For the Week of 11/14 - 11/18

Welcome message from Dr. Clapp
Classroom "Peeks"
Drive to Thrive
HKMS "Happenings"
Ways to get involved at HKMS
and...Upcoming Events!

Dear HKMS Families,

Busy, busy, busy! This time of year always gets a little extra busy, so I am keeping my update to all business this week. Please read the following bullet points as much of it is new! The flyers below in "Happenings" and "Get Involved" have more details.

Some big events are eminent this and next week:

The Bookfair was yesterday and today, and will also run tomorrow from 9:00 - 11:00 during the pancake breakfast. This is the first in-person book fair in over two years, thank you PTO! (For more information, see the flyer below in the “Happenings” section.)
Tomorrow morning from 9:00am-11:00am will be the triumphant return of a 46-year tradition, the HKMS Pancake Breakfast. $10 per person for all-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage, and beverages. All proceeds go to the 8th-grade class council for their end-of-year activities. (For more information, see the flyer below in the “Happenings” section.)
Next Tuesday (11/22) we will host a perishable food drive in collaboration with the Fairfield County branch of Food Rescue US (link here). This locally created (the original chapter is the Fairfield Co. branch) and national foundation (40 locations in 21 states and D.C) “rescues” food from restaurants, groceries, schools, and through food-drives to provide nourishing produce to those who are food insecure. This not only benefits those in need, but keeps waste out of landfills. We are hoping you will consider dropping off (or sending in) one of the fifteen items they identified as needed for Thanksgiving. (For more information, see the flyer below in the “Get Involved” section).
The School Musical is back and will hold performances on March 2-4. Auditions will be right after Thanksgiving (on 11/29). (See the flyer in the “Happenings" section for more info).
The very popular PTO Ski Club returns, this year going to Mohawk Mountain for three different trips. Space is limited to the first 150 skiers/riders who sign up. This sells out every year! Email ski.HKMS@gmail.com to sign up. (For more information see the flyer in the “Happenings” section for more info).
Also in the "Happenings" section are updated weather delay schedules for two-hour and three-hour delayed openings and early dismissals. As Dr. McKinnon's message from Tuesday evening indicated, we are now at that time of year when any precipitation can impact our schedules. These adjusted schedules can also be found on the HKMS website (directions to find these are also in the “Happenings” section for more info).

In addition to all of this, there was some wonderful teaching and learning happening all over our wonderful school. Be sure to check out the much-enjoyed “Classroom Peeks” section to catch up on just a few of the topics and skills covered this week.

I hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend (and are not too busy just yet!).

Sincerely,

Steven Clapp, Ed.D.

Principal

Helen Keller Middle School

Find your strength, build upon it, and share it!

Grade 6

"Excellente" survey videos from Ms. Harington's French classes

(click on the icon below the image to view).

Ms Harington - World Language's Flip ResponseFrench survey graphs

6th-grade students in Mr. Bernardi's social studies classes are researching the GRAPES of ancient civilizations. In case you don't know, that stands for Government, Religion, Achievements, Politics, Economics, and Social Structure. Student groups are coming up with their own creative ways to bring their learning to their classmates. Some of the ideas include creating board games, interactive websites, clay models, and even performing skits.

Grade 7

7th Grade math students solving mystery puzzles using their knowledge of multi-step equations.

Students in social studies are learning about the long tumultuous history of conflict between Russia and Ukraine. These lessons are essential to understand current events and avoiding what political philosopher George Santayana said in 1905, "Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it."

Grade 8

Students in Mr. Ackley's math classes went on answer hunts to test their knowledge of integers.

It's the "Return of the Pun" (of the day) in 8th grade ILA class!! Check out this pun!

A student in the class got the answer in less than 1 minute!!

FPA

Site-Reading in the 7th-Grade Band this Week!

Mr. Dolecki really should call it site-unseen playing! Within a minute of handing out this music, the band was playing it...impressive!

Fitness Rotations in PE this week!

Fitness games, weight training, cardio...all in PE this week!

At HKMS we believe all students should be thriving whether performing below, at, or above grade-level standards. This section will highlight just one of the ways we support learners and/or extend their thinking.

Do you know how to tell if a number is divisible by 3? Ask any 6th grader and they can tell you! Students have been learning all about the divisibility rules and how to look at the characteristics of a number and be able to determine what factors it can be divided by. This week, students in Mrs. Dunkerton's Math Workshop had fun practicing these rules while navigating through a maze of numbers. Students were building upon the rules they learned in class and using them to not only pick the correct next number in the path, but also to rule out others. "Wait, that number is odd so it can't be divisible by 6 because it is not divisible by 2!" These rules will help to make life easier when they are simplifying fractions, working with GCF, or eventually with factoring in algebra.

Return of the...

The HKMS School Climate Committee Meeting

From a great ice-breaking name game ("peek a who") to setting their working norms and examining the school climate data, this group of parent, student, and staff volunteers dug into some of the most important work we do.... making sure our school is a safe, secure, and caring environment so all students can thrive!

The School Play is BACK!

We are in school play season. Many people ask us what the differences are between the school play and drama club, so we made this handy chart! To see the full doc. just click here.

2022-2023 HKMS Ski Club INFORMATION.pdf

HKMS - PTO Ski Club is BACK! Email ski.HKMS@gmail.com to sign up!

Weather Impacted Schedules

Two-Hour Delayed Opening

Three-Hour Delayed Opening

Two-Hour Early Dismissal

Three-Hour Early Dismissal

Finding the Schedules on the HKMS Website

Navigate to the HKMS home page, hover over school resources, then click on "School Hours and Schedules"

Click on Schedules which will bring you to the normal master schedule and all of the the Early Dismissal and Delayed Opening schedules.

HKMS is proud to be partnering with Food Rescue US to gather donated produce on 11/22/22. We are "rescuing" perishable items only from 7:30 - 8:30 and 2:30 - 3:30 in the drop-off loop. To learn more about Food Rescue US - Fairfield County visit: https://foodrescue.us

School Spiritwear Store!

https://stapleskellerspiritwear.com/

All proceeds go to the PTO!

Keller Educational Discussions

Do you have an area of expertise middle schoolers can learn from? Do you like sharing? We want you to give a KED-Talk!

Click here for more information and to sign up!

The first batch of furniture for our new innovation space arrived this week, and the students are already enjoying it! If you want to help the cause please consider making a donation to ELF for the HKMS Innovation Spaces Project! Thank you! https://www.eastonlearningfoundation.org/shop

Help the Keller Cooking Club!!

A group of students created and presented a proposal to start a cooking club at HKMS and thanks to the PTO, it is going to happen!! We need to your help gather basic equipment to get the club up and running. If you have some extra mixing bowls or cutting boards laying around, you can donate them to the KCC (Keller Cooking Club)! Simply click on the sign up genius link below then drop off your donations inside the front door of HKMS. There is a box waiting to receive it all.

Link to Sign Up Genius for Cooking Club Donations

PTO-Principals Coffee 11/17/22

Images from the PTO - Principal's Coffee on Thursday. Linked below are the articles we Discussed and one video we watched, which are also in the slide deck above. The conversation was robust, concerning, scary, and insightful. Dr. Clapp and Mrs. Mohr are planning out more opportunities to further explore this topic with parents.