Plymouth Public Schools

FILM FESTIVAL DEADLINE EXTENDED!

Education comes first at EDTV (it’s literally in our name!), and with grades closing across the district this Friday, we want our students to make education their #1 priority too! That’s why we’ve made the decision to extend our film festival deadline an extra week to Friday, November 8th, 2019. We want you to achieve the highest marks you can AND share your creative perspective to the best of your ability for the film festival. Get out there creators, and give us your unique spin on what Plymouth means to you!

Visit http://plymouthedtv.com/2020 for more information.

WE ARE SEEKING HOST FAMILIES!

We are seeking host families as we prepare to welcome middle school Italian students to Plymouth in November.

The middle school program is now open to both 7th and 8th grade students. The goal of the program is for students and families to engage in a one-to-one exchange model - to have the same families reciprocate hosting on each side. In Spring 2020, Plymouth students will have the opportunity to study in Milan.

For more information and to apply, visit bit.ly/PPSItalyExchangeApplication.

Marijuana Education Opportunity

PYDC Plymouth & Plymouth Public Schools were able to purchase health curriculum from the Marijuana Education Initiative (MEI) that focuses on youth use of marijuana and its impact on the brain & body. The creators of this initiative will be here from Colorado to present on Tuesday, November 5, 2019 from 6:30-8pm. This event is entitled "Youth Marijuana Use: Myths and Misconceptions" & will take place at Plymouth South High School in the Performing Arts Center. All are welcome!

Halloween on Main

PYDC had a great time at the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce's Halloween on Main Event! In addition to handing out some candy, staff was able to hand out some uniquely designed PYDC journals that include coloring pages to encourage healthy coping skills. Thanks to the Chamber for providing a table for our Collaborative!

News Journalists

Students in Ms. LaPointe’s 5th grade class have started the Journalism unit in writing. On Wednesday they took their writing journals and pencils around the school building and made notes about what they saw. They talked about the who , what, where, when and why of what they observed and how it could be a “news” story.

STEM Week Celebration

Last week, MES celebrated National STEM Week in a variety of ways. As part of this, we were fortunate to have three of our past students come back to us and share all about STEM related careers they pursue today. Matthew Kotce, Sam Ciaranca, and Allyson Strassel all shared about careers with weapons systems, biomedical research, and architecture, and we are very grateful for these efforts!

Halloween Haunt

Thank you to our amazing PTA and all the volunteers who made our Halloween Haunt so much fun! The music, dancing and crafts kept our kiddos entertained. The snacks and pizza donated by Mama Mia’s kept our bellies full. And, all the wonderful costumes added to the fun and excitement of the night! The special appearance of our staff “Smarty Pants” and Popeye and Olive Oyl helped to make this fun evening even more memorable!

Students Skype with Children's Book Author Tara Lazar

Second graders in Ms. Keegan's classroom participated in a live video conference with the amazing children's book author, Tara Lazar. Students listened as Ms. Lazar enthusiastically read her popular title, The Monstore, which they had explored in Literacy and Information Technology class with Mrs. Boucher.

After the reading, students were able to ask the author many high-level questions about her books and the writing process. They were so excited to hear that she first started writing books when she too was in 2nd grade and that Ms. Lazar and Mrs. Boucher had first connected on Twitter to make this possible!

You may learn more about this fabulous author at TaraLazar.com!

Buen Día

Spanish is one of two languages offered to 7th and 8th-grade students at PSMS. To give students a taste of both languages, 7th-graders take a half year of Spanish and a half year of French; classes meet every other day. At the end of 7th grade, students must choose which language they will study in 8th grade.

During that half year, students learn about the development of the Spanish language and about countries that speak Spanish. Some of the many vocabulary units include basic greetings, colors, numbers, and weather.

8th-graders take Spanish every day for the entire year. The main objective this year is to get students more comfortable with speaking Spanish. They also start to focus more on the structure and grammar of the language.

Many special events and holidays take place in Spanish speaking countries. Both grades learn about these celebrations and their place in that countries’ culture. This week, 8th-graders made Ofrendas for Día de los Muertos.

Cave Paintings

Drip, drip, drip. The thrumming of bat wings fills the dark, damp cave as the homo sapiens quietly creep in to fill the walls with pictures. Maybe the images are for teaching others how to hunt or maybe it's a way to express their feelings. Each hominid signs their work with a handprint since written language had not yet been invented. Oh, wait! These are 6th-graders working in a teacher re-created cave! Sloane liked imitating how the hominids recorded their history. Landon and Michael thought the hands-on activity boosted the learning experience - they liked it!

Robotics Team & Allied Health

This past Saturday, several members of the Plymouth North Robotics Team attended the CreateBy Festival at the Boston Children's Museum, part of Mass STEM week, to compete in a robotics competition known as MassDestruction. The entry, a 3 lb. robot, was constructed by Jeff Yang, Nate Bonner, and Kolbe Shannon. The robot placed 4th overall in the weight class.

Also, The Allied Health Students visited Body Worlds The Cycle of Life exhibit at the Museum of Science. This exhibit helped the students understand the effects of disease and environment on the functions of the human body.

PNHS Spooktacular Halloween

Today at north students and staff enjoyed a day of Halloween excitement. Everyone was allowed to wear school appropriate costumes and were then asked to vote on the best Halloween display and costumes. Over 800 students and staff voted and the winners of this year’s pizza party was the Guidance Department for their Circus theme but the work that everyone put in to their ideas proves that they should all be winners. Happy Halloween!