2023-2024 April

Upcoming Dates for the EGMS Community

April 29: Deadline for dropping off solar eclipse glasses at EGMS for recycling.
May 1 and May 8: FVHD Youth Mental Health First Aid (Must Attend BOTH Sessions)
April 30-May 3: SBAC ELA
May 7-10: SBAC Math
May 14-17: NGSS (8th Grade Only)
May 30: Rising 6th Grade (Class of '31) - Parent Night
May 31: Fantastic Festival for Band and Chorus
June 5: EGMS Spring Concert
June 10: Rising 6th Grade Orientation - EGMS Auditorium
June 13: 8th Grade Dinner Dance
June 14: Academic Awards Day
June 14: Last Day of School!

SBAC

SBAC Testing

Starting this Tuesday, April 30, we will begin administering our standardized tests at EGMS, including the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tests and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) test. All students in grades six through eight will take SBAC tests for English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics. Grade 8 students will take the NGSS assessment after the SBAC tests are complete. Test sessions are scheduled to last no longer than 70 minutes, but students will have as much time as needed to complete each test. Please review the dates of our SBAC and NGSS tests above under “Upcoming Dates”.

Although our children are well-prepared for these important assessments, it would be very helpful if your child arrives at school each day on time and well rested to ensure their best performance. Please also ensure that the chromebooks are charged at home and ready to go for the morning.

Please note that no single assessment determines everything about a student’s academic progress. It does provide us a good measure of how each student is progressing and how we as a school are doing in regards to teaching what students need to know at the end of each grade and where we might need to adjust our instructional practices.

We recognize this is a significant amount of testing for our students, and we will do our best to promote a non-stressful environment that will allow students to do their best work. Please visit the Smarter Balanced website at https://smarterbalanced.org/ for more information.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact us at 860-653-7113 or at tphelan@eastgranby.k12.ct.us.

Grade 8 Health

8th grade health is learning to apply stress management techniques to stay calm in advance of SBAC testing next week!

Grade 8 Science

Our 8th graders went on a field trip on Thursday, 4/25/24.

From Dr. Faulkner:
"We went down to Salmon Brook at Granbrook Park for a picnic and learning stations about trout and salmon. After a delicious lunch with amazing desserts from parents, the students progressed among four learning stations. We were very fortunate to have Trout Unlimited volunteers and stream ecologist Amanda Thompson who caught invertebrates from the stream and set up a station to examine them. The volunteers helped the students identify the natural food for the fish (including a leech!), as well as release the baby Atlantic Salmon and brown trout. We've been raising the little fish from eggs in our science classroom since January. Students also visited a casting station where they learned to fly-cast and spin-cast under the tutelage of Noah Hart from the DEEP's CARE program, as well as numerous volunteers. At another station run by parent volunteers, students imitated the migration of salmon. Known as "Smell Your Way Home", blind-folded students ate different flavored skittles and tried to find their way through a maze. This simulated the way salmon find their way back upstream from the ocean when it is time to spawn. The final learning station was about the Salmon Brook habitat, led by Heather Geist from the Farmington River Watershed Association with volunteer Lisa Griffin, who is also a stream ecologist. The team is very grateful to all the wonderful volunteers and experts who made this trip so successful. We had a great day."

Grade 6 iLead

In Mr. Ziff's 6th grade iLead class, students are working collaboratively on learning about and then teaching others how to deal with various challenging personality types and situations.

Starbase Club

Students in Starbase Club built an EPulse scooter to ride in the middle school gym! Photo credit to Mrs. Stewart, Grade 8 ELA.

Grade 6 Math

In Mr. Simeone's Grade 6 Math class, students were solving questions about percents and playing "Trashball" for extra points!

Grade 6 General Music

In Mrs. Chaloux's class, the third quarter General Music students wrapped up their guitar experience by performing "Royal Blues" in three parts. You'll hear a melody, a bass line and chords. Click on the picture to hear it!

March Students of the Month

Gr 6 - Gavin Richter
Gr 7 - Lylah Jones
Gr 8 - Sophia Pellegrino

Q3 Announcement Team

Sincere thanks and appreciate for a job well done by Abigail Abrham and Wesley Namnoun in the thrid quarter! Abby and Wesley started off our school day everyday with the Pledge of Allegiance, the announcements of the day, and the celebrated historical figure for each day of the respective history months. Nice job Abby and Wesley!

WFSB Surprise Squad - Ms. Semyanko

As promised from earlier in the 3rd Quarter, Eugenia Semyanko was recognized on WFSB 3 by the Surprise Squad, with Irene O'Connor bringing in some surprises to celebrate Ms. Semyanko's dedication and passion for her work here at EGMS. Click on the pic to see her well deserved celebration at our school on the news!

Dr. Sarah Faulkner: Fund for Teachers Recipient AND Op-Ed Writer for the Hartford Courant

Dr. Faulkner has been busy! For starters, she was the machine behind getting our community the eclipse sunglasses to enjoy the experience (and what a cool experience it was!). Additionally, she wrote a great article for the Hartford Courant about it all! Please click HERE to read the article, and please continue scrolling to see two beautiful pictures for the eclipse taken by a photographer right next to her during the eclipse!

Next, please read the message below from Dr. Dale Bernardoni, CT Managing Director for "Fund For Teachers" concerning an award earned by Dr. Faulkner:
It is our pleasure to inform you that Sarah Faulkner from your school has been selected to receive a fellowship from Fund for Teachers. Sarah will be partnering with a teacher from Maine to travel to Iceland to explore melting glaciers, active tectonic plates, and bird and ocean life as it responds to climate change. They will collect first-hand data, photographs and interviews to inspire students to understand and take action about climate change. This is Sarah’s second Fund for Teachers grant having been previously awarded a fellowship in 2017.

Congratulations to Dr. Faulkner on her great work! This has been a fun month to celebrate her!

EGMS Library - STEM and Makerspace Activity

EGMS Students during the lab blocks sometimes go to the library to think, build, and expand their critical thinking, creative thinking, and collaboration. It's great to see their minds work!

Grade 6 - FACS

In Mrs. Corey's Family and Consumer Science (FACS) class , students were demonstrating some of the 5 C's by collaborating and communicating with each other and with Mrs. Corey while learning the essential skills associated with designing and creating an apron. One of our students, Pranitya, is highlighted in the pictures below!

Gr 6 - Language Exploratory

In class with Senora Ash, students created flashcards to study Spanish speaking countries and capitals. Then they play a interactive slap card game to practice identifying the countries.

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