Plymouth Public Schools

PPS Goes Gold - THANK YOU!

We had an incredible week going GOLD and supporting Childhood Cancer research and awareness. As we finish counting all donations this weekend, we want want to thank you for supporting this cause. Far too many PPS students are affected by cancer and we truly appreciate your efforts in helping us give childhood cancer the boot! Photos will be shared on our Facebook page this afternoon and the total amount donated to Wicked Good Cause will be announced on Monday! Thank you to the Plymouth Police Department for capping off a great week with High Five Friday!

Hometown Cleanup

This popular town wide tradition of community service helps keep our open spaces, parks, beaches conservation lands and neighborhoods beautiful. Families, neighbors, school groups, clubs, businesses and organizations all pitch in. Thank you for doing your part in the past and we hope you’ll join us again this year. If you’ve never done it before, don’t miss it this fall – it’s a good way to instill civic pride in our children and it’s fun.

The Town offers purple bags for collecting the litter and will pick up full bags from your drop location. Contact Patrick Farah at Town Hall at 508 747-1620 x10204 or pfarah@townhall.plymouth.ma.us. Let him know an area you’d like to clean up or he will suggest a group you can join.

Coffee with a Cop

Join Chief Botieri for an informal session, Coffee with the Chief and Officers, next Wednesday, October 3, 8-10AM at Jolly Bean Café.

PYDC is a partner within the Plymouth Area Substance Abuse Prevention Collaborative (SAPC); a cross-municipality collaboration between Plymouth, Middleboro and Carver and their substance use prevention coalitions. This week PYDC Steering Committee members attended the SAPC Regional Meeting to network and brainstorm with stakeholders from each of the communities.

This week PYDC also displayed "Hidden in Plain Sight" at Plymouth South Middle Schools's Open House. This exhibit of a mock teenager's bedroom informs parents of clues that could point to risky behaviors including substance use. A "Hidden in Plain Sight" presentation will be given at Plymouth Community Intermediate School next Thursday, October 4th, from 5:45-6:30pm, BEFORE 6th grade Open House.

Off to a great start!

Preschool is back in session! Last week some students were reading about "Pete the Cat Rocking in His School Shoes". While other classrooms were learning about school through fun songs such as "The Wheels on the Bus". Miss Merry's class read a very special story called "Only One You", each student then decorated a special rock that looked like a fish, each very unique and beautiful. Each of these unique creations was placed out in the preschool's outside classroom for everyone to enjoy! The students are so happy to be back and we are off to a great year of learning and having fun!

Show, not tell!

Ms. Strout's 4th graders are hard at work learning how to ...show, not tell ... in their writing by choosing just the right words to express what they want to say in order to paint a picture with language. This is part of their work within the Writing Units of Study.

A very special guest shares some Engineering fun!

Last week, 4th graders at NMES enjoyed a special visit from Mrs. Hess’s daughter, Lauren Pulner. Lauren is an iPlay Product Engineer at Hasbro. She talked to the students about what it means to be an engineer and walked them through the design process. Students saw so many products she helped to design, including Pie Face and other toys.

This week, our 4th graders have begun their own engineering process to design, create and test catapults! There has been an incredible amount of excitement up on our 3rd floor this week!

A Visit from the Plymouth Public Library

Plymouth Public Library’s Children’s Librarian, Madison Bishop, joined West Elementary’s Library Media Specialist, Linda Shannon, for the 2018-19 Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Kick-off. Students in Grades 4 and 5 were introduced to the 25 professionally-nominated titles to receive the nationally-recognized Award. Students in Grades 4-6 throughout the State will read or listen to a minimum of 5 titles and vote for their favorite title to receive the Award in March.

Congratulations Macey!

Macey Shriner is a new 6th grade student in Mercury House. Macey is already making her path at PCIS. At Wednesday’s middle school cross country meet at Old Rochester, she came in 2nd place out of 60 girls with an incredible time of 11:56 for 1.8 miles. Great job Macey!!

the new Dungeons & Dragons club

After much anticipation, the first meeting of the new Dungeons & Dragons club at PCIS took place on Monday, September 17th. (For those who don’t know, Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game invented in the early 70s. A “game” consists of a dungeon master who runs the game and players who create and embody characters in a campaign). To the awe and delight of the club advisors, 42 students showed up, with another dozen who couldn’t make the first meeting due to after school obligations! Some students had extensive experience with D&D, though most have never played before, and yet all were ready to get down to business.

Ms. Elizabeth Favorito (one of the advisors, along with Mr. Harrison Quinn and Ms. Emily Price) were so excited at the turnout that she went home and shared her experience on Twitter. She included in her tweet a shout-out to Matthew Mercer, a famous voice actor and celebrity DM who runs a game online that is watched by over half a million people every week. To Ms. Favorito’s surprise, Mr. Mercer wrote back! Since then, over 100,000 people have seen the initial tweet and over 3000 people have liked it. The PCIS D&D group even got recognition from Mike Mearls, the co-creator of the current Dungeons & Dragons edition, when he liked and retweeted Ms. Favorito’s tweet.

The advisors are starting a Twitter account so everyone can follow along as their new adventurers dip their toes into the exciting world of Dungeons and Dragons!

Camp Wing and Magazine Drive

7th-grade students from PSMS checked in at Camp Wing in Duxbury earlier this week to play games, have fun, and work. Work? At a camp? The whole purpose of attending Camp Wing is to work on improving communication, cooperation, and community. Different challenges, such as Total Team and Cooperative Olympics, help foster team building while activities such as archery and boating teach specific skills. Through all these offerings, students are building their own self-esteem as well as encouraging others to reach their goals. Thank you to the PSMS PTA for supporting this worthwhile endeavor.

The biggest fundraiser of the year, the magazine drive, has just been launched by the PTA. Funds raised are used throughout the year for things such as field trips, honors celebrations, special events, and extracurricular activities. Please consider supporting this beneficial cause. Students turning in a completed address booklet were able to pull a duck, which was worth anywhere from $1 to $10. Many students then donated their winnings to the Golden Boot fundraiser for childhood cancer - thank you, students!

Let’s Make Freshman Academy Great Again

This year's Freshman class elections were filled with healthy and ambitious competition. There were 13 students running for office. Students voted in the PAC during advisories with the help of the Student Council E-board. The races were all extremely close with a tie for the Treasurer position.

Congratulations to the new Class Officers!

President- Sarah McCormack

Vice President- Alec McLeod

Secretary- Caroline Egan

Treasurer- Nathanial Kerr and Max Westberg

Plymouth South Athletes of the Week Congratulations!

Anna Hajnasr, Girls Soccer - Anna has started all 5 games, scored a beautiful goal against Silver Lake and leads the team in assists with 3. She is extremely physical, hardworking and a major cog in our midfield machine!

Shane Richardson, Golf - Shane shot 39 in the first match and 1 under 35 in the second match to help lead the golf team to a 2 and 0 start.