HKMS Family Newsletter - Week of 10/10/23

For the Week of 10/10 - 10/13

A Message from Dr. Clapp
Classroom Peeks
Counselor's Corner
Happenings
Get involved!
Community Clicks
and Upcoming Events

"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October. "

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Dear HKMS Families,

Happy October, one of my favorite months of the entire year, especially in a town as beautiful as Easton! Both my mother and my wife have October birthdays, and those celebrations are my unofficial kickoff for the fall and winter holiday season, which seems to come earlier every year! I hope you have the opportunity to get out an enjoy our beautiful town during this most spectacular time of the year!

We need your help! Students have started coming in with coffee, energy drinks, and soda in the morning. In addition to these not being healthy choices for young adolescent health and wellbeing, these drinks will attract insects and sticky messes, which is why we only allow water in classes. So, please refrain from sending your child in with anything but water. Thank you!

Halloween is fast approaching and one of our favored traditions is our dress up day on 10/31. Many of the teachers, students, even a couple of administrators love to get in on the fun. Before selecting a costume with your child, please check out the guidelines in the "happenings" section below to be sure the costume meets our guidelines.

Next Tuesday (10/17 from 9:30-10:30) we will have our first PTO-Principal's Coffee of the year! This coffee will feature our new mental health team, with both counselors, our social worker, and our school psychologist on hand to talk about the work they do with our kids and how we can all provide an emotionally stable environment for our young adolescents to learn, grow, and thrive. We will also be lending out copies of our 2023-24 PTO club book, Smart but Scattered Teens by Dr. Richard Guare, Dr. Peg Dawson, and Colin Guare (2013). We will read a chapter or two per month and discuss in subsequent coffees. We have plenty of copies so be sure to come by next week and get your copy!

This was another amazing week of middle school teaching and learning at HKMS! My favorite moment of the week was when some of our seventh graders spent Tuesday morning "Zooming" with students in our sister city of Sviatohirsk, Ukraine! Students talked about what they studied, favorite food, and music. This is the first in a series of connections we hope to make with these students in an effort build greater understanding, empathy, and connections with our sister city. The call ended with the Ukrainian students singing their national anthem, it was very moving. A big shout out to Dr. Bindelglass who was on hand and was instrumental in creating the connection. Check out the photos in the Classroom Peeks section under 7th-grade.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Steven Clapp, Ed.D.

A glimpse inside of the terrific teaching and learning going on this week at HKMS!

Grade 6

Who will survive?? Mr. Bernardi's historians engaged in a survival simulation. The student tribes collectively made decisions about their resources and movements. The simulation would reveal the outcome of each decisions and determine the tribe's survival.

Puppets make everything more fun! Mrs. Harington's Spanish students are writing and performing original skits with special guest star puppets.

Grade 7

A group of 7th graders had an exciting exchange this week. Thanks to the committee working with our Sister school in Ukraine, our students had a zoom call with students at a school in Sviatohirsk. With the help of a translator, they talked about their towns and their lives. The topic of Taylor Swift even came up! We hope this is just the start to our friendship!

Grade 8

Mr. D'Agostino's historians are learning about the events that led to the Revolutionary war.

Are you up for a homophone challenge? QUICK- Think of a sentence that uses the words duel and dual! For your next challenge, solve the Pun of the Day! So many challenging brain activities going on in Mr. Jockers' class that strengthen our 8th grade readers and writers.

Eighth grade Spanish students are creating original families. They decide a Spanish-speaking country of origin for their fictitious family. All details about the family members, such as careers, traditions, schooling and favorite foods, are based on the research the group has done abut that country of origin.

FPAs

Mrs. G's artists circle up to give each other peer to peer feedback on their artwork.

8th grade students in PLTW are learning to code and build robots!

Too much screen time….HELP!
By Mr. Nicholas Willett School Counselor/Academic Mentor

Students can’t imagine a world without smartphones, tablets and the internet. Limiting screen time can be very difficult as a parent and often times our kids are smarter than us when it comes to using technology.
There is a lot of emerging research out there on the negative effects of too much screen time on brain development. Fortunately, there are a lot of strategies and programs developed to help parents navigate this topic.

Here are a few of the counseling departments favorites that will help you as a parent: