March 2017
HMS Principal’s Newsletter
HMS Celebrates National Engineering Week!
Mrs. Griffin, grade 8 Science teacher, and Mrs. Karpinsky, 5th and 6th grade school counselor, partnered earlier this month to celebrate National Engineering Week, and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day with a career exploration engineering challenge! Fifth grade girls participated in an engineering challenge led by Mrs. Griffins 8th grade students.
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Guidance UA
5th grade students are wrapping up the last few weeks of their Guidance UA. Students have been learning about empathy, bullying, and relational aggression. Over the next couple of weeks, students will learn about stress management, individual learning styles, and participate in career exploration activities.
Lunch Group Lessons
Mrs. Karpinsky continues to run daily lunch groups in 5th and 6th grade and will begin lunch group lessons with groups of 10-12 student. The topic for the upcoming series of lunch lessons is relational aggression. Relational aggression is described as any behavior that is intended to harm someone by damaging or manipulating relationships with others. Unlike other types of bullying, relational aggression is not as overt, or noticeable as physical aggression. However, the effects can be long lasting. Relational aggression damages a persons sense of social place. Examples of relational aggression include: exclusion, gossip, the silent treatment, belittling and conditional friendship. For additional information about relational aggression, including resources for parents and families, please visit the following link.
News from the National Junior Honor Society
NJHS raises Multiple SC Awareness with week long events including selling t-shirts and beads, daily announcements about the disease, student simulations and wearing orange to support the MS cause.
What is MS?
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling
disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within
the brain, and between the brain and body.
*Next month NJHS will support National Autism Month in April.
HMS Celebrates 8th Grader Nick Barbuto!!!
8th grade band member, Nick Barbuto, was selected to participate in the NH Band Directors' Association Middle Level Honor Band held at UNH on Friday March 17. Earning the highest percussion score in the state, Nick's audition afforded him the opportunity of playing in a band made up of some of the best middle school musicians from across the state. The group rehearsed all day under the baton of Deb Confredo of Temple University and presented a concert in the evening.
Family Consumer Science
Many things going on in the Family Consumer Science room this month:
6th grade has been learning about the Activity Pyramid and learning about the different levels of exercise and the FIT principle: Frequency, Intensity, and Time. They are learning to take their pulse and observing what it does as they perform different activities.
7th Grade: has been learning about consumer and resource management. The students participated in Life Scenarios by Banzai program sponsored by Pentucket Bank to teach financial literacy. As a culminating project, the students were asked to create a snack to sell at the Little Mermaid concession stand. They had to develop a business plan through Biz Kids: What is your idea? What are your start up cost? How much will you sell it for? What is your profit?
8th Grade: is just finishing their work on Careers. They have completed a Web Quest that enabled them find three careers of interest. Our next step is to pair the students up with a professional mentor. The students will learn to write a business letter inviting their mentor to our Career Meet and Greet. At the Meet and Greet students will interview their mentor and reflect on their meeting. The students will also be planning a menu to serve at this event. It is a wonderful culmination to their work on careers.
Request for professional partners/mentors.
We would now like to invite as many of these career professionals into our school to have a ‘meet and greet’ with our students. We feel that this personal gathering could provide insight and knowledge that students were not able to find in their research. We are hoping to schedule our ‘Career Meet and Greet’ for April 4th and 5th 9:50-10:30
Here is a list of the careers in which our students are interested in. If you, or someone you know, is willing to come in and meet with our students on one of these dates to discuss a career - please contact Heather Mailloux @ maillouxh@hampsteadschools.net.
Therapist (psychology)
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Personal Trainer
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Actress
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surgeon
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animator
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fire fighter
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nuclear medicine
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photographer
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engineer - architechal,mechanical, electrical, civil, and/or chemical
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radiologist
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reporter
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software engineer
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Physical Therapist
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treasurer
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chemical scientist
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Doctor - pediatrician
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financial advisor
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meteorologist
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psychologist/Psychiatrist
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accountant
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crime scene investigator
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sports medicine
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pharmasist rep
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private investigator
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sports medicine
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financial manager
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Foresistic science
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orthodontist
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HMS Sports
The HMS club volleyball team finished their season with games against Hampstead Academy, Bedford and Pelham. This year's squad had about 80 participants in 7th and 8th grade.
Tryouts for the 2017 HMS golf team will be in early to mid April. The golf team will have matches at Atkinson CC, Brookstone, Candia Woods, Intervale CC and Hoodkroft CC.
Baseball, softball and track tryouts will begin next Wednesday March 29th.
Baseball, softball and track tryouts will begin next Wednesday March 29th.
