Plymouth Public Schools

PhotoVoice

PhotoVoice allows students to express their opinions around substance use through photography. Youth are asked broad-based questions around the topic and then reply by capturing a photograph that they believe answers the question. Pieces from the final projects were set up last week at the MA School Nurse Gathering on Marijuana, Youth & Schools at Plimoth Plantation

Massachusetts Envirothon 2019

Students from Plymouth South High School’s Environmental Club competed at the Massachusetts Envirothon competition on May 17th. Schools from all over Massachusetts participated in this competition, rotating through four eco-stations where they were tested on their knowledge of soils, forests, water, and wildlife. Teams also participated in a current issue presentation focusing on sustainable food systems.

Students from PSHS researched this issue within the town of Plymouth as well as at their school, calling local farms, grocery stores, and food shelters and speaking to school lunch employees to learn about sustainable agricultural practices, methods of waste reduction, and food equality. Based on what they found, students identified areas of improvement and offered plausible solutions to problems.

The team from PSHS also focused in on a community action project at their school. After writing and receiving a grant from the Plymouth Education Foundation, the students were able to obtain funding to purchase a shed, rain barrel, verma compost, and garden tools in order to sustainably maintain the raised bed gardens at PSHS. Flyers were created to educate PSHS culinary students how to set aside food scraps for composting, and a second flyer was created to educate classes on the use of rain barrels to collect rainwater for gardens.

Our students did a great job presenting their project to a panel of judges consisting of citizens and environmental professionals from government agencies, non-profit organizations, academia, and private industry. We now look forward to tasting the fresh herbs and vegetables that are grown sustainably in our PSHS gardens in upcoming culinary cuisines!

Shown in the photograph from left to right are Evan Sherman, Kayla Glynn, Sienna Giannelli, Michael Collins, Madelyn Cruza, and Lauren Riley.

Thank you Mrs. Potter for advising this group.

Imagination Movers Returns to Plymouth!

The Emmy Award Winning kids show Imagination Movers returns to Plymouth for ONE SHOW at Memorial Hall Sat Sept 14th at 2pm. Last year's concert helped raise funds to start a scholarship in the Plymouth School System for kids who can't afford private music lessons, courtesy of non-profit Plymouth Rocks Events. "Music has been my life ever since I took drum lessons as a kid, and we're excited to help kids in need create a path in the arts" says Plymouth Rocks Executive Director Mike Gioscia. There is a ticket pre-sale starting THURSDAY May 16th 10am EST, and Plymouth families can get tickets first by accessing this link https://www.eventbrite.com/e/imagination-movers-tickets-61758360920?discount=KIDS and entering code word KIDS.

A great time for the whole family AND an awesome way to help out the Plymouth Music Programs as well!

Preparing Seniors for Graduating with Computer Files

It is highly recommended for all seniors to take their Google Drive files with them using Google Takeout. Google Takeout is a free service Google provides to easily download or transfer data. This is especially handy for times like this where students graduating will lose access to their files shortly after the school year comes to an end. The recommended method is transferring data to another account using the transfer option, but if students do not have a personal account, or do not want to create one, they can simply download their files using this link.

PNHS -- see your Technology Integration Specialist, Jeff Hudson, for questions/help.

PSHS -- see your Technology Integration Specialist, Justin Schuler, for questions/help.

Paint Night June 5th at Cabby Shack

Parents of the student ambassadors headed to Japan this summer have organized a fundraiser to help offset the cost of the trip. Paint Night will be held at Cabby Shack on June 5th at 6:30 PM. The item is a serving tray and the host (MIY Studios) assures us everyone can do this well, as stencils and materials needed are provided and included in the price. We hope to see you all there. Below is a link to the registration form. Space is somewhat limited so register early!! Register Here!

Releasing the Butterflies

After weeks of watching our caterpillars slowly change into butterflies, it is finally time to release them! Each classroom this week brought their students outside to enjoy watching the butterflies fly away. Some students were sad to see them go but most were excited to finally see them fly!

Miss Nancy is one of our wonderful speech-language pathologists at the preschool. Each week she goes into the classrooms that she is working with and does a song or story with the students to help support their speech-language development. This week she had the students sing "Five Little Ducks". After singing the song the students were then invited up to play a part as a duck in the song. The students really enjoyed this week's circle with Miss Nancy!

Author Study

Mrs. Hamilton's fourth grade has been working on their Author Study Unit where they have been studying an author's work closely and learning life lessons from the author's book. This week, students embraced an Artist Study of Artist Andrew Kusmin. Dr. Kusmin's paintings have been described as, "capturing time in a moment." He explained to us that, "instead of telling a story, the story is in the painting." It was hard for us to pick one painting that we liked best, as we all saw multiple stories within. A special thanks to Sadie Kusmin for sharing her talented grandfather with us and Andrew Kusmin for "preserving the value of small moments."

