FWHMS Family Newsletter
Connecting Families to School - October 2017
Grade 6 Happenings
The sixth graders have done a wonderful job acclimating themselves to being at HMS. They are able to open their lockers quickly and to easily navigate around the school. Students are making friends and many attended the sixth grade social. Homework assignments are written in the students' agendas daily, and they are also posted on the school's homework website. More information about Nature's Classroom's field trip will be coming soon.
Grade 7 Happenings
Congratulations, we all survived our first month back to school! All staff are very excited for what this school year has in store. On October 12th and 13th, the seventh grade will have a two day field trip to the Ropes Course at the Hockomock YMCA. Please keep in mind that students will either need to purchase a lunch or bring a lunch for both days along with plenty of water. Students should dress in comfortable clothing, in layers and should wear sneakers. Cell phones will only be permitted on the bus and can only be used to listen to music. Students may not text or take pictures with their cell phones for the duration of the trip. We are looking forward to a fantastic and memorable trip! If any parents/guardians would like to volunteer to chaperone this year’s field trip, please call either Mrs. Hannon or Mrs. Dansereau at 508-876-0190. Volunteers can email them at: hhannon@bmrsd.net or ldansereau@bmrsd.net by Thursday, October 5th.
Please be sure to check our Homework Page to see all teachers’ homework for the week. We try our hardest to have this updated by the end of the day on Mondays.
Finally, thank you to all families who attending our Meet the Teacher night and an even great THANK YOU to all the families that made donations to the teachers and our STEM classes.
Grade 8 Happenings
Students have started the school year off well. It has been wonderful getting to know them. Math will be working on exponent rules and venturing into equations. English classes will be reading Flowers For Algernon and applying new literary terms. Science safety is key for students to begin work in the science labs and the focus will be on experiments involving motion. History is exploring the Early and High Middle Age. Black Death has been a topic of interest! Remember, homework and studying are keys to success this year. Please contact any of the teachers if you have any questions.
Wellness News
Grade 6
The first area of study completed was a unit about decision making. Students learned and applied the three steps to the decision making process. Students worked collaboratively on a decision-making road poster highlighting the positive and negative consequences of decisions. The second area of study of learning is about goal setting. Students have learned about why goals are worth having, qualities needed to reach goals, and five ways to set SMART goals. Students created a personal SMART goal ladder and participated in a variety of activities.
Grade 7
Students have explored the following areas during our time together this month: Self- Esteem, Body Image and Analyzing Ads. They participated a jigsaw activity and expert groups. Each group was responsible for learning about a different subtopic such as selfie- culture and its effect on self- esteem, steroid use and body image, the media’s influence on self-esteem, photoshopped images and self- esteem, to name a few. Each student shared their information with a small group and groups rotated through the 6 topics.
Grade 8
Students have studies the impact of our choices, and an alcohol unit including the dangers of binge drinking, alcohol poisoning, and the social host law. They participated in a Socratic Circle discussing if the fines for texting and driving were enough of a deterrent to prevent drivers from choosing to text while driving. Students read a number of newspaper articles, and articles from the Choices magazine about decisions that teens made and the resulting consequences. Students created a poster of the brain sharing three ways each of the seven parts of the brain are affected by alcohol. We are well on our way to becoming health literate!
Guidance News
Parent involvement is key to helping middle schoolers succeed. As your child attempts to become more independent, it is difficult to maintain a balance of involvement and hands off. Over the school year, we will be sharing with you some suggestions through articles that we think you might find helpful.
In one of the articles by KidsHealth.org, they suggest the need for instilling organizational skills. Remember, more often than not, you as the parent or guardian have been getting your child everywhere he/she needs to be and reminding him/her of everything that needs to be done. Organization is taught by having a child see what you do, following recommendations and learning what actually works for him/her. What works for one person does not always work for another. A good example is having subjects be organized by folder and notebooks. Some kids do well with a different one for each subject, but some do better having all in one binder. We know that having one binder can be messy. Part of homework each night should be making sure all the papers from each subject went in the correct folder. Sometimes class runs long and there is not time to put it in the correct folder. Teach your child to take five minutes each night to organize it. He/She will have what is needed for homework or classwork the next day if it is properly stored. We highly recommend a homework folder that goes along with the agenda to each class. A student should write in the agenda what the assignment is and then put any papers needed for the assignment in the homework folder. One side of the folder is homework that needs to be completed and the other side is what is done. Click here for more information on instilling organization skills.
Class information and assignments should be organized by subject in binders, notebooks, or folders. Teach your child how to use a calendar or personal planner to stay organized and schedule study times. Calendars or planners should include your child's non-academic commitments to help with time management. It's also a good idea to make sure your preteen or teen knows how to make a daily to-do list to prioritize tasks and manage time. An after-school to-do list can be as simple as:
swim practice
walk the dog
(dinner)
study for social studies test
finish math worksheet
read over science class notes
put clothes away
-from Kidshealth.org
Health Office News
As we begin the new school year it is our goal to keep our students as healthy as possible. I have coordinated with Blackstone Board of Health to offer an optional free flu clinic held during student’s lunch period so that all of our school children have the opportunity to get vaccinated. There will be a nurse from the Department of Public Health at our school on Wednesday, November 1 from 10:30am-12:40pm. An email will be coming to you in the next few days with very detailed information. If you do not get the email or have any questions please call me or email me.