Fifth Grade Happenings
The grade 5 Egypt Museum was held on Wednesday, March 22. Students educated members of the Hampstead community about Ancient Egyptian Life. Each exhibit had a research report, Google slide show, and models on various topics. Viewers left the museum with a wealth of knowledge about the Nile River, Egyptian gods and goddesses, wonders of Ancient Egypt, the social structure of the civilization, and Egyptian mummies. This presentation concluded the children's study of Egypt in Mrs. Ouellet's social studies classes.
On Wednesday, March 8th, fifth grade students attended The Wizard of Oz at the Palace Theater at the conclusion of their Fictional Narrative reading and writing unit, as a culminating activity. Upon returning, students put on their own Reader's Theater of the original book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and compared and contrasted the two story lines. It was a fun experience that all students enjoyed!! The Palace hopes we can attend again next year!!
Our Our World Club
The Our World Club will be organizing a school-wide drive for school supplies for three Manchester middle schools from April 3rd through the 14th. The three deserving schools HMS will be donating to are: Hillside, Parkside and McLaughlin. We will be mainly collecting pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, notebook paper, and cloth pencil holders.
PTSA had a successful fundraiser with selling HMS Hawk wear! Thank you everyone for your support. The PTSA will be looking for Volunteers for Staff Appreciation week. If anyone is interested in helping with this event please contact Denise @ staffappreciation@
we have just approved 2 Pedometers for the HMS.
Thank you to all of the PTSA Kids for volunteering for Bingo for Books we are grateful for your commitment.
Notice of General Membership Meeting Change*
This email is to notify you that our April GM Meeting date has been moved to
APRIL 4TH, 2017, AT 7 PM IN THE MIDDLE SCHOOL LIBRARY.
We thank you all for your understanding and we hope to see all our members there!
HMS Book Tastings
Grade 6: Exposure to a Variety of Authors, Genres, Formats, etc.
- Multiple Themes Genres and Formats (Most Popular: “New” and “Overcoming Challenges” Theme
- Students Browsed Titles, Took a Few Notes, etc.
- Connections about Topics of Interest
Wide Receiver New England Patriots Video, Malcolm Mitchell: Bookish Football Player
Grade 7: Different Titles, Formats, Additional Book talks, etc.
Available and Recommended: 
The Crossover By: K. Alexander
The Crossover By: K. Alexander
Realistic Fiction, Siblings, Sports, Fast-Paced
By: G. Mone (Young Readers Adaptation) Olympics, Perseverance, Narrative Nonfiction
Important Please Note Upcoming Testing
Teachers and students are preparing for our upcoming annual
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)
TESTING
The Smarter Balanced assessment system is a valid, fair, and reliable approach to student assessment that provides educators, students and parents meaningful results with actionable data to help students succeed.
Our assessment system, aligned to College and Career Ready Standards, consists of three major components, all designed to improve teaching and learning.
The following are the scheduled dates. Please help support your child with plenty of rest and nutritional snacks these weeks.
SBAC ELA: April 10-14
SBAC Math: April 17-21
SBAC Make-up testing: May 1-5
8th Grade Science
In science classes, the 8th grade students have been gathering facts about climate changes and are now creating a water filtration system using common household objects for an engineering challenge. The filtration test will be next week!
8th Grade Language Arts
8th Grade LA is in the midst of literary analysis with a whole class study of William Golding's Lord of the Flies. We are reading and discussing the thematic implications about human nature and our study will culminate with analytical assignment that explores the use of symbolism in the novel.
8th Grade Social Studies
Hampstead American Legion Junior Oratorical
Grade 8 students have prepared three to five minute speeches on topics related to the United States Constitution. As part of the American Legion Oratorical Competition, students have been working on the art of public speaking in their classes and this competition provides an excellent opportunity for students to share their knowledge of the Constitution with classmates and the HMS community.
On March 16th, HMS held their local competition judged by our faculty judging panel and guest judge, school board member Cathleen Abruzzese. With 22 students performing for their classmates, guests, family members and staff, it was great opportunity for our students to showcase their knowledge of the Constitution. The public speaking skills displayed were outstanding and it was exciting to see the level of poise our students showed while speaking on topics ranging from Fourth Amendment Privacy to First Amendment Religious Freedom. From our local competition, our top 5 students were Vera Backman, Cole Breen, Michael Curtin, Naomi Ford, and Emma Johnston. Congratulations to our top placing students and all grade 8 students for shining in their public speaking accomplishments.
Good Luck to Naomi and Emma who are moving forward in representing HMS at District Competition on March 25th West Running Brook Middle School in Derry. We wish them much success.
