Wildcat Newsletter
Marking Period 1
Mrs. Barrale
Dear Parents & Guardians:
We are officially into fall, and the first Marking Period flew by us so quickly. Our students have been very busy in their classes, working diligently to absorb all the knowledge our teachers instill daily. Since the beginning of the school year, students have been engaged and improving their academic skills. Social, emotional learning, and character education have also been at the forefront and embedded in our everyday lessons and routines.
At Faust School, we want our parents to play a huge part in their child’s education. The first place children start learning is in the home with their parents and family members. Most children see their parents as role models, so parents must stress the importance of education. We want our parents to be involved in their child’s education and form a partnership with their teachers to ensure consistency at school and home. It is also important for young adolescents to develop respect and compassion for others. We want them to be honest and thoughtful and make the right choices. This will help them to become well-rounded citizens and future leaders.
Aside from academics and social and emotional learning, middle school is a time when young adolescents make mistakes. Having this opportunity to make mistakes will allow them to learn from them. Providing support and guidance from parents and other adults will allow them to self-reflect on their choices and decisions. At school, when students make mistakes, we turn them into teachable moments. Instead of saying you made a mistake, we ask, “What did you learn from this lesson?” “What could you have done differently?”
Lastly, on behalf of the administration, faculty, and support staff, we wish our Faust Middle School families a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.
Best regards,
Mrs. Regina Barrale
Alfred S. Faust School Principal
New Face for Theater
New Face for Physical Education
New Face for 6th Grade ELA
STEAM - Mr. Rizi
STEAM 6: Students have been working hard on building bridge models. Students had a choice of 13 designs to pick from and built up to 6 different models using a guidebook and each other! Students also built and tested digital bridges in differing settings on a gaming platform to observe the impact of gravity and force on different components of a bridge.
STEAM 8: Students have been engaged in graphic design using the TinkerCAD platform. Students have been modeling 3D bridges in a realistic setting using graphic components from scratch and shaping them to create their models. Students will soon transition to build a setting or scene of their choosing to model on TinkerCAD such as a haunted mansion, a space shuttle in deep space, or a day at the amusement park.
Grade 8 ELA Honors - Ms. Bayeux
Music - Mrs. Schweikardt
Grade 8 ELA & Social Studies - Ms. Bayeux & Mr. Barone
This year Mr. Barone and Ms. Bayeux teamed up to do a cross-curricular unit on the Holocaust. Students read the novel Night by the late Professor Elie Wiesel, conducted research about WWII and Anne Frank, and wrote analytical essays on the themes and motifs in the novel. Also, students learned about specific Holocaust victims, constructed journal entries, and reviewed primary sources detailing the atrocities of the Holocaust. Ms. Bayeux and Mr. Barone conducted small group writing conferences to deepen understanding and elevate the writing process in preparation for the NJSLA. All in all, students learned about genocide, tolerance, compassion, and humanity.
School Counselor
Our school district is very culturally and linguistically diverse! This year, we are more explicit about our recognition of various groups and ethnicities in an effort to celebrate and acknowledge our diverse school population and extended community members! We recognize the obvious cultural differences such as foods, heroes, holidays, arts, and clothing — differences that, much like the tip of the iceberg, are clearly visible above the water. Less visible are the different ways in which our cultures influence our understanding of the world and how we interact with others. These more nuanced differences might include how we understand and define concepts like family, responsibility, education, and success. These hidden aspects of culture can cause misunderstandings and cross-group conflicts; they can impact teacher-student and student-student relationships, and create hard-to-identify barriers to academic content matter. A great step we are taking is implementing more multicultural awareness and culturally responsive instruction.
8th Grade Science - Mrs. Yang
Mrs. Yang's 8th-grade science class did the Outcomes of Evolution lab. In this activity, students modeled an evolutionary arms race between hand soap and bacteria. The M&Ms and mini marshmallows represented the bacteria, and the tools students used represented the hand soap. The mini-marshmallows were the regular type of bacteria. The M&Ms were the same species of bacteria but with a mutation. Following directions carefully, the students tracked their results in a graphic organizer.