FFES Budding Recording Artists

A few of our FFES chorus students were given the opportunity to record a couple of songs for a music CD. The CD was created to accompany the children’s book, "The Secrets of Plymouth Rock", by Dianne Finn. Each elementary school in Plymouth recorded two songs. The CD along with the book will be out in June. This amazing experience was a lot of fun for our talented singers!

Show Time!!!

The parking lot was overflowing and the lobby was packed! Everyone was ready with their cell phones and cameras. The building was filled with the excited hum of anticipation for this climactic event. People were on their feet, and the doors were open!

Was this the final round of the State basketball tournament? With the championship on the line?

No, it was the annual culminating ART Gallery night at Manomet Elementary School!!

Hundreds of children and their families flowed through the building to catch a glimpse of a special art project, and to admire the work done by all the students in the school. Each child had pieces on display - as many as five finished pieces per student, and the effect was awesome! The hallways and cafeteria were alive with the pride and joy of artists and their families. Somewhere, amid the throngs of artists and art lovers was Ms. Jaimee Cooke, Manomet’s talented and tireless art teacher. She had put the whole show together, (along with many helpers), with a combination of teaching skill, relentless creativity, and sheer determination.

All in all, the evening was a wonderful reminder of the centrality and importance of the Arts in education. Vibrant colors, great projects, a new hallway mural, and much more were the talk of the school. Ms. Cooke teaches about famous and lesser-known artists, shares a variety of styles, techniques, and mediums, and even works to support other subject areas like math in the work her students produce.

The Great Mail Race

5th-grade students in Mrs. Adam’s class participated in the Great Mail Race. Students wrote letters about their school, town, and state to students in classrooms in all 50 states. Then, the class took a walking field trip to the post office and mailed the letters. The postal worker showed students where the mail goes when they put it in the slot and also how she empties the mailbox outside.

Students learning to appreciate the awesomeness of the universe!

Mr. Daniels 8th grade science classrooms are teaming up with Insight Observatory to use the Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO).
Students will research and choose a deep space object to image. Once the list of deep-sky objects is submitted for imaging, they are immediately acquired as soon as the weather permits. The ATEO will be slewing all night long hitting the targets on the student's list. Once the images are processed by the staff at Insight Observatory they are uploaded to Astrobin.com, a website that hosts Insight Observatory's Image Gallery. Individual collections will be created for each class where Mr. Daniels and his students may access the data they retrieved with the ATEO.

The objective of this lesson is to appreciate the awesomeness of the universe.

Let the Sun Shine!

With the return of sunny weather, gym classes have once again been able to meet outside. These 8th-graders try their hand at something new and something old. Golf is unfamiliar to many students, but they were really getting into the swing of things! Watch out, Tiger Woods! Kickball, an old favorite, never ceases to amuse, amaze, and entertain.

Bridging the Gap

7th-graders in Mrs. Whitney's classes were given a unique challenge using the engineering design process. Using just 20 straws, a meter of masking tape, and a pair of scissors, students had to design a bridge that would span 25 cm and support a load. Throughout the week, they built, tested, redesigned, and rebuilt their bridges. In the end, all bridges were able to support a load of 50 pennies; many were able to hold more than 100!

Senior Hypnotist Night

Last night Plymouth North seniors attended a dinner and Hypnotist Night with Hypnotist Comedian Jim Spinnato at the school. The evening was a huge success. The seniors put on a very entertaining show. The Class of 2019 showed off their superhero secret weapons. There was Ed Payzant as the “Eagle Master” whose superpower was turning into Mr. Butters, Harry Ayson was “Logman” he could turn into a log and Ruby Norris was “Tall Girl”, she could grow really tall and a whole group of “Kung Foo Fighters”...hypnotized of course!

Junior Prom

The Plymouth North High School Junior Prom was held Friday night at the Indian Pond Country Club in Kingston. The evening was a great success with over 350 guests. Congratulations to the 2019 Prom queen and king voted on by their peers were Anna Tamulionis and Harry Jenkins.
The prom court consisted of:

Hannah Cetner
Julia Cheesman
Abby Sinewick
Shea Tavekelian

Keenan Johnson
Caleb Kerr
Matt Manfredi
David Roos

Another Successful Week of MCAS

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the sophomore class participated in Math MCAS testing. This was the first time the Math testing had been completed digitally, using Chromebooks. Things went very smoothly and were a huge success thanks to assistant principal Ms. Carolan Whittle. Thank you, Ms. Whittle!

Manomet Center Field Trip

Ms. Conroy's Oceanography classes checked out the bird banding program at the Manomet Center for Conservation Science. Students glimpsed the science behind the current global research on the biology and ecology of birds that we see here in Plymouth. A few thrilled students briefly held the banded birds and released them.