Kennedy Cougars

Week two of school went well. Students continue to earn ROAR slips left and right! Our first pick of slips to earn prizes will be happening this Friday. Stay tuned for the results next week! We will post the winners on our board outside of the main office (see picture below). Big shout out to Ms. Kassap, one of Kennedy's wonderful art teachers, who designed and put this board together for our PBIS initiative. THANK YOU, Ms. Kassap!!!

As I walked around the building and popped into classes, there was a ton of fun stuff going on. In Ms. Kelly's grade 5 math class, students were learning how to write checks for my school expenses and were learning about budgeting. Based on the questions they were asking me, I think we might have some future Chief Financial Officers in our midst! :). Check out the picture from her lesson in the pictures below.

I want to take a moment to thank all our Laps at Lunch parent volunteers. The Kennedy Laps program gives our students an opportunity to get some exercise outside, soak in the fresh air, and socialize during unstructured times. Our community partners make this possible. If anyone has availability during the lunchtime hours, particularly on Tuesday and Thursday, please consider hanging out with our students at lunchtime. Email Rebecca Waterhouse, our Laps Parent Coordinator (rpwaterhouse@gmail.com), for more information or to sign up for a slot. The students (and our staff) appreciate it VERY much!

I hope everyone enjoys the beautiful Fall weather this weekend.

Warm regards,

Jodie Cohen, Principal

Twitter - @KennedyMSNatick

Instagram - @KennedyMSNatick

1 - Kennedy Athletics Update

Fall athletics at Kennedy is about to start. If you have a student interested in sports, the following will be offered this Fall:

• Cross Country
• Field Hockey
• Girls Volleyball

Registration is open on FamilyID.com. Go to the Kennedy Athletics Website for more details.

Practices/Tryouts start Tuesday September 13th. You must be fully registered in order to participate.

If you have any questions please email Mr. Lyth at dlyth@natickps.org

2 - Reminder: Kennedy Late Buses start Tuesday, September 13th, not Monday, September 12th

Late buses at KENNEDY will start running onTuesday, September 13th (not Monday, September 12th as noted previously) which means that our after school clubs will be starting on that day, as well. Here is a link to the clubs and activities page on our website. This page will be updated shortly with our 2022-23 school year offerings. Clubs are a perfect way for our students to find connection and belonging to our school. We encourage everyone to get involved in some sort of after school activity at Kennedy. Check out the list and get involved!!!

3 - UPCOMING SCHOOL EVENTS for your calendar

• Monday, September 12: No Late Buses today - KMS Faculty Meeting
• Tuesday, September 13: First day of late buses and extra-curricular activities/sports
• Wednesday, September 21: Early Release, Dismissal at 11:30 am
• Monday, September 26: No School- Rosh Hashanah
• Thursday, September 29: Grade 5 & 6 Open House (6:30 - 8:00pm)
• Wednesday, October 5: No School, Yom Kippur
• Thursday, October 6: Grade 7 & 8 Open House (6:30 - 8:00pm)

4 - School Council Openings at Kennedy

If you are interested in joining Kennedy School Council, we have a couple of spots open. Our meetings are held once per month before school in person or, on occasion, virtually. We are a great group of committed educators and caregivers doing great work for our school. Please email jcohen@natickps.org if interested. More than two interested community members will result in an election run by our Kennedy PTO. Here is a quick document outlining the school council role at schools and the statement of purpose.

5 - Staff member(s) of the week"

For this week's "meet a staff member", I'd like to introduce the community to Ayona Purushothaman, a paraprofessional here at Kennedy (click on link below to enlarge picture). Ms. Purushothaman has a cheerful smile and is very welcoming to all students. She has been a wonderful addition to our staff and we are a better community with her a part of it. In this picture below you can see Ms. Purushothaman and her family dressing for Onam, the biggest festival in the Indian state of Kerala. Onam started on Thursday, September 8th. We wish you a wonderful festival and thank you for joining the Kennedy Middle School staff.

Natick Public Schools is excited to announce our partnership with Paper for on-demand tutoring for NHS students. Paper is a secure, online tutoring service that provides students with unlimited, 24/7 academic support. Whether they’re stuck on homework, studying for a test, or need someone to read and make suggestions to their essays, there will always be experts available online to assist students in over 200 subjects and more than 4 languages.

Paper tutors have been specially trained to conduct expert, academic support in a secure, chat-based platform. With a commitment to helping students learn, they’ll never give students answers, but rather interact with them in an encouraging tone to lead them forward.

This is a free service that we’re providing, so students are encouraged to use it as much as they need, whenever they need. Our teachers also have accounts and will be able to review all student activity to see what they’re working on and provide more targeted instruction as needed.

If you’d like to learn more about Paper you can sign up for a Paper hosted Parent Info Session, available in both English and Spanish.

To see Paper and the help it offers firsthand, we encourage you to login with your students. To get started, simply visit PAPER’s student login page, type your school’s name, and log in via Google using your school credentials

We’re thrilled to offer our students the unlimited, 24/7 support that Paper provides and we can’t wait to see what we’re able to accomplish together.

Our Kennedy Middle School PTO works hard behind the scenes to support our school in a variety of ways. Check out their website for more information.

Natick Public Schools does not discriminate in employment nor its educational programs, services, and activities based on race, creed, color, age, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, physical and intellectual differences, immigration status, homeless status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Please be aware all electronic communication to and from Natick Public Schools is public record and subject to public disclosure per Massachusetts General Law Chapter 66, Section 10.

• Title I: Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title II
• Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title VI
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964Title IX
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
• MGL, Ch.76, Section 5: Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 76, Section 5