Kennedy Cougars

Dear Kennedy Families and Caregivers,

In case families missed this announcement in previous newsletters, response to intervention/enrichment letters were emailed home this past Friday from teachers working with students during WIN/RTI block. All students at Kennedy and Wilson middle school have an RTI or WIN (What I Need) block on their schedule each day. This block is set aside for students to receive intervention or enrichment, whichever is needed for that student. Here is a link to a document that explains the process of Response to Intervention and Enrichment at Kennedy. Further information about this program can be found on the district RTI information page on the Natick Public Schools website. If you have questions that these resources do not answer, please reach out. I will be sending this information sheet home via school messenger, as well, to ensure each family has an opportunity to read it.

Halloween on Monday was a fun-filled day at Kennedy. Students and staff were dressed in a wide assortment of costumes as can be seen in the pictures below. We hope all our students had a great evening with family and friends while grabbing a treat or playing a fun trick!

BIG SHOUT OUT to our KMS Parent Teacher Organization for bringing the coffee and snack cart around to teachers this Monday (seen below in dinosaur picture). We are VERY grateful for our PTO and all that they do to support our school and community. Thank you for taking such great care of us at Kennedy!!!

Parent Teacher Conference Information: Here is a document with instructions for Scheduling Parent/Teacher conferences. Parent Teacher conferences are being held on November 16th, an early release day. In order to sign up for conferences, you MUST have access to the parent portal by completing your PowerSchool forms. If you have not completed your required PowerSchool forms, please take care of that as soon as possible. These forms are required and must be filled out for every student in the building and make parent teacher conference signup accessible to families.

Spark Kindness Update:

Social Justice Parenting: Raising Compassionate, Anti-Racist, and Socially Conscious Children

Wednesday, November 9 at 7pm via Zoom

For parents, caregivers, and community members of all ages

Please join SPARK Kindness for this important program in advance of Kindness Week and as part of our ongoing commitment as a community to practice kindness, respect, and justice for all! All are welcome! This program will address how to raise children who work to promote justice, compassion, and belonging for themselves and others. Dr. Traci Baxley will discuss the principles of Social Justice Parenting and offer strategies for implementing these values into your daily life. Simultaneous ASL and Portuguese Language Interpretation will be provided at this event.

Kennedy sports update - Please see the winter sports offerings and details in the section below. Kennedy sports had a FAB-U-LOUS season. The final record for all teams combined were 23-7-1! What a Fall!!! Congratulations to all the KMS athletes. WELL DONE!

Warm regards,

Jodie Cohen, Principal"

"Compassion is the ultimate expression of your highest self." ~ Russell Simmons

Twitter - @KennedyMSNatick

Instagram - @KennedyMSNatick

1 - Middle School Tutoring Program at NHS

We are happy to announce that KMS is continuing our collaboration with the high school and running a tutoring program for middle school students at Kennedy and Wilson. There are members of the National Honor Society at the high school who are volunteering to tutor middle school students. Our hope is to create tutoring partnerships that will primarily meet in person at the high school library between 2:30-5 p.m. as it will be monitored by a staff member. Occasionally, sessions can be held via Google Meet as a virtual option. Families will primarily be responsible for transporting their students to the high school for their tutoring sessions. We are providing training for the tutors on best practices for working with middle school students.

If you are interested in signing your student up for tutoring, please fill out this form. The hope is to get students matched with tutors by the end of November.

2 - Kennedy Middle School Winter Athletic Teams

Winter Sports Offerings:

Boys Basketball (Grades 7 & 8)

Girls Basketball (Grades 7 & 8)

Boys & Girls Wrestling (Grades 5-8)

Winter Athletics Virtual Informational Meetings
Boys & Girls Basketball Virtual Informational Meeting on Mon (11/7) at 6:00 PM

use Google Meet code: kennedybasketball.

*Basetkball Tryouts: Tues Nov. 29th, Weds. Nov 30th, Thurs Dec. 1st (after school in the gym, time TBA)

Boys & Girls Wrestling Virtual Informational Meeting on Thursday (11/10) at 6:00 PM (use Google Meet code: mswrestling
*Practice starts Weds. Nov 30th

Student-athletes and guardians are encouraged to attend these virtual informational meetings, however, to gain entry into the meeting student-athletes will need to login with their Natickps email account and then enter the Google Meet code. For more information please visit the Kennedy Athletics Website.

To Register for Kennedy Athletics

• Registration for Kennedy Athletics can be done completely online via FamilyID.com (Online Registration Instruction Sheet). Choose "Natick Public School Athletic" and the correct Program (Kennedy Winter 2022-2023 Registration for 7th & 8th Graders or Kennedy Winter 2022-2023 Registration for 5th & 6th Graders).

