to all students. This assessment allows us to measure the progress our students have made this year towards meeting grade level standards. It also helps us make decisions for class placement for returning students.
In just a few days our 8th grade students will receive their certificates of completion and leave us for the next phase of their education in high school. While we will miss them, we are very proud of their accomplishments and wish them well in high school and beyond. In the next few days they will be very busy participating in the end of the year activities. The dates for the events are as follows:
- June 11-Canobie Lake Park Field trip
- June 12-Field day
- June 14-Dinner dance
- June 17-Moving on ceremony
An email with details for each event will be sent to you soon.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our arts teachers for the outstanding performances of the Jazz Band, Chorus and String Orchestra during this past month at various venues representing the school.
As always I thank you for your continued support and collaboration.
Jose P. Duarte, Principal
Fuller Middle School
FALCON ACHIEVEMENTS
Falcons of the Month
(Trustworthiness, Honesty, and Integrity)
Opal: Pamela Goncalves
Lime: Susan De Leon
Tangerine: Dylan Fink
Platinum: Sharelyn Gutierrez
Blue: Saemi Guzman
Green: Jose Micheli, Jr.
Crimson: Darius Burrell
Gold: (6) Marlon Flores
(7) Paola Ramos
(8) Giovanna Santos
6TH GRADE
Welcome to the home stretch! Sixth graders have completed their MCAS testing and are already looking forward to summer. We have two really exciting field trips in the beginning of June, so I hope you have submitted your child's money and permission slips.
Last week students took their Math MCAS. All students worked really hard and put forth a lot of effort. Ms. McGovern and Mrs. McNamee are very proud of the students! Students are now working on their food truck/STEAM project that we began at the beginning of the year. Students are creating a road map to where their trucks will travel across the United States as well as a menu of food they will be selling. Students are most definitely enjoying being able to design and create a 3D food truck. When the project is complete their posters and trucks will be on display during the STEAM night on June 12th!
In science, students are finishing their study of the differences between chemical and physical changes in our chemistry unit. Next we will be introducing the concepts of waves, which are brand new to the 6th science curriculum. We are hoping a partnership with Bose speakers will be starting this year to help our students gain a better understanding of waves. Lastly, we want to thank the very generous Sanofi-Genzyme volunteers, who finished up their last session of the year with sixth graders and we look forward to seeing them again next year.
Students in Ms. Pomeroy’s class are learning about the geography, climates, and cultures of Asia. We will then be exploring the origins and basic belief systems in each of the major world religions.
Students are excited to be working on their environmental research projects! Students have the opportunity to choose an environmental issue they are passionate about and get the word out to the public by creating an essay, consumer guide, public service announcement, and much more! We are also continuing working on the novel Flush by Carl Hiaasen. Students are enjoying following a character of their choice and analyzing how they change throughout the course of the novel.
7th GRADE
In seventh grade math, students used their knowledge of equations and angle relationships to find unknown angle measurements. They continued to work hard to complete the geometry unit before MCAS. They worked on finding the area and perimeter of 2-dimensional shapes and surface area and volume of 3-dimensional figures. We also took an in depth look at the characteristics of triangles.
Tangerine science students are examining various resources such as videos, data, and a
simulation to develop a list of factors that limit population size. Next they will participate in
labs that test and evaluate the impact of water pollution on the ecosystem.
Students in Mr. Faller's class are currently working on their second STEAM Project. They are brainstorming, investigating and finally designing a Rube Goldberg device that will move a marble 1 meter. Ten steps are involved that will include at least three energy transfers. Students have been researching various designs and are currently developing their final design. We hope to have this project finished and videotaped to present at the next STEAM exposition.
In social studies we have finished our unit on Ancient Greece. Students really enjoyed learning about the Persian and Peloponnesian War, especially the use of Greek strategic military formations and weapons. Their interest in the topic resulted in excellent test scores! We started our final unit this year- Ancient Rome. We have started the unit with the Roman Republic government. This unit will take us through the fall of the republic, the birth of an empire, the rise of Christianity, and finally the fall of Rome.
