Covering the week of 11/3 - 11/7
Embedded Files
A Message from Dr. Clapp and Mrs. Mohr
Classroom Peeks
HKMS Happenings
Get Involved!
Community Clicks
Upcoming Events
Important Reminder for MONDAY!
Important Reminder for MONDAY!
Dear HKMS Families,
On Monday HKMS will proudly celebrate Veteran's Day. Over the last three years we have developed a wonderful partnership with our local VFW Post #10059. This year we are excited to welcome and recognize 18 veterans (our largest group yet)! We will welcome these heroes with a short ceremony, some patriotic Keller music performances, and then (the best part) they all visit classrooms. They will share stories of peace and war, travel and training, benefits and the bonds they developed during their years service. They will share images, artifacts, and stories of courage and challenges overcome. It is one of the most moving and inspirational events of the entire year.
To make the day extra special, we ask students to dress in Red, White, and Blue and to make a contribution to the 300 Boodle Brigade. The Boodle Brigade sends holiday care packages to active military overseas. For many who receive these packages, it is their only piece of home during the holiday season. Please see the fliers above this message and/or in the HKMS Happenings section for suggested and barred items to donate. We are also accepting donations to "adopt a box" for $30. This covers the cost to ship the box overseas. Dr. Baca with the help of our Peer Leaders and Mrs. Gina Hicks will wrap, pack, and ship the packages so they arrive in time for the holidays.
This past Wednesday the PTO hosted the Principal's Coffee. A wonderful group of parents showed up to enjoy some coffee and pastries (thank you PTO) and a very engaging conversation about parental self care and the rising pressures on parents and children to perform at ever more elite levels. I linked the handout we discussed at the coffee below. It covers how you can create balance in your life to fight off some of today's parental pressures, and allow you to fully enjoy being a parent. Our next coffee will be January 7th. I hope to see you there!
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:
Gratitude and Politeness
Rationale:
Manners are a social currency that never expires!
Children growing up in the digital age experience far less gratitude and good manners than those raised before this era.
Children who grow up with good manners are the adults we like to hire, work with, help, and hold close.
Saying "please" and "thank you" creates more opportunities in the adult world than intelligence alone.
What you can do to promote:
Model politeness and make it "visible" to your kids (so they see and hear you).
Encourage gratitude, "You should write a note to your teacher thanking her for staying after with you."
Show your children and other children appreciation, good manners and politeness in your interactions. Manners are not only from kids to adults, they go both ways!
We are really humming along now. Just two weeks left in T1 and the students are showing us some of their best thinking of the year. Please check out the rest of our newsletter to see them hard at work!
Hoping you and your family have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Steve Clapp, Ed.D. & Annie Mohr
Principal Assistant Principal
Students are using new vocabulary in Spanish class to describe different types of rooms and interiors. They will be using these terms and phrases to describe the rooms that they are designing.
Student are rotating through figurative language stations in Mrs. Burkes ILA class. Student explore the various forms of figurative language, and will be applying these language enhancers to their own writing!
Mrs. Gale shared with the 7th grade her recent experience attending and presenting at the American Association of School Librarians. Seventh graders were also introduced to some new titles and authors using Book Break author talks.
These mathematicians are working with algebraic expressions to simplify and solve challenging problems with variables!
Do you know how much new vocabulary you have to learn to navigate the transition to high school?? It's A LOT. Students did a deep dive into these words with our school counselor Mrs. Terry including words like pre-requisite, transcript, weighted grades, etc. They also did transcript scavenger hunts to get the know the format of transcripts better and what information they include.
The past tense, or the pretérito, is one of the most challenging topics in grade 8 Spanish. Profe' is helping students grapple with the pretérito through warm up actives, journaling and translation practice!
It is the soccer tournament finals!!
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
CALLING ALL THEATER FOLK!!
CALLING ALL THEATER FOLK!!
Auditions for Willy Wonka Jr. will be held on Weds Nov 19th from 3-5pm. Students can call home to be picked up as soon as they have auditioned. Callbacks will be Thursday, Nov 20th from 3-5pm.
While we are working to unblock a link for students- the attached links should work for all families.
Link for Audition Materials Scroll down and this site will take you to a character description, script, and music.
The Wonka folder has further information including an audition form to be brought on Nov 19th, as well as vocals and performance accompaniments.
Students interested in stage crew- do NOT come to auditions. More information will come.
Extra Help at HKMS
Extra Help at HKMS
“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
Registration is open for the 2026 HKMS Ski Club. Join your friends on three after school Friday trips to Mohawk Mountain. Get all the details and registration links at eastonctpto.com/ski-club
Please take a few minutes to complete the Parent School Climate survey.
Please take a few minutes to complete the Parent School Climate survey.
Visit the Easton PTO Website to learn more about this incredibly supportive organization!
HKMS Spiritwear! Limited run until 11/14 with delivery by 12/15!!
SEPTA!
Easton's Special Education Parent Teacher Association
Saturday Night, Nov. 8th The Easton Learning Foundation 20th Anniversary Party!
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!
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