• Please upload your child's medical physical* on FamilyID. The medical physical date must be within 13 months of the start of the season in order to participate in athletics. If you need a new physical and cannot get an appointment with your child's physician, you may want to consider going to an Urgent Care or Minute Clinic or have your doctor write a note stating the date of your child's upcoming physical and that your child is "healthy and able to participate in sports. If you would rather bring a printed copy of the physical, please turn into Mr. Lyth.

• The preferred payment method for athletics at Natick is online at UniPay (Natick Public Schools - Kennedy Middle School). The athletic fee is $225. You can also pay by check if you prefer with the check made out to "NHS Athletics" and given to Mr. Lyth. All athletes need to pay before tryouts/first wrestling practice. Students who do not make the basketballs teams will be refunded. The deadline to complete registration is 11/22/22. Student-athletes cannot participate in athletics until this registration process is done! Vaccination & testing requirements are no longer required for participation in athletics in Natick.

• 7th & 8th grade student-athletes will need to complete three free NFHS courses (Implicit Bias course, Hazing Prevention for Students & Concussion for Students) 1X a calendar year. 5th & 6th grade student-athletes will need to complete the NFHS Concussion for Students course 1X a calendar year. These are required by MIAA schools and NPS student-athletes at the MS & HS levels. After completing a course, the student-athlete will earn a "completion course certificate." This should be uploaded in the appropriate and designated area during registration on FamilyID. The courses are linked in the registration on FamilyID but here are the links for the courses also: NFHS Implicit Bias Course, NFHS Hazing Prevention for Students & NFHS Concussion for Students. FYI...after visiting the page for the course you will need to order the free courses. You will also need to create an NFHS account (under student-athletes name) if you don't already have one setup.

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

3 - KMS Fall Play 2022 "The Snow", by Finegan Kruckemeyer

When an epic snowfall imprisons the residents of the tiny village of Kishka, young Theodore Sutton proposes the villagers build a catapult to fling him and six of the village’s bravest and strongest out in search of a solution. The catapult hastily assembled, Theodore and the heroes are launched over the snow and into the grandest of adventures. Whimsical and humorous, dark and mysterious, heartfelt and sincere, this play weaves a fantastical Grimmsian tale for the entire family.

Performances will be:

• Friday November 18th at 7:00pm
• Saturday November 19th at 7:00pm
• Sunday November 20th at 2:00pm

Tickets are $10, available at the door, and in the Kennedy front office the week prior to the show

4 - Picture Retakes, Wednesday, December 7th

For any student who was not in school on our last picture day (October 20th) or for anyone who would like a retake, the photographers will be returning to Kennedy for retakes. The original prints will be sent home before this date for review. You may still order prints on www.coffeepond.com.

5 - Virtual Parent Teacher conferences coming on November 16th, 12:30 - 3:30pm

Virtual parent teacher conferences are coming soon to Kennedy. In order to participate in the sign up families MUST have their paperwork done through the parent portal. If that paperwork is not done, you will not have access to the sign up program. All conferences will be 15 minutes and they will be first come, first serve. Details are linked above in the letter.

6 - Yearbook Orders

The full-color, 64+ page, hard-cover yearbook that chronicles the highlights of the 2022-23 school year is on sale now! We are discounting the book until November 14th. If you reserve your copy before 11/14 the price is only $30. After the 14th, the cost increases to $35. All orders must be placed by January 10, 2023, to be guaranteed a book! Any orders placed after January 10th will cost $40 and are subject to availability. Order your book today! 8th-grade students who qualify for financial aid should speak to their guidance counselor about seeing if they qualify for a free book.

7 - Veterans Day Event, Nov. 10th

On Thursday, November 10th students will participate in the annual Kennedy Veterans' day breakfast. Eighth grade students will have the opportunity to speak with active military members, as well as WWII veterans. Prior to the event, students will spend time making posters to give to the veterans at the end of the breakfast. This is a great opportunity for students to learn about history and civics through first hand accounts and a great way for them to connect with the community. We are looking forward to continuing this tradition this year at Kennedy.

8 - UPCOMING SCHOOL EVENTS for your calendar

• Thursday, November 10: Kennedy annual Veterans' Day Breakfast
• Friday, November 11: Veterans' Day - NO SCHOOL
• Wednesday, November 16: Release Day - Parent teacher conferences
• Wednesday, November 23: Release Day - Thanksgiving break
• Thursday, November 24: Thanksgiving holiday - NO SCHOOL
• Friday, November 25: NO SCHOOL
• Monday, November 28: NILS Teacher Professional Development Day - NO SCHOOL

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. They are working diligently to bring great activities to our school community. Please 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