Mrs. Haranas’s students, with the help of Ms. Penaloza, Ms. Paradiso, and Ms. St. Peter, will be working on a historical STEAM project based around the city of Pompeii. Students are grouped. Each group will have a specific assignment. One group will need to build the city of Pompeii before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius; a group will create an interactive volcano to share during the STEAM exhibition; a group will build the ruins of Pompeii after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and finally, a group will build an archaeology dig site and create artifacts to replicate artifacts that were found at the real excavation site.
8TH GRADE
It’s hard to believe the end of the year is almost upon us as we near the final weeks of the third trimester with our Ocean students. All of our eighth graders recently completed the STE MCAS and pressed on through this last round of testing. We are proud of their efforts on these and the ELA and Math tests and look forward to positive results in the Fall. In addition, we also completed our third round of iReady diagnostic tests for Math and Reading and are pleased at the progress the students have made throughout the year.
As we wind down in Language Arts classes, students have been reading and showing off their acting skills with William Shakespeare's, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Wrestling with Shakespearean verse, while puzzling through the conflict and themes of this romantic comedy is an exciting challenge for our eighth graders. It’s also entertaining to have surprise budding thespians emerge from each class. Additionally, we hope the students were inspired by the energetic performance of the Shakespeare Now! Theatre Company out of Brookline where they were exposed to excerpts of a handful of Shakespeare’s plays. Next, all students completed their essay contest submissions and the semifinalists were notified and will be moving on to the next stage of the competition. Lastly, once a finalist, each student will read their essay in front of a formal panel of community judges, including the entire 8th grade class, and a winner will be chosen and announced at the 8th grade Promotion/Awards ceremony.
The students in Social Studies classes have spent much time delving deep into the primary sources of the founding fathers and making sense of the complexities involved in developing a government structure for a new nation. Also, students have spent much time studying the importance of the Bill of Rights and recognizing how these amendments impact the lives of people today. Additionally, the students have explored Supreme Court cases to better understand the reasonings that support the majority and minority opinions of the Justices. Ms. Virdinlia and Mr. Zieky are pleased with the high-level thinking and engagement from all of the students.
In our next update, we will share information about our end-of-the year STEAM projects.
CRIMSON TEAM
The Crimson Team is going full STEAM ahead with a special project that will be revealed at our annual Ethnic Food Day. What is Ethnic Food Day? It’s a day when the Crimson Team invites families and staff members to come together to celebrate the diverse cultures represented here at Fuller. Students will be researching a country that is part of their ethnic background. Families are encouraged to make a dish from their country to share with others. It is scheduled for June 13, 2019. More information will be coming home soon! Keep an eye out for a special letter all about this day of celebration and culture.
In social studies, we are learning life skills by looking at real life receipts and making sure we know how to read them so we pay the right amount of money. We are learning about when we pay tax and when we don’t pay tax. The Celtics are learning about emergency situations and when to call 911, as well as how to respond to strangers. We are still learning US history as well. Recently we finished our applications and store signs for colonial jobs. Next, we will practice colonial writing as we learn about school. We will compare/contrast school now to school back then. Finally, we will be working on our projects for Ethnic Food Day. The year may be winding down but we are still busy with lessons and projects that are rigorous and fun!
In ELA, we are learning about writing summaries and story elements. The students have done a great job writing summaries of stories and articles and now are focused on identifying and analyzing elements of a story. Currently the students are being BASed, which is a benchmark assessment system that provides a qualitative report on the students’ current reading levels. Students are also working on lessons that they have learned all year by practicing their skills on I-ready. As the year comes to a close, I want to congratulate all of our students for working hard and for a job well done in ELA!!
In science, we have been doing a lot of fun things. Celtics and Bruins have continued to learn about the five senses. They have had the opportunity to do some fun experiments. They conducted fun pencil experiments that tested their sense of touch and their sense of sight. All students have developed a nice understanding of what the five senses are and how we use them in the world around us. Patriots and Red Sox continue to do a great job in learning about Newton’s three laws of motion. Currently, they are building a rocket balloon car experiment. This experiment tests Newton’s third law of motion about action and reaction. They are looking forward to testing their cars to see how well they work.