This activity was a highly simplified representation of what happens in an evolutionary arms race. By completing this lab, the students learned how most hand soaps and hand sanitizers they used had the statement “kills 99.9% of germs” written on them and what happened to the 0.1% of bacteria that didn’t get killed off.
Two species have evolved relatively rapidly to stay ahead of each other in terms of their predator-prey relationship. This kind of behavior is called an evolutionary “arms race” as both species try to out-evolve each other for success and survival. This lab helped the students to understand the concept of the evolutionary arms race and how evolution impacted different species of life.
7th & 8th Grade Steam - Mrs. Yang
Mrs. Yang's 8th-grade STEAM class designed and built a model of a bridge using twelve popsicle sticks, eight drinking straws, and tapes. Students were advised to have their model meet several of the following specifications.
The bridge must have a span at least 30 cm long, a roadbed at least 5 cm wide, and a clearance of at least 10 cm in height. The distance between the bridge supports should be at least 10 cm apart, unless the bridge has only one tower or support structure. The side, top, and end views of the bridge along with the support structure were drawn according to the specifications. This drawing served as the template to construct their model. Once the design was approved, students were given materials (according to the type of bridge they chose) to build the model.
If Social Media Existed in the 1700s - 6th Grade Social Studies - Mrs. Benevento
6th Grade Math - Mrs. Alberta
Our sixth-grade students have been working diligently since the start of the year. We have reviewed concepts, such as the operations of fractions and decimals, and have also begun our new sixth-grade material, starting with integers and rational numbers. Students are finishing up the first marking period with their Topics 1 and 2 Benchmark and will start strong in the second marking period learning about numerical and algebraic expressions. Our journey into our sixth-grade curriculum is just beginning, and we are all eager to navigate through it together.
8th Grade Math - Mrs. Gerity
8th graders in Mrs. Gerity's Pre-Algebra classes have just completed their work on Number Sense and Operations and will be moving into Simplifying Expressions and Solving Equations. They are looking forward to a new chapter of the book and learning the beginnings of Algebra. 8th graders in Mrs. Gerity's Algebra class have completed their work on Solving Linear Equations and will move on to Writing and Graphing Equations. Students in all classes are growing by leaps and bounds this year and are excited to continue learning and preparing for high school.
Theatre - Ms. Romero
7th Grade Math - Mrs. Gentry
Band - Mr. Schweikardt
Jaslin Andres, Vanessa Uribe-Garcia, Samuel Sanchez and Zoey Werner, performed with the Becton H.S. Wildcat Marching Band at all the Varsity Football games, they participated in four Marching Band Competitions and also performed at numerous community events. Congratulations on a job well done!
The 80-plus member concert band at Faust School is now preparing for its annual Winter Concert. They will be performing at the Becton H.S. Performing Arts Center on the evening of Tuesday, December 20th. They are eager to perform for you and hope to bring the holiday spirit to all that attend.
Mrs. Lahullier
Grade 6 ELA - Mr. Tunnell
Our 6th Grade English Language Arts Scholars have been very busy reading and analyzing Informational Texts & Short Stories. We have been focusing on identifying common themes and writing about these themes. While analyzing short stories, the 6th graders have been focusing on close reading skills, character development, identifying parts of the plot, and connecting the literature to real-world experiences. The 6th graders have also been working hard on making sure to "cite evidence" when responding to constructed response questions. The 6th graders love bringing debate into the classroom when we have Socratic Seminars!
Our 6th graders have been so excited to be able to infuse coding into our ELA classroom. The students collaborated in teams to build storyboards with coding on scratch when retelling the events of the plot within the short stories we have been reading in class.
We are also working on Vocabulary Development in 6th grade ELA. The students were introduced to the Vocabulary Workshop Series. They are given weekly words in which they focus on context clues to determine the meaning, identifying synonyms/antonyms, and also utilizing them in their writing & daily conversations. Excellent Work, 6th Grade Wildcats!
