Covering the week of 10/20 - 10/24
Covering the week of 10/20 - 10/24
A Message from Dr. Clapp and Mrs. Mohr
Classroom Peeks
HKMS Happenings
Get Involved!
Community Clicks
Upcoming Events
Dear HKMS Families,
While it may seem like a long time off, the end of Trimester one is November 26. In actuality, that is only 21 days of school. During this "home stretch" of the trimester, many subjects will have culminating projects, tests, essays, and other benchmark assessments. This can be one of the most stressful times for your children. While much of the news today focuses on the negative aspects of stress, learning how to handle productive stress is what has allowed human beings to be such a successful species. Without some pressure to survive and thrive, its likely our ancestors would have become extinct. This is a great opportunity to teach your children how to deal with expected stress in a healthy and productive way. For many of us being prepared, organized, and able to anticipate stressors are helpful proactive strategies. For others, mediation, mindful breathing, prayer, hobbies, music, art, and/or exercise are helpful reactive coping mechanisms. Blending both the proactive and reactive strategies will give your children the tools they need to thrive in those productively stressful moments in school and later in adult life. Remember children between 11-14 experience the most growth and development of their entire lives (except B-3), coaching them through normal levels of stress will engrain these healthy habits for a lifetime.
As discussed at open house, each week we will highlight one skill that will give your child a competitive advantage in school and beyond. These are skills we are working on in school, but will really only flourish if also worked on at home. Each skill will include a rationale and some ideas on how you can promote it at home. This week's skill is:
Being Prepared
Rationale:
When we show up unprepared stress levels increase and our energy and attention is drawn away from the topic.
When you're prepared confidence levels increase. Confidence leads to better engagement and performance!
Preparation also leads to a calmer emotional state, allowing the reasonable parts of the brain to be in control.
What you can do to promote:
Make your preparations practices visible to your child. By over-explaining and demonstrating how you prepare for meetings, trips, shopping, chores, or other tasks, you validate the importance of preparation.
Team up with your child to create systems and habits to ensure they are prepared for the next day of school. A very popular and successful strategy is to have your child keep their school bag by the door from which they leave for school. When they come home, out comes all the homework and their computer. The computer gets charged while they complete their homework, then it all goes back in the bag. Now your prepared for tomorrow!
Going over their schedule while they lay out clothes for the next day (or even the week) will help them be prepared for the weather and any non-typical activities that may be coming up.
This very newsletter can help you and your middle schooler be a bit more prepared for the weeks ahead. At the very bottom of this newsletter are upcoming events, you can plan what extracurricular actives they might want to try next week. You can even review what happened in classes this week, by discussing the classroom peeks (this may help activate memory of upcoming class assignments).
It was another wonderful week of middle school teaching and learning at HKMS. I hope you can take a few minutes to check out the rest of this week's newsletter!
Hoping you have a fantastic weekend!
Sincerely,
Steve Clapp, Ed.D. & Annie Mohr
Principal Assistant Principal
These mathematicians were helping to explain adding and subtracting fractions to Dr. Clapp!
Mrs. Piacente and our intern Ms. Wachnuik, help guide students through the conduction lab which demonstrated the transfer of energy which created heat.
In 6th grade Spanish classes, students are designing a "Cuarto ideal" (dream room). In addition to the things you might expect like "la cama" (the bed) and "la ventana," some creative additions like "la hiedra artificial" (fake ivy) and las luces LED (LED lights) are appearing in many of their obras. Next week students will be giving guided tours of their rooms!
In French classes this week, students played Charades to practice talking about free time activities.
Mathematicians in Mrs. Caldera's class are practicing their understanding of rational numbers by working with task cards, completing a study guide, accessing delta Math, and iReady! Students are checking in with Mrs., Caldera and our math specialist, Mrs. Dunkerton. That's one busy class!
By the end of this lesson these scientists were able to explain and provide examples of the the differences between physical changes and chemical changes.
Don't be surprised if one of our social scientists asks you "what is freedom and where does it come from?" Mr. D's students are digging deep into the core principles of Western Civilization.
After listening to Mr. Jockers read a selection from The Giver, students continued their exploration of dystopian writing by exploring the themes in Harrison Bergeron.
After finishing their very cool "synth wave" landscapes, our artists have moved on to knitting using self-made looms!
These engineers learned how to write and use formulas to create graphs and charts in Google Sheets.
We are honored to have VFW Post 10059 coming back to HKMS on Monday, November 10th to help us recognize and celebrate Veterans Day! Veterans will be in classes all morning sharing their stories, how military service has guided their lives, and answering students' questions about military service.
