J.M.S. News...
October 2019
JMS CLUBS
Quotes for the Month of October:
October 7- “The most certain way to succeed is to just try one more time.” – Thomas Edison
October 14- “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Winnie the Pooh
October 21- “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain
October 28- “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” – Harry S. Truman
Monthly SEL Theme for the Month of October: COURAGE
Winston Churchill viewed courage as a starting place. He said "Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others."
Martin Luther King said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in time of challenge and controversy."
HOMECOMING 2019
Classroom News!
Team 6A:
Team 6A went on our first field trip to the Brookville Outdoor Education Center. Students were broken up into groups that moved through a series of hands-on activities designed to develop communication, cooperation, trust, and problem-solving skills in an atmosphere of safety, respect, and fun. It's been an exciting beginning to middle school for these youngsters. As mathematicians, they’re dusting off their skills and working with factors and multiples. As scientists, they have been learning about the many process skills scientist utilize every day.
Team 6B:
Team 6B’s scientists noticed an interesting phenomenon. Ask your child what happened when we drew on glass plates with black dry-erase markers, and then covered our drawings with water. Students were excited about trying different variables. We used a variety of colors, different water temperatures, and then changed from dry erase to permanent marker. Finally, we tried rubbing alcohol instead of water. Many groups discovered that the speed of their pouring played a role in this investigation. Regardless of different group outcomes, our team goal was accomplished – students were curious and excited about science! Team 6B is looking forward to enjoying many investigations and challenges this year with Mrs. Schisgall and Mrs. Riccuiti.
Team 6C:
September has been a busy month. We have learned how to navigate the buildings, organize our lockers, and check out books from the library. Our interactive math and science notebooks are set up and ready for left and right brain learning. Our first field trip, to the BOCES outdoor recreation center, gave students the opportunity to work with others on team building activities. Problem solving and personal risk-taking challenges were tested in the scenic Brookville setting with trained facilitators.
We finished the month celebrating with a team 6C bagel breakfast, games, and getting-to-know you activities. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as students continue to develop their brains, abilities, and talents.
Team 6D:
Team 6D has been working on team-building as we kick off the middle school experience! Students visited the Brookville Outdoor Education Center where they worked together on a series of challenges to teach community, responsibility, bravery, teamwork and communication. They made great connections to Science, where they have been working on the process skills of observing, inferring, communicating and classifying! Together we learned the importance of working as a team to accomplish our goals, despite the challenges along the way. This was a great opportunity to open up conversation about the growth mindset- a key focus at JMS!!
Team 6E:
Movement, Choice, Engagement – our recent “book tasting” had it all. A book tasting is a wonderful reading activity to start the year. Children are motivated to “Strive for 25” in their independent reading. Students rotated through 3 stations exploring the various genres available in our classroom library. It is recommended that students read each day for a minimum of 15-20 minutes.
Team 7A:
Team 7A had their first Team Day this month. The morning consisted of an outdoor battle of the homerooms, with competitions including a tug of war, bear/crab walk, hula hoop relay, and many others. During the afternoon, students watched the movie "We are Marshall" to learn about themes such as team building and overcoming adversity. Throughout the day, students learned to work together and what it means to be part of a team.
Team 7B:
Team 7B has kicked off the 2019-2020 school year with a number of fun and interesting activities in math class. We began with a community-building activity in which teams of students competed to build the tallest spaghetti and marshmallow tower. Students used counters and number lines to model integer addition. To promote their fluency of this operation, students participated in math sprints. Students competed against themselves in two races with the goal of improving their personal scores by 1 point in the second race. Students stretched between races to clear their heads and recharge. An Number System unit would not be complete without playing a card game and participating in a Scavenger Hunt. Students played Subtraction War to reinforce their computation skills and searched for clues to solve problems involving computations and/or subsets of real numbers.
Team 7C:
Team 7C has had an amazing start of the school year! In ELA, students have all chosen independent reading books and are enjoying Friday reading periods. Students are expected to read about 30 minutes per night, and many have already finished their first and second (and third!) books. Furthermore, we are reading the poetry memoir called Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson, and students are working on their own poem anthologies in Woodson’s style.
7C Team Day 2019 was also a huge success! Students bonded during a bagel breakfast and participating in a “Who Knows Your Teachers Best” Kahoot. They played field day games and even watched We Are Marshall to learn more about our SEL themes of community and teamwork.
Team 8A, 8B, & 8C
During team day in September, students from Teams 8A, 8B, and 8C participated in team building activities to build a sense of community and togetherness. Fun was had by all, culminating in viewing different films, 'McFarland" and "Remember the Titans", focusing on building community.
Dates to Remember...
October 1: Schools Closed
October 3: MS PTSA Exec. Meeting - MS/HS Faculty Cafeteria - 8:30AM
October 3: MS PTSA Meeting & Principal's Coffee Hour - MS Library - 9:15AM
October 3: MS Yearbook Portraits- MS/HS Auditorium
October 4: MS Yearbook Portraints- MS/HS Auditorium
October 4: SEPTA Exec. Meeting - District Conference Room - 9:30AM
October 8: State Mandated Emergency Evacuation Drill (Early Dismissal)
October 9: Schools Closed
October 10: MS PTSA Parent Brunch & Learn- MS Library- 9:00AM-10:30AM
October 10: 8th Grade Washington D.C. Trip
October 11: 8th Grade Washington D.C. trip
October 14: Schools Closed
October 15: MS Evening Guidance Hours 7:00PM-9:00PM
October 17: MS OLWEUS Anti-Bullying Kick-off (Raindate 10/18)
October 17: Board of Education Meeting - MS Library - 7:15PM
October 22: 6th, 7th and 8th Grade Guidance Evening Hours - 7:00PM–9:00PM
October 23: MS Book Fair - MS Library
October 24: MS Book Fair-MS Library
October 25: MS Spelling Bee - MS/HS Auditorium
October 25: MS Spirit Day & School Store Open
October 29: 6th, 7th and 8th Grade Guidance Evening Hours - 7:00PM–9:00PM
Tips from the School Nurse
This year I’d like to devote my Newsletter Column to the benefits of Gratitude.
What is gratitude? What is the difference between gratitude and thankfulness?
Merriam-Webster defines thankfulness as “ appreciative of benefits received”. It is a way of expressing appreciation with or without an act. Gratitude is a much deeper appreciation for everything you have in life. Which in turn creates happiness and positivity, to live your life in awe.
Gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has- as opposed to a consumer –driven emphasis on what one wants or thinks they need. Deep gratitude has to come from within and in a meaningful way. It is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel emotions that are more positive, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with diversity and build strong relationships.
Feeling gratitude starts with an acknowledgement that life is good and rewarding.
Practicing gratitude means paying attention to what we are thankful for to the degree of feeling more kind and compassionate toward the world at large.
Next month we will explore the meaning of An Attitude of Gratitude.
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Jericho Middle School
Email: dgately@jerichoschools.org
Website: jerichoschools.org
Location: 99 Old Cedar Swamp Road, Jericho, NY, United States
Phone: (516) 203-3600
Twitter: @JerichoMS