National Junior Honor Society - Mr. Tunnell
7th Grade ELA - Ms. Petraitis
Dance - Mrs. Francica
Dancing Raisins - 7th Grade Science - Mrs. O'Connor
What would happen if we added raisins to bubbly water? The 7th grade science classes tested their knowledge of chemical and physical changes when they did a lab called the Dancing Raisins. Students carefully made mixtures and solutions and added raisins to see what would happen. They were able to use their knowledge of what characteristics indicate chemical changes and what characteristics indicate physical changes to create a scientific explanation of the lab. Next up in science, students will be designing hot or cold packs.
Fall Poster Contest
Creative Writing - Mr. Colavito & Mr. Conte
The 6th graders have been hard at work focusing on Poetry in Creative Writing. They have created some beautiful Blackout Poems and Concrete Poems, as well as expressing their individuality through 'Where I'm From" Poems. We are closing out the Poetry unit with a head-to-head poetry March Madness tournament to see which poet and poem come out on top.
8th Grade Physical Education & Health - Mr. Cocozzo
6th & 7th Physical Education & Health - Ms. Ravettine
Welcome back to Faust, Wildcats!
Finance - Ms. Bibb, Mrs. Koch, Mrs. Cuello, & Mr. Majsiak
The 6th-grade spent part of the first marking period learning about philanthropy and the importance of giving back to humanity. Meanwhile, the 7th-grade Finance class wrapped up their study of insurance. We analyzed the need for and value of the different types of insurance and determined the criteria for deciding the amount of insurance that is needed. We had engaging life discussions and did various activities learning about the different insurances. The 8th-grade students studied the importance of taxes and government services. The Finance classes are looking forward to the next marking period.
World Language - Sra. Fox & Srta Cuello
Sra. Fox and Srta Cuello’s Spanish classes in 6th-8th grades are learning in a semester class (two marking periods) this year. We began this year by giving students the opportunity to share their preferences with regard to learning platforms.
During the first marking period, students had the opportunity to continue their learning by speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Spanish. In all classes, they have had the chance to use different platforms such as Pear Deck, Edpuzzle, and Flip. As a reflection of their learning, they were exposed to the track of proficiency to evaluate their progress in Spanish class.
8th-grade students learned and discussed what they enjoy doing during the summer by using the verb ir in the preterite. They also participated in a Webquest and visited a país (country), and balneario (resort) of their choice. 7th-grade students interpreted information about various Hispanic Americans. They also learned about their preferred famous Hispanic American as well as the famous Cuban singer Celia Cruz. 7th & 8th-grade Spanish classes honored El Día de los Muertos tradition by tasting el Pan de Muerto and creating Marigold flowers to decorate our school.
6th-grade students read the book Brandon Brown Dice la Verdad by Carol Gaab and demonstrated their understanding and use of learned vocabulary within context.
Hasta pronto y buena suerte a todos nuestros estudiantes.
Art - Ms. Machere
This marking period, Art has been very exciting! We had students enter multiple art competitions and have had success! Madisyn A.’s (8th grader) artwork will be featured at the NJPAC until mid-January. This is a huge honor! Her work was selected amongst all of New Jersey’s middle school artists at the AENJ convention in October. As well our student’s artwork was featured on the NJDOE website and can be seen at the link below.
We have begun an exciting artist of the month program with artwork from Faust School on display in the East Rutherford Memorial Library. Currently on display are our November Artists of The Month Mckenna O. in 8th grade, Tenzin S. in 7th grade, and Jangsam T in 6th grade. Last month our October Artists of the month were Malia A. in 8th grade, Jigme S. in 7th grade, and Munsell G in 6th grade.
6th Grade Science - Ms. Bibb
Nurse Dunn
We are committed to helping our students have a healthy and successful school year!
A few reminders:
∙ A doctor's order is required for all medication administration by the school nurse. For the safety of our students, please do not send medications in your child's backpack.
∙ If your child has a new medical diagnosis, please update us.
∙ School emergency health forms are now in Genesis. Please make an effort to complete this important information.
∙ If your child has a piece of updated medical information (yearly physical/immunizations), you may send that to the school nurse.
∙ If anyone in the household is sick/pending COVID results, please keep your child(ren) home.
∙ Most importantly, please communicate with the school nurse regarding illness and medical needs.
The holiday season is right around the corner. I wish all of our East Rutherford Families a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season. Time gathering with family and friends is a time of laughter and joy.