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Dear HKMS Families,

Happy Halloween!!

Next Wednesday (11/5 @ 9:30 a.m.) we will have our second Principal's PTO Coffee of the year. Out topic is: Finding Balance While Raising Adolescents! Being a parent is always a struggle to find balance between professional life, family live, and your individual life (i.e., not family or work, yes that can and should exist!). Last month we had about 20 parents attend, we would love to have even more of you this month! The PTO will supply the coffee and some treats, you supply the insights, struggles, and successes you're experiencing in trying to maintain a measure of balance in your life.

Also next Wednesday, there will be a great opportunity to learn even more from Lenore Skenazi, president of the Let Grow organization and author of Free Range Kids.  Her presentation will cover the many benefits of letting our kids have more freedom to explore their world, more responsibility to contribute to the family (cooking, keeping a garden, pet care, etc), and how we can let go of the reigns a bit.  The presentation will be at SSES at 6:30 p.m.

Below this message you'll see a form asking for presenters at our triennial career fair, coming this spring.  We do this once every three years, so this will be our current students one and only career fair in middle school!  Our school counselor, Mrs. Terry organizes a wonderful day during which our students learn from you!  All careers are welcomed and encouraged!  If you'd like to share what you do for a living, please sign up below.  

Also below is the sign up for one of our most popular extracurricular activities, the PTO sponsored, HKMS Ski Club!  The ski club has three Friday evening trips planned up to Mohawk Mountain in January and February.  The club has limited space available, so be sure to sign up early. 

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:

 Delayed Gratfication

Rationale: 

• In the 1970's Stamford University held a series of seminal experiments called "the marshmallow tests."  In these experiments children were offer one marshmallow now, or if they could wait a little while, two marshmallow later.  Those children involved were followed for the next 30 years to see if there was any connection between delayed gratification and adult outcomes. 

• The results found that children who could wait tended to have better life outcomes including higher test scores, healthier lifestyles, more satisfying careers, and stronger social skills than those who took the marshmallow right away.

• This study had been replecated many times and the results are all similar. The ability to delay our gratification is not innate, but a skill that can be taught and mastered.  For those who do master this skill, it seems adult life is better.

What you can do to promote:  

• Start small, having your children wait two minutes for a snack afterschool, waiting patiently for five minutes at the dinner table, or fifteen minutes until its screen time starts will help build up tolerance for this skill.

• Verbalize and model being patient.  Adults have much more will power, but its still work.  Share your desire to have a snack, crash on the couch, or buying something and deciding to wait until later, will show patience is something we all have to work on. 

• Demonstrate your coping mechanisms when you're frustrated. This shows our student that we can both be patient and that good things come to those who wait.  

• Start a "savings" jar (or account)! If your child really, really wants something have them work for it by starting a savings jar. Putting part of their allowance, money from family gifts, or odd jobs leads to great patience will power, and responsible spending. 

We have only 15 days until the end of trimester 1 (T1).  This weekend is the perfect time to sit with your middle-schooler to check out their grades in PowerSchool while there is still enough time to make up any missing work.  The end of the trimester always means culminating projects and assessments.  Staying on top of multiple assignments, studying, and getting it all in on time is difficult for the young adolescent mind. This is where you can be super helpful.  Helping your child map out the next three weeks, by using Google Classroom and our teacher provided outlines, you can ensure they are prepared for the home stretch.  

It was a very spooky week at HKMS! I hope you can take a few minutes to check it out the rest of this week's newsletter! 

Hoping you have a great Halloween and enjoyable weekend!  

Sincerely,

Steve Clapp, Ed.D. &   Annie Mohr

Principal Assistant Principal

Sixth grade French students created surveys about free time activities and now they are surveying their classmates. They will then graph the data they collect from their surveys and we will see if there are any surprises!

Above: While Mr. Rogers confers with every student, others are continuing to write, edit, and revise their spooky stories!

Below: Our writers sharing their scary stories!

Solving multistep equations are hard...unless you have notes that are beautifully color-coded which break down each step! 

These mathematicians are working on solving multivariable linear equations.  Mr. Rondos set up a Building Thinking Classrooms activity using vertical whiteboards and flexible groups to facilitate collaboration. 

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