In math, students on the Celtics are learning about money and adding a small group of mixed coins. They also enjoyed a cooking class in which they had to use their knowledge of liquid and dry measurements in order to prepare their lunch. Red Sox and Patriots completed a unit on exponents and were all quite successful on their end of unit exams. They are currently working on a unit on the Order of Operations and are enjoying working in small groups to solve multi-step expressions by following and reciting the Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally mantra. The Bruins are completing an area and perimeter unit in which they created their own theme parks. As the weather gets warmer and brighter, we will be working on our STEAM project of creating a quilt. Measurements and calculations will be required in order to complete the finish product.
The Revolution team is following the life cycle of butterflies and have set up a butterfly garden to watch how the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis and starts to develop into a butterfly. We are learning to use binoculars and watch wildlife at the back of the school and make a simple inventory of what types of animals we find in Framingham. In math, students continue to develop strong skills in geometry and algebra, learning about using formulas for the calculation of area and perimeter.
gold team
Ms. Aguiar’s 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are working very hard in their STEAM project. They are making and selling cards. They had already helped several causes, but now they are on a mission to send 6 students on a field trip to Washington D.C., in November.
Check out some of their creations in the photos below. The cards cost only $2 and are all handmade by Ms. Aguiar’s students.
Ms. Lawrence's ESL1 students are completing a unit about risks and rewards. They will be completing this as a STEAM unit doing several hands on activities in small groups throughout the rest of the school year. They will be discussing and writing about their decisions/choices and reasons.
ESL2 students are finishing the book unit The Color of My Words and will be moving into the final project of the year.
ESL1 social studies students are finishing a unit on the Civil Rights Movement by making comparisons between one of the key figures of the movement and, either their own lives, or current events today.
UNIFIED ARTS
Bridges
The students were challenged to create a bridge out of toothpicks and clay that could hold a 300 gram load and withstand compression forces. Students who finished demonstrated how their bridge could also hold a kilogram load.
Skyscrapers
Students were challenged to create the tallest skyscraper they could that can withstand sheer, torsion, and compression forces. The tallest skyscraper is shown with the students who designed the building.
Paper Satellites
Students also completed a lesson about Global Precipitation Measurement satellites and assembled paper satellites following a lesson from NASA curriculum. Students from 6th grade (Richally, Amy, Yama, and Brae) created the display that not only helped the school see the work from other students, but educate other students regarding the project.
Coding
Students completed a few brief introductory lessons that used openprocessing.org. Students were encouraged to use my code and extend and experiment the programs provided.
Gliders
Students were challenged to learn about the forces of lift, drag, and gravity while designing gliders. Some of the gliders that were designed are shown in the images provided.
STEAM project
A small group of 6th graders is working on a poster to demonstrate their knowledge of speakers and speaker circuits. They will share introductory information about electronic components.
STUDENT SUPPORT TEAM
- Overdue books. There are still lots of overdue books. Please ask your child to look for any library books that they have and return or renew them as soon as possible.
- Summer Reading: Detailed summer reading information will be coming out very soon. This year the rising 6th graders will read one book and the rising 7th and 8th graders a different book. Fuller Middle is working to establish a community of readers by promoting the idea of One School/One Book. This program, which has been embraced by many schools and cities, invites students, staff, parents, and community members to read one book. The goals are to revive a joy of reading and to promote communication and conversations among families, schools, and the community. This is the second year that Fuller is promoting this idea. We are also tying our reading selection to the coming year's guest author. This year we have two different authors, and in order to support these authors, we have chosen different books for different grades. We strongly encourage students to read both books though they will only be expected to read the grade level choice.
Reading is one of the most important things a student (or anyone) can do to enhance their learning. Daily reading, as little as 20 minutes a day, results in increased performance in school and on standardized tests.
The Framingham Public Schools website will also provide summer reading information including other titles that students may want to try out. - Fuller Film Festival: In just a couple of weeks. the first Fuller Film Festival will be held. More information will be provided soon. The library has been one of the drivers of this event, and the library WIN group will be submitting two entries.