Sick Child Guidelines
Our school follows the guidelines recommended by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and requests that all students with fever or vomiting stay home until they are no longer vomiting and are fever-free, without the use of fever reducing medicines, for 24 hours. These medicines include Motrin or Advil (ibuprofen), and Tylenol (acetaminophen). If your child is sick please keep him/her home. Keeping children who are sick home will keep them from getting other students and staff sick.
Sue Wiegers
School Nurse
508-876-0193, option 3
Homework
https://sites.google.com/bmrsd.net/homework/home.
If your child needs help, teachers are available Monday to Thursday to help your child for 15 minutes after school. If you book an appointment, they are available for 30 minutes. Please email your child(ren)'s teacher to book an appointment.
Red Ribbon Week
Your Future is Key, so Stay Drug Free.
As an awareness campaign during Red Ribbon Week, Wellness classes will be planting 1,990 red flags on October 20th. Each one will symbolize one opioid death in Massachusetts during 2016. Opioids include heroin and opioid-based prescription painkillers. This figure represents a 19% increase over confirmed cases in 2015 (n=1670) and a 46% increase over 2014 (n=1361). Click here to read the state statistics data.
“Children of parents who talk to their teens regularly about drugs are 42% less likely to use drugs than those who don't, yet only a quarter of teens report having these conversations.” -Redribbon.org. Take the parent pledge online at http://redribbon.org/pledge/.
Yearbook
Pay Online for School Lunch
You can view the account balance, see what was purchased, and schedule automatic payments if you wish.
National Grid Fundraiser
Skype with Shelley Pearsall
Helping Houston
International Dot Day
On September 15th, we held our first International Dot Day. A video of photos from the day is posted on our school's website.
Operation Kind Words
Calendar of Events
Wednesday, October 4th
- Progress Reports Distributed
- 4 pm to 8 pm Chipotle Fundraiser Night, Franklin FLYER
- World Smile Day Observed
- No School for students - Professional Development Day for Staff
Saturday, October 7th
- BMR Marching Band - Norwich Free Academy (1st show), Norwich, CT
BMR Marching Band - Cranston High School East (2nd show), Cranston, RI
- Columbus Day - No School
- 9:30 am - BMR Marching Band in Autumnfest parade
Wednesday, October 11th
- All lunches - Penny Social for those who completed summer Google Classroom work
- Grade 7 Ropes Course Field Trip
- Grade 7 Ropes Course Field Trip
Saturday, October 14th
- BMR Marching Band - King Philip Regional High School, Wrentham, MA
Monday, October 16th
- 5 pm - School Council Meeting
- 6 pm - PTO meeting
Friday, October 20th
- Red Flag Day - Opioids Awareness
Saturday, October 21st
- BMR Marching Band - Southington High School, Southington, CT
Monday, October 23rd
- Red Ribbon Week begins - Your Future is Key, so Stay Drug Free
Friday, October 27th
- 6 pm to 8 pm - StuCo Orange/Black Social - Grades 7 and 8
Saturday, October 28th
- BMR Marching Band - New England States Championships, New Britain, CT
Tuesday, October 31st
- Mix It Up at Lunch Day - during all lunches
Be sure to visit our school web site to view our school events calendar.
ABC's of Student Success
When a child experiences failure - on a test, the ball field, or anywhere else:
- acknowledge the child's natural feelings of frustration and disappointment.
- don't try to minimize the situation because it does matter to your child.
- help your child evaluate the cause for failure and use what was learned to create a new strategy and try, try again.
-EducationWorld.com
Math @ Home
Math with M&M's
Open a small bag of M&M's. How many of each color did you find in the bag? Create a chart with the colors written on a paper. Next to the word, write the number of M&M's found of that particular color. Which color was more plentiful? Open a second bag and do the same steps to see if you have different results.
-EducationWorld.com
Parent Pointers
- Be a good role model at all times. Children learn from what they witness.
- Model a clear sense of right and wrong by making thoughtful decisions.
- Show children you care about people by modeling friendships with others, lending a helping hand to neighbors, or working with charity organizations.
- Practice recycling at home. It demonstrates wise use of Earth's resources.
School-wide Ongoing Fundraisers
BoxTops - You can find the tops on participating products. Cut out the top and have your child bring it to school. We earn 10 cents for each top collected. Visit www.boxtops4education.com for a listing of products.
Stop & Shop A Plus Program - Register your rewards card to help us earn $$. Log on to www.stopandshop.com/aplus to register online USE SCHOOL ID: 07080 or dial 1-877-275-2758 to register your card over the phone.
Amazon - Please click here to shop on Amazon.com. A small percentage of what you purchase will go to the Hartnett Middle School PTO to help support field trips, assemblies, special events, and after school programming. It is the same Amazon.com you may use, with a small percentage supporting middle school students.
About FWHMS
Email: tcurt@bmrsd.net
Website: http://www.bmrsd.net/frederick_home.aspx
Location: 35 Federal St, Blackstone, MA, United States
Phone: 508-876-0190
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/middleschoolofwoonsocket
Twitter: @fwhms2003