Our Peer Leaders Club is partnering with the "300 Boodle Brigade" (a West Point parent group) to collect, package, and send care packages to active duty solders stationed oversees. See their donation list in this section.
Collections will start this week and end on Veterans Day. Please consider sending in any of the suggested items, or "sponsoring a box." The packages cost $30 each to ship. To sponsor a box, please send a check into the HKMS Students Activity Fund and we will make sure your donation helps to subsidize the shipping costs (in the note please indicate "300 Boodles Brigade").
Please do not send any perishable food items, alcohol (even wipes or sanitizer), tobacco, items that use batteries, nail polish, perfumes, or adult oriented materials.
More Information about the 300 Boodle Brigade
What has been lost, now has been found! The HKMS Lost and Found is BURSTING with sweatshirts, water-bottles, binders, lunchboxes, and other items. We plan to donate these items on October 31st. See the images below. It is best to encourage your child to find their own item, but you can also feel free to come inspect the pile and re-adopt your child's items any day before 11:15 am or after 12:45pm. Please come to the door and ring the bell. We will have you check into the main office then will walk you to the lost and found. Just make sure to come at a time when lunch is NOT in session.
“Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.” -Brené Brown
We are so proud of students when they seek out extra help, especially on their own. To help support our middle students all teachers oofer extra help time beofer or after school. See the doc linked in this section to see all teachers' extra help schedules.
Extracurricular Clubs and Activities!
This Gantt Chart shows our extracurricular timeline for the school year. If the month is colored in (i.e., not white) the activity is running that month. The color of the cell represents a day of the week and time. For example, Volleyball in dark yellow runs Wednesdays from January - March from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. The musical is the most unique activity as it will be running from November - February in some combination of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (depending on rehearsal group). Which is why the musical cells are a gradient of orange, yellow, and green. All current clubs and activities also have a flyer below this chart with more details about time, location, and advisor.
Dear HKMS parents,
I have the pleasure of leading the Homework Club this year. It’s held every Thursday for an hour right after school. Our 1st trimester will end November 26th. In preparation for that, I will be holding an additional opportunity on the mornings of November 11 & 18 @ 7:15am. This might allow your child the chance to complete missing work or simply to finish strong by working on what is current. I know that many of your children manage a heavy after school calendar with sports, music lessons, etc. I hope that this may be of support. Please feel free to reach out with any questions.
Timothy Vale, School Counselor
HALLOWEEN at HKMS
Halloween is quickly approaching and we want everyone to enjoy the day while also learning and being able to do everything they would on a normal school day. If a student chooses to participate by dressing up, please follow the guidelines in this section. Students should be able to do all the things they normally would, including fully participating in PE while still in their costume. Costumes like inflatables, over the head masks, and those that may be unsafe, inappropriate, or distracting to others are not allowed. There is no dressing up (or applying makeup, etc.) allowed once you get to school, you must come and stay in your costume for the day.
Additionally, bringing in or distributing candy or other "treats" in school is prohibited by our school wellness policy; items in violation of this policy will be confiscated.
Despite the holiday, we are a school of learning first. Anything that interferes with our learning will be confiscated.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Wilson, our visiting therapy dog, was on hand this week for some extra cuddles!
SEPTA!
Easton's Special Education Parent Teacher Association
The Easton Learning Foundation!
Founded in 2004, the Easton Learning Foundation (ELF) is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching Easton’s commitment to quality education. To that end, the Foundation strives to secure financial and human resources for innovative educational projects and programs by:
Building community-wide support for the benefit of our schools
Partnering with the District to help achieve their vision
Funding educational initiatives and programs that fall outside the school budget, like the cafeteria furniture seen below!
On Wednesday, November 5, 2025, we are hosting Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids and President of the Let Grow organization. Lenore will discuss how childhood has changed—and how parents and caregivers can help children build confidence, resilience, and self-reliance through independent play and real-life experiences.
Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Time: 6:15 PM Check-In | 6:30 PM Start
Location: Samuel Staples Elementary School, 515 Morehouse Road, Easton, CT 06612
More Info & Resources: eastonsheretohelp.org
October is Fire Safety Month!
Easton Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Director Schuyler Sherwood wants us all to be aware of the dangers of Lithium Ion Batteries. Marshal Sherwood will be coming to HKMS' health classes to explain the dangers and what we can do to be safer as these batteries become more entwined in our lives. Check out his message and the materials he shared with us!